From the Start - Part 12 | Downward Spiral Towards Hope (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 13)

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 4.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 4 is where we are this morning, Part 12, and

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

we've made it all the way through Genesis 4 this morning.

This is funny, but next week, guess what?

Genesis 5 in. I have a trick.

One week. That's impressive.

No, we will cover Genesis 5 in one week.

Next week. There were just some things in

Genesis 4 that we needed to to split out.

Too many things to address. So, yeah, I don't know how many

years we're going to be in this, but it's great.

I'm loving it. I hope, I hope you are not

getting bored with Genesis. I am loving just all the things

I'm learning as I dive in each week and study Livian.

Where do you want me? Just keep going.

Yeah, have fun. Running sound is hard work.

All right. Long genealogies cause us to

stop and wonder why they're included.

Why do I need to know all these people names?

Like I literally only see this person mentioned one time in

scripture. So why do I need to know

anything about this person who this person is?

Well, this morning, this isn't a long boring genealogy.

So it does a little bit less of of begging that question.

Why are all these names included?

But as with all genealogies, it's good for us to discover the

purpose in their inclusion in the text.

So if you're able, would you stand as we read from Genesis

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, beginning at verse 17, verse 17?

Kane knew his wife and she conceived in Bora Enoch.

When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the

name of his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad

fathered Mehujel and Mehujel fathered Mehuchel and Mehuchel.

Mehuchel fathered Lamech, and Lamech took two wives.

The name of the one was Ada and the name of the other Zilla Ada

bore Jabal. He was the father of those who

dwell in tents and have livestock.

His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those

who play the liar and pipe. Zilla also bore Tubal Kane.

He was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.

The sister of Tubal Kane was Nema.

Lamech said to his wives. Ada and Zilla, hear my voice,

you wise of Lamech, listen to what I say.

I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

If Kane's revenge is sevenfold and Lamechs is 70 sevenfold.

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called

his name Seth. For she said, God has appointed

for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh.

At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

You may be seated. The first verse of this section,

verse 17, parallels the very first verse of this chapter.

Verse one verse one said now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she

conceived and and bore Cain. And then verse 17 says Cain knew

his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch.

Now here Moses is tying these two events together, the birth

of Cain and the birth of his first son, Enoch.

Who, I might add, is not the famous Enoch that you are

thinking of, the Enoch that we're familiar with.

Both births have poor outcomes, yet they still speak to God's

mercy and faithfulness. And even allowing this sinful

line of Cain to continue, inevitably someone will ask,

hold on, who did Cain marry? No eligible ladies are are

mentioned in the text. So.

So the silence on the issue creates a question, since at

this point we've only been introduced to four humans so

far, right? Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel is all

we've been introduced to so far, but we can deduce that he

married his sister or or another relative.

Genesis 54 tells us Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters, so

it's likely that there are already a number of other family

lines existing at this point. Now, marrying a family member

wasn't taboo, and it was actually safe for Kane to marry

his sister because the gene pool in the first generations of

humanity wasn't yet a problem some 2500 years after the

creation of Adam and Eve. A narrow gene pool is averted

though when in Leviticus 18 instructs Hebrew men not to have

sex with their sister. Doing this could cause genetic

mistakes and mutations to become problematic.

But in those early generations there would have been very few

if any genetic mistakes since Adam and Eve were perfectly

designed by God. Cain got married and had a son

Enoch, and then verse 17 continued.

When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the

name of his son Enoch. In this genealogy, there are a

couple repeated names which which can serve to confuse you.

If we're not paying attention. There's who I will call Enoch

the First. Technically, we don't really

know anything about his character, but he comes from

Cain's line. Then there's Lamech the 1st and

as you'll see, he's very bad. Cain built a city and named it

after his son Enoch. First of all, I, along with some

commentators, not everybody, Nope, there's there's not

unanimity in this, but many commentators feel that this is

disobedience on Cain's part. God had cursed Cain to a life of

wandering, and it seems that Cain decided to take matters

into his own hands and build a city.

Cities are significant as places of culture and civilization.

