Bible Study Genesis Part 46-Twins

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The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

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In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

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Alright, we are continuing our way through the book of Genesis.

As I always say, and I know people are like, come on, it can't all be exciting, but it is, it was an exciting ride through chapter three.

And I think partially because we took our time to look at the details.

Almost everyone has heard of everything that went on in chapter three of Genesis.

It's it's pretty much Sunday school stuff for most people, but whenever it's gone through through whatever religious education you're used to, you just kind of blow through it and don't look at the details.

We took our time and we wanted to look at what God is really saying because it was such a pivotal chapter for all of us.

It was when sin entered into the creation of God.

And it and all of the all of the rest of the Bible is God trying to unwind that.

So I really do hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I think we learned a lot more than we expected.

I know that I did, and I'm hoping that you feel the same way.

So on to chapter four.

Let's get started.

Let's see if we can keep up the high learning standard.

Chapter four is a remarkable part of scripture, and it's one that, well, to me at least, feels more contemporary, more recent.

I know it's still set in the distant past, but it's here where the story starts to pick up in a world that finally feels familiar.

We now see people in an environment we can actually relate to.

The message feels more applicable to us than it ever has up to this point.

And you know why?

Because, well, we're now living in Adam's exile.

This story, this chapter picks up where the expulsion began.

We are out here with Adam and his family.

This narrative is happening in our own backyard, as it were.

Our home, though temporary, is in Adam's land of banishment, where we are where sin drove our first parents.

Here in chapter four is something very interesting.

We briefly get our first and really our only glimpse into the family life of Adam.

And you have to ask yourself why?

Why do we only get a small snapshot of Adam and Eve's family life?

And I'm hoping you all know the answer to that.

It's because we don't need to know anything else.

God is moving on to the things that we do need to know, but we do still get a glimpse.

And in that family life, the family life of Adam and Eve, we can see things we can relate to, which up to this point is rather new.

This book continues to give us firsts.

That's been the trend right through those previous three chapters, and there's no letting up.

You'll see what I mean as we move along.

Now, before we get started, before we start getting into the details, I want to give some general observations about what we're going to learn.

Let's first read it all the way through to the end.

I know we haven't done this much since we are in the book of Ephesians, but I want to maybe perhaps get it started again.

Nonetheless, it's a good idea here.

Don't worry, it's a short chapter.

Here we go.

Genesis chapter 4, starting at verse 1, read out of the King James.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

As I always tell you, your Bible will be different.

It will sound a lot newer than mine.

And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

And she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.

And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Verse 6.

And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?

If thou doest well, shalt that shalt thou not be accepted?

And if thou doest well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Don't worry if some of this sounds very confusing.

We're going to cover it all.

Verse 8.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother.

And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?

And he said, I know not.

Am I my brother's keeper?

And he said, What hast thou done?

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.

A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.

Now, Enoch, now finally we get to those begats you guys have been waiting for.

I know you've been like, when are we gonna get to those darn begats?

Here they are.

Don't worry, it's all important.

And unto Enoch was born Erod, and Erod begat Mechun Yael, Mechhu Yael, Mehu Ael.

I've been practicing that one.

And Mehu Yael begat Methusael, and Methusael begat Lamech.

And Lamech took took unto him two wives.

The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zillah.

And Ada bare Jabel.

He was the father of such as dwell in tents and such as have cattle.

And his brother's name was Jubal.

He was the father of all such as handled the harp and organ.

And Zilah, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass, brass and iron, and the sister of Tubul Cain was Naimah.

And Lamoch said unto his wives Ada and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wise of Lamech.

Hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenholdfold, truly Yamek seventy and sevenfold.

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth, for God said, He hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos.

Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

Now I think if someone were to ask me to explain in one word what's going on in chapter four of Genesis, I would say growth.

Immediately as the chapter opens, we see the family of Adam and Eve increase by one.

And then right there at right there after in verse 2, it increases by one again.

Then as the chapter moves along, there are more and more people added to the human race.

Amidst the curse of chapter three, it hasn't gone anywhere.

The curse is still in full effect.

Despite the curse, the earth is beginning to fill up.

This in itself is proof that God is going to stick to his plan no matter what.

He is not going to let the sin of Adam derail what he has all along intended to do.

You know, you can trust a God like that.

Now, I don't know about you, but this greatly encourages me.

Regardless of all of my failures, God will see this thing through.

I declare what David did in Psalm 138, verse 8.

Psalms 138:8

Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.

Forsake not the works of thine own hands.

This theme of growth shows that God is ever faithful to his own word.

Let me say it again.

You can trust a God like that.

And we say, and we see something else here in chapter four.

Not only is the family of man growing physically, but so is the culture of man.

For the first time, we see a sort of division of labor.

There are cattle ranchers, there are those who live off the land.

