Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. In this episode I’m bringing you another edition of Bible study content I’m creating for my church. This content is every bit as professionally produced as my normal episodes on MHB — and my intent is to continue cross-publishing them for your benefit. So without further delay I bring you: Summit Bible Study.
Hello friends and thank you for listening to another Bible Study. Today we’re continuing our study in Genesis by finishing chapter four. This chapter is the story of Cain and Abel. We’ve talked at length about how all of humanity was represented in Adam, thus the fundamental bifurcation of humanity is represented in Cain and Abel. This bifurcation is the difference between good and evil. Abel is an archetype of the possibilities of human goodness: he is faithful, humble, and self-sacrificial. Cain is an archetype of the possibilities of human evil: he is a resentful liar, a false-victim, and ultimately a murderer. These two men represent the binary path each of us will take in life. We are either submitted to God or we are submitted to sin.
We discussed how it’s fitting in an inverted, cursed creation that the first murder should be the death of a saint at the hands of a sinner. Abel’s persecution at the hands of his brother made him the world’s first martyr. We examined the homicide from two different perspectives: as Cain’s murder and as Abel’s suffering. As a faithful martyr, Abel’s death is precious in the sight of God. As a sinful murderer, Cain received due penalty for his transgressions. That’s where we will pick up our study today: with Cain departing from the presence of the Lord and moving on with his life. We’ll look at the nature of Cain’s newly cursed existence and we’ll unpack the implications this curse would have on the generations which would come from Cain. So let’s begin by reading verses 16-18:
Genesis 4:16-18
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech.
Oddly enough, one of the first instances of obedience we see out of Cain is his obedience to depart from God’s presence. He wouldn’t obey the ordinance of sacrifice and he wouldn’t obey God’s call for introspection. He was unwilling to repent and he allowed his sin to drive him to murder. In the wake of all this resistance and defiance, Cain willingly accepted God’s sentence and walked away from the Lord.
We can surmise Cain readily gave up the privileges of being in God’s presence because he didn’t want to live under the requisites of relationship with God. He forsook his relatives including his father Adam who very likely served as priest of the family. Cain himself may have been in line to assume this priesthood after his father. Not anymore. Never again would Cain reside among the faithful or attend God’s worship. Never again would Cain advertise the pretense of fearing the Lord.
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy he gives an excellent description of the character represented in Cain as well as in those who follow Cain’s path. He’s warning his disciple Timothy about what human godlessness will look like in the last days. Listen to 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
The part about holding to a form of godliness while denying its power is exactly the cause of Cain’s downfall. He pretended at worshipping God and when God pointed out his falsehoods he just stopped pretending altogether. When a religious hypocrite casts off all pretenses and gives himself over to evil, God justly leaves him to himself. When sin is revealed and the sinner refuses to repent, the sin very often becomes part of their public-facing identity. This is usually when the sin multiplies and becomes more grotesque. Frequently these unrepentant sinners form communities which are predicated on the very identities their sin gave birth to. Reinforced by a sense of community and safety in numbers, the moral depravity of a mob can reach depths functionally equivalent to Hell itself.
Hell is the natural residence of the unrepentant sinner. It is his eternal destination. The core characteristic which makes Hell undesirable is separation from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. This is what Paul declares is the fate of those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Hell is the perpetual banishment from the Source of all that is good. Unrepentant sinners will be in an eternal condition of vexation as they are removed from the fountain of all life.
Just as it is in the unrepentant sinner’s nature to willingly reside in Hell, so it was in Cain’s nature to willingly settle in a land separated from the faithful. Scripture says Cain settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. He chose this land because it distinguished himself and his cursed lineage from the holy seed of Adam. Unrepentant sinners tend to flock together because misery loves company and being part of a community predicated on your sin gives you a sense that the sin is justified. This is a perversion of God’s intended use for community among the faithful.
There’s a picture in Revelation 20:9 which shows the wicked surrounding the camp of the saints. Again it’s emphasizing this geographical separation between the two. In Christian tradition there’s a colloquialism used to describe bad areas as land “east of Eden” and this is because both Adam and Cain were exiled east of eden after they defied God. Remember in Genesis 3:24 how God stationed cherubim with flaming swords to guard the east entrance to the Garden, therefore protecting the Tree of Life from Adam and Eve.