This particular city, the first city we see in Scripture, is

named for his son Enoch. Cain is set on forging his own

legacy here, rather than a legacy founded and rooted in

God. The name Enoch means dedicated,

and I think Cain named his son Enoch because he was forging a

new path forward. In naming the city Enoch, Cain

was declaring his own people or over whom he could potentially

rule and and further separate himself from God.

It's important for us to take note of this very first city.

What is it that happens in cities?

First of all, cities are places of technological advancements.

Technical technological advancements begins in cities,

the places of innovation and progress, places where humanity,

whether they realize it or not, seek to reverse the consequences

of the curse. But salvation from the curse

can't be found in technology. Humanity can make things that

make life easier, but the curse still exists, and humanity is

still fallen. Now, in his grace, God has given

humanity the ingenuity, the creativity and understanding to

invent solutions to problems and help propel humanity and culture

forward. I think it's absolutely amazing

that humans can fly in a metal tube in the sky.

Like, it's crazy to me, like really?

Is that this huge metal tube weighing thousands and thousands

of pounds can fly. It's also amazing somebody came

up with the idea to fly to the moon and land on it.

Super impressive. Perhaps even more impressive,

you can take somebody's heart out of them and put it in

another person. This is absolutely amazing.

These achievements are astonishing if you stop and

think about it. God has given humanity the

capacity to do nearly anything, and it primarily starts in the

urban centers of the world. Well, cities also bring

protection. Cities are places of safety from

outside threats. They're places of safety from

outside threats. Cities were places of refuge out

in the wilderness or or whatever land one may dwell in was all

sorts of danger. There were threats from animals

as well as threats from other humans.

Even before this moment, there was already a significant amount

of conflict, evidenced by Lamech, who had been wounded by

someone, and we'll look at that in a few minutes.

There were probably territorial disputes and such, so even

though everyone was related, they still had strife and

turmoil between them. Building a city helped keep Kane

and his family safe from anyone outside who might want to hurt

them or to hurt him. I can't help but think that this

is Kane's way of taking control. God had given him the mark as

protection, right? But it seems probable that if he

simply populates a city with everyone that he cares for or or

who might possibly care for him, then he can just protect himself

and he doesn't have to trust in Yahweh to keep him safe.

In essence, by building a city, Cain is demonstrating a lack of

faith in God's protection in the city.

There are technological advancements and their safety

from outside threats, and there's also crime on the

inside. There's crime on the inside when

you're in a city. Cities are places where a lot of

people live, and evil can hide out and lurk in the darkness

where no one can see. I'm reminded of when when we

moved here 15 years ago. Next Monday is 15 years.

I can't believe it's been 15 years.

When we moved here, Michael was 2 1/2 and Aria was 5.

We moved from a city called Oakley in the Far East Bay of

San Francisco. Oakley has nearly 50,000 people

in it and it's surrounded by cities with 100,000 here,

100,000 there, 100,000 there and in total the entire Bay Area,

which is San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

In total the the entire Bay Area has 8 million people there.

It's home to lots of great attractions that are known the

world over in Silicon Valley is home for the tech industry.

There's lots of great things about being in the Bay Area and

living the city life. It can really actually be quite

addicting because there is always something to do.

But along with that come threats and potential for violence and

and crime, robbery. We've had vehicles broken into a

number of times and my family has had numerous vehicles stolen

numerous. Well, it doesn't help.

I will say one of my brothers, he always drives really cool

cars, which in the Bay Area it's almost just asking for the car

to be stolen. But anyways, I digress.

So we've had our vehicles broken into a number of times and and

all these other vehicles in our family that have been stolen, my

mom's as well as my brother's. So you see we have learned to be

super diligent about keeping valuables out of sight or or

even out of the car locking everything up.

When we moved to Eldridge 15 years ago, it was more of AI

don't know if I would call it a farming community.

It was it was quasi rural. It more more so than the cool

happening Eldridge that it is today.

But when we moved there we always locked our cars and all

our friends thought we were weird.

They thought it was crazy that we would lock our cars

everywhere we went. We were a little out of place

doing it, but it was happened. We spent too much time in the

city to trust everyone around us.