We see craftsmen and artisans starting to appear.

And we are even introduced to the father of music, Jubal.

So as I said, things are expanding, things are growing, things are spreading.

But perhaps the most obvious growth is that of sin.

Here we get a glimpse into how ugly mankind can be when operating outside of God's influence.

For the first time, we can see just how deeply our sinful nature has fallen and how quickly that's happened.

All right, let's jump into our detailed analysis.

Those are some general comments.

Now we'll get into the meat of it all.

Verse 1 again.

And Adam knew his, knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Now, to me, this is one of the saddest statements of the entire Bible.

For the first time, we get to see one of the effects of being separated from God.

Eve makes an error in judgment, a very serious error.

And God isn't around.

Should I say, He's not nearby to correct it.

In fact, back in the garden, she would have never made this mistake because God wouldn't have allowed it.

And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Like humans have done innumerable times since.

Eve thinks the horror show that's become human existence is about to end.

Her brief statement reveals that she thinks things will now finally get back to what they once were.

Trust me, she's not forgotten that first ever prophecy.

In fact, I'm sure that's all she's been hanging on to since the day they left the garden.

That prophecy must have been her only light in a world that seems so dark.

Let me read that prophecy to you again.

Here it is from the previous chapter, chapter three, verse 15.

I know you remember this.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.

It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This was God addressing the serpent after he cursed him.

Of course, you remember.

This was this, what he was saying, was the foretelling of the ultimate, the leveling of the playing field, if you will.

This was the divination of the promised restoration.

And it's been mankind's hope since before he was banished from the garden.

I'm certain that whatever amount of time had elapsed from the expulsion from Eden and that very first human birth must have been an absolute never-ending bad dream.

Adam and Eve had no idea how to survive out there.

Heck, they didn't know how to survive anywhere outside of God's presence, let alone in the world that was now turned against them.

Remember, under God's plan, all living beings were created to serve mankind.

Well, that's gone.

That changed because man had changed.

And this change has led to his banishment.

Outside of the garden, it's every man or beast for himself.

Instead of cooperating with one another in a world of unlimited supply back there in the garden, now all creatures have to compete in an environment of scarce resources.

Listen, Eden was a walled-in garden.

It was a place of protection, a place of provision.

Now those cherubim were standing guard and they had that flaming sword, and no one was going to get back into that bountiful land ever again.

So just one of the results of that was man and beast at odds and in competition.

Each is trying to find a way to survive, and sometimes at the expense of others.

A frightening contrast to the time before sin.

Adam and Eve had to live in that.

Eve must have been so brokenhearted, so down through all of this.

No doubt this was a living nightmare.

Hunger, thirst, pain, uncertainty, none of that was supposed to befall us.

We're not prepared to accept those things.

In the garden where we were supposed to live out our entire lives, long they would have been.

In the garden we were protected and provided for.

Now, I'm sure if if you and I were somehow transported back there, we'd look around and think, wow, this is still pretty sweet.

It no doubt was far more lavish landscape than we're used to.

But to those two spoiled, formerly privileged kids, it must have been a world of terror.

And all they could think about was that prophecy.

The one that promised the seed that would make things right by crushing the head of their enemy.

And when Cain was born, Eve must have thought, oh, thank God, the Savior has finally arrived.

In fact, she said so right there in Genesis 4:1.

Genesis 4:1

I have gotten a man from the Lord.

In fact, some claim that the proper translation has Eve saying, I've gotten a man who is the Lord, actually using the Jehovah name.

But I don't think there's enough evidence to prove that.

Most agree if she actually thought that he was Jehovah, she would have named him Jehovah, but she didn't.

Instead, she named him Cain, which means acquired.

She acquired a man with the help of Jehovah.

That's more logical and actually more true to the original language.

And when you think about it, a little more true to the prophecy.

She thought Cain was the one that was going to bruise the head of the serpent.

That's what she thought.

At the very least, she thought he was very special.

And it's very likely that she assumed he was the fulfillment for that first prophecy and that they could soon return to living out their lives as before, before everything turned ugly and terrifying.

She thought, with the arrival of Cain, that her rescuer had come.

And what makes this so sad is that she could not have been more wrong.

You know, there's only one thing more pitiful than ignorance, and that's ignorance of ignorance.

If God still walked with them in the cool of the day, she could have consulted with him on the matter, and no doubt he would have gently and lovingly set her straight.

But now sin stood between them.

Sin was in the way and blocked, or at least blurred the lines of communication.

It's heartbreaking.

She made a grievous error.

And as I already read to you, and you already know, it was an extremely grievous error.

And you talk about heartbreaking.

The one man that she thought would be the rescuer ended up being a far bigger sinner than she was.

And we'll go back to verse one again.

And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, and she again bare his brother Abel.

