Genesis 4, 5
Peace be with you, listening
friends. We greet you in the name of God, the Lord of peace, who wants everyone
to understand and submit to the way of righteousness that He has established,
and have true peace with Him forever. We are happy to be able to return today
to present your program The Way of Righteousness.
In our last two programs, we learned about the first
two sons of Adam and Eve: Cain and Abel. We saw how both of them presented to
God a sacrifice in order to worship Him. Abel believed God and brought the
blood of a lamb, but Cain tried to approach God through his
own efforts.
God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's sacrifice. God called on
Cain to repent, but Cain only got angry and killed his brother Abel.
Today we plan to continue in the Torah and study
chapters four and five of the book of Genesis. The Word of God tells us that
Adam and Eve "had other sons and
daughters." (Gen. 5:4) However, among the descendants
of Adam, God has only made known to us the stories of two
family lines:
the family line of Cain and the family line of Seth, one of Cain's younger
brothers.
We will first look at the
family line of Cain.
Cain chose a wife from among his relatives and they had children. However, just
as "the leaping gazelle doesn't produce burrowing offspring" {Wolof
proverb}, neither did Cain's offspring escape their father's way of thinking
and speaking and acting. Like their father, they did not
respect God's Word.
They had great knowledge and intelligence, but did not know God. They only
valued earthly things. They built a city, made tools, flutes and harps and
things like that. One of those who descended from Cain was called Tubal-Cain.
He was ingenious and forged bronze and iron. However, beautiful handwork does
not make a beautiful heart!
One of Cain's descendants, named Lamech, was the seventh
generation after Adam. Lamech walked in the footsteps of his ancestor
Cain--except he was even worse. Lamech was the first to take two wives and,
like Cain, he became a murderer. The Scriptures say that Lamech murdered two
people and then boasted that he was more wicked than Cain! Like Cain and all
his descendants, Lamech didn't care about the will of God. Lamech was selfish
and loved money. He was proud and conceited. He was a lover of pleasure rather
than a lover of God. Satan was his master, but he didn't realize it. Lamech was
like this because he chose to follow the way of Cain. Let us keep the name of
Lamech in our minds, because we will be coming back to him before we finish our
lesson today.
Praise God, the Scriptures do not stop with the story
of Cain and his unrighteous descendants. The Word also tells us about the
family line of Seth,
saying that God gave Adam and Eve another son "in
place of Abel, since Cain killed him." (Gen. 4:25) His name was
Seth. Seth means chosen. God chose Seth to
replace Abel. Why did Seth have to replace Abel? Here is the answer. In the
Garden of Paradise (Eden), God had promised One who would come into the world
to defeat Satan and deliver the descendants of Adam from his power. That Savior
could have come through the family line of Abel who believed God. However,
Satan led Cain to kill Abel. Satan wanted to hinder God's plan to send the
Savior into the world. However, God's wisdom is greater than Satan's. God had a
marvelous plan to deliver the children of Adam from their sins and no one could
hinder it, not even Satan! Therefore, God, in keeping with His plan, gave Seth
to Adam and Eve, to replace Abel, whom Cain had killed. Thus, God's
plan concerning
the Redeemer continued to advance.
Seth was a true
believer. Like Abel, his older brother, Seth chose
the way of salvation which God had established. Seth, like all of Adam's
offspring, was born in sin. However, he believed what God had promised
concerning the Savior who was to come and he manifested his faith by bringing
before God the blood of a lamb, as a sacrifice to cover sins. Another
noteworthy thing concerning Seth was that he raised his children in the
knowledge of the truth of God. Therefore the Scriptures say:"Seth
had a son, and …at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord." (Gen. 4:26)
Thus, we see two family lines that came forth from
Adam: the line of Cain and the line of Seth. Do you know what those two lines
illustrate? They illustrate the two kinds of
people that
have been in the world from Adam's time until today. In God's eyes, there are
only two kinds of people on earth. He sees no distinction between those with
black skin and those with white, nor between Wolof and Sereer {two ethnic
groups in Senegal}, men and women, rich and poor. God is not prejudiced;
nonetheless, He separates the people of the world into two distinct groups.
What are these two groups of people? They are those
who believe the Word of God, and those who do not believe it; those who know God and those who do
not know Him;
those who walk in the light and those who walk in darkness; those who are forgiven of their sins and those
who are not forgiven. Everyone who believes
God and chooses the way of righteous which He has established, will be saved
(and go to heaven), just as Seth and his family were saved. Whoever does not
take God's way of righteousness will perish (and go to hell), just as Cain and
his family perished.
The Scriptures say that Adam lived until he was 930
years old and then he died. In those early times, men lived until they were
extremely old--but they died as all men die. Adam and Eve
died,
just as God had said they would. When God created the first two people, it was
not His will that they should die, but that they should live. Why then did Adam
and Eve die? Because they sinned against God--and sin produces death.
