6. (a) What comforting promise did God make after mankind’s fall into sin? (b) What prophecy regarding comfort did Lamech utter?

⁶ When sentencing the instigator of man’s rebellion, Jehovah proved to be ‘the God who supplies comfort.’ (Romans 15:5) He did so by promising to send a “seed” who would eventually deliver Adam’s offspring from the disastrous effects of Adam’s rebellion. (Genesis 3:15) In time, God also provided foregleams of this deliverance. For example, he inspired Lamech, a distant descendant of Adam through his son Seth, to prophesy about what Lamech’s son would do: “This one will bring us comfort from our work and from the pain of our hands resulting from the ground which Jehovah has cursed.” (Genesis 5:29) In harmony with this promise, the boy was named Noah, which is understood to mean “Rest” or “Consolation.”

⁸ Jehovah purposed to destroy that wicked world through a global flood, but first he had Noah build an ark to preserve life. Thus, the human race and the animal kinds were saved. How relieved Noah and his family must have felt after the Flood as they came out of the ark onto a cleansed earth! How comforting to find that the curse on the ground had been lifted, making agricultural activity so much easier! Indeed, Lamech’s prophecy proved true, and Noah lived up to the meaning of his name. (Genesis 8:21) As a faithful servant of God, Noah was instrumental in bringing a measure of “comfort” to mankind. However, the wicked influence of Satan and his demon angels did not end with the Flood, and mankind continues to groan under the burden of sin, sickness, and death.