Cain chose to live in the land of Nod, but despite his best efforts the settlement was in vain. The name Nod means “shaking or trembling” which indicates shifting grounds not good for permanent residence. Even if Cain could find good land to build a home, he couldn’t escape the restlessness and uneasiness of his own spirit. This is the prison of your own making if you turn away from God. Cain never rested again after he departed from the presence of the Lord.
We do see that Cain built a city. Some readers suggest he was never able to finish it because a curse was on the work of his hands. Whether he completed the work is secondary to the more important fact this city represented a headquarters of apostasy. Just as baptism is an outward expression of our commitment to the Lord, Cain’s building a city was an outward expression of his perpetual unwillingness to repent. The city was proof Cain had zero intentions of turning back and seeking after communal worship of God.
We know Cain’s city is a physical representation of his own defiance because God Himself sentenced Cain to be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth. Had Cain humbly accepted this fate, perhaps his nomadic nature would have become a blessing and afforded him opportunities to come back home to the Lord. But Cain didn’t want that, Cain wanted to build and establish himself as separated from God. He wanted to put down roots in his own arrogant rebellion. Part of what it means to have faith is to recognize the transient nature of your own life here on earth. Those who belong to God yearn to be with Him and they understand this life is but a vapor by comparison to their future in Heaven. The writer of Hebrews describes such faithful people as they look forward to Heaven in Hebrews 11:13-16:
Hebrews 11:13-16
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
Godless people like Cain try to find permanent settlement here on earth. They believe this life is all they have and their purpose must be to find the fullest satisfaction possible. This is a difficult trap to get out of because it turns out the fullest form of satisfaction is actually sacrifice to and worship of God. Those who seek it through self-aggrandizement or hedonistic pleasure always come up empty and confused. If you’re unwilling to make sacrifices to God and worship God, then you’re resigning yourself to never find the peaks of satisfaction.
We can surmise Cain built the city of Enoch in an effort to silence his own guilty conscience with the sound of work. This form of escapism is still prevalent among unrepentant sinners today. Many people develop a kind of workaholism to avoid confronting God’s conviction. It even happens in the Church. Ministers will throw themselves into an unbalanced life of ministry over everything else. They’ll flee the Sabbath because any amount of slowing down forces them to feel the sting of their own guilt.
Often Christians wonder why unrepentant sinners seem to get ahead in the outward prosperity of this life. I would argue this escapism into work is no small factor. Cain and his cursed lineage dwelt in a city while Adam and his blessed family still remained in tents. If you give all of your time to your work, skip the Sabbath, neglect your family, and act capricious with your friends, then obviously you’re going to be more productive than the person who is balancing all these things. But in the final analysis your material prosperity cannot protect you from the Holy Ghost’s conviction within your soul. It’s also the case maintaining a healthy community and appropriate rhythms pays dividends more valuable than increased production. If you have a thousand people standing behind you to support you in your church community, then you have a kind of protection that’s worth more than money.
Part of what’s difficult about being a mortal in a cursed creation is that we’re not able to see justice in the present moment. Material prosperity is not always the result of righteousness and often it can be the result of corruption. Until we pass into glory and see all things clearly, our powers of observation are limited to what Solomon calls under the sunin Ecclesiastes. Since we can only see what’s under the sun, we can’t evaluate God’s view of a person based on how successful they are. Listen to how Solomon describes this in Ecclesiastes 9:1-2:
Ecclesiastes 9:1-2
1 For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.
2 It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.
So if you took a basic, material audit of Cain and his family as opposed to Adam and his family, it would be easy to mistakenly assume Cain was the blessed one and Adam the cursed one. All of this biblical doctrine underwrites the colloquialism, you cannot judge a book by its cover.
Not only was Cain able to build up a city, but he was also able to establish his familial lineage. He had heirs documented as far as seven generations. Cain had a son named Enoch, who is not the same as the holy Enoch. Cain’s Enoch very likely received the same dysfunctions of his father. The holy Enoch is the person recorded in Genesis 5:22who scripture says walked with God for 300 years. At the end of his life he did not die, but instead God mysteriously took him. Many readers have speculated that Enoch will be one of the two witnesses described in Revelation 11.
Faithful men and godless men may share the same name, but God is able to tell the difference between them. Scripture itself makes sure to denote the difference between men who share the same names in the most extreme cases. In John 14:22, when Jesus is saying goodbye to His twelve disciples, Thaddeus who was also called Judas asks Jesus a question. At this moment scripture parenthetically points out that his Judas is not the same person as Judas Iscariot. No doubt it would cast a pall on a person to be mistook for the archetypal betrayer.
