Genesis Chapter 4 Part 3

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

And welcome back to our study. Today we're going to be in Genesis chapter 4, verse 17 through 24. We're going to look at the city of Cain, the inventors of civilization, and a song of vengeance, which is a little weird and creepy as we go through this. I'd also ask if you are listening to this on Facebook or YouTube that you would like, subscribe, and share, comment, all that really helps us out more than you can possibly know. And if you're looking on listening to this on a uh streaming platform, Apple Music, Spotify, or something like that, that you would consider uh either supporting the show or subscribing and then sharing it with people that you know. Again, that helps drive the content. And we appreciate it so much. I also appreciate all the comments and questions that I've been getting as we go through this study. So let's keep that going. Now, so far, we've walked through Genesis chapter four for a couple of lessons, and we've watched Cain and Abel bring their offerings. We watched God accept one offering and reject the other. We we heard that sin was crouching at the door, and we watched the door open, and we stood at the first grave, and we heard the crying from the ground, and we watched Cain walk east out of the presence of God into the land of wondering. And what we're gonna do in this lesson is we're gonna follow him there. In Genesis chapter 4, verses 17 through 24, it's possibly one of the most overlooked passages in the book of Genesis. Uh, because when most people see it, what they see is just genealogy, a list of names, just something to skim through on the way to more interesting material. Let me encourage you to not make that mistake. I would again encourage you to grab your Bibles, grab a highlighter, grab a pen, grab a notebook. These verses show us several different things that are extremely important. It shows us a portrait of what human civilizations look like when they're built apart from the person of God. And what we see that is that the line of Cain does some amazing things. They invent music, the city, metalworking, agriculture, and they invent polygamy. They are gifted, they are creative, they are builders. And the section ends with one of the most chilling poems that has ever been written. A man by the name of Lamech stands and sings to his two wives, a boast of unlimited and unrestrained violence. And the passage that we're going to read answers the question: what happens when brilliant, talented, creative people organize themselves in a total independence from God? And the answer to that question has not changed in 6,000 years. So let's get into this. Let's read Genesis chapter 4. We'll start in verse 17. Now I will tell you before we read the text, there are a few challenging names that I have read and studied that have multiple possible pronunciations. And I am a southerner. So be gentle in your comments or jokes about my accent or the way that I say some of these names. So in Genesis chapter 4, verse 17 through 24, Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son. Now to Enoch was born Erad, and Erad became the father of Mehuyael. I think that's right. And Mahuyael became the father of Methushelah. Methushelah became the father of Lamech. Lamech took to himself two wives. The name of one was Ada, and the other was Zilah. Ada gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in the tent and have livestock. His brother was named Jabal. He was the father of all those who played the lyre and harp. As for Zila, she also gave birth to Tubalcane, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron, and the sister of Tubalcane was Nama. Lamech said to his wife, Ada and Zila, listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech, and 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 seventyfold. In these verses we see a city, six generations, three great human inventions, and marriage distorted, and one terrifying song. And so let's look first at the first city in scripture. The first thing that Cain does in the land of wandering is to build something. He built a city and called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son. This is the first city mentioned in Scripture, and that's not by accident. Moses wants us to notice who built it and why. The man who was cursed to be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth builds a city. Now think about what a city is. A city means roots, it means security. A city is not a wanderer. It's not, I will be a vagrant. It's saying, I will plant myself here and I will build something that lasts. And so Cain's city that he's building is a direct act of defiance against his sentence that God gave him. God said, You will be a wanderer. Cain said, Watch this, I'll do it on my own, and I will build walls. And then he names the city after his son, Enoch. Not after God, not as an act of worship, after his son, after himself, extended into the heart of the next generation. And this is the city built for the glory of man. And it would be the first of many cities built for the glory of man. The city is one of the greatest theological symbols in the Bible, and it runs in two directions throughout scripture. There's the city of man that's built by human hands for the human glory and one in independence from God. And then there's a city of God that is built by God, coming down from heaven for God's glory and humanity's flourishing. Cain's city is the first expression of the city of man. Babel will be its fullest expression. Babylon in the book of Revelation will be its final expression. But the city of God first appears in Genesis chapter 12 in the promise of Abraham. We'll get there eventually. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 10 says, Abraham was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And all of this reaches its completion in Revelation chapter 21, where we read that the new Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven from God. And so the Bible is the story of two cities. It's Cain's city and it's God's city. And Augustine saw this clearly in his great work, The City of God, that was written in the fifth century after Rome fell. And this is what he wrote. He said, Two loves have made two cities. Love of self, even contempt of God, has made the earthly city. Love of God, even contempt of self, has made the heavenly city. So Cain's city and the New Jerusalem are the two cities, Genesis 4 and Revelation 21. The same tension, though, is found throughout the entire Bible. In the ancient Near East, cities were not just political or practical constructions with political reasoning. There were theological statements. In Mesopotamia, every major city had a patron deity, and the city belonged to that God. The king was God's steward, ruling over the city on the behalf of their God. And so the act of city building in Mesopotamian culture was an act of divine service to their God. And the Sumerians king lists, one of the oldest historical documents ever found, records that kingship of cities descended from heaven, that cities were a divine gift and they belonged to the gods. But Cain's city is built by an exile, by a murderer, a man outside of God's presence, and named after his son, not after God. So Cain is building a city without a patron deity. He is building a city in which man is the center. The surrounding nations built cities for their gods, but Cain built this city for himself. And that distinction runs all the way to Babel and then beyond. So let's look at this and let's look at the genealogy of Cain in verses 18 through 22. First in 18 through 22, it gives us six generations of Cain's descendants. And many readers skim right past them. But Moses is doing something deliberate here. He is showing us two things simultaneously: the remarkable giftedness of the line of Cain and the trajectory of what that giftedness produces without God. This is one of the most important observations in all of Genesis. The line of Cain is gifted, creative, talented, inventive, and it ends in a boast of murder. And I want you to note that human gifts are not neutral. Human gifts are not automatically good and they're not automatically bad. Gifts or talents can be used for beauty, or they can be used for destruction, they can be used for worship, or they can be used for violence. And without God, the gifts always tend to lean toward violence and distortion. Now, before we get to the dimensions, we need to stop really quick at verse 19, where it says, Lamech took for himself two wives. This is the first mention of polygamy in scripture, and its placement, I don't believe it's accidental. God's design from Genesis chapter 2 was one man and one woman, the two shall become one flesh. And Jesus confirmed this design in Matthew chapter 19. But here in the line of Cain, east of Eden, that design is already being distorted. Six generations out of the garden in the first marriage has become with two different people, polygamy. And this is not a small detail. The Bible does not command polygamy, even when it records polygamy. Every instance of polygamy in the Old Testament is accompanied by conflict and jealousy and pain and dysfunction. Even with Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, there's conflict and division. Jacob and Leah and Rachel, jealousy and competition. David's wives, uh family, created a family fracture and massive rebellion and death and sorrow. Solomon's wives, they turned his heart from God. And the pattern of all that begins here with Lamech, the first man in Scripture to take two wives, the same man who will later sing a song of murder, which is absolutely crazy. The distortion of marriage and the glorification of violence arrive in the same man. And this is not a coincidence. Ada's firstborn is a person by the name of Jabal, and he's identified as the father of nomadic herders. This is the one who developed a lifestyle of living in tents and raising livestock and traveling. This is the origin of, really the origin of pastoral culture, the no the nomadic way of life. And so here's something worth noting. Abel was a keeper of flocks. Jabal is described as the father of those who keep flocks. And so what's happening is the line of Cain takes up the devotion of the brother they murdered. They became what Abel was, but without Abel's heart for God. Jabal, Jabal's brother, Jubal, Jabal's brother, is identified as the father of all those who play the lyre and the harp. Now, this is the inventor of music. And here we see the origin of a musical culture. And I want to stop there for a moment because this is one of those details that surprises people. Music, one of the most beautiful gifts in the human experience, originates, according to the scriptures, from the line of Cain. Not in the line of Seth, not in the line of righteousness, but in a line of murder, of a murderer. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that common grace is real. Common grace is the theological term for God's goodness that is extended to all of humanity, regardless of their relationship with Him. It's called common grace. Matthew chapter 5, verse 45 says he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. And so God gives gifts, including creative gifts, to people who don't even acknowledge him. And so the line of Cain is not cursed with ugliness and incompetence. They're gifted and they're brilliant. But gifts without the giver become instruments of pride. Art without God becomes self-glorification. Music without God can still be beautiful, but it serves the city of man instead of the city of God. The early church father Clement of Alexandria noted that music was one of the greatest groups, gifts in all of creation, but that music directed toward God's glory was a fundamentally different thing than music directed toward human pleasure and entertainment. Both Jabal's descendants and David's musicians played instruments. The question was always: who are you playing for? Not what style of music, not what instruments are you playing, but who are you playing for? Now the third great invention comes from Xila's son, Tubal Cain, where we read that he was the forger of all implements of bronze and iron. We're talking about metalworking, the technology of tools and weapons. Again, this is a gift with two faces. Bronze and iron implements include agricultural tools, plows, sickles, axes, building tools, chisels, hammers, and saws. It also includes weapons, swords, spears, and arrowheads. The same technology that feeds a civilization also arms that civilization. The same forge that produces the plow produces the sword. The same hands that build the cities are the same hands that tear them down. And given what the very next verses contain, when see, given that Tubal Cain's own father Lamech sings a song about killing, the shadow of weaponry falls heavily over this invention. Now many scholars have noted that the name Tubal Cain echoes in the later name Bulcan, the Roman god of the forge. And that is his description as a forger of weapons. And it places the origin of human warfare squarely in the line of Cain. Now, let's jump to this song, the the song of Lamech. This is really weird. It's in verses 23 through 24. And in this passage, we arrive at everything that Genesis 4 has been building up to. Lamech stands before his two wives, and this is what he sings. This is a song that he's singing in poetry, where he says, Um, Ada and Xila, 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. Read that slowly. Again, this is poetry. Structured, rhythmic, deliberate. This is a song. Lamech did not stumble into violence in a moment of rage the way that Cain did. He composed a song about it. He is not ashamed, he is not confessing, he is not mourning, he is he is boasting. And this is what sin looks like six generations after Cain killed Abel. What was once a crime committed in a field in secret has become a trophy presented to an audience in a marriage of two wives. And there's a major escalation of violence, sevenfold to 77fold. To most the most important line of blame that Psalm is found here. Cain killed his brother, and God said, whoever kills Cain will face sevenfold vengeance. That was God's protection over Cain, over the guilty, an act of restraint, a ceiling that he was putting on retribution. Lamech takes that divine declaration and turns it into a personal boast. God said sevenfold as an act of mercy. Lamech's like 77fold vengeance as an act of pride. This is an evil thing that he's saying. He's not appealing to God's protection, he's replacing it with his own. If someone comes after me, they better watch out. That's what he's saying. Cain was afraid that someone would kill him. Lamech is daring someone to even try. And this is the trajectory of sin without restraint. Genesis chapter, uh in generation chapter one, Cain kills in rage and is afraid of consequences. In the sixth generation, Lamech kills and sings about it to his wives. Violence that began as as with shame has become violence celebrated with music. The forge of Tubal Cain put weapons in Lamech's hands. But the music of Jabal gave Lamech a song to sing about using them. And the gifts of civilization, metallurgy, and music are now in the service of ego and bloodshed. This is the city of Cain at full flower. What Lamech killed for is chilling. Read what he said. I have killed a man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. A man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. Not for murder, not because of a mortal threat for a wound for a strike. Cain killed his brother over the rejection of an offering. Lamet killed over personal injury, possibly just over an insult. The threshold of violence has dropped significantly. And the response is not proportional. The wound earns death, the strike earns death. And 77-fold vengeance on anyone who dares to respond to this. This is a world without God. This is human civilization building on its own terms, its own city, by gifted, creative, inventive people, and utterly broken. Now, there's something about the form of Lamic speech that makes it even more disturbing as you study this. It's written in an elevated Hebrew poetry. The same kind of parallelism that's found in the Psalms. It's structured, it's rhythmic, and it's artistically crafted. Listen to the parallel structure. Ada and Zila, 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. Skip a line. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech 70, sevenfold. Three perfectly balanced couplets. This is not a cry of rage. This is a composed, deliberate, artistic celebration of violence. Again, remember, Jabal invented music, and Lamech used that to glorify murder. And there's a lesson here that should make every artist, every musician, every writer stop and think. The gift of creativity is never morally neutral. It's always in service of something, always pointing somewhere, always shaping the people who encounter it. And Lamech's song in this situation was one of the first songs used to celebrate and normalize violence. And it would not be the last. Now, what Genesis chapter 4, verse 17 through 24 describes is not unique to Israel's neighbors in its raw elements, but its interpretation of those elements is completely different. In the ancient Eres, just consider a few of these things. In ancient Mesopotamia, the great kings boasted of their military victories in exactly the same way Lamech does here. The Assyrian king in the ninth century left inscriptions boasting, saying, I have built a pillar over against the city gate, and I flayed all the chiefs who had revolted. I covered the pillar with their skins. This is not embarrassment. This is propaganda from a king. This is the celebration of violence, saying, Look at what I've done and look how strong I am. In the Egyptian royal inscriptions, the pharaohs boast of crushing their enemies in language strikingly as similar to Lamech. Violence was the language of power, brutality was the mark of the strong, and it was celebrated in poetry and song and monumental architecture to those victories. The ancient world understood Lamech perfectly. And he would have fit right in as one of the Mesopotamian kings. But Genesis is not celebrating him. Genesis is documenting the corruption. The line of Cain has become what the nations of the world already were powerful, creative, violent, and entirely at the center of their own universe. Now I want to draw a line from Genesis chapter four to Genesis chapter 11, because the connection is very deliberate and it's important. The line of Cain builds a city named after a man. Permanent structures, defying the sentence of wondering, metalwork, the technology of power and warfare, music, and so on. In Genesis chapter 11, the descendants of Noah also build a city, a city with a tower that reaches to the top of the heavens, with the explicit goal saying, Let us make a name for ourselves. I want you to catch this. It's the same impulse, the same defiance, the same city of man, humanity organizing around its own glory rather than God's. Cain named a city after a son. Babel wanted to make a name for themselves. Genesis chapter 4 is Babel in miniature, and Babel is Genesis chapter 4 at full scale. And both stand in contrast to the city of God, whose builder and maker is God, and whose gates are never shut. Now, there's something that I want you to see here when we get into the field of the study of modern apologetics. It's how this passage speaks to us today. And we'll just simply ask a question: Can civilization save us? Think about all we know about civilizations with agriculture and the political movements of the day, and everybody's leaning on different authorities and leaders and all of that. The line of Cain invented agriculture, music, metallurgy, urban life, and they had leaders. And the section here that we're reading ends up with a song glorifying murder. And this is one of the most important observations in all of Genesis for our modern world. The progressive secular vision says, given enough education, given enough technology, enough social development, then humanity will improve. And this is what everyone talks about. If we can just make people a little bit smarter, make schools a little bit better, give people a little bit more technology, make more social justice programs, then humanity will improve by itself. The arc of history bends toward justice. Science and culture will solve the human problem. This is humanity's solution. But let me make this clear. Genesis chapter 4 says, hey, we tried that. And six generations in, music, metalwork, agriculture, cities, and Lamech is singing about 77-fold vengeance. The 20th century is the most educated century in all of human history, and it's the bloodiest. The Holocaust was carried out by one of the most culturally sophisticated nations in all the world with music, with technology, with engineering, and still six million people were dead. The problem is not a lack of civilization. The problem that every culture has, including ours in the United States, is a lack of God. Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9 says the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? You cannot educate a desperately sick heart into health. You cannot engineer your way out of the human condition. You need a new heart, and only God can provide that new heart. Now, I also want to be careful here because Genesis chapter 4 does not teach that culture is evil, or that music is evil, or that certain instruments are evil, or that metallurgy is evil, or that cities are evil. The gifts of the line of Cain are real gifts. Common grace is real grace. God gives creative gifts even to those outside of a covenant relationship with him. And the New Testament vision is not the destruction of culture, it's the redemption of culture. That's really important for us to understand that. Music invented in the line of Cain becomes the primary vehicle of worship in the Psalms. Metallurgy developed in the line of Cain is used to build the temple. Cities pioneered by Cain become the setting for the gospel's advancement across the Roman Empire. The Apostle Paul quotes Greek poets in Athens and uses Roman roads to carry the gospel. He writes letters and a technology of civilization that became scripture. And God redeems what humanity corrupts. He takes the instruments of the city of man and puts them in the service of the city of God. But the redemption of culture requires transformed hearts, not just better techniques. The same forge, the same music, the same cities, but all surrender to God. And when they're surrendered to God, they become something completely different. Now, here's one of the most stunning connections between Genesis chapter 4 and the New Testament. And most people that I've spoken to have never actually seen this. Lamech boasts, if Cain is avenged sevenfold, I will be avenged seventy-sevenfold, seventy-seven. Now, if you look at Matthew chapter 18, verses 21 through 22, we read that then Peter came and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him up to seven times? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Seventy times seven, four hundred and ninety, an impossible, unlimited number. But the echo of Genesis chapter four is unmistakable. Lamech said, I will avenge myself 77 fold. Jesus says, You will forgive 70 times seven. Jesus is directly reversing Lamech's song. Where Lamech multiplied vengeance to the point of absurdity, Jesus multiplies forgiveness to the point of impossibility. Where Lamech's civilization was built on escalating violence, the kingdom of God is built on escalating forgiveness. The city of man, 77-fold vengeance. The city of God, 70 times seven forgiveness. In Genesis chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 18, you see Lamech and Jesus, the same numbers, just pointed in opposite directions. Jabal invented music in the line of Cain. And it's the first rec uh and the first recorded use of that music in Genesis is the song of vengeance from Lamech. But the Bible doesn't leave music there, and we're grateful for that. David, who was later called a man after God's own heart, writes 150 songs. The heavenly beings are said in Isaiah chapter 6 and Revelation chapter 4 to be around the throne singing continuously. The redeemed in Revelation chapter 5 sing a new song to the Lamb. There it says in Revelation 5, 9, and they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for if you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. A new song, not Lamech's song of vengeance, not a boastful look at what I've done or what I will do if someone tries to come after me, but a declaration of what the Lamb, of what Jesus has done. The gift Jabal gave the world is redeemed in Revelation. Music began in the land of wandering, but it ends around the throne of God. This is the ark of common grace under the hand of a redeeming God. He takes what Cain's line invented and turns it into eternal worship. Now, let me kind of wrap this up in what Genesis chapter 4, verse 17 through 24 teaches us. We've read eight verses. We read about the first cities, um, uh Augustine's idea of two cities, the city of man and the city of God. We talked about the line of Cain being gifted and agriculture and metallurgy and all of these different things. We talk about the fact that polygamy arrived in the line of Cain and Lamech's song of disgustingness. The escalation from sevenfold to seventy-sevenfold shows what sin does unchecked and does not plateau, it only accelerates. We talked about the fact that civilization cannot save you and how Jesus directly reverses Lamech's 77fold vengeance with 70 times seven forgiveness. And here's the word that I want to leave you with for today. The line of Cain had everything gifts, skills, culture, music, technology, cities, everything except the one thing that really mattered, and that's God's presence. And without God's presence, the music becomes war chants, the forge becomes armory, the city becomes a monument of pride, and the gifted become dangerous. The question is not how gifted are you or how gifted are we. The question is who are your gifts for? Who are you serving with your gifts? Lamech's gifts serve Lamech. David's gifts serve God. And that difference, only that difference, is what made one a tyrant and the other a man after God's own heart. Now, next week in our final lesson, or in the next lesson, I apologize, in our final lesson on Genesis chapter four, we're gonna look at the birth of Sabbath, Eve's second great confession of faith, and the last verse of the chapter, the quietest and most explosive sentence of all in all of Genesis chapter four. At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. In the generation of the first murder, in the land east of Eden, something began. The people began to call upon the name of the Lord. And let me go ahead and give you a little uh a little heads up on this. Genesis chapter 5, where it looks like it's just genealogy, is one of the most amazing chapters in all of Genesis. And I am so excited to share that with you. So until next time, I hope you've been enjoying these lessons. Until next time.