“The Fallout, pt.2” (Genesis 4:17-6:8) | 4/26/20
Genesis 4:17-6:8 | 4/26/20 | Will DuVal
I began last week with the possibly although not necessarily hypothetical story of how one Chinese villager’s scuffle with a pangolin may have led to our current worldwide pandemic. Maybe you’ve heard of the “butterfly effect”, the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings here could cause a hurricane halfway around the world. While the science to back up THAT particular claim may be dubious, history contains any NUMBER of examples of one seemingly insignificant event leading to a chain reaction of MASSIVE proportions. For example, one of the most popular theories for the origin of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism is that as a young man, he may have contracted an STD from a Jewish prostitute. A one-night stand may have indirectly led to the genocide of 6 million Jews, and the biggest war in human history.
We’re now a month into our study this year through the book of Genesis. Two weeks ago we considered together chapter 3, the story of the “Fall”, Adam & Eve’s infamous and tragic falling away from right relationship with God and from the Paradise of the Garden of Eden, by virtue of their sinful choice to reject God as the Lord over their lives. And last week we began our examination in part ONE of the Fall OUT, the aftermath, the viral and devastating chain reaction that ensued because of that one, seemingly tiny, insignificant decision to taste the fruit. Specifically, we analyzed the story of Cain’s envious murder of his brother Abel, and highlighted 17 qualities of sin that make it so devious and destructive. Sin, we found, is now genetic, it is rebelliousness, it defies confrontation, it blinds us and hardens our hearts, it seeks to RULE us, leads to jealousy and self-justification, it hates righteousness and necessitates hiding, it requires LYING and drives isolation, it becomes inescapable and has vast unintended consequences; it rejects punishment, breeds fear and shame, and begets even MORE sin, all of which ultimately and worst of all, results in separation from God. Yet, #17 - at the very END of Cain’s curse, we got a glimpse of hope in v15, that God meets our sin with BOTH his justice, yes, but ALSO with his GRACE. Even CAIN was spared the instant death he deserved. In fact, the Lord put a MARK on Cain, to protect him. Undeserved mercy.
But this morning in part 2 we’re going to see in the REST of Genesis ch.4, that DESPITE God’s grace and mercy, Cain’s refusal to repent and therefore receive God’s forgiveness will have consequences not only for his OWN life, but for ALL in his lineage - his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren... We read Numbers 14:18 last week - how God visits “the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation”; in Cain’s case, it was to the SEVENTH generation. 7 generations of sinners, climaxing in the most wicked of all, Lamech. But God’s good plan for humanity will not be thwarted by even the WORST of sinners, so in chapter 5 we’ll see, once again, God’s gracious answer to the growing problem of sin, in the line of SETH. A third son for Adam and Eve. And yet we’ll discover that by the beginning of chapter 6, even God’s - what are we up to now, THIRD addition to the rescue plan: 1) God graciously sacrificed for Adam & Eve’s sin, then he 2) graciously placed the mark on Cain’s head, and this morning He’ll 3) graciously raise up the line of Seth, and yet even that merciful intervention will not prove enough to secure humanity’s obedience and devotion that God rightly deserves. And sin will reach its PINNACLE on the earth in chapter 6, with the creation of an entirely new, corrupted RACE of people, the Nephilim. So God, out of LOVE and a desire to protect and preserve humanity, will be forced to resort to the nuclear option in chapters 6-9. But I get ahead of myself.
If you have a Bible with you - and if you DON’T, you can follow along with the text on the screen; but if you give us your address, we’d love to SEND you a free Bible as a gift - I invite you to open with me to Genesis ch.4, we’ll begin in v17. While you’re finding it, I invite you to pray with me over our study together...
SCRIPTURE: Gen 4:17-6:8
17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 Adah bore 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 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
24 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.” This is the word of the Lord.