When the seven generations of Cain’s lineage are documented in this chapter of Genesis, often a few of them at a time are listed in a single verse. Contrast this documentation with the list found in the very next chapter which records the names of Adam’s descendants. These people represented the lineage of the holy seed and their names are given a few verses each. God delights in the faithful and He delights in His chosen ones. The lives of the wicked are recorded in haste, if at all. Let’s continue with verses 19-22:
Genesis 4:19-22
19 Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah.
20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
22 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
Lamech is the first polygamist we see in holy scripture. It makes sense that Cain’s degenerate descendants would be the first to transgress God’s law concerning marriage. God’s original command for marriage, issued even before the Fall of Man, was that one man and one woman should join together and become one flesh. What’s interesting about Lamech’s sin is that it created a custom which would later ensnare men of greater character than himself. Lamech wasn’t honoring tradition when he took two wives. He just wanted two wives. Some of the later biblical characters like Jacob, David, Solomon, and others took multiple wives because they unwittingly obliged a human tradition rather than submitting to the commandment of God. Sin is dangerous. Lamech didn’t realize his sin of polygamy would establish a human custom which stretched across generations and destroyed countless marriages.
Despite Lamech’s unrepentant sin of marrying two wives, our gracious God still blessed him with children. Lamech’s children also seem to be prominent people of their generation. They weren’t made famous for their piety, indeed they were probably just as godless as Lamech and their ancestor Cain. Their godlessness didn’t detract from their ingenuity and it appears they became men serviceable to the world itself. They were inventors and innovators of useful disciplines.
Lamech’s son Jabal, whom he had to his wife Adah, was a great herdsman of this time. He was either the patriarch of a family of herdsmen or he was so famous at the task that other herdsmen of the generations after him called him father. Considering the context of his brothers, I think it’s safe to assume Jabal was famous among herdsmen and his life brought innovation to the craft. Lamech’s other son Jubal, also had by his wife Adah, became an accomplished musician. He was called the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
Jubal’s life brought such significant contributions to the art of music that the famous musical celebration called the jubilee was titled with a thematic etymological relationship to Jubal’s own name. The jubilee-trumpet was the instrument used to pronounce liberation and redemption of those who were enslaved. So Jabal’s contributions made his family rich, and Jubal’s contributions made his family merry. Wealth and merrymaking are almost always found together even among the unrepentant. In Job’s story, Job contends with his friends by reminding them that the wicked do in fact prosper in this world. Listen to what Job says in Job 21:7-16:
Job 21:7-16
7 “Why do the wicked still live, Continue on, also become very powerful?
8 “Their descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes,
9 Their houses are safe from fear, And the rod of God is not on them.
10 “His ox mates without fail; His cow calves and does not abort.
11 “They send forth their little ones like the flock, And their children skip about.
12 “They sing to the timbrel and harp And rejoice at the sound of the flute.
13 “They spend their days in prosperity, And suddenly they go down to Sheol.
14 “They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways.
15 ‘Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, And what would we gain if we entreat Him?’
16 “Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
In the final analysis we might make peace with the wicked prospering by understanding God holds common grace over the righteous and the wicked alike. Neither of them deserve His grace any more than the other. The world-system is also structured in opposition to God, so it’s no wonder the wicked find corrupt hierarchies to ascend by unrighteous means. Again this just reminds us that we can’t rely on outward success as a metric to determine whether an individual or whether entire families are blessed by God. Lamech’s family was not, and yet they were responsible for major artistic and scientific breakthroughs.
Tubal-cain was another one of Lamech’s sons and this son he had by his wife Zillah. She also gave birth to a daughter named Naamah. Tubal-cain grew into a famous blacksmith. He advanced the craft of smithing bronze and iron. These products would have been used both for animal husbandry and also for war. Some readers point out how the descendant of the first murderer became the preeminent artificer of war. Cain committed the first homicide and Tubal-cain innovated the processes of weaponizing entire nations.
You’ll notice how the industries of all three of Lamech’s sons were centered on a world without God. It’s not as if these trades are useless to faithful people, but that these trades are still useful and desirable to those who have no faith. None of Lamech’s sons became great priests or great teachers of the knowledge of God. If your mind, and consequently most of your time, is dominated by these kinds of worldly commodities then you should evaluate the condition of your relationship with God. We mentioned earlier how maybe Cain and his descendants were first to the finish line in the development of these commodities because these commodities are what captured their devotion. But what good are the things of this world if you lose your own soul? Jesus poses this same question In Matthew 16:24-28 where we read:
Matthew 16:24-28
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.
