He fabored Abel but not Cain (Gen 4:4-5), so he accepted Abel's offering but not Cain's.
Eve's jubilation reminds us of Adam's reception of his bride (Gen 4:1, cf. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2004), 114.Ĭain came as a godsend.
Rather than retaliate, we forgive.Īnd rather that forgive seven times, we forgive seventy-seven times (Matt 6:14-15 cf. And the New Testametn reversed Lamech seventy-fold formula, which could only collapse into genocidal blood vendettas. God told Israel, Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your prople, but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the LORD" (Lev 19:18). This signals alienation from God's redemptive grace. He boasted, if God pledged Cain sevenfold vengeance, I'll invoke seventy-fold retaliation (Gen 4:23). The barbarian bragged, "I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy just for hitting me" (Gen 4:23). The reference to his wives in this violent context points to the outworking of the judgment oracle of Genesis 3:16: "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Adah and Zilah suffered the humiliation of polygamy in their marriage to a brutal and remorseless male. Lamech's song must be a woman's worst dream. This seven-generation (i.e., full) genealogy implies that this is how "the way of Cain (Jude 11) panned out. Lamech as the seventh descendant in the line of Adam through Cain (see Gen 5:3-21). Government can alleviate suffering and promote security, or it can terrorize minorities and orchestrate genoidice. Music and art can convey the most noble human sentiments and aspirations or its most degraded dispositions and appetites. Technology can enhance or dominate our lives. We meet with that two-sided picture in our own age. Civilization without God rots even as it thrives. This malignant paradox marks all of sinful man's efforts. Waltke concludes, "Enoch's life affirms that those who 'walk with God' (Gen 5:22, 24) in this fallen world will experience life, not death, as the last word."Ĭain's line started and ended in murder, but that same line developed culture (Gen 4:17-22). The New Testament understands it that way (Heb 11:5). But here they imply a rapture experience like that of Elijah (2 Kgs 2:1, 5, 9, 10), Jesus (Luke 24:51 Acts 1:9), and those living when Jesus returns (1 Thess 4:16, see 1 Cor 15:52 1 Thess 5:10). Sometimes "was no more" and "God took him" serve as euphemisms for death.