If few of our friends said oh, they would just leave the key

under the mat in the car. I know of a couple friends who

who said, Oh yeah, the keys in the ignition.

What? I was blown away by this.

Those same friends might still have their keys in the ignition.

Ignition I might have to check. But out in the country or even

in small town city life, of course there's a sense of

safety. But we could not fathom this

because that's what city life does to you now.

Things in Eldridge have changed a lot.

So very few people leave their cars unlocked now because a few

years ago there was this spree of young, young men going about

and stealing whatever cars, whatever opportunity was

presented to them, they would try to steal that car.

So people have slowly started to learn, lock it up.

Now there are some famous cities to come in our study in Genesis.

Sodom and Gomorrah, of course, are infamous for their godless,

inhospitable behavior, pride and sexual deviancy.

Babylon is known as the seed of human rebellion against God.

This is so much the case that Babylon becomes a a picture of

evil and decadence all through the pages of Scripture.

And then of course, there was that famous city Nineveh, those

fish slappers I had to taken from, I think one of the best

movies ever made. Veggietales nailed it with

Jonah. Now city life can be fun and

exciting, but it can be a dangerous stronghold of evil.

God told humans to fill the earth, to spread out and take

dominion, to help it be the best that it could be.

Cain's building a city was another step of disobedience.

Now after we're told about Cain building the city and and naming

it for his son, the text rips through.

A quick little genealogy goes from Cain to Enoch, Irad,

Mehugel, Mehoushell and Lamech without shedding light on any of

these names. Just like a genealogy would do

until it gets to the last name Lamech.

Lamech is not a good guy. In fact he's he's the most evil

person we've met so far in the text.

Verse 18 closed method shell fathered Lamech and then verse

19 quickly declares tells us who he is.

Lamech took two wives. 4 of Lamechs children are named three

of which were told about Jabal Jubal and Tubal Cain.

These sons of Lamech helped create an and expand culture.

The world's oldest profession is not prostitution, it's

horticulture, since that's what Adam and Eve did there in the

garden. Here in chapter 4 we get a a few

more professionals added professions added to the mix.

So the first son mentioned is Adda's son.

Adda's son is Jubal. Jubal no Jabal, sorry, it is

Jabal. Jabal is the father of animal

husbandry, verse 20 read. He's the father of those who

dwell in tents and have livestock.

Now sure, Cane as a shepherd had initiated the caring for

animals, but here Jabal augmented the profession by

expanding it from simply keeping sheep to also include other

forms of livestock. In order to keep their flocks

and herds fed, Jabal and his family had to live a nomadic

life. They would constantly have to

move from one place to another while they're searching for

fresh green pastures. They would move to 1 and pretty

soon it would be eaten up so they would have to move to

another and this created the need for mobile dwellings.

Now as you know necessity is the mother of invention.

So the need gave rise to the capacity to tan leather and to

create tents, which was no small innovation at that time.

Next add a second son is Jubal. He is the father of musicology.

Now I have to confess to you, you don't really want me to come

to your trivia night table if you're looking for help.

But one time there was, there was a question who was the very

first musician in the Bible? But I knew that one as a

musician, of course, you know, speaks to my heart.

So I knew exactly who it was and I was the only person who got it

right. So I was pretty impressed with

myself all the other trivia questions.

I'm not going to be much help, but that one, I got it now.

Verse one, verse 21 told us he's the father of all those who play

the liar and pipe. Drupal is the first musician in

the world. This not only required the

ability to play instruments, but also the imagination to think of

what could be and then have the technical know how to make the

instrument a reality. An instrument that you've never

seen before. Invent it now.

We take music for granted. We have it everywhere we go.

It's so ubiquitous in our time that that we're seldom truly

quiet. We have music in our cars, we

have music when we go to the store.

We have music when we go out to eat.

We have it in our ears while we're working.

It's something we can't live without, and we owe a debt of

gratitude to Jubal for creating music.

Lamechs first son by his second wife, Zilla, is Tubal Cain.

Tubal Cain is the father of metallurgy, All our machinists.

The text says he was the forger of instruments of bronze and

iron. No doubt his trade would have

included both tools as well as weapons.