28 “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Cain’s family became experts of the present things of this world, but none of them understood the glory of God, the fear of God, or how to honor and serve Him with their lives. This is something Christians must remember today. Faithless people who are destitute of God’s knowledge and grace may still be gifted by Him and given the talents necessary for becoming well-accomplished in the world. God doesn’t shy away from giving common gifts and even great power to evil men. This is in part because God often chooses the foolish things of this world to enact His miracles and His redemption so that He may be glorified through them. The Apostles of Christ, with the exception of Paul, Matthew, and Luke, were not educated men. They were tradesmen. No one expected them to be great expositors of the gospel, and therefore those who witnessed them teach were more inclined to glorify God because of it. God also is not afraid nor hesitant to gift great talents to evil men because He knows regardless of how powerful they may become among other men, not a single one of them escapes His divine, omnipotent sovereignty. Let’s continue our study by reading verses 23-24:
Genesis 4:23-24
23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me;
24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
If there was any doubt whether Lamech was an evil man, he clears all of that away with this speech. He proves his cursed pedigree as a descendent of Cain with this wicked boast. The first piece we notice is how he barks orders at his wives. “Listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech.” Rather than honoring his wives as the weaker vessels, he expected his wives to honor him. Lamech already broke one law of marriage by practicing polygamy, so it’s no surprise he broke another one by dishonoring the wives he took.
Lamech was an insecure man which is why he demanded honor from his wives. People who aren’t confident in their own abilities are the ones most likely to demand respect from others. A well-adjusted, high-performance person often engenders respect from others without needing to demand it. To vocally demand it from his own wives proves his ability to perform his duties even in the context of his own polygamous marriage was woefully lacking. If you have to demand respect from your spouse then she probably doesn’t truly respect you and there are probably many reasons why.
Next we see Lamech reveal himself as a bloody barbarian in the way he treated others. Lamech confesses to two murders right here in verse 23. It’s not just a confession, he’s actually bragging to his wives about it. He claims to have killed a man for wounding him and killed a boy for striking him. What a cruel and fierce disposition Lamech must have had to slay two people over such trifling causes. Lamech was proud to be the kind of man who would kill anyone who stood in his way. By his own boasting it appears he went so far as to murder a child for striking him.
What he says in the very next verse is most intriguing. He says, “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” Lamech’s relating himself to Cain might mean the people he killed were part of Adam’s lineage of the holy seed. These would have been faithful worshippers of God. In this case it’s possible the man and boy injured Lamech’s conscience through some kind of retort or even by their very presence in front of him. This is what happened between Cain and Abel. We established it was very unlikely righteous Abel would have defamed his brother or verbally cut him down. If anything Abel would have been encouraging Cain and telling him the truth. Cain, overcome with rage, murdered Abel anyway. In that case I think Cain’s soul was injured merely by the presence of Abel’s righteousness. He felt judged by it. Lamech may have felt the same way with this man and boy whom he murdered.
Lamech may have also been bragging to his wives because they may have been concerned for his safety. They knew he was an arrogant, impenitent man with a penchant for bluster. Perhaps they feared someone might come along and end his life for good. If that was the case then Lamech’s boasting would have served to remind them he himself was a murderer. Lamech believed if someone tried to do him harm, he had the power to avenge himself against them seventy-sevenfold.
Lamech didn’t care how much others hated him just as long as those same people feared him. He didn’t value human life, and so he didn’t care how many people had to be sacrificed to his angry resentment. His lack of care and his disregard for human life became a source of safety for him and a twisted reason to honor himself. He was willing to go further than others would go, and this made him dangerous enough that others may think twice before messing with him. Rather than being humble and penitent, Lamech gloried in his own shame. Paul offers a description of this kind of person in Philippians 3:18-19 when he calls them enemies of the cross of Christ. Listen to what he says:
Philippians 3:18-19
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
Lamech’s proclamation that his own death would be avenged seventy-sevenfold revealed a biblical truth as well as the staggering height of his own hubris. The biblical truth is that unrepentant sin has a multiplicative effect as it spreads down the generations. It’s almost as if it becomes more potent or more concentrated. Lamech’s sons furthered the development of the artifices of war and Lamech himself decreed outsized acts of vengeance if anyone would so much as look at him the wrong way.
