Another Seed

The Genesis account is full of holes.

How can an orthodox believer and adherent to the old Reformer’s motto “sola scriptura” say such a thing?  When we say the Genesis account is full of holes, this is not to imply a deficiency in the veracity of the text – only that the text doesn’t tell us everything we want to know.  This is a key in understanding all of scripture.  God never promises to tell us everything we want to know (take a look at God’s response to Job’s questioning).  Instead, God tells us what we need to know; and precisely what we need to know is how God worked out the problem of man’s sin.  This is what biblical theologians commonly call “redemptive history” or a “redemptive-historical” approach to the Bible.

We bring this point up now because the spread of humanity from the Garden is somewhat of a mystery.  Where did all these people come from?  Was the land of Nod populated?  If so, by whom?  Where did Cain’s wife come from?  These questions are simply not answered.  It is in this setting that we found the sad account of Lamech.  As noted in our last post, his story illustrates the utter depravity into which man had sunk.  After this account, we are brought back by the Genesis writer to consider the immediate family of Adam and Eve once again.  Why?  To continue the history of redemption.

Adam and Eve conceive, and Eve gives birth to a third son – Seth.  Seth means “appointed”.  Eve memorialized her choice of this name:

²⁵And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Gen. 4:25 (KJV)

Eve seemed ever-aware of the truth of God’s promise that her seed would crush the head of the Enemy.  From her exclamation “I have gotten a man from the Lord” over Cain to her proclamation of  “another seed” over Seth, Eve’s words are significant.  In this light, Eve is reminiscent of Mary, the mother of Jesus, of whom we are told:

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19 (KJV)

Eve was correct, as it is from Seth’s lineage that the Savior ultimately will come.  Fittingly, it is first said of Seth’s descendants that men turned to God.

²⁶And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. Gen. 4:26 (KJV)

The promises of God are firmly-established in this first book of the Bible.  Although His name is not spoken for centuries to come, the story of the Redeemer is deeply interwoven into the narrative history of early man.  It’s really too obvious to miss.

Lamech: A Display of Deep Human Depravity

“Lamech said to his wives:  ‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words.  For I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me.  If Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times!’” Gen. 4:23-24

This “song” of Lamech falls in the middle of the genealogy of Cain.  After Cain kills Abel, the writer of Genesis gives the reader a list of Cain’s descendants.  The names of these descendants have a whole lot more meaning to a B.C. Hebrew than they have to an A.D. westerner.  But, a redemptive statement is given in the song that falls in this genealogy.  It is a statement that shows just how immense the depravity of humans is.  Consequently, it implies how great of a Savior we have in Christ.

After Cain kills Abel, God spares Cain’s life though justice would have demanded death for Cain.  On top of this gracious blessing, God tells Cain that anyone who kills him will suffer vengeance seven times over (Gen. 4:15).  What a gracious God!  Unfortunately, we see that human depravity, being what it is, takes advantage of God’s gracious blessing and preverts it.

Lamech reacts with great vengeance against those who merely hurt him:  he kills them.  This, no doubt, is injustice.  On top of that, Lamech believes that those who hurt him deserve a worse punishment than those who hurt Cain.  Not only does Lamech have a false view of vengeance, he is filled with pride.  If anyone hurts him, they deserve to suffer much, much worse than they deserve.  Implicitly, Lamech believes that he is better than his father, Cain.

Humanity is quickly spiraling downward at this point.  Instead of blessing and mercy coming from God, man has placed himself in God’s position.  He is inflicting hurt and injustice.  This downward spiral will reach a bottom point in the next couple of chapters – only to rear its head again after the flood.

And this depravity is what the Son of God came to fix.  Quite frankly, we are all a bunch of Lamechs.  Our natural man desires deep hurt, murder, and injustice for those who hurt us.  Thanks be to God that Christ did not want vengeance for those who killed him.  He wanted them to be forgiven.  Christ is the anti-Lamech.

