Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

Genesis 4:16 – 5:32

We left the story last week with Cain having killed his brother Abel. God confronted Cain with his actions and Cain did not repent. God then placed a curse on Cain stating that the ground would no longer yield a crop for him. Along with the curse God told Cain he would spend the rest of his life wandering. In comparison, when Cain’s father, Adam messed up, God didn’t put a curse on him, instead God put a curse on the ground. But Cain had murdered his brother out of jealousy and this obviously warranted a harsher punishment. In fact, so harsh, Cain whined about how severe it was and how he would not be able to stand it. He pleaded that he was as good as dead if God left him with the curse. So, God, in His mercy put a mark on Cain which meant that should anyone kill him, they would suffer vengeance seven times over. 

So Cain left the Lord’s presence, as well as the presence of his parents and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. The word Nod actually means, “wandering.” 

Cain found a wife and then had children. We are given the lineage of Cain, which when we compare to the lineage of his brother, Seth in the next chapter we discover something quite unique. Both lineages have parallel names which mimic the myth of the doppelganger. In mythology and fiction, doppelgangers, a German word meaning “double goer,” are often depicted as paranormal or ghostly phenomena that look exactly like you but are the complete and the exact opposite of you. In modern times we have the term “twin stranger.” Have you ever met someone or had someone tell you, they met someone who could be your double? That”s a doppelganger.

As we read through the two lineages of the two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Seth, we will recognize two doppelgangers. 

Cain left God’s presence and while building a city he decided to name it after his first son, Enoch. The name Enoch means “dedicated.” This Enoch was dedicated to what man could achieve apart from God. Enoch was dedicated to man being his own god. The lineage continues and we come to the first Lamech. He happens to be the first bigamist in history, going against God’s original plan for one man and one woman to become one flesh. The names of his wives and daughter show the emphasis in Lamech’s heart. His wife’s name, Adah, means “pleasure, ornament, or beauty.” His wife’s name, Zillah, means “shade” probably referring to a luxurious covering of hair. 

Then his daughter’s name, Naamah, means “loveliness.” Lamech’s culture was committed to physical and outward beauty. Sound familiar?

Here we have the beginning of human civilization willfully walking away from God and focusing on their own thing and choosing to live without God. Yet, they quickly progress in areas such as founding a city, homebuilding, music and the arts and metalworking. It seems that apart from God humans can do amazing things. Time will tell.

This first Lamech goes so far as to boast of his killing a man, because he had wounded him. After taking the man’s life Lamech then believed he could promise a greater retribution than God. On the surface it may have looked like humanity had been progressing but in reality they were regressing without God. 

Beginning with Cain, everyone had a human-centered perspective, the beginning of humanism. The city was Cain’s focus. For Lamech it was his beautiful wives and his own perceived strength. For what? As we will soon discover, none of them or their descendants are ever heard of again in the Bible. 

In contrast, in verse 25, our story goes back to Adam and Eve. Because of Cain’s jealousy Adam and Eve have lost two sons. Yet, Adam and Eve have another son and name him Seth, who in some sense replaced Abel and will be the son to whom the promise in Genesis 3:15 gives of a deliverer from the seed of a woman. We then begin reading the lineage of Seth. Then we are told, that,

“At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.”

Chapter five records for us the lineage of Adam, through Seth. Cain is not even in the picture. As we read through the lineage, notice, in contrast to the lineage of Cain, it consists of nothing but names living for so many years, begetting names and dying. Rather boring, no one seems to be doing anything important. But wait, there is a reason for not recording their accomplishments, which I will reveal later. For now, let’s go down to verse 18 when,

“Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.”

The doppelganger. The opposite of the Enoch of Cain. Check this out, verses 21 – 24,

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 

Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. 

Enoch did not see death because God took him. Remember what the name Enoch means? “Dedicated.” Unlike the Enoch born to Cain, who was dedicated to life apart from God, this Enoch was so dedicated to God that he simply walked from life to heaven. The first Enoch, in the lineage of Cain, regardless of  his progress, ended up in total destruction. Now mind  you, there are members of Seth’s lineage who also end up in total destruction because they refused to enter the ark with Noah, so these lineages are not a definitive of good and bad. But when we read through the lineage of Seth and discover a man who does not see death it should make us stop and ask, “Why?” 

What does it mean to walk faithfully with God?  

To walk, in Scripture, is relational language. 

The line of Cain is the rise of the individual and independence. 

The line of Seth, the Godly line, is the rise of dependence upon God. 

It’s a picture of intimacy, a picture of restoration of a relationship. 

When we begin to “call on the name of the Lord”  it demonstrates we need God. 

God is waiting for us to accept His gracious invitation to know Him through His Son. 

What did Jesus say, Matthew 11:28,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Weary of what? 

Of all the attempts to try to bring satisfaction to your life through your own efforts. 

What we need to do is, come to God, He loves us. 

The hardest thing for us to accept in our individualistic age is that we need help. That is why if the church were to act more like the local bar we might actually be getting somewhere. 

More people are willing to sit at the local bar and share their needs and their mistakes to the bartender than they are to someone sitting in a pew. 

Why? 

The perception is the bartender isn’t going to judge them. 

We need to be honest about our brokenness. We also need to be honest about it in a community that doesn’t judge us but actually helps carry that burden. We need to be a community where we are loved just the way we are, broken and in need of help.  

The picture of Enoch, escaping death, was someone dedicated to walking with God. It doesn’t say that Enoch was perfect or that he was sinless, it just says he walked faithfully with God. It doesn’t mean he was without problems. It means Enoch trusted that God had him covered. 

We close this section with the second Lamech, verse 25,

“When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech.

Methuselah lives a long time then we read verse 28&29, 

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 

Notice the difference between the two Lamechs. The Lamech in Seth’s lineage sees his son, Noah, as the hope of God’s provision. 

The reading of the lineages of men begetting men can be laborious. Yet, when we look closely and recognize the meaning of the names and consider the relationships involved we begin to see how amazing the author of this novel truly is. 

There has always been a remnant of the human population that still calls on the name of the LORD.

Scripture declares, Romans 10:9.

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Check in time.

Have you said, “Yes!” to God? 

Can it be that easy? 

Actually it’s not easy. 

Because when we say “Yes” to God it means we have to say “no” to self. 

That is difficult. 

We have to do this every day. 

Say “no” to self and “yes” to God. 

Ask yourself, “What does my heart chase after?”

Is your life aligning with Seth’s lineage? 

Sure, it looks boring cause it seems like they didn’t do anything, but that silence says something. 

The reason there is nothing to say about the lineage of those who call on the name of the Lord is that they are known for their dedication to God, not for their own personal goals and achievements. It doesn’t mean they didn’t have any. 

It’s just that that is not what they were remembered for. What they were remembered for was they began to call upon the name of the LORD again. 

That’s the greatest thing one can ever be remembered for.