While Cain’s reactive murder of Abel was devastating, Lamech’s potential for reactively destroying entire villages was like industrialized devastation. Cain tried to highjack God’s authority by erasing Abel’s future with a bludgeoning stone. Lamech spiritually positioned himself such that vengeance meant seizing authority over entire people groups. Why stop at murdering one righteous man when you can murder an entire village of them? And this is how the murderous spirit which indwelled Cain grew more and more evil as it made its way into Lamech.
Part of Lamech’s arrogance was to presume God would avenge him should someone rise up and kill him. That was a mark God gave to Cain, not to Lamech. Lamech heard of God’s promise to avenge Cain sevenfold and his own pride caused him to misunderstand it. He thought it was God’s protection against all murderers. He failed to see God marked Cain for God’s own reasons and one of them was likely to prolong Cain’s punishment for murdering Abel.
Lamech may have rationalized that, despite himself being a serial murderer, since he never murdered his own brother unprovoked like Cain did then he was actually morally superior to Cain. His own sense of moral superiority might explain his proclamation that God would avenge him with more tenacity should someone try to take his life. One of Solomon’s insights in Ecclesiastes is that God’s gracious restraint toward a sinner is often abused by other sinners who use the reprieve to harden their own hearts and justify sin. Listen to what he says in Ecclesiastes 8:10-13
Ecclesiastes 8:10-13
10 So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is futility.
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.
13 But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.
This same principle holds true with how churches handle punitive actions against high-level leaders who are revealed as unrepentant sinners. If the church simply turns away from the sin and doesn’t take action to deal with it, then anyone else in the body who is sinning will become emboldened in their sin. So if God’s mark on Cain was motivated by a merciful patience to give Cain the opportunity to repent, Lamech’s evil heart abused this mercy and used it to justify his own murders. Our own judges and district attorneys would do well to remind themselves there is a cost to granting unwarranted mercy. If your society becomes soft on crime, then your society is going to experience more crime.
When considering God’s own justice, it’s just never a good idea to presume on His forbearance. He has His own reasons for delaying wrath and those might have to do with you and they might not. Assuming God’s grace means He will simply look away as you continue sinning is definitely the wrong presumption to make. God strikes some sinners with the sword of justice swiftly, and others He strikes slowly. It’s too difficult to establish a pattern for who will receive what, but we know those sinners who presume on God’s forbearance treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. This brief passage of Genesis chapter four is all we have concerning the posterity of Cain and his family. The next time we read anything about them is when they all perish alongside the rest of civilization in Noah’s Flood. Let’s finish our study by reading verses 25-26:
Genesis 4:25-26
25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
26 To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
This is the first place we’ve read about Adam and Eve in this chapter, and undoubtedly they carried a lot of grief over what Cain had done to Abel. The murder alone was enough to spiral into painful regret, but it was sharpened by Cain’s impenitence and apostasy. They also knew none of this would have happened had they themselves not transgressed in the Garden of Eden. They consumed the forbidden fruit and invited sin and death into the world. Now sin and death caused them to lose two sons in a single moment.
Family is one of life’s best promotors for unconditional love. When this family dynamic is perverted and the love is turned inverse, it also becomes one of life’s most reliable promotors of unrestrained hatred. Cain and Abel aren’t the only examples of murderous hatred from one brother for another. We also see this between Esau and Jacob later on in Genesis. Rebekah, who was the boys’ mother, took action to save Jacob from Esau so she wouldn’t have to share the same grief Eve felt. Listen to part of the story in Genesis 27:41-45:
Genesis 27:41-46
41 So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.
43 “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!
44 “Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides,
45 until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
Scripture says a foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him (Proverbs 17:25). The reason for this is because it’s easy for parents to lament the corruption of their children as derivative from themselves. They think it’s their fault that their children have gone astray. And in many cases it is. So what are you supposed to do if you’re a parent in Adam and Eve’s position and one of your sons irreversibly devastated the entire family and destroyed his own life in the process? If you can’t justify the tragedy as not being your own fault, are you just supposed to be crushed under the guilt and shame? Not at all. That’s not what happened to Adam and Eve either.
God was merciful with Adam and Eve, and so he gave them more children to rebuild their family. Eve named her new son Seth and said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” I don’t think Seth replaced Abel in Eve’s heart. Children are not commodities which can be replaced with more children. But Seth did replace Abel in terms of carrying forward the promised holy seed of Adam. Seth became the man upon whom the church was to be built up and perpetuated. In this way Abel’s blood became the seed of the church because his death brought cause for Seth’s life.
