More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Gen 4, 23 -26 The Way of Cain
Have you ever wondered if your religious routine is just that—a routine? Dr. Robert Jackson opens his heart in this powerful episode, revealing his own journey from perfect church attendance to perfect stranger with God.
Drawing from Genesis 4:23-26, Dr. Papa contrasts two spiritual paths: "the way of Cain" marked by pride, self-justification, and moral decline, and the lineage of Seth who "began to call upon the name of the Lord." With scholarly insight, he examines Lamech's boastful ballad—the first recorded song in history—which exemplifies the increasing wickedness that eventually led to the flood.
The most compelling moment comes when Dr. Jackson vulnerably shares his spiritual awakening at age 19. Despite years of religious activities, his first attempt at personal devotion lasted only seven minutes, revealing an uncomfortable truth: "I didn't even know how to talk to God." This confession speaks to anyone who's felt the hollow echo of religious motions without relationship. His persistence transformed a seven-minute awkward encounter into what has now become 45 years of rich communion with God.
Dr. Jackson draws a striking parallel between ancient moral decline and our current cultural climate: "A virtuous people need very little government; an immoral people need lots of laws." Rather than increased external controls, he suggests America needs spiritual revival—internal transformation that produces external change.
Are you giving lip service to faith or genuinely calling on the Lord? Join us for this transformative episode that might just be the seven-minute wake-up call your spiritual life needs. Subscribe to More Than Medicine for more wisdom where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Dr. Jackson:Papa, can you tell me a story?
Dr. Jackson:Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let's look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Today our lesson is in Genesis 4, verses 23 to 26. Our lesson title is the Way of Cain, which comes from a scripture verse in Jude, chapter 11, which refers to men who are foolish and wicked, like the men who came after Cain. So let's look at our scripture verse, genesis 4, verses 23 to 26.
Dr. Jackson:Lamech said to his wives, plural Ada and Zillah Listen to my voice. You, wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold. Adam had relations with his wife again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. For she said, god has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him To Seth. To him also, a son was born and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word.
Dr. Jackson:Lamech was a direct descendant of Cain. He represented the spirit of his age. Lamech's character is revealed in this fragment of his song that is preserved. It's a very boastful, prideful ballad. In fact it's the first recorded ballad in history. It is sung to his two wives, ada and Zilla, and boasting of his prowess in battle and his promise to visit mortal retribution on anyone who dares to oppose him. He probably felt safe in such boasting, since he had the advantage of the metal tools, the metal weapons devised by his very clever son, tubal-cain. It's interesting that the song is directed to his wives only. Perhaps he wasn't so loud and boisterous toward Well, who knows? As all murderers do, lamech justified his actions by saying that his victim, a mere boy, had wounded him. Was it a physical wound or just words? We don't know, but he felt justified in killing the boy for his wounding. Then, in his ballad, he blasphemes God In punishing his seventh well, in the punishment of his seventh great-grandfather for the very same crime. God had issued a warning against killing Cain, stating the sevenfold punishment would fall on anyone harming Cain. So Lamech boasts, if God promised a sevenfold vengeance on anyone harming Cain, so we see how boastful and dramatic Lamech was in this ballad, this song that he gave to his two wives.
Dr. Jackson:The Bible mentions no organized government. From the fall until after the flood, there were no rules or regulations to restrain the sinful tendencies of mankind. No doubt Adam instructed his children about the curse, how it came about, god's promise of a future Redeemer and how to approach God with a blood sacrifice that symbolized the future once and for all, perfect sacrifice. Nevertheless, the moral fabric of the pre-flood culture continued to decline, as indicated by Genesis, chapter 6, verses 5 through 6. Let me read what happened over time. The Bible says Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man, that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continually the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart because of the constant wickedness of men. God was grieved that he had even made them, and that was the continual decline. From the time that Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden until the time of Noah, there was a constant moral decline.
Dr. Jackson:It has been said that a virtuous people need very little government. They need very little in the way of external constraints upon their behavior, because their internal virtue acts as a guard against immoral conduct. However, on the other hand, an immoral or non-virtuous people need lots of laws, need lots of policing, lots of external constraints like what we see happening in our national capital city right now with the federalization of Washington DC to impose proper conduct on a very immoral people. What the large cities in America need is not the National Guard to impose external constraints. They need a national spiritual revival to create Holy Spirit mediated internal transformation that results in outward moral conduct.
Dr. Jackson:As we will see, most people before the flood chose the way of Cain, as is mentioned in Jude, verse 11, which described the way of Cain, whereby men who lacked moral character and lacked wisdom continued to deteriorate in their moral behavior. But there's always a righteous remnant. Notice in verse 26, to Seth was born a son named Enosh, and the Bible says then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. The word Lord there means Jehovah Men began to call upon the name of Jehovah. What exactly does it mean that they called upon the name of Jehovah. Possibly, probably, public worship of God is initiated through the lineage of Seth, perhaps replacing individual private meetings, like what Cain and Abel did. Some theologians speculate that God's imminence, god's immediate presence, became more and more distant the farther they got from the Garden of Eden, and so men began to converse with God through prayer. The building of altars and offering sacrifices, as Noah did after leaving the ark, may have been a part of their worship, and calling upon the name of the Lord upon the name of Jehovah.
