Genesis

WE have now to follow the development of humanity along two lines that of Cain and that of Seth. This progress is first seen in the family, and then it extends to society in general. The entire section now before us has completeness all its own, even though it forms parts of two of the original sections of Genesis. Thus (a) Gen 4:16-24 gives the line of Cain; Gen 4:25-32 the line of Seth; and then (c) Gen 6:1-8 the blending of these two lines, culminating in the Flood on the one hand and the preservation of Noah on the other. The entire section thus calls for careful study, both in connection with what precedes and with what follows. The section chapter 2: 4 to chapter 4 had recorded a constant descent from bad to worse the sin of our first parents, their expulsion from Paradise, the murder of Abel, Cain’s descendants reaching in Lamech the climax of boastful and unrestrained violence. That the section might not be suffered to end in unrelieved gloom a brighter outlook is added at the close, precisely as is done at the end of the next section in Gen 6:8. Seth is substituted for Abel, whom Cain slew; and instead of piety perishing with murdered Abel, it reaches a new development in the days of Enos. The whole arrangement bears evidence of adaptation and careful thought, and is suggestive of one author, not the combination of separate compositions prepared with no reference to each other (Green, The Unity of the Book of Genesis, p. 48).

The characteristics of Cain and his line must be carefully followed.

Cain went forth from the immediate neighborhood of Eden and dwelt in the land of Nod. The precise locality is, of course, unknown, though it is probable that it was the country of Elam. As to the perennial question of Cain’s wife, it is sufficient to say that she was either his sister or some other relative. In the absence of any law there would, of course, have been no sin in the marriage of a sister, and it is worthy of mention that within historic times the marriage of brother and sister was in practice in the royal family of Egypt, in order to secure unquestioned royalty of blood in the descent; and this was the case when the civilization of Egypt was at its highest. The suggestions of the narrative with regard to Cain show no trace of the influence of God’s mercy upon him, and no indication of penitence on his part. He is still godless and reckless. His sacrifice showed that while he was prepared to recognize God as the God of providence, he had no conception of Him as the God of grace. There was no trace of real homage of heart; and as there had been no thought of sin and salvation in his offering, so now there is no indication of real devotion to God.

One characteristic of the line of Cain was the settled life they lived. The birth of a son was followed by the building of a city, to which Cain gave the name of his son, Enoch. This indication of a settled abode and a new line of descent seems to show that Cain was now going his own way, regardless of everything else. Nothing more is said of his line until the fifth generation.

It was in the line of Cain that the terrible evil of polygamy was first experienced, and the way that it is mentioned in the narrative by contrast with Gen 2:24 shows the impression that it was intended to convey.

From the sons of Lamech come the founders of agriculture (Gen 4:20), music (Gen 4:21), and manufacture (Gen 4:22). This development of earthly civilization in connection with Cain’s line is very suggestive and significant.

In Lamech we have the culmination of Cainite irreligion. Whatever his song may mean, it seems on the face of it to suggest the glorification of two great evils polygamy and murder. If heredity accounts for anything, we may see in Lamech the intensified form of those evil tendencies which were evident in Cain.

Thus we have the Cainite race in six generations, and with an entire absence of all indications of religion, unless we interpret the name of Cain’s son to mean Consecrated. This line was devoted to things earthly and lived absolutely apart from God. Natural ingenuity characterized the race. There was art and civilization, but no religion. Not that they were all necessarily flagrantly sinful, but just living without God (Eph 2:12). Is it not suggestive that the first time art, trade, and manufactures are mentioned they are associated with godlessness? Is it, or is it not, an accident that art has often flourished most when religion has been at its lowest? Is it not a fact that there is that in music, art, and civilization which easily panders to the very lowest in man? And while these things should be, and can be, devoted to the highest interests of human life and the glory of God, the possibilities of evil which they contain must never be overlooked. As for regarding them as substitutes for God, this is utterly impossible. This vivid picture of human society without God should be carefully pondered, and the message for society to-day clearly understood and proclaimed.

By contrast with the line of Cain we are now introduced to the new line of Seth, his brother. The points of contrast are many and significant.

The first is the birth of Seth. The death of Abel had left an indelible mark on the soul of Eve, and now with the birth of her third son her Seth hopes of the fulfilment of the primeval promise again spring up, and she calls him Seth, and recognizes in his birth a Divine appointment and providence. It is noteworthy that when Cain was born she associated his birth with the Covenant God of Grace (Jehovah). With Seth’s birth she associates the God of Creation and Power (Elohim). This distinctness of usage of the Divine names should be carefully noted at each stage of the narrative, for it is full of spiritual significance and cannot be satisfactorily accounted for in any other way.

