A special story this week,

***************

Genesis 4:25-26

***************

Eve had lost both of her earlier children (Cain had departed) and now she sought consolation in her newborn, and he rewarded her efforts. He was not her third child (there had been daughters born who had married Cain and Abel), nor necessarily her third boy. The Bible is silent on the others born to Adam and Eve but Jewish tradition gives the number as 97 without specifying when and of which sex, so there could have been many others alive at that time (Adam and Eve were 130 years old when he was born – Genesis 5:3).

However, Seth was the one who accepted the role of custodian of the truth from his father and taught his family so well that many of them began to separate from those who rejected it. Thus the two groups reappeared in the family of Adam.

***************

Genesis 5:

***************

***************

Genesis 5:3-32;  6:2

And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and had a son named Enos. And Seth lived after he had Enos eight hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

And Enos lived ninety years, and had a son named Cainan...

And Cainan lived seventy years, and had a son named Mahalaleel...

And Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and had a son named Jared...

And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and he had a son named Enoch...

And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and had a son named Methuselah:

And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son: and he called his name Noah, saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."....

And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah had sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Chapter 6:1-2

***************

Even after receiving the "mark" of God’s protection, Cain had withdrawn from his father's household. He had first chosen his occupation as a tiller of the soil, and then he had founded a city because this was the easiest way to control large populations, calling it after the name of one of his sons. He had gone out from the presence of the Lord, cast away the promise of the restored Eden, to seek his possessions and enjoyment in the earth under the curse of sin, thus standing at the head of that great class of men and women who worship the god of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4.

In that which applies to mere earthly and material progress, his descendants became distinguished. But they had no regard for God, and were in opposition to His purposes for humanity. To the crime of murder, in which Cain had led the way, Lamech, one of his descendants, added polygamy, and, boastfully defiant, he acknowledged God, only to draw (in presumption) from the protecting of Cain an assurance of his own safety. Genesis 4:23-24.

Abel had from the first led a nomad type of life, dwelling in temporary shelters and raising animals, and the descendants of his brother Seth followed the same course, counting themselves "strangers and pilgrims on the earth," seeking "a better country, that is, a heavenly." Hebrews 11:13, 16.

For some time the two classes (urban and rural, national and family) remained separate. But eventually the race of Cain, spreading from the place of their first settlement with their cities and towns, encroached into the plains and valleys where the children of Seth dwelt; and the latter, in order to escape from their contaminating influence, withdrew to the mountains, and there made their home. This has been the consistent course of Christians over the millennia. So long as this separation continued, the "sons and daughters of God" maintained the worship of God in its purity while continuing in the offering of burnt sacrifices as shown to them by Adam and Eve.

But in the lapse of time they ventured, little by little, to mingle with the new inhabitants of the valleys. This association was productive of the worst results. (Abraham and Lot repeated this experience. Genesis 13:8-9.)

Despite the advice of God these two groups began to inter-marry. (Like Samson, the men were captivated by the beauty and not the character of the women. Judges 16:4). Because of the influence of the mothers on their children the Bible relates that Christian men marrying non-Christian women is worse than vice versa, although both situations are dangerous to the faith of the believer. Mothers are the first teachers of the young and their influence extends throughout the life-time of the child, therefore the would-be father should choose carefully with God’s approval. He says,

***************

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness?

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate," says the Lord, "and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.

***************

Despite the wickedness of the pre-Flood world, that age was not, as has often been supposed, an era of ignorance and barbarism. God says our species is NOT evolving upward, but falling consistently downward in moving away from Him! The people were originally gifted with the opportunity of reaching a high standard of moral and intellectual attainment, and this had only been diminished, not removed, by Adam’s sin. They still possessed great physical and mental strength, and their advantages for acquiring both religious and scientific knowledge were unrivaled.

(What are popularly known as "cave men" came into existence directly after the Flood when conditions on earth were greatly different. It took time then for the inhabitants of the earth to grow in numbers and replenish the earth and build up civilisations, so some of them lived rather primitively. They also suffered great physical decline as the record of their ages at the birth of their firstborn, and the length of their lives from Shem to Abraham, shows. Genesis 11:10-26. He was the last of the long-lived ones, dying at 175 years of age. Genesis 25:7-8.)

It is also a mistake to suppose that because the pre-Flood people lived to a great age their minds matured late. Their mental powers were early developed according to God’s original plan, and those who cherished the fear of God and lived in harmony with His will continued to increase in knowledge and wisdom throughout their life.

Could the illustrious scholars of our time be placed in contrast with men of the same age who lived before the Flood, they would appear as greatly inferior in mental as in physical strength. As the years of men and women have decreased, physical strength has diminished with it, and our mental capacities have lessened.

There are men and women who now apply themselves to study during a period of from twenty to fifty years, and the world is filled with admiration of their attainments. But how limited are these acquirements in comparison with those of men whose mental and physical powers were developing for centuries!

And so far from being an era of religious darkness, that was an age of great light. All the world had opportunity to receive instruction from Adam for nearly 1,000 years, and those who respected the Lord had also Christ and angels for their teachers. And they had a silent witness to the truth, in the garden of God, which for so many centuries remained clearly visible among them.

That’s all for now,

Ron