The Bronze Age began around 3000 BC in a combined copper intend

to create this alloy bronze revolutionized tool making

agriculture and warfare, helping further establish urban

civilizations under the Sumerians who occupied the

region known as Iraq today. Which of course all that meshes

with what we know from scripture.

By the way, brief aside, if you love to research these

archaeological type things in the Bible, there is a YouTube

channel called Expedition Bible. Expedition Bible is the name of

it. And this guy, he, he's lived

there in the Near East basically his whole life and he goes and

finds all these amazing places. It says, you know, when when

Scripture talks about this, that's that's right here.

When it talks about this, that's right here.

So not just a focus on Jerusalem, Most people are

focused on Jerusalem. Of course, his his focus is all

over the ancient Near East. It's just an absolutely amazing

channel to watch. So if you haven't come across

him Expedition Bible, it is an excellent channel.

Now as I mentioned, Lamech was not a good man and there are a

few aspects of Lamech for us to take note of.

The first piece of evidence in Lamechs moral decline is he

lived in polygamy. He lived in polygamy.

If you're familiar with the rest of Genesis and the Hebrew

Scriptures, then you're aware that polygamy you'll become

quite commonplace in the story of redemption.

This particular moment is significant though, for a couple

reasons. First of all, this is the very

first time encountering polygamy in Scripture.

Here we are. We're just 7 generations into

humanity, and Lambic is going against God's definition of

marriage. The one flesh union described in

224 back in chapter 2. That one flesh union that God

that God had described gets corrupted when Lamech chooses to

take an extra wife. This was the first step in his

departure from God's desires. Some will say oh but but Genesis

doesn't condemn polygamy and and most of the patriarchs took

multiple wives. Yes, this is true.

But every time we see polygamy, there are painful consequences

that go along with it. Deuteronomy 21 assumes that

there will be trouble in the home arising from polygamy.

One wife will be loved more than the other, and that wife who was

loved more, her children, will be loved more than the other

children. And besides, in the Sermon on

the Mount, Jesus says no man can serve 2 masters.

Oh come on. At least like groan or

something. That is not my style, but I just

had to throw that in there. Next, next we see in Lamech a

heart of violence, murder and revenge.

A heart of violence, murder and revenge.

Now we've seen this kind of violence before when when Cain

murdered Abel. But here now we see deep seated

revenge. And in verse 23, Lamech says,

Ada and Zilla hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to

what I say. I have killed a man for wounding

me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,

then Lamex is 70 sevenfold. Lamech boasted to his wives that

he'd killed a man simply because he'd been wounded by him.

Lamechs brutal murderous nature far exceeded any notion of

self-defense or or justice. The the punishment here did not

fit the crime. The next evidence of moral

decline that we see in Lamech is his arrogance and self

exaltation. Arrogance and self exaltation.

Lamech displayed extreme pride by mocking God's protection of

Cain. God said that he would bring

sevenfold justice on anyone who took Cain's life.

So Lamech mocks God in this. It shows, first of all, that he

knows what what God had had said to Cain all those years ago.

He knows what God said, but it's also showing that he is it's

trusting in his own strength and possibly his son's inventions

rather than trusting in God. He was a malcontent, exalting

himself to the place of justice keeper rather than letting God

sort things out. He was going to take care of

things because he was arrogant in the way of.

Cain continues through his offspring, but we get a glimpse

into God's faithfulness as the chapter closes.

Verse 25 takes us back in time. And Adam knew his wife again,

and she bore a son and called his name, Seth.

For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead

of Abel, for Cain killed him. Now here Eve is living in the

promise. She was living in the promise.

God had promised an offspring who would destroy the serpent

and and that hadn't changed. So Eve was anticipating the

arrival of that offspring. So the name Seth means appointed

or or set in place. Eve believed that Seth was the

appointed offspring to replace Abel since it was clear that

Cain was set on redefining right and wrong, and he obviously was

not to the appointed offspring. The chapter closes with an

introduction to Seth's family line.

In verse 26, we see Seth's family line to Seth.

Also, a son was born and he called his name Enosh.

Here we're briefly introduced to to Seth's son Enosh.