Now, in my introduction, I just gave you our outline for today, the recurring pattern we have seen emerging here in Scripture: God gracious PROVIDES something wonderful for us, we INFECT that thing with our own sin, and then God responds with even MORE undeserved grace. We saw that with Adam and Eve:
God graciously provided them with a perfect world (Gen 1:31)
Their SIN infected that world with death. (Gen 3:13)
In turn, God graciously provided sacrifice as a means for reconciliation with Him (3:21);
But by ch.4, Cain’s sin has infected even God’s provision of sacrifices. (4:5)
And we CONCLUDED last week with God’s refusal to give up on humanity, and His gracious provision of SOCIETY. That was ch4, v14: Cain’s fear, in this primitive, tribal world, is that being banished from his home, his people, his curse to be a “fugitive and a wanderer”, that kind of isolation will almost certainly lead to his DEATH - “whoever finds me will kill me!”, he said. But God promises in v15: “Not so”. And we discover in v17, that God fulfills that promise to preserve Cain’s life, at least in part, by providing Cain with a NEW family, a NEW people, his OWN tribe. We might actually CALL this the birth of human civilization and society. Look back with me at v17:
17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
Now let’s stop right there; ALREADY we discover that God’s provision of society has been infected with sin [4:16-24]. Cain’s sin. How did he sin? By building a city. God had cursed him to be a nomad, a wanderer. But Cain is determined, He will go to His grave rejecting God’s plan in favor of His own, so he attempts to build himself a city. And I say “attempts to”, and “went to His grave”, because the text hints at the fact that Cain wasn’t able to complete this building project; he never OWNED this city. John MacArthur points out that in the ancient world, it was typical to name a city after the person who OWNED it; we see this in Deut 3:14, 2 Sam 5:9 - David named a city “David” after himself, 2 Sam 12:28. But HERE, Cain names the world’s first city after his SON, Enoch. Enoch’s name means “dedicate”; Cain dedicated the city to him. Now, the Bible doesn’t give us very much information on generations 3 through 6 here in Cain’s line, so all we really have to go off in tracing the progression of SIN, the viral spread of this universal human sickness, is the meaning of their NAMES. It is admittedly somewhat speculative, but this is kind of interesting:
-Enoch, as I said, means “dedicate”.
-Irad, means “of the city”. Now, godly characters throughout the Bible are often described as being “of the LORD”. But here’s Irad, being described as “of the CITY”. Tim Keller defines an “idol” as a good thing that we make into the ULTIMATE thing. God had gifted Cain with society, with family, with others, a people, as a good thing for his protection, but here already within 2 generations, the “city” has become the ultimate thing.
-v18: “and Irad fathered Mehujael”; Mehujael means “God blots out”. And again, some speculation here, but based on his name, I wonder if God didn’t finally visit Cain’s iniquity on his fourth generation here with Mehujael, if God “blots out” the city that Cain’s line had become idolatrously attached to.
-And then Mehujael fathered Methushael, which means “violence of God”. Without the protective grace of civilization, man falls once again back into violence as he had in the days of Cain.
-And this violence worsens and worsens until it culminates in the character of LAMECH, which means “conqueror” or “strong man”. And that is a PERFECT name for this guy, because he epitomizes Friedrich Nietzche’s ideal of the Ubermensch, the “overman”. Nietzsche, as you may recall from your “Intro to philosophy” class back in college, was the famous turn-of-the-20th c. philosopher who first declared “God is dead”. In other words, the idea of God had served a variety of practical functions for primitive man for many millennia: God explained how we got here, why we ought to behave and try and be nice to each other, and to the extent that we DID, where we would spend the afterlife. But Nietzsche recognized that Darwin had given us a new explanation for the origins of life, the Industrial Revolution had given us a new ethic to live by - money over people, and the Enlightenment called into question the very existence of anything supernatural; if you can’t see, taste or touch it, don’t trust it. So by the dawn of the 20th c., Nietzsche was ready to pronounce God “dead”. Rising instead to take his place, was Nietzsche’s “overman”. Our new, godless world required an entirely new value system. And the ethic of the “overman” is characterized by the “will to power”. If the Bible’s hero is Jesus, the self-sacrificing servant who laid down his divine power in order to suffer and die for others, Nietzsche’s hero is the ANTI-Jesus: a self-made conqueror who steps on whoever he needs to in order to rise above and dominate others.
This is Lamech. “Conqueror”, “strong man”. He doesn’t just exert the “will to power” over others, he BRAGS about it. He SINGS about it, in fact. Vv23-24 is poetry, it’s a SONG: ““Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
24 If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.””
He is a lustful, polygamist, chauvinist, murderous, vengeful, ambitious, REBEL against the true God. That is ALL suggested, if not STATED outright here. He is:
-Lustful: his wives’ names Adah & Zillah, mean “pretty” and “sweet-voiced”, resp. In other words, he is a superficial, objectifier of women.
