The First Society
Genesis 4:16 - 24
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:26
In this study we are looking at the ONLY available history of life before the flood. There are absolutely no records of any kind that have survived the flood other than this record of Moses, given to him by God. Various cultures may make claims that the record of their ancestry goes back 7 or 8 thousand years but this is simply not so and is never verified. All records available to us today will date back only to the survivors of the flood.
We left off with Cain's having killed his brother and having rejected God's call to repentance and restoration. With God's final offer being rejected we read that Cain1 went out from the presence of the LORD.
He settles in the Land of Nod. God had said he would be a vagabond, due to the fact that he would never be farmer, never be able to raise enough food to keep himself alive. The word Nod actually means vagabond or wanderer. So there may not have actually been a place called that when he first went there. It may simply be saying that he went out to the land of wandering. All we know for certain is that his wandering took place east of Eden. (verse 16)
Cain had relations with his wife and has a child. What is not mentioned is when he acquired a wife. We know that she was a relative of his. Either a sister or niece. We are not told how old he was at the time that he killed his brother. One commentator thinks that Cain killed able just a year or so before Seth was born. That would have made them over a hundred years old. If this were the case, they likely were already married. This sort of fits for Cain, as we now read that he had relations with his wife and bore a child, although 100 years old seems a little late for a first child. But it presents a problem if we think that Abel would also be married. When he died, in that case, he would be leaving a widow. Nothing is mentioned about that. He could also have left offspring. Again nothing is mentioned about that. Further complicating things, if Abel had offspring, that would have been the 'godly' line of descendants from which Christ would have been born. Abel had no offspring. I have to take the position that these boys were quite young but were on their own. They were marrying age but still single.
I believe Adam and Eve had a number of offspring up to and even later than the birth of Seth. This simply means that life went on for several generations … right up to Adam's 130th birthday, before God said “I am replacing Abel”.
It also means that when Cain took a wife at about age 20 or so, that he may have only had 2 or 3 sisters to choose from.
When he goes out to the 'land of Nod', when he and his wife have a child, we are told that Cain built a city. The technical word is not city like we know it. It should be translated a guarded encampment.
He had married a sister. He was older than Abel. Perhaps he was already newly married at the time he offered his unacceptable offering. This might explain two things … who would marry a murderer of a beloved sibling? So he must have been married prior to committing murder. And secondly, now that Cain is out here on his own, with a wife and child, he better make an encampment that is sheltered and guarded. Wild beasts are around … plus there could be a visit from some very upset and angry siblings.
He names his homeplace after his new son, Enoch. The name Enoch means 'trained up'. Cain certainly would not be training him up in Godliness. He likely would not be training him up in the ways of worship that he learned from his father.
As we will notice in the following verses, a lot of culture relating to the achievements of man will come from the lineage of Cain. These cultural advances will not be because Cain has a greater I.Q. They are simply the result of a continual focus. Cain's thoughts and those of his offspring, are centered around, What can I do next? How can I top my latest achievements?
Later we will read about another Enoch … who WAS 'trained up' in the way he should go.2
What follows next in scripture is a sequential list of Cain's offspring. All that is included, however, is a record of each firstborn, not a record of how many other children each child and grandchild produced.
18-22
To Enoch is born Irad. We have no idea how old Enoch was when he fathered this son. Irad means 'runner' and 'wild ass'. No other mention of him is made in scripture. Then Mehujael is born. His name means 'smitten by God' or 'God blots out'. Why would his mother and father name him that is anyone's guess. My guess would be they are naming the boy after the grandfather, Cain. Smitten by God in this case could be a slam against God. Cain did not like God. Likely most of his descendants disliked God also.
Mehujael has a son that he names Methusael. His name means, 'God is violent'. How sad that these people refuse to bow to God and experience His grace. Instead they sit around bad-mouthing him. Things have not changed much. Sounds a lot like people of today.
Methusael names his firstborn son, Lamech. This means 'wild man' or 'strong man'. Lamech took two wives. Stop for a moment … man did not become civilized over time and develop monogamy. They did not start out as uncivilized cave dwellers. Lamech may not have been the very first to have taken two wives, but the fact that it is mentioned implies that the Holy Spirit wants us to notice this.
God made is clear in Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
His first wife's name Adah, simply means 'pretty one'. The second wife's name was Zillah and means 'sweet sounding'. So he married 'pretty' and 'sweet voice'. So many men marry based on external qualities. There is nothing mentioned about the character of these two women.
