In this sermon, Chuck Missler discusses Genesis chapters four and five. He begins by reviewing highlights from Genesis 2 and 3, emphasizing the concept of Adam and Eve attempting to cover themselves with their own efforts after realizing their fallen nature. Missler then connects this to the New Testament and the insights provided by Paul and others, which shed light on the Mosaic situation and further illuminate the events of Genesis. He specifically focuses on the story of Cain and Abel, highlighting Lamech's declaration of his ability to defend himself and the widespread knowledge that Cain should not be harmed.

This is the seventh study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters four and five. Well, let's just jump right in and let's open with a word of prayer. Father, we just praise you and thank you for this privilege of gathering together in the name of Jesus. We thank you, Father, for the word you've given us. We thank you for this opportunity to be here by your divine appointment to fellowship with you. And, Father, we would just claim the promises you've given us that you would be in our midst. And we just ask you to open our hearts to understanding of your word, that we might behold Jesus Christ, that we might know better that which you have here for us. For we know this is a supernatural experience, Father, possible only by the great gift of your word and of your Holy Spirit. And, Father, we would, above all these things, behold and fellowship with Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, last time we got through Genesis three. And tonight, logically enough, we're in Genesis four, the story of Cain and Abel. And I suspect that the story of Cain and Abel is one of the most misunderstood stories in Scripture. Because, as you can obviously gain from the style of what has gone on so far, is we're reading a very condensed account, a highly distilled summary. And in the simplicity of the story, we are spared a great deal of detail. That, putting it another way, there's a great deal of presumption, if you will, on the part of the writer, that we have a grasp of the Scripture. Much of what we're going to gain from the story of Cain and Abel, we're going to gain as a result of our insight from Leviticus and from the book of Hebrews and elsewhere. Or, pointing another way, as we progress from Eden, and the predicament that Adam and Eve found themselves in, through the genealogies, through Noah, we finally come to Moses, and much of what God has ordained permanently becomes very visible in the laws of Moses. But much of what he ordained there had its roots in Genesis 3, not necessarily Exodus 20 or what have you. You follow what I'm saying? Furthermore, as we get to the New Testament, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit through the writings of Paul and others, give us even further insight as to what the Mosaic situation is all about, and we gain insight into Genesis 2 and 3 and 4 from a New Testament disclosure. And now, with the benefit, and most of you in this room have at least some exposure, if not a great deal of insight, from a New Testament background, as to what Genesis is really all about. And it's from that perspective that we can understand this strange story of Cain and Abel. Now, I can remember as a kid, running into books on the Cain and Abel thing, I in fact, well, let me go one step further, actually it was a little later, when I was a little more mature in my reading, I still ran into commentators, cynical, liberalists, that said that the Cain and Abel story was an ancient tradition, that somehow was typically Judaistic in the sense that the shepherds were better off than the farmers, because here was Abel, who was a shepherd, giving of his substance, namely a lamb, and here's Cain, who was a tiller of the ground, giving of his substance, namely the fruit, and God preferred the one over the other, and he tried to disclose, relate the story in terms of cultural traditions. An incredibly naive view of the story, but highlights the ambiguities and the questions, the story of Cain and Abel. Well, first of all, it raised more questions than may appear on the surface. What was the difference between Cain and Abel? Was there some difference in their character? Turns out there wasn't. The difference between Cain and Abel was their offerings, and out of that we learn a great deal. Abel wasn't free of sin, so what's the big deal? And what was wrong with Cain's offering? We're going to learn a great deal about, we had a sin occur in Genesis 3, and we're going to find that that's starting to multiply. And Adam, when confronted with his sin, at least confessed and repented. Cain tries to deduct it, hide it, what have you. We're going to learn a great deal about what God does about sin, specifically. I don't mean in a judicial sense, in the sense of sacrifice and Jesus Christ and all that. I mean in terms of dealing with a person. And so we've got a lot in store for us. But we might do well to review a couple of highlights from Genesis 2 and 3 that will bear on Genesis 4. As you recall, in Genesis chapter 2, well, let me skip that, let me just go on. Genesis chapter 3, when they were aware of their fallen nature, when they lost that first estate, this concept of them being clothed with light, their concept of them being in an existence that's totally different than ours. In verse 7 of Genesis 3, 7, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. They attempted to cover themselves with their own efforts. And that seems plausible and reasonable to the natural man. That's very normal, very natural. And one of the subtle issues that I think we talked about, but I want you to be sensitive to, is verse 21 of chapter 3. When God confronts them with the fact that they have been disobedient to his laws, to his rules, to his instruction, he does several things, one of which he curses the ground. We'll come back to that. The fact that the ground is cursed is going to be relevant to understanding Genesis 4. But he does something else in verse 21. Very interesting. Take verse 20. Verses 315 through 319 is God pronouncing the curse. First of all, the proclamation of war against Satan in verse 15. And then he goes through to Eve and to Adam and pronounces the curse. After he's through at verse 19, Adam, in verse 20, calls his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Eve is a title, actually. Just as Christ is a title. But it also becomes his name, her name in this case. The mother of all living. What a strange time for Adam to name Eve. She wasn't named Eve up to then. Interesting, isn't it? Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. How was she the mother of all living? Because she was the great, great, great, great grandmother of us all? That's reasonable. She was. Is that what Adam meant? I don't think so. Because he does it in response to God's curse, which starts with a prophecy, a prophecy of Jesus Christ. And because she is to be the means for the redemption, she is the mother of all living. You have the mother of all living in the sense of the mother of the elephants and the goats and the kangaroos and what have you, right? They're living, but that's not what it means. It means in terms of spiritually living. In that sense, she's the woman of Revelation 12. I think we hit that pretty hard last time. But at verse 21, for Adam also and for his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. And God is here teaching Adam four major lessons. That they need a suitable covering. And we need a suitable covering. That covering by our own works is unacceptable. Covering by their own works was unacceptable. Because the fig leaves wouldn't endure the elements and so forth? Nonsense. There's something else being planted here, and you can't really tell from this verse alone. It's from a perspective of the whole scripture. We look back and we begin to realize what God, the seed God is planting here, the idea, what he's instituting. He's instituting the beginning of what we call the Levitical system. That they need a covering. That efforts to cover themselves will not avail. That God himself would provide their covering by the shedding of innocent blood. Now that's a lot of ideas in one little sentence. And I grant you the casual reading of the book of Genesis when you come across verse 21, that would escape you. Except if you're alert, why should God make them coats of skin? And it's perhaps too much to expect the casual reader first time through to pick up on all of this. But by the time you've gotten through Leviticus, the Torah, the rest of the other four books of the five of Moses, by the time you get through the New Testament and you realize what God is doing, this just glares out at you because in this little hint we have a very, very broad institution. But you need to understand that institution to really understand what's happening in Genesis chapter 4. So God institutes the Levitical system. Now, one other perhaps colorful idea, and I think I mentioned this last time, but to be complete on Genesis 4, we ought to have a feeling for how Genesis 3 ends and highlight what could be an alternate rendering of the Hebrew text. In the last verse of Genesis 3, your classical King James rendering says, So he drove out the man, that is, God drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and it's plural. Cherub is singular, cherubim is plural, okay? And a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. And what most of us have seen in the little Sunday school books is Adam and Eve downtrodden, cowering, going down the path, and some artist's rendering of this, typically an angel rather than a cherubim. A cherubim isn't an angel exactly, but anyway, with a flaming sword as if he is there to keep Adam from turning back. And if that was the purpose, he wouldn't have needed a cherubim, an angel would have been sufficed, because we know quite a bit about angels. One destroying angel that went through Egypt knocked off the firstborn, not only of all the Egyptians, but of all the cattle, of all the herds, of all the whatever, and that's a busy guy for one night. Later on in Isaiah, we find that the one angel destroyed 185,000 Syrians one evening, quietly in the evening, without making a rustle. So you don't mess with angels, and if what the motive here was is to keep Adam from going back to the garden, putting one cherub there would have been overkill, and there's two cherubim here at least, and one thing you can be sensitive to that God is very economic. He's a master engineer. He doesn't do more than is necessary. That's why, you know, sometimes it isn't a thunder or lightning, it's still a small voice. Why? Because that's his way. God is very, very economic in his allocation of resources, and putting a cherub here is strange. Putting a pair of them is stranger, and the only thing I can think of personally that a cherubim might be necessary for is to protect the place or whatever from another cherub, and you know who I mean. Who is the anointed cherub, the cherub that was in charge of everything, but blew it? Lucifer, Satan, call him what you will. The authority for that is Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. So, the idea that God is guarding the way to the tree of life is perhaps not so much as to prevent Adam from reaching it, but rather to make sure that Adam can reach it under the right conditions. In other words, it's part of God's plan for redemption. Satan's goal is to prevent Adam from achieving that destiny which God has ordained for him, and that's the whole scenario. We covered a lot of that last time, and I won't repeat it, but I want that in perspective, and I also think it would be useful to talk about an alternate rendering of that verse. It's a very complicated verse in the original Hebrew, so many scholars have debated over subtleties of the language, and about every subtlety I'm mentioning here there's lots of debate, so