Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (16.3)

The Book of Genesis

Genesis 4:17-26 to 5:1-32 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

The Beginning of Civilisation

v.17-18 The story of Cain presents the picture of a man without faith, and thus in rebellion against God.  The goodness and longsuffering of the LORD towards the defiant sinner thus became an excuse for him to continue in his rebellion instead of coming to repentance (cf. Ro. 2:3-5 ).   The society described here is a society away from God.   The story of Cain’s family’s attempt to evade the effects of the curse by ingenuity and enterprise.   Their prosperity is great, but it is an empty prosperity apart from God.

v.19-22  Cain descendants took the lead in producing cities, tenting, music (“ harp and organ ”), weapons and other implements (“ every artificer in brass and iron ”) – in other words, civilisation.   Scriptural record contradicts the opinion that the ungodly must necessarily be retarded in intellectual advance, cultural attainments, and material prosperity.

v.23-24  These verses indicate the heart of problem in the prosperity of the ungodly - advances in civilisation is paralleled by advancing rebellion against God.   Lamech gives us a good picture of godless society’s disregard for what God had done.  The institution of marriage was changed to satisfy human lusts, and so we find the first bigamist.  The value of life was despised as Lamech took Cain’s example of murder a step further – murder becomes an occasion to boast of his manliness and prowess before his women.   The hardened heart of a defiant sinner has a way of twisting that which is wrong and wicked into a prize and a delight.

Modern civilisations had taken great leaps for the past 200 years.   And our indicators of a society’s well-being – political, economic, social, etc. indices – are rather revealing of man’s estimate of the good life.   These things can make life more comfortable but they do not really make life better.  The unashamed promotion of sex and violence in TV programmes and movies, watched by millions everyday, exposes the reality of what modern man finds delightful.   Real life today may not be that far off the mark from what is pictured on screen.  One only needs to recall the “ September 11 ” incident.

v.25   The contrast between Eve’s words at the beginning (4:1) and at the close here is striking and revealing. A humbler Eve now acknowledged that it was God Himself who provided the other “seed” through yet another younger son – “ For God…hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel .”   Moreover Eve did not say that Seth was given to replace Cain, but he was to replace Abel, s uggesting that within the story Eve had shifted her hope from Cain to Abel.

v.26 This last verse presents an ironic contrast between what man believes is good and what God considers good.   Passing over all the outward glory of godless civilisation, the Holy Spirit indicates the true estimate of a good life – “ then began men to call upon the name of the LORD .”   The retention of the knowledge of the LORD is the most important aspect of human life because God made all men and women.   There is no real good life, independent of Him. “ To call upon ” includes the idea of “ making proclamation about the nature of the LORD ”.   There is nothing inherently wrong with advances in civilisation, but man’s greatest need is to know the LORD, rather than to increase the comforts of his material existence.   And the Christian’s greatest task is to “proclaim” Him.

Genesis 5:1-32 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

The Outworking of the Curse in the Human Race

v.1-2 The prologue redirects our attention back to the course of events in Genesis 1 – the creation of the man and the woman. Thus, these two verses re-emphasises the central point of that account – the creation of the man and the woman by God in His “likeness,” intended for life and blessing.

v.3-5 The reminder helps us to see the contrasts between God’s intention and man’s choice, leading to death, as a result of the curse.  The predominant theme, which suddenly took over the chapter, is “death” – “ and he died ” occurs eight times on the list.   Hence, chapter 5 appears to demonstrate the reign of death in contrast to the desire of God to bless life.   The sudden shift in mood begins at verse 5, when the first man created died .   If anyone doubted the accuracy of the warning, “ you shall surely die ,” he only needs to read this record and he will find that death has entered the human race (cf. Rom. 5:12 ).   If anyone denies that he is a sinner, he needs only be reminded that he will one day die .

A genealogy is a little difficult to work with but this one may be nicely arranged into ten panels of names in the list from Adam to Noah, with Noah’s three sons at the end of the list.   There are 3 digressions from the set pattern of record (“ XXX lived…and begat…and the days of XXX after he had begotten…and he begat…and all the days were…and he died .”) – Adam, Enoch, and Noah.

At the first digression (v.3-4), Seth was described as the “likeness” and “image” of Adam.   The spiritual capacities that were imparted to Adam and Eve, that endowed them with the ability and responsibility to represent God on earth, were passed on by natural reproduction.  Hence, even in a cursed world, men and women, though marred, are in the image of God, and retain the possibility of serving Him and enjoying His blessing.   This possibility becomes a daily reality for the regenerate when, by faith, they surrender themselves to the Holy Spirit to conform them to the image of Christ (cf. 2 Co. 3:18).

v.21-24 The second digression concerns Enoch.   The set pattern of living, begetting, living, dying seems to establish a cycle from life to death, but there is one exception to the reign of death.   The story of Enoch provides a ray of hope for the human race, as if to say in the midst of the gloom, death was not the final answer.   One man “ walked with God ” and “ God took him ”.   The second phrase, when traced to the story of Elijah’s transport to glory (2 Kings 2:9-11), leads to the conclusion that Enoch was translated out of this life without suffering death. 

The explanation given, Enoch’s “ walk with God ,” was also the model and the experience held up for others to follow in their earthly pilgrimage.   In contrast to the others in the genealogy, Enoch did not “ live ,” – he walked with God, as if to say that walking with the LORD was a step above mere living.  This “ walk ” lasted 300 years.   Hebrews 11:5 tells us that Enoch’s walk had this characteristic, “ he pleased God ,” and the next verse (Heb. 11:6) immediately points out that “ without faith it is impossible to please God ”.   Clearly, Enoch so returned to the basic principle of man’s existence – faith in God – that he was restored to the place of blessing intended by God.   Hence, against the gloom and despair, the testimony of Enoch shines bright, illuminating the path of restoration to God.

Today, the path of restoration to God remains the same.   We need to place our trust in God the Son, who died in our behalf, to be translated out of death into life (cf. Jn. 5:24; Jn. 11:25-26).   Once we have received eternal life, our walk with God can begin.   In other words, we can begin to enjoy fellowship with God every day (Jn. 17:3; 1 Jn.1:5-10).  To walk with God is commanded of every believer (cf. Col. 2:6; Rev. 3:4).   Are you walking with God?

v.28-32 The third significant digression comes at the end of the list with the birth of Noah.   The words of Lamech (v.29) at the naming of Noah express the hope for relief from the curse.  There is a word-play on “ Noah ”(the sound of noah is similar to the sound of the word for “comfort”, naham ).   Hence, “ Noah ” does not mean “comfort” but prompts the thought by the word-play on the sound.

Evidently, life under the curse was very painful for these early bearers of the curse, and so Lamech hoped for relief and comfort through Noah.   Human life under the curse was also very painful to God, and so God used Noah as part of His plan to relieve the world of pain, but not in the way Lamech thought.