Another point of emphasis is associated with the son of Seth. It is interesting that in the same chapter we have the record of the birth of Cain’s son and also the son of Seth. Still more interesting is the fact that with the birth of Seth’s son there came what may very fairly be called a revival of true religion, for then began men to call upon the Name of Jehovah. This may mean, as in our A. V., a revival of prayer; or it may mean still more than this (see margin), and indicate consecration to Jehovah, calling themselves by His Name, and thereby separating themselves from all those who were not prepared to take the same action. They realized that they were in covenant with the God of their father, Who had promised victory over sin.

Then follows the record of the line of Seth. Once again we have a reference to Adam which comes in naturally at the head of the line of Seth. Ten generations are given, and the monotony of the chapter has often been remarked. It is a simple record of living and dying, only broken by the references to Enoch and Noah. We know nothing more of the names here mentioned a reminder, however, that human history is not necessarily to be judged by the outstanding names that every one knows:

The three breaks in the whole narrative from Seth are associated with Enos, Enoch, and Noah, and they seem to represent three typical aspects of religious life. (1) Separation (Gen 4:26, margin); (2) fellowship (Gen 5:22); (3) service (Gen 5:29). No inventions, art, or civilization are connected with the line of Seth. There is simplicity about the record, perhaps indicative of the quiet, simple religion that characterized most, if not all, of them.

The witness of Enoch is given to us as an oasis in the chapter, and he is one of only two men of whom it is recorded in the Old Testament that they walked with God (Gen 6:9).

(a) The fact of fellowship with God is suggested by this phrase. Several aspects of our "walk" are emphasized in Scripture. "Walk before Me" (Gen 17:1), implying sincerity; "Walk after the Lord your God" (Deu 13:4), suggesting obedience; "Walk in Him" (Col 2:6), telling of union; "Walking with God, meaning fellowship. This is life’s ideal and the culmination of God’s purpose for man.

(b) The commencement of this fellowship is suggested (Gen 5:22). Enoch is not said to have walked with God until the birth of his son. May it not have been the coming into his life of that little life, God’s gift to him that led to this close fellowship?

(c) The continuance of fellowship. It lasted three hundred years. This was not easy. Enoch was no dreamy sentimental idealist. His life had in it the real difficulty of testimony against evil (Jud 1:14-15). The judgment on the line of the Cainites had to be proclaimed, and this is never anything but an irksome and trying task. Like the rest of mankind in later days, Enoch did not find it easy to walk with God.

(d) The culmination of fellowship. He was not, for God took him. The life of faith was thus crowned by entrance upon the life of perfect fellowship above. They shall walk with Me in white.

The chapter suitably closes with a reference to Noah. Lamech showed his faith in connection with the naming of his son, and all through the story of Noah we see the secret of a living faith in God (Heb 11:7).

This section is closely connected with the preceding and following sections as their necessary and adequate explanation. We observe the sad marks of human apostasy. Gen 6:1 takes up the story laid down in Gen 4:24, and deals with the growth of the Cainites. Gen 6:2 speaks of the union of the two lines by inter-marriage. Some writers regard the phrase sons of God as referring to the angels, and it is urged that in other passages e.g. Job 1:6; Psa 29:1; Dan 3:25 and, indeed, always elsewhere in Scripture, the phrase invariably means angels. According to this view, we have here what has recently been called an "aetiological myth," though the same view is held by those who regard the story not as mythical, but us absolutely historical, seeing in it a reference to the sin of the angels mentioned in Jud 1:6-7 and 2Pe 2:4-6. The former view, which makes it mythological, is clearly to be set aside, since on this interpretation it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand the value of the story as part of the Word of God. The latter interpretation is also unnecessary on other grounds; and the view that regards the passage as the union of the Cainites and the Sethites is at once the most natural and the most Scriptural. The idea of the phrase sons of God was used in connection with Israel (Deu 14:1; Hos 1:10; Hos 11:1), and the teaching of subsequent Scripture is perfectly clear against the inter-marriage of Israel with the Canaanites. Besides, this verse Gen 4:16 accounts for the universality of the sin which led to the catastrophe of the Flood, and Gen 6:3 declares God’s sentence upon man only for the sin recorded in Gen 6:2. Surely angels would have been included in the judgment and in the record if they had been involved in this sin. Further, the Nephilim of Gen 6:4 are not said to be due to what is recorded in Gen 6:2, but are spoken of as existing previously and subsequently. It is therefore in every way better and truer to the context to explain the passage of the two lines of Seth and of Cain, and as giving the explanation of the judgment and the Flood (Green and Lange in loc.).