I I have to chuckle.

The more I study it, the more I suspect that the Bible is structured in such a way as to keep us interested, keep us engaged.

It feels like it's purposeful.

I mean, this is a story written by the very creator of all things.

There's no limit to the wisdom of God.

And he had to try and package it to fit into our puny, sin stained brains.

This is another head-scratching, remarkable statement.

Now, let me ask you, how many times have you heard or read and Eve and she bear his brother Abel?

And that's then just go right on to, and Abel was a keeper of sheep and moved on through the rest of the chapter.

How many times have you read that passage and not give it a second thought?

Well, I'll I'll answer from myself, too many to count.

And Adam, listen closely.

And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord and she again bear his brother Abel.

How many here have heard that Cain and Abel were twins?

My hand is conspicuously not raised.

I never even considered it.

You know why?

Well, partially because I never thought about it hard enough.

Before the Holy Spirit entered my life, I just, well, I wouldn't have cared.

I didn't care much about Cain and Abel.

So that's why it never occurred to me the possibility that the two were twins because I didn't care.

Now I'm not saying they were twins, but if I'm being honest, there's actually more scriptural evidence to indicate that they were twins than for them to not be twins.

But you have to care enough to take a second look.

Why are we doing this, John?

Why are you wasting our time?

I don't know.

Maybe because I want you to be as thrilled with the Bible as I am.

I want you to see it like a treasure box.

My oldest sister lived near us when we lived in Florida.

And every time little Sammy would come over, she had a little treasure box that she literally called a treasure box.

And every time Sammy came over, she had little treasures in there, little treats, little toys.

And Sammy just couldn't, every time she opened that box, there was something new.

It was magical.

That's how I see the Bible.

And I want you to see it like that.

Maybe because I want this sort of stuff to put the possibility in your brain that there's so much more depth to this story, the these stories, than you would have ever imagined.

And not just more in the sense of like greater volume, but more in the sense of, wow, I never thought about that.

That's incredible.

So back to this twin business.

And Adam knew Eva's wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, and she again bare his brother Abel.

Though it feels like TMI, God took the time to tell us Adam knew his wife.

And I know you all know what that means.

Adam knew his wife, and you don't know what that means.

The next two words will tell you.

And she conceived and bare Cain.

That's in verse one.

But in the story of Abel, listen to me, God doesn't share with us no and conceive part.

In nearly all other instances of women bearing children in the Bible, we get that TMI part.

Not all of them, but most of them, especially if it's significant.

There's not any more significant two people in the Bible, very few more significant people in the Bible than Cain and Abel.

We don't get that.

That is not skipped when they're important in the Bible.

Unless it's a twin.

No need to repeat it if it didn't happen twice, right?

Is it possible?

There was one knowing and conceiving, and the result was two sons.

Yes, of course, it happens a lot.

But is it the case here?

Well, it kind of looks like to me.

Is it important?

No, not an in not in and of itself, but it is important in the sense that I'm hoping it stimulates in your mind the desire to treat this as real, as something that is interesting enough to pause over for a moment.

I honestly believe that when the Holy Spirit is assisting us to understand God's word, we see these little things.

Remember in the 90s, those little paintings that have things, the 3D paintings, that thing would pop out.

What were they called, honey?

Do you remember that?

You'd look at them, you'd look at them long enough, and then something would pop out.

But most of the time, someone had to say, hey, it's a it's a it's a horse.

And then, oh yeah, I see the horse.

Remember those things?

That's how I feel like the Bible assists us, how the Holy Spirit helps us with the Bible.

These things start to pop out.

They're meant for us, they're meant for us to muse over.

Important?

Maybe not, but important in the sense that it shows that we care about God.

Yes, that's where the importance is.

I've told you before, if you don't believe something, then you don't really care to get it right.

If I told you that the Keebler elves were based on a true story, you wouldn't head to Google to verify my claim.

You just wouldn't believe me and go about your day.

I want you to want to be curious about the way God tells us things.

And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, and she again bare his brother Abel.

Are Cain and Abel twins?

Well, two years ago I would have said no.

Ten years ago, I would have said, I don't know.

Thirty years ago I would have said, I don't care.

Today, I'll say the chances are pretty good.

As I said, they're actually better than them not being twins.

We are not told of any time between the birth of the two.

We are told one is older than the other, but we're told Esau was older than Jacob, but they were twins.

No evidence exists for them, Cain and Abel, to be born in different nine-month sessions.

We just have been told that they were just brothers, not twins.

We've never thought about it.

Most people haven't thought about it.

The tenor of this statement infers twinhood.

Isn't that interesting?

I hope you find it so.

God's word is full of surprises.

Well, we're just getting started.

Make sure you come back next time as we continue our detailed analysis of this fascinating chapter.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

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