The scriptures write very little about the 1,600 years between the fall and the flood. However they do declare the chosen lineage: Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. What is clear is that Adam taught the Ancient Order he was taught by God all his life.
Adam having lived over 900 years and knowing his time was near, gathered his children, which included Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech as well as many others and instructed them as a father over his household, saying, "Hear me, my children… I am near to die" (Life of Adam and Eve), and he taught them what should come. Adam charged Seth to remain faithful, saying, "Keep the commandment… and teach thy children" (Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan). This pattern of the fathers continued, that they "instructed their sons… that they might know the works of God" (2 Enoch).
Methuselah & Lamech, who heard the instructions of Adam many times throughout their life was aware of the imminent destruction. In Genesis chapter 5 we can read what Lamech said about Noah:
27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
Genesis 6 tells us the type of man Noah was being 600 when he entered the ark.
8-9 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord...Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
After the flood receeded Noah built an alter as written in Genesis 8:
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour...
Where did Noah learn about the sacrificial offerings? He lived near Lamech and Methuselah for nearly 600 years. No doubt as Enoch expressed, righteous fathers taught their sons what Adam had taught them.
The ancient writings tells us that from Shem to Terah in the chosen line many had been drawn away from Adam's way of life: to have the land shared among family, to live lives ordered around worship and instruction, and to work in the careing of the earth and its creatures. Like many of their ancestors they were drawn to the cities.
Abraham was born to Terah who lived in Ur near the great Ziggurat temple built under the direction of Nimrod. Yet Abraham sought the teachings of the fathers and sought out Shem and was instructed by him. Then having learned to worship the same as Abel learned from his father, Abraham's sacrifice was acceptable to God and He appeared to him several times. Abraham forsook the city life and became a sojourner living most of his life on the land following after his righteous fathers. In James 2:23 we read "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.".
Abraham nor Noah, nor any of the righteous patriarchs back to Seth and Adam ever built a temple of stone, they never set up churches with priests to instruct the people. They worshiped around altars, built with stones that were not cut by man, on higher ground and surrounded by trees. This was to represent the Garden of Eden which was on higher ground, separated from the rest of the world. In the centre of the Garden of Eden was the tree of life, which the altar represented. The sacrificial lamb represented the Messiah who would be slain for the sins of the world and He would redeem mankind enabling them to come back into the presence of God and have the opportunity to have life eternal. Abraham taught this to Isaac and his children from his other wives and concubines, who continued to teach it to their children.
Some 400 years after Abraham, lived Jethro a descendant of Abraham through his wife Keturah. When Moses found rest and a wife in Jethro's family, Jethro still worshiped as Abraham did, in other words as Adam taught or the Order of Adam.
So for some 2,500 years the righteous posterity of Adam worshiped as families using altars as described above and were accepted of God. Next we will talk about what happened with the children of Israel.