Enemies of God mistakenly believe if they martyr enough Christians then the church will be culled. This is not the case with God. He ensures the martyrs are replaced by those who come after them, and the death of the martyrs becomes an edifying testimony to build up church. Even if there doesn’t appear anyone to take up the cause of the martyrs, God Himself is able to raise up children from the stones if He must. Seth’s name means “set, settled, or placed” and this meaning is a reminder that Seth’s bloodline would continue to the end of time. The Messiah would come from Seth’s lineage.
Also notice how the meaning of Seth’s name is the opposite of the sentence God gave to Cain. God told Cain he would be nomadic vagrant, a wanderer upon the earth. Seth’s name indicates settlement and staying in one place. Seth didn’t take advantage of his birthright to glorify himself as something more than human. He named his own son Enosh, which is a name that denotes weakness, frailty, and misery. These were conditions attributable to all men in a fallen world. The best men and women in life are the ones sensible enough to remember their own frailty. There is no settlement, no matter how deep the roots, which removes the vulnerability of our frail frame.
There’s a peculiar line at the very end of this chapter. Scripture says, “Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD”. I think this means the reintroduction of religion in Adam’s family. It may have provided Adam some consolation to meet his grandson Enosh. The fact that the holy lineage could be continued through his son Seth probably relieved Adam that his actions hadn’t ruined everything.
Even though he lost paradise and introduced the sin which would break Cain’s mind and cost Abel is life, he still got to meet a grandson who was the product of him trying to walk in the truth. So much of life is this way. The beautiful is mixed in with the tragic and the tragic is often accentuated by malevolence. But in the final analysis it’s not obvious you would want it any other way – at least not in this life. Many times the best things in life are the products of the most pain. Would you really want to give up what you love most in order to avoid pain?
When we think about Adam’s family calling on the name of the Lord, I don’t think the birth of Seth is the first time they called on the Lord’s name. I think this just indicates as spiritual revival in Adam’s family after the tragic defection of Cain. This revival meant public-facing worship was increased and those who maintained private piety were emboldened to take their faith to the assemblies.
It’s very common for spiritual revivals to be kicked off by some tragic event. American history records a religious boom in the years immediately following World War II. This was largely a reaction to the war’s atrocities. Evangelists like Billy Graham were able to draw massive crowds. At his 1957 New York Crusade, it’s estimated 2.4 million people attended to hear him speak. In 1956 the expression “In God We Trust” was added to U.S. currency. In 1954 the phrase “under God” was added to America’s Pledge of Allegiance. For millions of people in the western world, these years represented the very beginning of their faith journey.
In the same way, Adam’s family survived the first homicide and a cursed generational division. It was like the second major fall since paradise lost. When Adam’s family saw Cain’s dissolution into madness, when they witnessed the passing and concentration of evil from one generation to another, when they witnessed the establishment of an entire city on its foundations, this shock gave them reason to renew their faith and their resolution to worship. The same should happen for us today. When we experience major tragedies or witness unspeakable evil, these things should revitalize our faith and not crush it. This pain bears witness to the reality of Hell. It bears witness to the reality of what it’s like to be without the presence of God.
There’s also another element in this line, “Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.” Remember how we discussed all of humanity being represented by Adam? Then all of humanity was bifurcated into two archetypes in Cain and Abel? Now I think we begin to see the results of this bifurcation. When Cain and his future family broke off from Adam’s family, this division created a fundamental distinction in all of the human race. It is the distinction between the professors and the profane. Cain and his people walked away from God and built a city on impiety. Adam and his family experienced religious revival and began to call on call upon the name of the Lord. This new categorical separation (which was a natural continuation of the separation between Cain and Abel) became like the birth of the world and the birth of the Church. The chessboard had now been set and all of the pieces were positioned to unfold a dramatic history of man’s rebellion and God’s redemption.
That brings us to the end of chapter four and so naturally that will be a good place for us to end this study. Genesis chapter four is one of the most prescient sections of holy scripture because it describes and presents the development of the human condition. What it’s like to be human has never changed since that moment Cain struck down Abel in the field and it will never change until Christ the Savior returns to establish His eternal kingdom over all the earth. As always I appreciate you for joining in on this study, I hope it’s been as profitable for you as it has been for me. God bless, and I’ll see you in the next one.
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