don't take this as some kind of authoritative view, but Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown as one very sound authority renders it as follows. And he, that is God, dwelt, and I can use the word tabernacled, that's what it means, and God tabernacled at the east of the Garden of Eden between the cherubim as a shekinah, a fire tongue, that we're going to see a lot of in Exodus. We're all familiar with the shekinah glory and so forth, right? Out of Exodus. The first place it occurs is here, although it's buried in the translation. God tabernacled at the east of the Garden of Eden between the cherubim as a shekinah to keep open the way to the tree of life. And for those of you that are students of the scripture, what is the Christian walk called in the book of Acts? The way. And I personally think that's a deliberate pun as far as God is concerned. Okay? Now, if that's true, if that view is correct, at this entrance to the Garden, say, or exit if you wish, if that's where God dwelt for a time, we now have a totally different perspective of what the tabernacle was all about as a model of that earlier history. Later on, when God ordains the tabernacle on Mount Sinai, gives Moses the Ten Commandments and also a set of engineering drawings to build this thing, what is it a model of? A place where God could be approached, where he dwelt between the cherubim, the mercy seat, the whole routine. I won't go through a whole study of the tabernacle tonight. It'd be tempting to do, except the regulars are tired of hearing me on it, and those of you that haven't heard me, we'll get another chance. I'll find an excuse to go through that later in the book of Genesis. But the point is, the model that we have a glimpse of here in Genesis, of this peculiar era of the Eden-Adam expulsion experience, maybe it'll help. I think I've said this before, I've thought about it since, seeing some of the recent fairly high-budget science fiction films is stimulating, conceptually. And I'm fascinated with several treatments. One of the treatments that interested me just cinematographically or conceptually was the treatment of the parents of Superman in the Superman movie, which of course is just a good piece of fiction. But their imagination in terms of picturing that environment in which they lived, I thought was stimulating. It isn't necessarily, it was a different kind of a context. And if I was going to do a movie on the Genesis thing with Adam and Eve, I would do something like that. Flow them with light and put their environment quite... We think of the garden in terms idiomatically similar to that which we're familiar with, which is after the curse. And after a lot of other things, after the flood. We're going to get to that in a whole different scene. So we have an absolute incapability of understanding what kind of dimensionality, what kind of a world Eden really was. And what was really involved in expelling man, Mr. and Mrs. Man, from that world. But the concept of God being at the gateway makes sense. And the idea that they had instituted some requirements to come there periodically, as we're going to find out in a given offering. And to see that same idea modeled in the tabernacle at great length. In the book of the Torah, we're in the first book of the five books of Moses. The rest of the books spend a great deal of time on the tabernacle and its rituals. And God is very interested in every subtle detail of that model. Because it all speaks idiomatically of heaven. After the tabernacle, we find the temple. Which is a more permanent model of the same kind of a thing. And we find in the book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ presented his blood in a tabernacle not made with hands. And we know that these things are but a shadow, the writer tells us, of the other reality, of the real reality. So, what relationship occurs here in Eden, in contrast to the actual throne of God, we have no capacity to relate to. Because we can't map that kind of a hyperspace. But, we can perhaps begin to tie together Eden, the tabernacle, and the temple, and what Jesus Christ is all about, as we begin to understand this. And it's interesting, even in such clues as the fact that it was placed east of the garden. This gate is east of the garden. Which way did the tabernacle always face? Where did the temple always face? So precisely, so precisely, that a recent article in the Jerusalem Post has exploded a major controversy about where the temple actually was. Because, if you go, if you look topologically from the highest point of the Mount of Olives, through the Golden Gate, and knowing from some early records of Josephus and so forth, that there was a direct lineup of due east, we know that the temple was located not where everybody thought it was, but just a little further to the north than the conventional sites, such that, it appears at least, scholars are beginning to agree that the actual temple may have been north of the Dome of the Rock, enough so they don't overlap. And that's a whole exciting thing, again, that would be easy tonight to derail this whole discussion, the discussion of the location of the temple. Needless to say, Bob Gorlick and Don Witten and the gang that's organizing the Jewish Gentile tour, the Jewish Gentile Fellowship's tour to Israel this fall, we're going to do everything we can to find all we can about that whole area, the surveys and aerial photographs and try to get under part of it and so forth. And it obviously, the really sensitive issues are very, very sensitive from a security point of view. On the other hand, it's also the worst kept secret in Israel, that there's just a great deal of strategic interest in the survey of the temple site, because it has all kinds of implications. And you and I can cheat, because we looked at Revelation 11, verse 1 and 2, and we know that the Dome of the Rock is in the outer court, which is not dedicated when the new temple is built, and so forth. And