-He’s the first Polygamist in history. Now remember, God hasn’t made a whole lot of rules yet. But one of them is pretty clear in Genesis 2: “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife [singular], and they shall become one flesh.” (v24) You go outside God’s design for marriage in Scripture - you don’t have to look too far to see how it turned out for Abraham: his extra-marital affair gave birth to the nation of Islam. For Jacob - the Leah vs. Rachel thing split up his family. King David - his desire for multiple women led to his downfall; King Solomon - his many wives led him into idolatry and ultimately split the entire nation of Israel! Every time you see polygamy in the Bible, it leaves nothing but chaos and ruin in its wake.
-Lamech is a chauvinist; he flaunts God’s curse of our gendered relationships from Genesis 3, by being domineering over his wives.
-He is murderous and vengeful, bragging about killing a young man to get back at him.
-And he’s ambitious. Notice: he has turned God’s protective promise of justice for Cain into his own vengeful boast: “I’ll get ELEVEN times the vengeance of Cain all on my own!” This is the “will to power”; He is Nietzsche’s “overman”.
And this is the man from whom we get,
-v20: Jabal, the originator of animal husbandry.
-v21: Jubal, the creator of music, and
-v22: Tubal-cain, the inventor of tools and weapons
-
What’s the point? Gordon Wenham explains: “By linking urbanization and nomadism, music and metalworking to the genealogy of Cain, [God] seems to be suggesting that all aspects of human culture are in some way tainted by Cain’s sin”. Every aspect of human society, civilization, has become MARRED by the effects of the Fall. We surveyed some competing worldviews together on Easter: secular humanism proposes that we are “progressing”, and evolving as a species, that we are the answer to the world’s problems. The Bible could not disagree more. We see clearly here in Genesis ch.4 just how much humanity has DI-gressed and DE-volved as a people, even within just a few generations of Adam’s original sin.
But does God give up on us? No. In His relentless love and mercy, God...
graciously provides Eve “another offspring”; we read in v25...
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed[g] for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
Now don’t forget God’s promise on Easter from ch3. The glimmer of hope in the midst of the Fall, the protoeuangelion - the “first gospel” presentation in all the Bible, from Genesis 3:15 - “I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[e] and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”” Remember: God had promised a coming offspring of the woman, a singular descendant, who will be bitten by the snake, but who will ultimately crush the serpent’s head and defeat the curse of sin and Death. Eve thought maybe Cain, her firstborn, would fulfill that promise. But as he grew up, it became clear that instead of overcoming sin, Cain was himself becoming mastered by it.
So perhaps ABEL would become her serpent-crushing offspring! But then Cain killed him.
But here in v25, hope is renewed for poor Eve: “God has appointed for me another offspring”; maybe SETH will be her promised snake-stomping progeny.
And at first things look pretty promising. Within one generation, we hear Seth has fathered Enosh and “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.” So the timeline is a little fuzzy, but Cain’s line had a head start, and they’ve been populating the world with godless rebels for possibly up to two centuries now, but it isn’t until ENOSH that we hear, finally, people began to call upon the name of the Lord again.
And we’re simply gonna READ, with minimal commentary on, chapter 5, because it’s really just the genealogy of Seth’s line. It helps fill in some of that timeline for us. But significantly, it starts by reiterating the most important takeaways from ch.1, actually, God’s creation, imaging, and blessing of man. It’s almost like God is saying, “let’s START OVER; I’m gonna give you a fresh start”, with this “other offspring”. We hear:
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man[a] when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, [and see, that’s the problem; now Adam is fathering children “in his OWN image”! God had made Adam & Eve in HIS image, but from now on, man will be marked by BOTH the “image of God”, we really do all have a pure, transcendent, spark of divinity living within us, but it’s now BURIED under layers and layers of ADAM’s image; remember Romans 5:12 from last week - “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned”. So you can probably tell where this reboot of the story is headed already] Adam father a son and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.
