Genesis 4-6. ‘Two Ways of Living’
We were having a family Bible time with two grandchildren aged 13 and 10 and had reached Genesis chapter 4 at the point where Cain had murdered his brother Abel and had consequently been expelled from the family of God. We read:
“So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, East of Eden.” Genesis 4:16
This sentence is striking. Leaving the family is what you would expect to read but the writer emphasises what was even more important – Cain walked out from the presence of God, how foolish that is. God had condemned him to be a ‘restless wanderer’ (Genesis 4:12, 14) and Nod simply means ‘wanderer’. He and his subsequent family were spiritually lost and drifting.
It is clear that the writer is not simply describing a nomadic existence as Cain then builds a city that he names after his son Enoch. It is clear that there must have been other people living at the time. Adam was God’s first family but even he and his family had a late neolithic lifestyle. Adam and Cain were horticulturalists, Abel was a shepherd. They were not Stone Age men. Cain was afraid that someone might kill him when he left the secuRity of Adam’s family but the Lord reassured him,
“Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Genesis 4:15
Who was Cain afraid of, who did he marry after he left Adam, who did he build a city for?
Cain’s family
We are then told that Cain’s wife became pregnant and Enoch was born. Enoch had a son, Irad. And again the question comes as to where his wife came from. Their son Irad married and Mehujael was born, who himself married and has a son named Methushael who also married and had a notorious son named Lamech.
Lamech was the first polygamist in this family.
“Lamech married two women.” Genesis 4:19
Lamech was the seventh in line from Adam and he was going to do things his way. The name, Lamech, means ‘powerful’. What is striking is that in this section on the descendents of Cain, neither the Lord nor God are ever mentioned.
Yet Lamech’s descendents were obviously very successful in worldly terms. His wife Adah had two able sons. Jabal, was a successful herdsman who lived in tents, presumably in contrast to the others who lived in the city. His brother Jubal was a musician and he ‘was the father of all who play the harp and flute, very different instruments. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa, and Europe, dating back at least as early as 3000 BCE. Flute playing is much older, the oldest flutes are said to have been from about 35,000 years ago. Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, had a son Tubal-Cain became a blacksmith ‘who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron’. This again raises interesting questions. These people were clearly not stone age people. The earliest definite date usually assigned to the casting of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is about 2500 B.C.. This is 700 years or more after copper is known to have been used. Nevertheless numerous analyses show that copper artefacts, made around 3000 B.C. sometimes contained small and variable percentages of tin.
Lamech, the Powerful, was a ruthless man. He said to his wives,
“I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Genesis 4:23-24
Mr. David Davies (1818-1890) was a Member of Parliament who was always dwelling on the fact that he was “a self-made man.” Disraeli, after one of his speeches, remarked,
“The honourable and genial member for Cardiganshire is never tired of repeating the information that he is a self-made man. I think the House will agree that whatever the value of the honourable member’s opinion, there is no doubt that he worships his maker.”
Lamech appears to have been such a self made man who was ruthless in his drive for success for himself and his family. Yet his is the last we read of Cain’s family!
Seth’s family
A new section of Genesis now begins with the third summary of God’s beginning with man and it is headed,
“This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeliness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them ‘man’. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Genesis 5:1-3
Seth, unlike Cain was in Adam’s likeness. This surely not just a physical likeness. It must refer to the fact that men had begun to call on the name of the Lord. There is then another genealogy that is, as so often in the Old Testament limited to ten generations. We read of Enoch who, we are told twice, ‘walked with God’ (Genesis 5:22,24) There was something interesting about Enoch’s end,
“Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away.” Genesis 524
Enoch’s son was Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, 969 years. Methuselah's son brings us back to the point to this account. He was also called Lamech but this man was clearly very different to his namesake. Noah was this Lamech’s son, a descendent of Seth in every sense. The whole family must have revered God. Noah grew up to be:
“. . . a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Genesis 6:9
Peter describes Noah as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). The Greek word for preacher is better translated “herald” and refers to an official entrusted with making public proclamations. Noah’s world is described as being
“. . . corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” Genesis 6:11–12
In His grace, God commissioned Noah to build an ark to preserve himself and his family from the upcoming judgment by water (verse 14).
‘Call on the name of the Lord’
The message of the Bible is that God longs for all mankind to ‘call on the name of the Lord’, which must mean ‘to walk with God’.
When Abram entered Canaan, he camped between Ai and Bethel. There, “he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 12:8). In other words, Abram publicly thanked God, praised His name, and sought His protection and guidance. Years later, Abraham’s son Isaac built an altar to the Lord in Beersheba and also “called on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 26:25).
Calling on the name of the Lord is essential for salvation and begins when we first speak humbly with the Lord. God promises to save those who, in faith, call upon His name:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” Romans 10:13 quoting. Joel 2:32
Everyone who invokes the name of God for mercy and salvation, using the name of Jesus, shall be saved (Acts 2:21).
“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12, NLT
Using a person’s name helps in a relationship. The first thing we do when we meet someone is to introduce ourselves. To ‘call upon the name of the Lord’ is a sign that have entered into a relationship with Him. There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing Him personally. ‘Calling on the name of the Lord’ indicates personal interaction and relationship. When we call upon the name of the Lord, as a form of worship, we recognize our dependence upon Him.