Lamech's offspring are mentioned as being the firstborn from each wife. Adah had Jabal. He was nomadic and lived in tents, moving his flocks around the country. He is listed as having a whole string of descendants who would be involved in the same livelihood. He had a brother named Jubal who was apparently a twin.
Jubal was a talented musician. Can you imagine how good a musician could become if he had 5 or 6 hundred years to get it right? Apparently Jubal invented music or at least took it to a whole new level.
Music is so valued in society. What we are reading about in Genesis is the grace of God. To these God hating people God extends what we call 'common grace'. Don't confuse this with saving grace. They are only saved if they repent of sin and humble themselves before God.
Common grace includes all that God has created for man to enjoy. Jesus said that God causes the necessary rain to fall on both the just and the unjust. That is common grace.
Lamech's second wife, Zillah had Tubalcain. Again it sounds as though a name is given to honor their patriarch, Cain. This man became a professional in working with brass and iron.
What about the 'brass age' and the iron age and the bronze age … those long eras of time mentioned by our instructors in school? Sorry … it did not happen like the professors like to imagine. They find artifacts and base the era on some criteria of their own. What they have no way of measuring is the impact of the flood as it destroyed and buried miles deep in mud the artifacts of a very advanced society.
Tubal-Cain developed the skill of taking iron out of the ground, and copper … and brass, a mixture of copper and zinc … and bronze, a mixture of copper and iron. He smelted the ores … and he created objects. The language seems to emphasize … objects having an edge. This would include weapons etc.
Before moving on from Lamech we are given some information that could easily slip right by us. What we have in the next verses is poetry. Verses 23 and 24 could be a song. Some of your bibles mark these words off separately as a song or poem. The Hebrew language that Moses was using when he wrote this is set out with a form and style that all bible commentators recognize as poetry.
Poetry, whether it means much to you or not, is the most sophisticated form of language. So we have musicians and musical instruments being introduced to society. And we have lyrics.
Now lets look at the lyrics used in this case.
Lamech sings to his wives that he has 'killed a man, a strong teenage boy, for touching me'. Wounding me is the actual phrase but it can mean just to hit or shove somebody.
This is the song of a macho man. “Adah and Zillah … as long as I am around, you are protected. Nothing will hurt you. If somebody so much as touches me (or you), … I'll kill him!”
He then adds a rather sarcastic verse … he mentions that Cain, the killer of Abel would be avenged by God … seven fold if anyone were to lay a hand on him. He brags and says 'Let anyone lay a hand on me and he will get it back seventy fold!' What a boast. What a song.
We understand that society at this point was just getting underway. The family tree of Cain was growing. Adam and Eve no doubt have been having children. The earlier ones of this family by now have started families of their own and are living and farming in areas likely not that far from where Adam and Eve live.
We note that it was Cain who was nomadic because he could no longer plant a crop. How did he live … merely by foraging edible wild produce? Did he hunt? There is no mention of it but that is a possibility. But when Cain decided to settle in an encampment, a protected area he was initiating another 'first'.
The settlement that he named Enoch, would grow as more descendants were produced. This kind of living would be their 'normal'. From this new society we observe a number of things … some of them good and many that are bad.
We see in Cain's list of descendants the development of culture as we know it.
In verse 21 We have entertainment. Music. Musical instruments. Talent. Perhaps manufacture and selling of instruments.
In verse 22 we read about the forging of tools. Probably weapons as well. This is the beginning of the hardware industry. People living out side this 'city' could buy these tools to make working the soil easier. In this culture we have inventors.
Tubal-Cain had a sister, verse 22. What is so special about that? Why mention a sister when thousands of sisters (women) existed by this time? A clue is in the meaning of her name. It means 'The Beautiful (one)'. I have often wondered about the naming of children back in those times. If they named them at birth, and we discover how fitting the name was because of how their life turned out, we think maybe there was something prophetic about the name. Or maybe it is just a matter of someone bearing a particular name with a special meaning, and the person tries to live up to it. Or I wonder if parents sometime held off naming their child until certain traits showed up … and then they named them accordingly.
I have never really researched that, but in this case we have a girl … Naamah, who is called the Beautiful one. She probably lived up to the name … but in truth, she probably turned out beautiful. This is telling us just a but more about the new culture. We are seeing that they have 'criteria' for what they called beautiful. We are seeing that they care whether someone is beautiful or not.
The very fact that one particular sister is mentioned … by name … tells me that this is the first 'model'.
A worldly culture is forming. And it is forming from the line of rebellious Cain. The culture will spread. But every single descendant of Cain will be destroyed in the flood. There goes the culture! A culture will be rebuilt after the flood and that culture will come from the descendants of Noah. More about that later.