But that is not the point here. The point here is to look

forward, to look beyond Enosh. Chapter 4 sets us up for chapter

5 where we will take a deeper look at Seth's line.

As chapter 4 closes, it serves as sort of the opening

introduction to the next chapter.

It says at that time people began to call upon the name of

the Lord when sin entered the garden.

Everything changed, humanity's relationship with Yahweh changed

and here we are just 4 pages in and it seems everything has gone

sideways. Humanity, or at least sections

of it, had become evil and the line at the time people began to

call upon the name of the Lord. That line serves not only as a

break in the scene, but also as a beacon of hope.

Not all is lost. The line of Cain leaves us

thinking humanity is headed straight to hell, but Seth's

line is going to convey something else to us.

This tells us the time in the garden.

It's not just a a distant memory.

Humanity can still have a relationship with Yahweh and and

they're calling on the name of the Lord points us to a future

when everything will be restored.

The Redeemer would come through this line and eventually God's

presence will dwell among God's people in God's Kingdom.

So how do we make a passage like this practical?

My first question to you is how are you measuring success?

Is it by doing or is it by being?

Keynes lying speaks of cultural prowess and ingenuity while

simultaneously spiraling into chaos.

Sure, you can build a bigger city, but it's better to

prioritize spiritual grounding and humility.

Developing inner strength and character that comes from

walking with God Is your focus on doing or being.

I'm making your name great or making his name great.

If your measure of success is found in anything besides God,

then at the end of the day you'll find yourself wanting.

Kane's success was in his doing that he that was his legacy.

Building a city, his ancestors, driving culture forward sets

success is being connected to God as we'll see next week.

The second question is who are you becoming?

Who are you becoming? When we would work with students

and in youth group, I would often ask this question, who are

you becoming? Are you becoming the person that

you want to be or are you becoming someone that you don't

really aspire to be? The unfortunate reality is that

if you're not being intentional, then then you'll drift into

being someone that you hadn't planned on being, and you really

might not even care for the person that you have become,

Motivational Speaker Jim Rohn said.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time

with. Whoever those five people are

will pull you in their direction.

So the question is whether you're getting pulled up or

pulled down. There's a gravitational force

being applied to you, and the strongest force will be the one

that you're exposed to the most. The interesting thing is that

your time in this room on Sunday mornings, as great as it is,

this time, isn't what charts your path forward.

This isn't what determines the gravitational pull in life.

This is only a couple hours of your week, and you will spend

far more time outside of these doors and with other people

during the week. Whoever you're spending your

time with, that's who you are becoming.

So if you're spending time with someone who has a critical

spirit, then that's what you'll become, Never able to see the

good that God is doing in front of you.

If the people around you exhibit a lot of joy, then you are

likely to be content and grateful for all that God has

done and is doing in your life and in the lives of those around

you. If anger is the first response

of your associates, then anger is likely where you will make

your home. If you choose to walk with

people who exhibit grace and humility, then you likewise will

be prone to exhibiting grace and humility.

My challenge to you this week is to first of all, ascertain who

you want to become. Who is it that you want to

become? Hopefully it's someone who draws

closer and closer to God, someone who becomes more and

more like Christ. And secondly, connect with

someone who will help get you there.

It could be somebody who is much farther down the road than you

are. It could even be someone who's

at a similar point where you are in your walk.

But their excitement for the Lord is compelling, and it's

contagious, and it makes you want to grow.

It inspires you. And when you come away from time

with them, you're refreshed. That's what we need to live life

the way God desires. When we base our lives in God,

then we're we're walking in the way of Seth and we are denying

the ways of Cain. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes. Father God, as we close this

morning, my prayer is that each of us would have a vision of

what we want our lives to look like.

That we would have a vision of who it is that we want to be the

type of Christ follower that I want to be.

And it may look daunting at this point, but if we slowly start

taking steps, then we can become more Christ like as we draw

closer and closer to you. So would you give each person in

this room a vision of what that looks like in their lives?

And would they each reach out to somebody that can help them move

even closer to that goal? And together we we leave the the

ways of Cain behind the the ways of the flesh.

We leave that behind and we follow hard after you.

It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.