What saves a person is not the action of “calling upon” the name of Jesus; what saves is God’s grace in response to one’s personal faith in the Saviour that has been called upon. Calling on the name of the Lord is more than a verbal expression; it is also shown in the heart and in deed through repentance.
“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” Romans 10:9
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” Acts 3:19
‘Calling on the name of the Lord’ is to be a lifelong pursuit (Psalm 116:2). The person who:
“. . . dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” Psalm 91:1
These are the people who have God’s promise of blessing:
“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him’” Psalm 91:14–15
Those who refuse to call upon the name of the Lord are also described in Scripture, along with the results of their disobedience:
“Will the workers of iniquity never learn? . . . They refuse to call upon the Lord. There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear” Psalm 14:4–5, BSB
Even when rebellious or ignorant people neglect to call upon the name of the Lord, He is willing to hear them and accept them. God wants to be found; He is ready to be known:
“I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name” Isaiah 65:1, ESV; . Romans 10:20
Those who ‘call upon the name of the Lord’ are identified as believers. In the New testament, the name of the Lord is the Lord Jesus. He is the embodiment of Jahweh.
“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.” 1 Corinthians 1:2
In summary, those who call on the name of the Lord are those who recognize Him as Saviour. Whether it is a first-time calling upon Jesus’ name for forgiveness of sins or a continuous calling as the relationship progresses and grows, giving Him lordship over our lives in surrender to His will, calling on the name of the Lord is vital to spiritual life. Ultimately, calling on the name of the Lord is a sign of humility and dependence on God our Creator and Redeemer.
There are only two ways to live, he wants us all to ‘call on the name of the Lord’, ‘to walk with God’, to be ‘sons of God’, to be like Seth, Enoch and Noah not be be like Lamech and his family.
The Nephilim, the ‘fallen ones’
This context makes the subsequent account in Genesis 6 easier to understand. We read,
“. . . the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Genesis 6:2
The context strongly suggests that the ‘sons of God’ were the descendents of Seth. Yet, as has happened so often in the history of God’s people, sexual temptation can be the cause of his people drifting away from God. The Lord was again deeply upset:
“Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6:3
Rebellion against God and his ways is always the root cause of man’s problems.
There has been wild speculation about the nature of the Nephilim; could they be fallen angels or some other non-human beings? The answer is much simpler. We are told later in Moses Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, precisely who these Nephilim were. Moses had sent twelve tribes to explore the promised land that the Israelites hoped to capture. Ten of the twelve spies reported that invasion would be a dangerous project:
“They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”” Numbers 13:32-33
The Nephilim were simply a race of very tall people; Goliath and his family were some of their descendents. Such giants would naturally become the leaders of tribes in such a pugilistic society and they got what they wanted!
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6:4
The Hebrew word ‘Nephilim’ means ‘fallen ones’. In men’s eyes they were the ‘heroes of old, men of renown’ but in God’s eyes they were fallen sinners who would face God’s judgment. What the world thinks of leaders is not the same as God thinks. This is the second time that ‘the sons of God’ are mentioned in just three verses. It is all too easy for people of God to ‘fall away’ after they were tempted, often by the daughters of men. This repetition surely makes this the key idea of this section – we must be very careful not to join the ‘fallen ones’.
Just as the sons o Cain’s Lamech were very gifted but godless, so the Nephilim were very strong physically but fallen spiritually.
There have always been two ways that people can live, either in harmony with God, as sons of God, or in their own godless way. This is what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when they were tempted to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They decided to make the decIsions about what is right and wrong, just as Cain did later, but the result was, as always, that they faced God’s judgment. These early chapters of Genesis keep telling us the same truth in different ways, there are just two ways we can live.
One way to life
The original writer of this section of Genesis is obviously stressing that there are two ways people can live, either righteously, with God at the centre, or selfishly, with themselves at the centre. In the final part of this section the way most people were living is contrasted with the way Noah lived.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5-8
The difference between these two ways of living is stark.
The next section of the book of Genesis begins with this same contrast and the lesson is clear. God hates it when people decide to live in ways that are not his ways and in the end he will act against all such rebellion. But he is a gracious God and cares for all those who truly turn back to him. This is the message of the whole Bible.
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” Genesis 6:9-13
Even back then they recognised that God sees what is going on in peoples’ hearts. Noah was ‘a preacher of righteousness’. The apostle Peter draws on this contrast in Genesis when he writes about Noah and the evil world he lived in:
“if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;” 2 Peter 2:5
The choice everyone has is either to live God’s way, as revealed by the Lord Jesus and in the whole of Scripture, or to go my way. The consequence of this decision has always been the same, heaven or hell. Being religious is no remedy, we must be committed to living as God wants and has taught us. Jesus warned the outwardly religious who were not really following him that they are not safe,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23
God knows those who are truly his own, there is only one way to life and that is to become his people.
These stories remind us that the essence of worship has always been obedience to the Lord our God:
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. . . . Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Genesis 6:9,22
The story continues with the same basic lesson, there are only two classes of animals just as there are only two types of people, those God deems clean and those who are unclean. The ark saved the righteous Noah and his family but destroyed the ungodly: such a judgment will come to all people. The animals admitted to the ark in pairs were either clean or unclean. We are surely meant to ask ourselves, ‘Which category does the Lord see me in?’; the good news or gospel is that there is always time to change because of Jesus.
BVP