VERSE 25. Elohim has granted me another child in place of Abel. She has had many other sons since Abel and before Seth. Why is she calling this one a replacement for Abel? We believe she had some special communication from God. We can see that there is hope in her statement. And faith. But we also detect an note of dejection, sadness and distance from God. How so? When she at first received Cain she said at his birth, With the help of Jehovah I have made a child!” But now at the birth of Seth she says, “Elohim has given me a child to replace Abel.”
What exactly is the difference? Jehovah is the exalted name of God and indicates our personal relationship to Him. Elohim, on the other hand, is the formal recognition of the Almighty .. the Omnipotent One. To refer to God as Elohim indicates a measure of distance. She has lost some of her closeness. Having witnessed so much disappointment in her life she does not show the hope and enthusiasm she had when she was younger. She has experienced the loss of a godly son. She has witnessed the downward spiral of her firstborn. He is a murderer and God rejector. No doubt many of her sons have gone the way of Cain. Many of her children and grand-children are not following God. To top it all off, when she looks at the condition of the world she sees it as being all her fault. “When will one of 'my seed' crush the serpent!?” A hundred and thrity years have passed since Abel was born and Satan is alive and well in the world.
So she has hope for Seth, but not with the same enthusiasm. She has to take this on faith that he is a replacement for Abel, and that God will produce the head crushing offspring through the line of Seth. Seth has a son whom he named Enosh. A simple statement is made … at that time people began to call on the name of Jehovah (the LORD). This sounds so encouraging. But I don't believe that no one was calling on God up to this point. Adam is still alive and I am sure he is still calling on God. Eve had hopes for the promised seed … she is a believer and calling on God. Surely some of their children were believers. Not all have gone the way of Cain. So then what does this mean? I think here we have our first 'Billy Graham'.
Perhaps the sin of the culture, the selfishness, the godlessness has reached such a proportion that Enosh was alarmed. Perhaps his message was something like that of John in the New Testament.
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world——the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life——is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
We are coming to a list of the descendants of Adam … on the Godly side ...through Seth. In it is no mention at all of any who contributed to culture. The world does not value such people. But God does.
Where are you in all of this?
1Heb 11:4 ¶ By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
1Jo 3:12 (Do) not (be) as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
2Proverbs 22:6 ¶ Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Genesis 4:16 - 24
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:26
In this study we are looking at the ONLY available history of life before the flood. There are absolutely no records of any kind that have survived the flood other than this record of Moses, given to him by God. Various cultures may make claims that the record of their ancestry goes back 7 or 8 thousand years but this is simply not so and is never verified. All records available to us today will date back only to the survivors of the flood.
We left off with Cain's having killed his brother and having rejected God's call to repentance and restoration. With God's final offer being rejected we read that Cain1 went out from the presence of the LORD.
He settles in the Land of Nod. God had said he would be a vagabond, due to the fact that he would never be farmer, never be able to raise enough food to keep himself alive. The word Nod actually means vagabond or wanderer. So there may not have actually been a place called that when he first went there. It may simply be saying that he went out to the land of wandering. All we know for certain is that his wandering took place east of Eden. (verse 16)
Cain had relations with his wife and has a child. What is not mentioned is when he acquired a wife. We know that she was a relative of his. Either a sister or niece. We are not told how old he was at the time that he killed his brother. One commentator thinks that Cain killed able just a year or so before Seth was born. That would have made them over a hundred years old. If this were the case, they likely were already married. This sort of fits for Cain, as we now read that he had relations with his wife and bore a child, although 100 years old seems a little late for a first child. But it presents a problem if we think that Abel would also be married. When he died, in that case, he would be leaving a widow. Nothing is mentioned about that. He could also have left offspring. Again nothing is mentioned about that. Further complicating things, if Abel had offspring, that would have been the 'godly' line of descendants from which Christ would have been born. Abel had no offspring. I have to take the position that these boys were quite young but were on their own. They were marrying age but still single.
I believe Adam and Eve had a number of offspring up to and even later than the birth of Seth. This simply means that life went on for several generations … right up to Adam's 130th birthday, before God said “I am replacing Abel”.
It also means that when Cain took a wife at about age 20 or so, that he may have only had 2 or 3 sisters to choose from.
When he goes out to the 'land of Nod', when he and his wife have a child, we are told that Cain built a city. The technical word is not city like we know it. It should be translated a guarded encampment.
