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You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to Teach Me the Bible podcast. We are in Genesis, so if you've been along with us for this ride up to this point, welcome back. We're going to pick up. You'll know that we ended part of the way through chapter four in verse 16. So we're going to pick up today in verse 17 and continue to try to make sense of these details so that we can make sense of the rest of the story much, much easier. So we're looking at Cain right now. We're watching Cain and we're about to watch what happens to him and to his family. And as these two teams the woman's team, so to speak team might not be the right word, but the woman's team and the serpent's team kind of developing out here, and so if you want to pick us up in verse 17, we'd all appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know. So we have the Cain kills Abel and Abel is about to be replaced. We're going to find that as we come into the next chapter. But Cain, cain has identified himself with the crouching one, the serpent, and we find in 417, the same language back in 411 that now Cain a new, his wife, and she conceived and brought forth Enoch, and he built a city and he called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son. A couple of things that we need to point out here and again. This is how story develops, right? So? So, if you're kind of this literal person who wants the narrator to stop and tell you the significance of every detail, that's not how story works, but you're supposed to see it. What we're doing is we're alerting you, saying hey, heads up, this is what's coming. The narrator, moses, the director of the Lord, he knows what's coming, but we don't, as the readers. Well, those of us who've read it already can kind of alert you to what we've already watched the movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're spoiling it. Yeah, we watched the movies several times.
Speaker 3:And you know like when you watch a movie 10 or 12 times, you're always seeing more connections Like I'd never saw that. Wow, that's exactly right. I don't just all of these details that are at the beginning of the movie that play out as the story goes along, but anyway. So Kane knew his wife, Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch and he built a city and he called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son. Couple things to point out.
Speaker 3:One Enoch is making his own name great and he's building a city. He's not being fruitful and multiplying and fill the earth and subduing it. According to the word of the Lord, he's doing the opposite. He's gathering in one place, building a city to make his name great, not making the Lord's name great, making his name great, not being fruitful, multiply, fill in the earth, but gathering in one place. You're gonna see all of this play out in spades. What begins with one person doing it here, everyone is going to do it in chapter 11, the Tower of Babel, yeah, and so this is how the storyteller saying yep, they're blowing it, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like here, he's just naming it after him. So chapter 11, they explicitly use that language. Let's make a name for ourselves, make a name for yourself, make our name great to rise up to God and all that and Enoch.
Speaker 3:Now to Enoch was born Erad, and Erad became the father or brought forth Mahujol. Mahujol brought forth Mathushel. Mathushel became the father of Lamec, and Lamec took for himself two wives, two Nashim. Nashim is a wife, a wife's plural. The next time this language is going to show up is in chapter six. I came about when men begin to multiply on the face of the earth. Daughters were born to them and the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were Tove, beautiful and they took Nashim, took wives to themselves, whomever they chose. They're multiplying wives.
Speaker 3:This is a direct contradiction to 224, one man, one woman, one flesh. Now it's one man, two women, right, they're multiple wives. And so you get this focus on Lamec Enoch in verse 17 and Lamec in verse 19. In the next chapter in Seth's genealogy, we're also going to have an Enoch and a Lamec, and in that genealogy there's gonna be an explanation of those two as well. And so literally you're to contrast. Yeah, you get this parallel character. Yes, enoch who builds a city and make his name great, and Enoch who walks with God, lamec who's taking multiple wives and having children and doing stuff to make their name great, and the Lamec who has a son and names him Noah, saying this is the one who will bring the rest. And so there's a contrast here. That's going on. So we want to introduce that.
Speaker 3:And so he took to himself two wives. The name of the one was Ada, the name of the other was Zilla. And Ada gave birth to Jebel. It was the father of all those who dwell intense in livestock and his brothers they gained no variety for dwelling intense in livestock. And his brother was Jubal, and he was the father of all those who played the pipe and the liar in the pipe.
Speaker 3:As for Zilla, she gave birth to Tubal Cane, the forger of implements of bronze and iron, and the sister of Tubal Cane was Nama, nama, nama. Now hold on to some of these names, cause they're going to show up later on in the story. And Lamec said to his wives, ada and Zilla listen to my voice, you wives of Lamec, and give heed to my speech, for I have killed an Ishe for wounding me and a boy for striking me. If Cane is a Venge, sevenfold and Lamec 77. And so you know, cane kills Abel, and now Lamec is killing an Ishe and you're just seeing this enmity play out between these two sides and you're introduced to the sevenfold and the 77 fold.
Speaker 2:These guys are all doing opposite the word of the Lord up to this point and that's kind of the point.
Speaker 3:There's no neutral characters in story unless they walk in to move the plot along, and we call those a flat character. But neutral characters don't move the plot. They can walk in and throw something in front of a positive character or a negative character, but the positive and negative characters, they're the ones that move the plot, and so the conflict is playing out between these two sides. So then the frame, the picture, goes back over to Adam, and Adam knew his wife again and she gave birth to a son again, more that Genesis 3.16 language, and named him Seth from Genesis 3.15. I will appoint him to be between you and the woman, your seed and her seed, the word there is a point. And she said God has appointed me another seed. They translated offspring. There's three 15. Between your seed and her seed, appointed me another seed in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. See, cain was the seed of the serpent. We need a replacement for Abel, who was the believer, so that the enmity can continue.