As a natural result comes the Divine warning God’s (Gen 6:3). The interpretation of this verse is difficult. Probably the Hebrew word rendered "strive" would be better expressed by "dwell". In either case it is a warning of the limitation of mercy, and it is generally thought that the term of 120 years refers to the time yet to be given to mankind before the Flood should come upon the earth. Thus God in mercy warns while declaring His certain judgment upon evil.

Nothing could well be more pitiable than this delineation of human sin (Gen 6:5). What a contrast we have here to the "God saw" of Gen 1:31! Instead of everything being very good, all things were now evil. Mark carefully the phrases every imagination, only evil continually. Could anything be more solemn in its unrelieved gloom? No redeeming feature appears. Everything is evil in human life. It is also a solemn fact that most of the unholiness in human history has been due to the same cause as is mentioned here, the relations of men and women (Gen 6:2, Gen 6:4).

We are now bidden to note the Divine Sorrow (Gen 6:6-7). The statements here are startling in their directness and definiteness. We are accustomed to speak of them as anthropomorphic; but so far from this being an objection, anthropomorphic language is our highest and best method of expression concerning God. It is no disrespect or derogation from infinite holiness to speak of God in this way. A very great deal of the objection to anthropomorphism really involves utter agnosticism and the impossibility of finding any expression for God at all (Dods, Genesis, pp. 60-62).

There was one exception to the universal prevalence of sin. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 6:8). He and his alone were to be preserved amidst surrounding destruction.

Three subjects seem to call for particular attention from students.

1. The Longevity of the Antediluvians. The longevity attributed to the antediluvians has been declared to be inconsistent with physiological laws; but in our ignorance of the extent to which the conditions affecting human life may have been modified, such an assertion is unwarranted (Green, Unity of the Book of Genesis, p. 43).

2. The Authenticity of the Chronology. It should be remarked that no computation of time is ever built in the Bible upon this or any other genealogy. . . . This genealogy could only afford a safe estimate of time on the assumption that no links are missing, and that every name in the line of descent has been recorded. But this we have no right to take for granted. The analogy of other Biblical genealogies is decidedly against it. Very commonly unimportant names are omitted; sometimes several consecutive names are dropped together. No one has a right, therefore, to denominate a primaeval chronology and set it in opposition to the deductions of science, and thence conclude that there is a conflict between the Bible and science (Green, Unity, pp. 49.).

3. The Two Genealogies. It is sometimes urged that there has been a confusion between the genealogy of the Cainites and that of the Sethites, owing to a certain similarity of names, six of them being nearly identical; yet the distinctness of the two genealogies is clearly stated, and in reality only two names are exactly the same in both. If it be said that the editor of Genesis evidently intended the Lamech of chapter 4 to be regarded as the Lamech of chapter 5, it may perhaps be replied that centuries of readers have clearly recognized the distinction between them (Green, p. 45; Redpath in loc.).

In this section we have in sharp contrast two classes of men who are still to be found upon earth, and whose characteristics take pretty much the same form as in those early days.

Man living without God. In the line of Cain we have cleverness, culture, and civilization; and yet with all these manifest advantages everything was purely earthly, selfish, and sensual. God was ignored, and they lived their life entirely apart from Him. Self-contained, occupied with their own intellectual and social pursuits, they simply ignored the claims of God, and lived and died without Him. Today the same spirit is abroad in many quarters. Men have everything that this world can give of education, refinement, culture, pleasure, art, civilization, and yet there is nothing of God or His Christ in their lives.

Man walking with God. The elements of true living in relation to God are evident in the line of Seth.

Let us therefore keep the avenues open towards God and a constant communication between us and the sky. The house of life assuredly needs its kitchen (physical), its library (intellectual), its parlor (social); but it also needs, above all, its drawing-room that is, its withdrawing room where the soul retires from all else to seek and meet with God. Only then do we come to our true life and realize the Divine end of existence. Our cleverness becomes devoted to the highest objects, our culture becomes transformed into a true cultus or worship, our civilization is fraught with blessing to those around, and God is in all things glorified.