9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. [this is a DIFFERENT Enoch, mind you] 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God[b] after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not,[c] for God took him. [So, THAT’s new! Enoch is one of only 2 people EVER who doesn’t die; he gets his own private RAPTURE; God just WHOOP! Sucks him up into the clouds, because “he walked with God”. ]
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. [Again: DIFFERENT Lamech; this is the great, great, great, great, great grandson of SETH, NOT the great, great, great grandson of CAIN] 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years [oldest person ever recorded in human history], and he died.
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief[d] from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” [Okay, so there it is again: a glimmer of hope that maybe THIS offspring, maybe NOAH, is going to be the one to break the curse of sin, specifically, the curse from ch.3 that Adam would work the ground in PAIN from now on, it would bring forth thorns and thistles] 30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
So chapter 5 closes on a hopeful note. God has provided another offspring, SETH, and HIS line, unlike CAIN’S, is looking pretty good. You got people “calling on the name of the Lord” in the days of Enosh. You got Enoch “walking with God” and being personally spared from death. And now you got this prophetic glimmer of hope with Noah, who if we allow ourselves to read ahead for a moment, we hear in ch.6, v9 that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” Maybe HE’LL be the by this time LONG-awaited offspring of Eve who will finally bear and break the curse of sin for all people, for all time.
But chapter 6 opens with a JARRING report, that Adam’s sin, still running through Seth’s veins too, is far more pervasive and destructive than we ever imagined. That sin has now infected this promising “other offspring”’s lineage as well. That far from progressing and evolving as a species, by the time we get to Noah, we hear “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”” Noah ALONE was righteous, and found favor in the eyes of the Lord. There are probably millions, some scholars say BILLIONS of people on the planet by this time, if you account for the long lifespans and exponential population growth. But Noah alone was righteous. This is the strongest statement of the depths of human depravity and the extent of sin you’ll find anywhere in the entire Bible: “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
How’d it get THAT bad?! We find out in vv1-4:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in[a] man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim[b] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
Now, you oughta have at LEAST 7 questions, I counted, coming out of those 4 verses alone:
Who are the “sons of God”?
Who are the “daughters of man”?
What does it mean to be “taken as a wife”?
Are humans supposed to only live 120 years now? (Why do some live longer?!)
Who are the “Nephilim”?
Were they really still on the earth “afterward”, like after the FLOOD? And if so, HOW? And
WHY are they called “men of RENOWN”?!
And some of y’all are gonna be REALLY upset by this, but I’m not gonna answer ANY of those questions for you this morning. Like a good storyteller, hopefully, I’m gonna leave you with a cliffhanger ending here, and I will plan to tackle those 4 verses and those 7 questions in this week’s episode of our “Ask the Pastor” podcast. Before we even BEGAN our study in Genesis, back when we launched the podcast last YEAR, this was one of the most popular questions I received: “Who in the WORLD are the Nephilim?” So we’ll answer that later this week. But here’s where I want to end things this morning:
Abel wasn’t the promised sin-defeating redeemer, from Eve’s offspring.
Cain CERTAINLY wasn’t.
Seth wasn’t the promised offspring.
And spoiler alert, for TWO weeks from now, but NOAH won’t be the redemptive seed of the woman either.
No, humanity would have to wait thousands and thousands of years more for that long-awaited Savior-Redeemer. But friends, the wait is over. His name is Jesus, and speaking of etymology’s, HIS name means “He SAVES” - the angel of the Lord announced in Matthew 1:21 - “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””. He is God’s ULTIMATE, final, once-and-for-all-time gracious provision. In his sacrificial, atoning death in our place on the cross, he bore the curse of sin that had for so long plagued humanity, and in his resurrection, he BROKE the power of sin and death forever. Do you know that? Do you know that Jesus holds the keys to Hell and Death, and he has the authority to say, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (Jn 11:25-26).
Are you afraid of dying, friends? Are you afraid of the coronavirus? You don’t have to be. Your physical death, whether you die tomorrow or 80 years from now, will be a comma, not a period. And what comes after will EITHER be so glorious, so wonderful, so breath-takingly AMAZING that you’ll laugh at yourself for ever trying to hang on to this life to begin with; you’ll wish God had taken you home SOONER!
Or… you will spend the rest of eternity in AGONY, separated forever from the God of life, joy, and peace.
You’re gonna live FOREVER either way. Will you trust in Jesus, to bear YOUR sin, YOUR curse, and will you receive His offer of New life in Him today? Let’s pray...