Genesis 4: The Line of Cain

As promised, we are going to go back and take a look at the information given in Genesis 4 regarding the genealogy of Cain. Instead of just giving you a run-through of the material found there, which you can read for yourself, I thought it would be interesting to point out some things that are in that chapter. Even if you have read this story before, it always pays to go back and just take another look to see if you can glean further insights. If you are new to Bible study, you can find a copy of the Bible online if you don't have one.

Some things to think about:

Cain and Abel had different occupations, but both felt the need to bring an offering of some type to the Lord. Why did God accept Abel's offering but not Cain's? Some say it was because the offering was supposed to be a blood sacrifice. However, other grain and drink offerings seem to have been acceptable in certain contexts, so that is probably not the whole picture. Others point to each individual's character. Abel is said to be a righteous man(Matthew 23:35), but Cain shows by his immediate response of anger that something was already wrong in his attitude and in his heart. Still others point out the subtle yet pointed difference in the quality of their offerings: Cain brought 'some of the fruits of the soil', while Abel brought 'fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock'. (Genesis 4:3-4 NIV)

Hebrews 11:4 (NIV) gives us some insight into this question of why Abel's sacrifice was accepted and Cain's was rejected: "By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did." This implies that Cain's sacrifice was done without faith. Maybe he was just going through the motions. Nevertheless,

1. God cared about Cain's spiritual condition. In Genesis 4:4-7, we see that God notes the angry, downcast attitude of Cain and warns him of the dangers of sin, which crouch right at his door, ready to overcome him. What a vivid picture of the serious and destructive nature of sin! God also gives Cain fair warning of the consequences of continuing in this path, yet holds forth the way of escape from this attack. Remember, God already knew the murderous anger which was probably beginning to build in Cain's heart against Abel.
2. Cain almost immediately does the exact opposite of what God suggests. He gives in to his angry emotions and, in a fashion which seems all the more horrible because of its thin veneer of brotherly affection and innocence, tricks his unassuming brother into accompanying him to an outlying field, where he kills him. Then Cain follows up this act with what can best be described as disrespectful indifference when God inquires as to Abel's location. This is made doubly horrific when we consider that Abel was a keeper of flocks of animals, and that Cain has not only subtly disdained Abel's honest profession, ('Am I my brother's keeper?' (Genesis 4:9 NIV) but also treated Abel as though he was of less value than an animal from his flock, which would have been sought after if it had gone missing. Of course God knew where Abel was all along, but He was giving Cain an opportunity to repent. God is continuing to reach out to this wayward son.
3. Unrepentant Cain is banished. He can no longer be a worker of the soil, because he is under a curse and the ground will no longer yield its crops as it had before. Instead, he will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Cain believes himself to be hidden from God's presence and soon to become a victim of a revenge killing. God graciously puts a mark upon Cain so that no one would kill him. Then Cain goes out and lives in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
4. Nod means 'wandering', yet Cain begins to build a city (v.17). He and his wife are expecting a child, and perhaps he believes he can overcome his sentence of being a restless wanderer on the earth by this project. You'd think he'd know better, but he is certainly not the only human to try to avoid the consequences of sin by engaging in a flurry of activity. It is interesting to note that those who persist in sin are often pictured as restless and unsettled. For example, Jude 1:12-13 portrays the wicked as clouds being blown along, as wild waves of the sea and as wandering stars. Isaiah 48:22 (NIV) says, "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked." In contrast, Psalm 119:165 (NIV) states: "Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble." Not that believers don't have struggles -- just that they have a 'peace which transcends all understanding' (Philippians 4:7 NIV) even while the storms rage around them.
   
5. Where did Cain get his wife? He may have had this wife before he killed Abel and was banished. Otherwise it is hard to imagine any woman being willing to align herself with his cause. As you see from Genesis chapter 5, Adam and Eve had other children besides Cain, Abel and Seth, and these also had numerous children. We aren't told how old Cain was before he married, but apparently he married either a sister or a niece. The restrictions against such behavior do not come until later in the Bible. Nowadays marrying such a close relative is prohibited, mainly because of the greatly increased possibility of passing on harmful genetic mutations. Adam and Eve, though, were created without such problems and the effects of mutations in the following generations would take time to accumulate. Therefore, it would probably have been acceptable to marry a close relative. This still sounds a bit strange to us, but, if we take the Genesis account as factual, we have to realize that later, after the flood, the only humans alive were Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. Therefore, all humans are from Noah's family, whose members would necessarily have had to marry among themselves to continue. So I guess we all have a 'skeleton relative' or two in our own closets. Hopefully not literally.
   