He had married a sister. He was older than Abel. Perhaps he was already newly married at the time he offered his unacceptable offering. This might explain two things … who would marry a murderer of a beloved sibling? So he must have been married prior to committing murder. And secondly, now that Cain is out here on his own, with a wife and child, he better make an encampment that is sheltered and guarded. Wild beasts are around … plus there could be a visit from some very upset and angry siblings.
He names his homeplace after his new son, Enoch. The name Enoch means 'trained up'. Cain certainly would not be training him up in Godliness. He likely would not be training him up in the ways of worship that he learned from his father.
As we will notice in the following verses, a lot of culture relating to the achievements of man will come from the lineage of Cain. These cultural advances will not be because Cain has a greater I.Q. They are simply the result of a continual focus. Cain's thoughts and those of his offspring, are centered around, What can I do next? How can I top my latest achievements?
Later we will read about another Enoch … who WAS 'trained up' in the way he should go.2
What follows next in scripture is a sequential list of Cain's offspring. All that is included, however, is a record of each firstborn, not a record of how many other children each child and grandchild produced.
18-22
To Enoch is born Irad. We have no idea how old Enoch was when he fathered this son. Irad means 'runner' and 'wild ass'. No other mention of him is made in scripture. Then Mehujael is born. His name means 'smitten by God' or 'God blots out'. Why would his mother and father name him that is anyone's guess. My guess would be they are naming the boy after the grandfather, Cain. Smitten by God in this case could be a slam against God. Cain did not like God. Likely most of his descendants disliked God also.
Mehujael has a son that he names Methusael. His name means, 'God is violent'. How sad that these people refuse to bow to God and experience His grace. Instead they sit around bad-mouthing him. Things have not changed much. Sounds a lot like people of today.
Methusael names his firstborn son, Lamech. This means 'wild man' or 'strong man'. Lamech took two wives. Stop for a moment … man did not become civilized over time and develop monogamy. They did not start out as uncivilized cave dwellers. Lamech may not have been the very first to have taken two wives, but the fact that it is mentioned implies that the Holy Spirit wants us to notice this.
God made is clear in Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
His first wife's name Adah, simply means 'pretty one'. The second wife's name was Zillah and means 'sweet sounding'. So he married 'pretty' and 'sweet voice'. So many men marry based on external qualities. There is nothing mentioned about the character of these two women.
Lamech's offspring are mentioned as being the firstborn from each wife. Adah had Jabal. He was nomadic and lived in tents, moving his flocks around the country. He is listed as having a whole string of descendants who would be involved in the same livelihood. He had a brother named Jubal who was apparently a twin.
Jubal was a talented musician. Can you imagine how good a musician could become if he had 5 or 6 hundred years to get it right? Apparently Jubal invented music or at least took it to a whole new level.
Music is so valued in society. What we are reading about in Genesis is the grace of God. To these God hating people God extends what we call 'common grace'. Don't confuse this with saving grace. They are only saved if they repent of sin and humble themselves before God.
Common grace includes all that God has created for man to enjoy. Jesus said that God causes the necessary rain to fall on both the just and the unjust. That is common grace.
Lamech's second wife, Zillah had Tubalcain. Again it sounds as though a name is given to honor their patriarch, Cain. This man became a professional in working with brass and iron.
What about the 'brass age' and the iron age and the bronze age … those long eras of time mentioned by our instructors in school? Sorry … it did not happen like the professors like to imagine. They find artifacts and base the era on some criteria of their own. What they have no way of measuring is the impact of the flood as it destroyed and buried miles deep in mud the artifacts of a very advanced society.
Tubal-Cain developed the skill of taking iron out of the ground, and copper … and brass, a mixture of copper and zinc … and bronze, a mixture of copper and iron. He smelted the ores … and he created objects. The language seems to emphasize … objects having an edge. This would include weapons etc.
Before moving on from Lamech we are given some information that could easily slip right by us. What we have in the next verses is poetry. Verses 23 and 24 could be a song. Some of your bibles mark these words off separately as a song or poem. The Hebrew language that Moses was using when he wrote this is set out with a form and style that all bible commentators recognize as poetry.
Poetry, whether it means much to you or not, is the most sophisticated form of language. So we have musicians and musical instruments being introduced to society. And we have lyrics.
Now lets look at the lyrics used in this case.
Lamech sings to his wives that he has 'killed a man, a strong teenage boy, for touching me'. Wounding me is the actual phrase but it can mean just to hit or shove somebody.
This is the song of a macho man. “Adah and Zillah … as long as I am around, you are protected. Nothing will hurt you. If somebody so much as touches me (or you), … I'll kill him!”
