Part 3 - The Book of Genesis

 

 

THE TWO BROTHERS, CAIN AND ABEL 4.1-26

4.1-7 Eve bears two sons, Cain first and Abel second. Cain becomes a tiller of the soil (farmer) and Abel becomes a keeper of sheep. In the course of time the two brothers each bring an offering to the Lord. Cain brings the fruit of the soil while Abel brings a choice firstling of the flock. God accepted Abel’s offering, but was not pleased with Cain’s. Cain was upset and God tells him not to be upset, but to do what is right. God tells him that if he does not do right it will be sinful, but that he has the ability to overcome sin if he does right.

The Lord accepted Abel’s offering because it was a blood offering. Abel shed the blood of a lamb as his sacrifice. God told Cain that only blood sacrifice is worthy. In the garden, God had clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins. God teaching Adam and Eve that sin must be covered by blood sacrifice. They had presumably taught Cain and Abel this concept. The Lord was not happy with Cain because he had not offered the proper sacrifice. God told him to go back and bring the correct offering and all would be well.

4.8-16 Cain takes his brother Abel out to the field and murders him instead of bringing the correct offering to the Lord. The Lord asks him where Abel is and Cain replies, “I don’t know, am I my brothers keeper?” God tells Cain he knows what happened and that Abel’s blood is crying out from the ground. God tells Cain that the soil will no longer yield its fruit to him and he will be a wanderer on earth.

Cain pleads that the punishment is too great, that anyone who meets him will kill him. God puts a mark on Cain and promises anyone who kills him will be judged sevenfold. Cain the leaves the presence of the Lord and goes to the land of Nod.

Cain choose the rebellious and jealous way rather than the righteous way by murdering his brother. God shows Cain mercy and allows him to live--but he will be a wanderer. Ironically, Cain will now have to hunt animals and shed their blood in order to survive. His lesson was to learn that God requires a blood sacrifice. It is the blood of the lamb that covers our sin.
We also see the first instance of God’s preference for the younger son rather than the first born.

4.17-24 Cain and his wife bear a son named Enoch and build a city they call Enoch. Enoch bears sons of which the last one is named Lamech. The man Lamech takes two wives and has sons who emerge as the founders of various occupations; Jabal is the ancestor of herders who live in tents, Jubal the ancestor of musicians, and Tubal-cain who is the ancestor of blacksmithing and metal work.

Lamech states he has killed a man for wounding him and that if Cain was avenged seven times, anyone who kills him will be avenged seventy times.

We could call this section the growth of culture or society as these occupations begin to arise. The dark poem of Lamech about violence associated with his ancestor Cain speaks to the rising increasing evil of the human race which will lead to Noah’s story.

4.25-26 Adam and Eve have a son that provides them a righteous offspring to replace Abel. They name him Seth, meaning, “God has provided.” Seth has a son named Enosh and it was then that men began to invoke the name of the Lord.

Seth’s birth is important as we will see in the next chapter. Seth’s line seeks the Lord.

D. SETH AND HIS DESCENDANTS 5.1-32
This chapter chronicles Adam’s genealogy from the birth of Shem. It does not mention anything about Cain’s line. The line is chronicled up to Noah and his sons.

Cain’s murderous line will be destroyed in the flood and not survive. The people of Israel will emerge from the lineage of Abel’s replacement, Shem. The name Shem is also the root word for Semitic. The Jews and Arabs are a Semitic people. God doesn’t miss any detail, does He?

SIN AND THE FLOOD 6.1-8.22

6.1-4 Men and women begin to increase on the earth and daughters were born unto them. Divine beings or “the sons of God” see this and begin to take wives from those that pleased them. The Lord limits the age span of man to 120 years. At his time the Nephilim begin to appear. They were the offspring of the divine beings and daughters of men.

I don’t have great knowledge in this area but it seems that the fallen angels of Satan, after being thrown out of heaven, came to earth and intermarried with the daughters of men. This offspring produced men of renown or giants. They are also probably responsible for the wickedness on the earth that is going to cause God to destroy the world by the flood waters. There are teachers who have much to say about this, but I have not pursued this line of study.

6.5-8 The Lord now is regretting the evilness of men and decides to blot them out along with the animal world. But Noah found favor with the Lord.

If the Nephilim were fallen angels who had mixed with man and caused the wickedness in the earth--this would be a good reason for God to take the action He did. The rebellion in heaven by Satan and his angels would have created a dire situation on earth as Satan is the spirit of the world and is temporarily in control of the earthly realm. In Hebrew Noah’s name spelled backwards means “favor.”

6.9-16 Noah’s lineage is reviewed: Three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah walked with God and was blameless. Meanwhile, the earth has become corrupt and lawless before God. Satan is doing his work. God decides to wipe out this lawless flesh and tells Noah to build a three story ark with an opening for light at the top and an entrance on the side.

6.17-22 God tells Noah He is going to destroy the earth and that He is going to establish His covenant with Noah. He tells Noah only his family will survive. He is to take two of every living thing into the ark to preserve them, male and female. Two of every creature, male and female will come out on the other side alive. Remember this, because Noah is actually taking more than two of each as we will see and understand later.


Next: Part 4