that's a whole exciting thing, and if you know what I'm talking about, you can rejoice, and if you don't, get the tape on Revelation 11. Okay. And I could spend time breaking down verse 24 and why they have certain verses, think they mean certain, some of the words actually admitted several meanings, but the word placed there in the English is a Hebrew word, which is 83 times translated to dwell, or tabernacle. And if you really dissect the verse into alternate renders, it can mean something quite different than the classical English rendering. Now with that background, we're now going to plunge into the story of Cain and Abel. Before we do, you might think of some questions like why do we have wars? Ever wonder that? We have an awful lot of well-meaning but naive people who run throughout the world wishing, hoping, assuming that it's possible for us not to have wars. Why do we have wars? Why do people kill people? Well, because they hate. It's possible for men to hate. Why do men hate? The answer is in Genesis 4. Jesus Christ himself linked up the concept of hate and the concept of murder the hard way. Remember? Moses said, You shall not murder. Thou shalt not kill. Read me. Thou shalt not murder. I say unto you, if a man even have anger against his brother and so forth, Jesus Christ not only linked up those ideas, but held us guilty at the level of intent long before the act in the heart. Why do we hate? That's the answer to why we murder. And the answer to that is in Genesis 4. Genesis 4, verse 1, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now, this first, you can picture Eve. She has just gotten a chapter ago, although it might have been a hundred years. We don't know the dating here. I don't believe. But she got a promise from the Lord that she was to have, she was to bear the deliverer. Out of Eve was to come he who was going to be called the seed of the woman. That was to be to save the world, right? It's natural, girls, right? To figure out, gee, the first one out is probably it. And the word Cain, the word Cain means to be gotten, or I have gotten. And that's why she calls him Cain because she has gotten a man from the Lord. And it's the same root from which we get the word begot. And so, there's a possibility that she figured this guy was it. Certainly, he was the firstborn. And the rights of primogeniture was probably very, very important, even then. The concept of the firstborn is an issue we're going to deal with throughout the book of Genesis. And God is going to give us some very interesting lessons about the rights of the firstborn all the way through. In the one hand, the rights of the firstborn carrying certain advantages and responsibilities. Alternatively, God himself, to prove that everything is by his grace, reverses it around. The non-firstborn often is selected over the others in several situations. So, if you're a firstborn, it's a heavy trip as to what's in there. If you're not a firstborn, relax because there's lots of, you know, God gives Jacob a very interesting lesson in the rights of the firstborn. And we'll come to all that later. Verse 2, And she bore again his brother Abel. The word Abel might mean frail. There's some doubt about what, some linking of some of these words as to the probable etymological meanings or roots and so forth, is very weak. There's some glimpses. We're not really sure, but it could mean frail. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Now, there's nothing, no big deal there. There's nothing trivial about keeping sheep. And at the same time, some scholars feel that that might have been a result of the fact that Cain, the tilling of the ground, may have been more an active kind of commitment. But it's both their vocations, and in spite of what follows, let me just express it as an opinion. It's my opinion. There's nothing plus or minus implied by their vocations. Okay? There is something implied typologically by their vocations, but I'll come back to that later. Okay. 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 did not respect. Let's take it so far. If you and I as natural, intelligent people read this without any other understanding, it seems kind of strange. Cain did something very reasonable. He was a farmer. He brought an offering of the fruits of his hands, of his hard work, his sweat, and his activities. And he brought that to the Lord. Sounds great, doesn't it? And in and of itself, if we had no spiritual insight, there's nothing wrong with that. It sounds, you would think, in the absence of other information, that Abel, because he was a shepherd, was simply doing the same thing. Except there's a couple of clues here. From the perspective of the Torah, of course, we have a whole different insight. But even right here, we notice that he brought of the firstlings of his flock, that's a lamb, and of the fat thereof. And that's a clue. That's a clue. Because, as an aside, in Leviticus 3.16, please remember, because of John 3.16, in Leviticus 3.16, the fat thereof belongs to the Lord, and it implies an altar, and it implies a burnt offering. In other words, the hint here, even in the language, is it implies previous instruction. You follow me? Now, we're going to discover that, well, first of all, the other point I'd like to make is, let's see if I can find my concatenated list of references here. Yes. It says, God had respect for the one and not the other. And you might wonder, well, how do they know? How do they know that God was happy with one offering and not happy with another? You and I, when we take an offering, say, up to the altar, or put it in the offering plate, or what have you, except maybe in some spiritual sense, may not really know whether God accepted that or not, except by examining our heart, and maybe with a prayer line or something, you can get a feeling for it. But, you know, whether we give it in good conscience or not, there isn't any immediate feedback, if you will. Well, if we took the time tonight