Now then, in the time remaining, we will look at the
story of a man of God, who was in the family line of Seth, who believed God.
This man is Enoch …the prophet of God,
Enoch. Some know him as "Idris" {Qur'anic name}. In the
fifth chapter of Genesis, we see the ancestry of Enoch. The Scriptures say: Adam became the father of
Seth; Seth became the father of Enosh; Enosh became the father of
Kenan; Kenan became the father of
Mahalalel; Mahalalel became the father of
Jared; Jaredbecame the father of
Enoch. Thus, Enoch was the seventh
generation after Adam in the line of Seth.
Like all men, Enoch was a
born sinner. However,
when he was 65 years of age, Enoch repented of his sins, turned to God, and
believed what God promised concerning the Redeemer who was to come into the
world to die as the Perfect Sacrifice that takes away sin. Enoch showed his
faith by offering to God the blood of an animal as a sacrifice that covers sin.
Consequently, God credited Enoch's faith to Him as righteousness, forgave him
his sins, and purified his heart. Thus, the Scriptures say:"Enoch
walked with God for 300 years." (Gen. 5:22)
However, to walk with God in Enoch's day was not easy,
because it was a corrupt and wicked period, much like the present day. Most of
those living in Enoch's time sought only after pleasure and lived lives of
impurity. As for Enoch, he knew that God had not created man to live in
impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, Enoch did not allow covetousness to
control him, as it did his neighbors who did not know God. Like God Himself,
Enoch loved righteousness and hated iniquity. People insulted him and
persecuted him because of his righteous lifestyle, but Enoch didn't let it
bother him, because he knew that nothing is more important than to have peace
with God.
God chose Enoch to be His servant and His prophet
during that evil period. Like all prophets, Enoch
testified about the Redeemer who was to come. He also announced that
the Redeemer would one day return to punish all those who refused to repent and
believe in Him. Listen to the preaching of Enoch:
"See, the
Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones to
judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts
they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners
have spoken against Him!" (Jude 1:14,15)
One more amazing thing that we need to know about the
prophet Enoch is that he did not die. That's right. The Word of God tells us
that Enoch did not die! It says: "Enoch
walked with God for 300 years and then he was no more, for God took him." (Gen. 5:24) God, in His
power and His plan, translated Enoch directly to heaven, without making him go
through the door of death.
Why did God translate Enoch in that way? Through the
life of Enoch, God wants to teach us what He thinks of those who truly believe
Him and seek to please Him in all things. The Scriptures say:
"By faith Enoch was
taken from this life, so that he did not experience death;
he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he
was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is
impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that
He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Heb. 11:5,6)
For three hundred years, Enoch pleased God, because he
believed Him, loved Him and obeyed Him during a time in which most people
didn't care about what God wanted. Thus, one day God called his name;
instantly, Enoch found Himself in Paradise, in the glory of the house of God
forever! In this, there is something very important which God wants to show us.
It is this: If you do not have faith like Enoch, you will never please God!
However, if you have faith like Enoch, God will count you as righteous, and you
need no longer fear death. You can know that God has conquered death for you,
because if you listen to the Word of God and believe it, when your life on
earth is over, you will go to live in the presence of the Lord forever, just
like Enoch! However, you must come to understand and believe what God has said
concerning the righteous way of salvation that He has provided for sinners.
To summarize our study, we would like to make a few
comparisons between the two descendants of Adam we have read about today: Lamech and Enoch.
Both Lamech and Enoch
belonged to the seventh generation after Adam. Lamech descended through the
line of Cain,
and Enoch descended through the line of Seth. Lamech and Enoch
shared the same generation (era), but they did not share the same interests.
Their way of life was totally different, like night from day.
Lamech did not believe God and
His word, but Enoch believed God and loved
His word.
Lamech walked with Satan in
impurity, whereas Enoch walked with God in
holiness.
Lamech ignored the way of
salvation decreed by God, while Enoch cherished it and brought
to God the blood of a lamb to cover his sins.
Lamech craved money, women,
food, clothes and pleasure, whereas Enoch desired a life of close
fellowship with the One who had given him life.
Lamech died in his sins and
went down to hell, but God took Enoch up to be with Himself in
heaven.
In closing, here is an important question: Are
you most like Lamech or Enoch? Do you belong to the people of Cain and
Lamech or the people of Seth and Enoch? Does your life embrace the faith of
Enoch, or are you going your own way like Lamech? God's Word says: "Examine
yourselves to see whether you are in the faith" …because "without
faith (in
God and His Word) it is impossible to
please God!" (2 Cor. 13:5; Heb. 11:6)
Friends, this is where we must stop today. Next time,
in the will of God, we will begin to study another one of God's prophets-the
prophet Noah….
God bless you as you earnestly consider this verse
from His holy Word:
"Without faith it
is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that
he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Heb. 11:6)
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