Speaker 3:And so Seth is appointed as the seed, the replacement seed, so that the enmity can continue, and Seth's going to be the carrier of the promise. And so chapter five, this is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created Adam, he made him in the likeness of God and he created them, male and female, and he blessed them and named them Adam in the day that they were created. So, one man, one woman, one flesh right, adam and Eve. They, plural, were named Adam singular. And when Adam lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. And so Adam is created in God's image, seth is in Adam's image. And then the days of Adam, then the days of Adam, after he became the father of Seth, were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters, and so you're gonna see this other sons and daughters, and other sons and daughters, and other sons and daughters. All the way through this whole genealogy there's going to be one line, one seed, one child, one male that is tracked throughout this genealogy from father to son, father to son, father to son, and then the father has other sons and daughters, other sons and daughters, and so basically, this is a formula that says the father lived X number of years, had the child that's going to carry the promise, lived longer and he died. He had other sons and daughters and he died. And so the death rate is one per person all the way through this passage, until we at least until we get to Enoch. And so had other sons and daughters, he died, other sons and daughters, he died, and you had this genealogy. The genealogy goes all the way down with no added detail, until you get to Enoch, which is in verse 21. And Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah I'm sorry, methuselah, methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters, walked with God.
Speaker 3:This is new language is going to be introduced. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his day. Noah walked with God. And so to walk with God. In chapter 12, abram is going to walk according to the word of the Lord. And that's what it means is to walk according to the word of the Lord, walk according to the promises, walk according to the revelation. Enoch does this. The other Enoch is rejecting the revelation, is not being proved for multiplying, filling the earth. He's building cities, make his name great, and so he's actually doing the opposite of what's right in the eyes of the Lord, or walking according to the word of the Lord.
Speaker 3:And then you continue down through Methuselah to Lammok, and Lammok lived 182 years, became the father of the son and he called his name Noah, which means rest, which comes from Genesis 2, 15. God Noah'd Adam in the garden to serve it and to keep it. He rested Adam in the garden to serve it and to keep it. That rest was lost. They were banished from the garden and Lammok is looking for one who will restore the rest. The other Lammok's over there multiplying wise, killing people and making name for himself.
Speaker 3:The sons make a name for themselves and this Lammok's over here waiting, looking patiently for the promised one to come. And Noah's the one who is going to remove. He said now he called his name rest, saying this is one who will give us. They translate it rest. It's comfort, comfort from our work and from the toil of our hands. The word their toil, their translating toil, is from Etsev. It's the same word back in 316, 317, it's sorrow. This is the one who will remove the sorrow. In sorrow you shall bring forth sons. They're looking for the one who will remove the sorrow, who will restore the rest, who will restore what was lost at the garden and restore eternal life. And so that's what Lammok is looking for. And all the days of Lammok were 777 years and he died, and Noah was 500 years old and Noah became the father of Shem and him and Japheth.
Speaker 2:So they got three sons.
Speaker 3:And he has three sons. Well, why is there three sons? And these three sons are going to have one wife apiece, and Noah's going to have one wife, and that would make eight. And so only eight are going to get onto the boat, in contrast to what's coming Now, when we get just want to introduce next time and we'll probably need to shut it down here pretty soon. But there's no stop in play.
Speaker 3:The scene continues right into chapter six. The grammatical construction continues. So whatever you're doing with chapter five, you need to interpret chapter six in light of chapter five. And so the first verse in chapter six is it came about when men begin to multiply on the face of the land. When Adam began to multiply on the face of the land, the daughters were born to them. That's exactly what's been going on in chapter five. Yeah, that makes sense in the details. Other sons and daughters, other sons and daughters, other sons and daughters. And so Adam began to multiply on the and the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were towed. And so next time we'll pick it up and we'll talk about how chapter six fits right into chapter five and probably talk about the Jude and first Peter and the second Peter and how this all fits together, and see if we can't get an interpretation.
Speaker 2:I have a feeling a lot of people will be interested in chapter six. There's a lot of controversy around this.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of controversy, and so the question is how are we to understand the term or the phrase sons of God? And we're gonna go back to chapter five to find our answer. Others are going to go to other places in the Bible, job or other places to find their answer. But literally, if five goes right into six and grammatically five goes into six with no break, then you have no literary warrant to not consider chapter six in light of chapter five.
Speaker 2:And that's what we're doing next time. Yeah, that sounds good, all right. Well, we're continuing to interpret the detail and try to make sense of this, and we're hoping that it is making sense to you and that it's really. Hopefully it's already knocking down some dominoes and you're thinking ahead. But if not, just hang on in with us, and this will all become clear as we continue to interpret the story. So join us next week for chapter six. We'll see you then.
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