to look at Leviticus 9.24, Judges 6.21, 1 Kings 18.38, 1 Chronicles 21.26, and 2 Chronicles 7.1, if I took you through those, those are on the tape if you really want to track this down, we could build a case for the fact that in these days, the way God took the offering was to consume it with a fire from heaven. In each of those passages, Leviticus 9.24, Judges 6.21, 1 Kings 18.38, 1 Chronicles 21.26, and 2 Chronicles 7.1, we have a textual basis to believe that there were occasions when God started the fire. And I suspect that if in those days and in those occasions if you were presenting an offering, you'd have a pretty good idea whether God thought it was a great idea or not. And the implication is, the suggestion is, although it's just a suggestion, is that when Abel put the lamb on the altar, as he had been instructed by Adam and Eve, his parents, that God accepted the offering. Okay? But with Cain and his offering, he had no respect. That's a strange term. Except what's implied is that God didn't take it. And that would have a tendency to turn you off. Especially since, you'll discover later on, in verse 7 we're going to find, it says, God says to him, If thou doest well. What's implied here isn't just Cain's relationship with God, but his continuance of rulership over the family as the firstborn. That's just an implication. It's just some scholar's presumption from putting a few things together. I throw it out as just an idea that you can take or not. Now, to the extent that God had instructed them Levitically, that is Adam and Eve, and they in turn taught their children, and their children were to obey God's ordination of a, well, in fact, let me back up. Rather than make it hypothetical, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11. So, sometimes I'm reaching way out in a speculative way, and sometimes I'm on sound ground. And this is one of those rare occasions when I'm on reasonably sound ground. Hebrews chapter 11 is one of those great chapters you should know. There's a few chapters in Scripture that you should become very close friends with. Hebrews 11 is one of them. It's sometimes called the Hall of Faith because it's a chronicle of the great examples throughout the Scripture of faith. It opens up with the definition of faith and then carries an incredible panorama of the great examples of faith in Scripture. And it's a fabulous chapter, and I'll try not to get too distracted from the side issues. Let's just slip right into verse 4. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Period, comma. Let's stop there. What made the difference between the offering? First of all, the only difference between Abel and Cain was the offerings. We have no reason to believe that Abel was any more righteous in terms of his own conduct. There's no reason to believe he was a good guy. Any more or worse, any better or worse than you or I. And likewise, Cain, other than his obvious, the obvious incident we're going to record here. What makes the difference between the two is their offerings. One God accepted, one God didn't. Why did God accept Abel's offering? It says so right here. Because it was an offering of faith. God does not need a lamb. You know, with but a spoken word, he can create all the lambs he needs and he can put them on fire and cook them if that's his mood. He doesn't need you or I. He doesn't need anything you and I can do for him. Now, by faith, Abel offered God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Now what does that mean? Faith cometh by hearing. Abel had been instructed by his parents that to approach God, it was necessary to do certain things and Abel was in obedience to that instruction. Believing, incidentally, we're going to make a big deal here of Cain and Abel. I want you to notice that Cain was no infidel. Cain believed in God. To the natural man, his intentions were good. He was giving God an offering of the best he could do. But it wasn't what God wanted. Cain was setting about to establish his own righteousness and had not submitted himself to the righteousness of God, which was a mechanism by faith. Nothing Cain or Abel could do could do anything about their predicament in terms of their relationship to God other than to accept the provision God was in the process of making for their sin, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And the coats of skin in Genesis 3, the offering of Abel in Genesis 4, and example after example after example, perhaps the most dramatic one in the Scripture being in Genesis 22, will teach us a great deal about how God views the history of the universe and that the center of it is a cross at Calvary. And all these offerings and all the Levitical detail ordained in the book of Leviticus and Exodus and all that points to one thing, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a cross at Calvary for you and I. And Abel's offering appropriated the benefit of God's provision to himself by faith. It was an act of faith. Now, Cain's offering was not an act of faith. It was an act of self-righteousness. Cain is the father of all the Pharisees. The small p. All the Pharisees in this room, all the Pharisees that you've met in other faiths and denominations and churches, and so on and so forth. Trying to cover themselves with their own righteousness. The Pharisees were excellent law keepers but Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees except you're... except he said to the Jews or the Pharisees in the back row, he said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. What a blow for the Jew. Their whole system was built upon keeping the law, the Torah, and all the rest. Cain was the father of all the Pharisees. He was on for by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. He obtained witness that he was righteous. Interesting. God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh. That's a very... We were going to come back to this later anyway but I'll just pick it up here to save you