He then adds a rather sarcastic verse … he mentions that Cain, the killer of Abel would be avenged by God … seven fold if anyone were to lay a hand on him. He brags and says 'Let anyone lay a hand on me and he will get it back seventy fold!' What a boast. What a song.
We understand that society at this point was just getting underway. The family tree of Cain was growing. Adam and Eve no doubt have been having children. The earlier ones of this family by now have started families of their own and are living and farming in areas likely not that far from where Adam and Eve live.
We note that it was Cain who was nomadic because he could no longer plant a crop. How did he live … merely by foraging edible wild produce? Did he hunt? There is no mention of it but that is a possibility. But when Cain decided to settle in an encampment, a protected area he was initiating another 'first'.
The settlement that he named Enoch, would grow as more descendants were produced. This kind of living would be their 'normal'. From this new society we observe a number of things … some of them good and many that are bad.
We see in Cain's list of descendants the development of culture as we know it.
In verse 21 We have entertainment. Music. Musical instruments. Talent. Perhaps manufacture and selling of instruments.
In verse 22 we read about the forging of tools. Probably weapons as well. This is the beginning of the hardware industry. People living out side this 'city' could buy these tools to make working the soil easier. In this culture we have inventors.
Tubal-Cain had a sister, verse 22. What is so special about that? Why mention a sister when thousands of sisters (women) existed by this time? A clue is in the meaning of her name. It means 'The Beautiful (one)'. I have often wondered about the naming of children back in those times. If they named them at birth, and we discover how fitting the name was because of how their life turned out, we think maybe there was something prophetic about the name. Or maybe it is just a matter of someone bearing a particular name with a special meaning, and the person tries to live up to it. Or I wonder if parents sometime held off naming their child until certain traits showed up … and then they named them accordingly.
I have never really researched that, but in this case we have a girl … Naamah, who is called the Beautiful one. She probably lived up to the name … but in truth, she probably turned out beautiful. This is telling us just a but more about the new culture. We are seeing that they have 'criteria' for what they called beautiful. We are seeing that they care whether someone is beautiful or not.
The very fact that one particular sister is mentioned … by name … tells me that this is the first 'model'.
A worldly culture is forming. And it is forming from the line of rebellious Cain. The culture will spread. But every single descendant of Cain will be destroyed in the flood. There goes the culture! A culture will be rebuilt after the flood and that culture will come from the descendants of Noah. More about that later.
VERSE 25. Elohim has granted me another child in place of Abel. She has had many other sons since Abel and before Seth. Why is she calling this one a replacement for Abel? We believe she had some special communication from God. We can see that there is hope in her statement. And faith. But we also detect an note of dejection, sadness and distance from God. How so? When she at first received Cain she said at his birth, With the help of Jehovah I have made a child!” But now at the birth of Seth she says, “Elohim has given me a child to replace Abel.”
What exactly is the difference? Jehovah is the exalted name of God and indicates our personal relationship to Him. Elohim, on the other hand, is the formal recognition of the Almighty .. the Omnipotent One. To refer to God as Elohim indicates a measure of distance. She has lost some of her closeness. Having witnessed so much disappointment in her life she does not show the hope and enthusiasm she had when she was younger. She has experienced the loss of a godly son. She has witnessed the downward spiral of her firstborn. He is a murderer and God rejector. No doubt many of her sons have gone the way of Cain. Many of her children and grand-children are not following God. To top it all off, when she looks at the condition of the world she sees it as being all her fault. “When will one of 'my seed' crush the serpent!?” A hundred and thrity years have passed since Abel was born and Satan is alive and well in the world.
So she has hope for Seth, but not with the same enthusiasm. She has to take this on faith that he is a replacement for Abel, and that God will produce the head crushing offspring through the line of Seth. Seth has a son whom he named Enosh. A simple statement is made … at that time people began to call on the name of Jehovah (the LORD). This sounds so encouraging. But I don't believe that no one was calling on God up to this point. Adam is still alive and I am sure he is still calling on God. Eve had hopes for the promised seed … she is a believer and calling on God. Surely some of their children were believers. Not all have gone the way of Cain. So then what does this mean? I think here we have our first 'Billy Graham'.
Perhaps the sin of the culture, the selfishness, the godlessness has reached such a proportion that Enosh was alarmed. Perhaps his message was something like that of John in the New Testament.
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world——the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life——is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
We are coming to a list of the descendants of Adam … on the Godly side ...through Seth. In it is no mention at all of any who contributed to culture. The world does not value such people. But God does.
Where are you in all of this?
1Heb 11:4 ¶ By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
1Jo 3:12 (Do) not (be) as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
2Proverbs 22:6 ¶ Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.