The Spear and the Vapor

¹And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

²And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Gen 4:1-2 KJV

We have already explored how the creation and the Fall of Man are rich with foreshadows of Jesus Christ.  As we move into the next phase of man’s history, we find two sons born to the first created couple.  We also find new whispers of the Redeemer.

It’s worth considering that Eve’s exclamation, “I have gotten a man from the LORD“, may reveal her mistaken belief that this son would be an immediate fulfillment of God’s prophecy.  Recall from our last post how God proclaimed woman’s seed would crush the head of the enemy, removing the curses placed upon mankind.  Surely this must have crossed her mind.  How sad that instead this son would only reveal the true depths of depravity found in the heart of sinful man.

Cain’s Hebrew name is commonly translated “spear”, while his brother Abel’s name is translated “vapor”.  The imagery here seems obvious.  The violence of Cain’s murder of his brother is symbolized by his namesake – a weapon, while Abel’s short life is but a “vapor” – an image used throughout the scriptures to describe the brevity of life (cf. Ps. 39:5, Jas. 4:14).

Looking again, Cain is representative of the whole-scale rejection by the world of anyone and anything that reveals the will of God.  Jesus even uses Cain’s murder of Abel in His scolding of the Jewish leaders of His day:

³³ Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? ³⁴ Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, ³⁵ that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Matt. 23:33-35

It is interesting that as the serpent was the catalyst of man’s Fall and of Cain’s murderous jealousy, Jesus condemns the Jewish leaders as  “serpents” and a “brood [offspring] of vipers“.  Once again, the Genesis account points to ultimate fulfillment in God’s working of our Redemption.

Furthermore, could there be any richer foreshadowing of the death of Jesus than the death of Abel?  Abel was a shepherd who offered a pleasing sacrifice to God and was murdered by his jealous brother.   Jesus is the “good Shepherd” whose entire life was marked by sacrifice of self to please the Father.  Because of their jealousy and pride, Jesus was murdered by his own national and spiritual brothers.

While we want to avoid taking the symbols further than they were intended, please humor one last observation.  Consider the seemingly needless, final blow in His hour of death when Jesus (the ultimate Abel) was pierced by the namesake of Cain himself – a spear.

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. John 19:34

The Original World War

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring” (Genesis 3:15).

One of the many ways in which we could describe the story of biblical history is that of a war.  The biblical story is a story of war between the offspring of Eve and Satan.  And, thanks be to God, we already know who wins:  the one who crushes Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15).

After being kicked out of the garden, Satan immediately begins attacking the offspring of Eve.  Specifically, he attacks the offspring through whom the great, promised descendant will come.  He thinks that if he can kill the ancestral line, he ultimately wins the war. And yet, God, in his sovereignty, protects the ancestral line until the great One comes.

Consider these:

Noah is spared from the destruction of sin brought on by the devil.  Abraham’s life is spared when he goes into Egypt.  Isaac follows suit.  Jacob is protected from his brother Esau.  Judah is protected from death by famine.  Jumping ahead a ways, David kills the giant and lives through the onslaught of his rebellious son Absalom.  Joash is protected from his wicked grandmother.  Zerubbabel emerges from a gracious act of God:  God did not allow all of the offspring of the kings of Judah to be killed.  This list is by no means exhaustive.

And then we come to the crucifixion narrative.  Christ is condemned to death.  He is put on a cross and he dies.  Who has won the world war between the offspring and Satan?  One would think that the death of Christ was the end of the story.  But it isn’t.  He triumphs over death, thereby putting death to death.  The one who holds the power of death can’t hold the Son of God in the grave.  Jesus has crushed Satan’s head.

But, as we see in the New Testament, we become the godly offspring who triumph over Satan.  We are all children of God through faith and the offspring of Abraham (and thereby Eve) through that same faith.  Satan has always tried to devour the godly offspring (Revelation 12), but he has his just reward (Revelation 20).

Satan may strike at our heel.  We crush his head and win the World War.