the page turning. We're going to find God speaking to Cain saying Abel's blood crieth from the ground. In one sense Abel's blood was speaking then. In another sense Abel's blood is speaking now as Paul would have it here. Abel, he being dead yet speaketh. And we're going to see by type that Abel represents something else. His blood still speaks. Let's go back to Genesis 4 and see if we can start. I'm going to further suggest to you if you're going to get mystical about this and of course before the hour is over I'll attempt to. Cain was offering God the fruits of a cursed ground. And theologically you could build a case that that was insulting. Instead of submitting himself in obedience to the position that God had or the program that God had laid out Cain, unknowingly probably, maybe in rebellion but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this was just a natural man doing it to an aptitude. Doing that which he thought was right instead of listening to what God's requirements were. So the fruit of a cursed ground was perhaps an insult. The shedding of blood was required and that comes from an understanding of the sin problem. Okay. Let's see what happens next. Verse 5 When unto Cain his offering he did not respect I did not respect and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell and each one of these phrases can mean lots of other things that you can read between the lines but rather than belabor this let's keep moving. Um And the Lord said unto Cain that in itself is interesting there's communication taking place here Why art thou angry and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not sin lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Over whom? Abel. See from this passage we get the insight that part of what was at issue here for as long as Cain was in fellowship and following the program he was in charge and what's driving Cain up a tree is that his offering is not being accepted and yet if he doesn't get standing he no longer will rule over Abel. See there's more here than just a you know a little envy or jealousy although that's a big part of it. Okay. Verse 8 Cain talked with Abel his brother and incidentally in a couple of I think the in a couple of the versions of the Torah it's implied that it was Cain's suggestion to go out in the field and discuss it. Okay. And in this rendering which is I think in conformance to the oldest text that isn't quite as clear that the suggestion there is actually a phrase added in some of the ancient texts which the import of which definitely implies premeditation on Cain's part as opposed to it's murder in the first degree rather than secondary in the idiom of our society. And I think most of us would take for granted it's a premeditated situation but there are some passages in some of the ancient texts that remove any doubt about that but that's a detail. 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. So this is the second murder in the scripture. It's often recounted as the first murder but that ignores the suicide of Adam and Eve in terms of their act before God and under the enticement of Satan. Satan was really the first murderer and my authority for that is John 8 where Christ identifies him as such. He was a murderer from the beginning he says. Right? It's a detail but it's fun on the Bible quiz. There are a lot of those in Genesis I'll throw out if you're ever in these parties when Christians get together you can have a lot of fun playing biblical charades and stuff and that can be wild. But one of the questions if you ever get one of those things is we're going to get to Methuselah who was the oldest man in the Bible yet he died before his father and that's going to be fun. We'll get into that a little bit here. Okay. Okay. The Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy brother? Now is that a... God didn't know? No, it's obviously a rhetorical question to raise the issue. And Cain lies of course he says I know not am I my brother's keeper? And that phrase is echoed through the entire memory of mankind. As a question that you and I need to ask ourselves continually. Am I my brother's keeper? Was Cain his brother's keeper? The question isn't explicitly answered here, is it? Was Cain his brother's keeper? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's a question. There's a lot of questions that come out of this chapter we could well ask ourselves as we drive home tonight. That's one of them. Where is Abel thy brother? I know not. That's a naive question. Or naive response. Adam caught with a smoking gun so to speak fessed up, right? You know? Cain says I know not. You know I don't think any of us would do half the things we do if when we did them we were aware of the fact that God hasn't... we don't have any secrets. God knows and he's the only one that counts. He's the only one that counts. He knows everything we do. But it's when we lose a consciousness of that that we really act stupidly. And Cain here, you know I don't know wasn't a bunch of nonsense. Am I my brother's keeper? In verse 10 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 tellest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer 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 hidden. He understands that. And I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth and it shall come to pass that anyone 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. There's a lot there's a great deal here. God has a problem right up front. He's got a deal with his righteousness and Cain blew it. Cain has a problem. Cain has to be punished. But it's interesting how God works. A lot of lessons here. There was no bolt of lightning from the sky that struck Cain down. Or any of a lot of other you know kind of Cecil B. DeMille type of things that you might put on here. God's judgment on Cain is profoundly poetic. What was Cain's profession? He was a tiller of the ground. His pride our pride comes from our work. And that's where God reached him. The ground would no longer yield to Cain. So that in itself is interesting how God works. And yet even though Cain is to be punished do you notice that God reserves the judgment on Cain to himself? He doesn't seek at this point for a relative to come and avenge himself. God is going to institute capital punishment in chapter 9. We're going to get to that. It's a whole different subject because we're going to be under the era there of government. And God has much to teach us about what human government is all about. We'll get that in chapter 9. And the administration of capital punishment was part of what God ordained in terms of human government. But we're not talking about that here. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. God does not nowhere advocates individual action. The idea of a relative. And can you imagine Cain's fear? Everybody on the earth was a relative. Okay? Everywhere he'd go. There are many estimates by the way. We're going to get to this when we get to the flood. Most scholars that I've read that seem to rationalize they think there was at least 120,000 at the time depending on if you take a look at you make some it gets very complicated because you have to make some assumptions. And your range of assumptions any model you make mathematical model of projecting population is extremely sensitive on the range of childbearing but the extreme longevity we're going to get into this later in the study the period prior to the flood these extended longevities provide for a very, very incredible duration of of of of procreate creativity and and that size of families and stuff you get into some assumptions and you take a few generations it turns out you get an awful lot awfully fast. And so assuming at least 100,000 maybe many times that number at the time of Cain it's very reasonable when you really examine that we tend to look at it naively because we only know Cain and Abel and Seth and a few and later on we're going to discover that there were many sons and daughters so much so that's exactly what Cain's worried about is that there are scads of people out there that are all relatives and they're going to all hear the word and he's in deep trouble because everyone he meets will have one of two reactions anger and hate or fear both of which can result in his death so he's pretty shook up about that what does God do? God makes a mark on Cain and even in that we don't know what the mark is everybody's got a theory the books are full of speculation the answer to that is we don't know what the mark on Cain was if there was a mark on Cain the language might mean that there was a sign given to Cain and some scholars and it happens to appeal to my line of reasoning is that God gave Cain a sign that anyone that would raise his hand against Cain would be punished seven times and that appeals to me because if Cain had faith that the sign was valid he could rest and relax and his anger and his anxiety and his sleepless nights and his running his wandering is a result of a lack of faith if that's the model that kind of appeals to me but that's just Chuck Missler's view in fact God may have put some kind of a sign on him one kind of a sign would be the visible effects of guilt which would evoke the very thing that guilt evokes on an observer that of pity and this pitiful guy may have been marked some way by the Lord in some more subtle way but workable way that caused those that ran into Cain to recognize that you don't you don't touch him we're going to come into this a little later but you'll hear a lot of people speculate on the mark of Cain we don't know what it was we know that its purpose by the Lord was to mark him so that he would not be assassinated okay question why did God want him not killed? offspring that's a possibility my suggestion is that it would give him time to repent that's a form of God's grace we're going to get into his descendants and that raises in my mind more questions than it answers but in his descendants we know there were several that carried the name L or the name of God okay and it's my feeling from later revelation in the book of Exodus that God would have only had to go through the third or fourth generation of them that hate him showing mercy to thousands of them that love him so part of the extended genealogy may be an indication that ultimately Cain repents we see some of his offspring being in pretty bad shape so that's a hard thing to try to second guess but the fact that Cain says here my punishment is greater than I can bear the word punishment is the same word as the word for iniquity and it means Cain is acknowledging the fact that he was sinful and that's good news that he's got that awareness okay let's move on verse 16 and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden the word Nod means wandering and so this might be a literal piece of geography or it might be a condition he went to the land of wandering our linguistic insights are not that good to be dogmatic on that point now from verses 17 through 24 scholars have the greatest fascination you'll find more extraneous speculation on this series because it's a very strange passage in many respects because it gives us insight into the anti-deluvian world that is the world before the flood we're going to spend some time in genesis 6 on 6 and 7 on the catastrophic changes that occurred on the planet earth possibly rotation change in rotation of its direction change in direction of its rotation the absence of at this point we have a blanket around the earth protecting it from the cosmic rays we have a higher barometric pressure we've got the absence of disease and a lot of other conditions and there are technical writers that have gotten into a lot of this stuff and it's really quite interesting at what we infer don't know but what we infer about this era but of course it's all changed with the flood and it intrigues me from a different point of view is why the holy spirit has given us