Dr. Jackson:Calling upon the name of the Lord upon the name of Jehovah. Before Calvary, men offered a blood sacrifice in faith, looking forward to and trusting in the sufficiency of the future Lamb of God. After Calvary, we look back to the cross by faith and trust in the sufficiency of the past Lamb of God to pay our redemption price. Regardless of whether men looked forward to or men looked back to the cross, we all put our trust in the Lamb of God. Just as they called on the name of the Lord by faith, men today need only call on the name of the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the Lord of all the ages, the King of all the nations, the Lord Almighty. He is Jehovah, the same Lord that they called upon before the flood. He is the same Jesus that men call upon today.
Dr. Jackson:Now let me ask you a very personal question when did you begin to call upon the name of the Lord? Well, I remember exactly when I began to call upon the name of the Lord. Now, I grew up going to a Baptist church in a rural small town in South Carolina. In fact, I attended a Baptist church in my mother's womb. I had perfect attendance pins in Sunday school. For years I went to Bible school and I sang in the choir, but looking back on it, I realized that I only gave lip service to calling on the name of the Lord. I was there, but my heart was still far away from the Lord.
Dr. Jackson:I was going through the motions many of those years in my young life, until I was 19 years old and attending college, and I was affiliated with a group of college students who sincerely called upon the name of the Lord. They were serious about their relationship with the Lord and I watched them and I realized that I was not like them. They called upon the name of the Lord, they worshiped God, they served God. They talked about Jesus outside of church, which was something that I would never do up to that point in time in my life and I realized that I needed to be like them. And they talked about a thing that they called a daily quiet time, which was a phrase I'd never heard in my whole life. And they held each other accountable and they would ask one another, how's your quiet time? And there was this one older college student, a female, who would look at me and say, rob Jackson, how's your quiet time? And I had no idea what she was talking about and I would just mumble and say things that were altogether untrue and say, fine, fine. Well, finally, they had a class one day on how to have a daily quiet time and I went to the class eager to find out what in the world they were talking about.
Dr. Jackson:And this young college student, a couple of years older than me, talked about how to have a daily quiet time and I was intrigued. And they talked about the mechanics of a personal devotion and how to study the Word, how to pray, how to spend time with Jesus and personally seek His face, and I realized that I had just been going through the motions all my life and that my heart was not fully seeking the Lord. And that very night I made a commitment that I would seek God with all of my heart and I grabbed a Bible and a pen and a notebook the very next day and I went to the college chapel which was close to my dorm room and I made a commitment to go there for 30 minutes and I read a couple of chapters in my Bible and I made a few little notes and I prayed everything that I could think of to pray. And I looked at my watch and I'd only been there seven minutes and I realized with a sinking heart that I really didn't know the Lord After all those years in church. I didn't even know how to talk to God and it was so discouraging and I decided well, I'll just do it all over again. So I read a couple more chapters and I looked at a memory verse and then I prayed all over again and I guess I just got more efficient because it only took me five minutes the second time and I realized, Robert Jackson, you don't know God, you don't really know how to seek the Lord.
Dr. Jackson:But I was persistent and I didn't give up and by the end of a six-month period of time, I was spending 30 minutes regularly seeking the Lord and calling upon the name of the Lord. I learned how to pray. I didn't learn how of the Lord. I learned how to pray. I didn't learn how to just pray. I learned how to worship God and how to be thankful, how to confess my sins and how to memorize Scripture and how to meditate on Scripture.
Dr. Jackson:And that was 45 years ago, brothers and sisters, and now I spend much more time than that every day seeking the Lord and calling upon the name of the Lord, praying for lost family and friends and praying for missionaries and studying the Bible, so that I can present these podcasts for you and for my Sunday school class and for the guys in the New Creation Bible study that just have gotten out of prison and for the real devotions with Dr Papa that I have with my grandchildren.
Dr. Jackson:And you see, I love studying God's Word, I love talking to the Lord and being in His presence and sometimes just sitting on my back porch just meditating on God's Word. So here's the question when did you start calling upon the name of the Lord? Is it just lip service for you? Is your heart far away and it's just going through the motions, or are you sincerely calling upon the name of the Lord? That's a challenge, that's a serious question, and I hope that God is speaking to you today, calling your name and calling you into a deeper relationship with Him. Well, you're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. I hope you enjoy what you hear. I hope it's a benefit to you.
Dr. Jackson:And.
Dr. Jackson:I want you to know that your doctor loves you. I'll be back again next week. Until then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Dr. Jackson:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. Also, don't forget to check out Dr Jackson's books that are available on Amazon. The Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life in his first book, and the Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Seed Planting Equipping Believers for Evangelism is his second. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Productions. Seed planting equipping believers for evangelism is his second. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Productions.
