Troublesome Topic: A Covenant Before the Flood?

We know that God made a covenant with Adam while in the garden, but what about after the fall into sin and before the flood?

We are not told that God made a covenant with mankind during that time, but there are three things that hint at a rudimentary type of covenant with those people as well.

1. Sin brought the punishment of separation/death. It was not always immediate nor direct, but eventually, the punishment would come. Cain was punished swiftly with separation, and the entire world except for Noah was punished with the delayed punishment of physical death because they had become spiritually dead i.e. separated from God.

What I have described above is not identical to the covenants that came later. But it was similar to the restriction God gave Adam in the garden with the choice of life or death being a central part of the arrangement. In this way it was a rudimentary covenant that prepared the way for future covenants. It was enough for God to hold all men responsible for their actions – even Cain’s descendants.

We likewise cannot afford to ignore the consequences of our actions, and we must see any “small” separation from God as a big deal – even more serious than physical death.

2. Genesis 4:26 says that after the birth of Enosh, the first grandson of Adam, “at that time men began to call on the name of the YHVH.” This assumes that someone was teaching them about God. In the Garden of Eden God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the person of Jesus, and we can be confident that Jesus prepared them with teaching about spiritual matters. Adam taught his sons about the God of creation using the name YHVH. Notice the specific the name of God used in Gen 4:26 above. It was through these teachings that Cain and Abel knew what God expected as an acceptable sacrifice. It was because of the teaching of Adam that men were held responsible by God for their actions. God is a just God, He would not have destroyed all men except Noah unless He had also made available to them some clear indications of what He expected of them, and that the consequence could be death.

3. Adam was alive long enough to be able to teach 8 generations after him.

Here is a list of how old each man was when his oldest son was born.

Adam              130 (son Seth, because Cain and Abel were both “gone”)

Seth                 105

Enosh              90

Kenan              70

Mahalalel        65       

Jared                162

Enoch              65

Methuselah      187 (son Lamech)

Total 874 years.

Lamech was born after 874 years and Adam lived 930 years.

Lamech was 182 when Noah was born so the total would have been 1056 years, thus Adam was no longer alive when Noah was born.

Everyone through Lamech, Noah’s father, was a contemporary of Adam. That was 8 generations! In his line, Noah was the only oldest son prior to the flood who could not go talk to Adam personally. Except for the father-son combination of Lamech and Noah, if a son asked his father a question about God and the father did not know the answer, he could say, “Go talk to Adam; he is still alive and everyone knows where he lives.”

If people wanted answers, they could get them since Adam was still alive. Most didn’t care.  

How does this apply to us?

In our situation, if we are going to influence more than one generation after us, how will that be accomplished?

Each one of us should ask ourselves, “What can I be doing better in order to have a lasting positive influence? What should I change to make that happen?

The next lesson in the full length version of this study on Covenants is God’s Covenant with Noah.