Genesis 5: Adam to Noah

Genesis 5 outlines the line from Adam to Noah. (Note: I realize that there is more genealogical information in Genesis 4 which we haven't covered yet, but we'll go back there soon.)

Adam lived 130 years, then had Seth. Adam lived 800 more years, and died at age 930. Adam continued to have more offspring, both sons and daughters.

When Seth was 105, he fathered Enosh, lived 803 more years, had more offspring. He died at the age of 912.

Enosh became a dad at the age of 90, to son Kenan. Enosh lived 815 more years and had more children. Enosh lived until age 905.

Kenan became the father of Mahalalel at the age of 70. Kenan lived 840 more years, having more children, and died at the age of 910.

Mahalalel had Jared at the age of 65, then lived 830 more years, having more children. Therefore, he died at the age of 895.

Jared was 162 when he had his son, Enoch. After Enoch's birth, Jared lived 800 more years and fathered more descendants. Jared died at 962.

Enoch had Methuselah at the age of 65, and the Bible notes that Enoch not only lived 300 more years, but was noted as having 'walked with God' for that period and having other children. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years, but then this happens: instead of dying, 'he was no more, because God took him away." (Genesis 5:24 NIV) Lest we think this is just a creative way of saying that he died, the writer of Hebrews 11:5 later notes: "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God." (It may also be noted that Hebrews 11 contains quite a list of people who had lived by faith, following God and believing His promises.)

Methuselah lived 187 years and became the father of Lamech. After that he lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years -- the longest lifespan recorded in the Bible. (Hence the expression 'as old as Methuselah'.) Want to hear something else that is interesting? I have read that Methuselah's name means 'after he dies it will come'. Methuselah's father Enoch was a prophet, and I suppose God revealed to him the information that after M. died, judgment would come. And, of course, it did. You can add the figures yourself from Genesis 5:25, 5:28 and 7:6, and you will see that Methuselah died in the year the flood came. I had to make myself a little chart to keep all the figures in mind. It looked something lke this:

(Note: The 0-969 timeline below refers to Methuselah's lifespan, and the events are listed as they occur during the years of Methuselah's life.)


0---------187----------369------------869------964-----969

187 - Methuselah's son Lamech is born.
369 - Lamech's son Noah is born.
869 - After Noah is 500 years old, Shem, Japheth and Ham are born.
964- Lamech dies before his father Methuselah does.
969 - Methuselah dies. Flood comes.

Lamech, at the age of 182 years, had Noah, then lived 595 more years and had other children. Lamech lived to be 777 years old, which meant that he died about 5 years before his father's death, and the arrival of the flood.

After Noah was 500 years old, he had Shem, Ham and Japheth. Noah, Mrs. Noah, their three sons and their wives were the only humans on the ark. For God said, "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, ...everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark -- you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you."
(Genesis 6:17 NIV)

I think I will end this post here, because it is the end of this part of the genealogy. However, I have to point something out. It always seemed a shame that so many people perished in the flood. Was God somehow unfair for bringing such judgment upon them? Aside from the fact that we all sin, and are deserving of judgment (including Noah and his family), there is the fact that Enoch had preached about the upcoming judgment upon evildoers. See Jude chapter 1 (actually the whole book is only one chapter) to get an idea of how conditions were upon the earth in those days. Although verse 14 seems to speak more about the final coming of the Lord in judgment, Enoch preached a message against the sinfulness of the people of those days. He repeats the word 'ungodly' four times in that one verse. Sometimes prophets received a message from God and parts of it were for the present time and parts could refer to incidents which would occur centuries later...in this case, the judgment at the flood, the judgment against godless and immoral ones who crept into the early church years later, and the judgment against the ungodly at the time of the final coming of Christ. God's character doesn't change. Although Enoch may not have understood the full implications of his prophecy, the theme of punishment against ungodliness is clear. Genesis 6:5 speaks of how "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Noah also apparently preached as he fashioned the ark (see 2 Peter 2:5), so the people of that day had ample opportunity to repent. Sadly, no one apart from his own family seems to have listened.