the insight it has in these verses about the anti-deluvian world and when we get to the flood the estimates go as high as 7 billion population on the earth so it's a different we have a very idealized plush ecology worldwide and we have evidence of that we have evidence of that in Siberia where they have quick frozen mammals where they can even look at the digestive tract and tell what they were eating at the time they were quick frozen so there's a sudden catastrophe but what were they doing eating tropical plants in the northern tundra area and the whole idea that the evidence for a universal lush climate on the earth is there's lots of these books are full of that and I won't take the time here tonight to go through all that stuff but the other thing that comes up here in verse 17 and Cain knew his wife and I don't know why it is but people especially people who are not just aware of the scripture or new at it or just haven't they get fascinated about where did Cain get his wife and there's lots of problems in the scripture that we really grapple with somehow that's never been one of mine Adam and Eve had lots of kids like there might have been as I say a hundred thousand people at this time that's why Cain is so worried if there was just a small family of a half a dozen he could split over a few mountains and put some distance between them and probably relax but with the size of the civilization growing there the very fact that his fear of being able to stay isolated or to avoid capture is provocative so who did Cain marry we're going to discover I think it's in chapter 5 somewhere it says that Adam and Eve where is this yeah verse 4 the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years and he begot sons and daughters one of the things to be aware of is in the genealogies the first mention is not necessarily the first born we're going to get into that later on where it's important to us but the order that they're mentioned let's say someone had three sons unless it specifically says the order they're born they just happen to be listed they're listed sometimes editorially not necessarily chronologically in any case the fact that Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters is in the scripture the fact that these particular ones are singled out obviously Cain and Abel were singled out Cain being the first born Abel being the one he murdered and we're going to find Seth comes along here doesn't mean they're the only ones they're singled out because they're important to the narrative and to the genealogy later there were lots of others scads of them and Cain married his sister obviously I don't know why people get so hung up and where did Cain get his wife well he married his sister and that was no big deal Abraham did too Sarah was his sister half sister that practice was you know prevalent for a long long time and so it's later on that incest and what have you becomes an issue and gets prohibited and is an issue in our society for lots of good reasons that says the effects of the curse and the entropy laws and what have you have taken their genetic toll but in getting things started that seems to be obviously a practical answer Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch now Enoch that's an interesting name we're going to discover another Enoch that's born to Seth Cain's brother but this Enoch the word means commencement or dedication and there's the hint in the name Enoch as the first son of Cain and his wife that they're starting a new life a new commitment and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch it's very interesting how anthropologists like to ascribe millions of years from the evolution of man to the first civilization and so forth and that's number one to me always struck me as being naive but certainly it's non-biblical because here we have the very first generation cities being built and a lot of other things we're going to see here in a minute and it's interesting too that our mythology and there are hints both archeologically and also in the memory of man's legends of a super era before the flood we don't know a lot before the flood for a lot of reasons but the idea of Atlantis a sunken continent these ideas pervade all kinds of mythology and the idea of a super culture and super beings way way back in the foggy memories of mankind pervade all the different cultures and may may have their origin in this pre-flood period or the antediluvian period in any case onto Enoch was born Irad and under Irad became Mahujel and Mahujel begot Methushael and Methushael begot Lamech now Irad means townsman Mahujel Methushael means God gives life and Methushael means God's man you notice that last word El the word El means God ok Bab means tower Bab El is a tower to God we're going to get to Lamech in a little bit messier Lamech breaks the rules and takes two wives some people say judgment enough but the name oh am I going to catch it when I get to audience was a little restricted it was to these two gals Lamech apparently he had the advantage of one of his sons who was a craftsman in iron and bronze and the suggestion here is that he was thus able to fabricate weapons it's also interesting that he I have slain a man who wounded me and a young man for hurting me so this is a macho declaration and it's a little strange that he's announcing all this to his wives so you sort of get the impression that it's a warning to them to behave okay so you can draw your own inferences of this if you really want to play with that verse what's interesting to me is verse 24 if Cain shall be avenged seventy four the word about Cain was widespread you see everybody got the word somehow that you don't lay a hand on Cain because if you lay a hand on Cain you catch it seven times all right and it's interesting Lamech's the antediluvian civilized view was that if Cain shall be avenged seventy sevenfold Lamech shall be avenged seventy and sevenfold now if you're a mystic and you feel that the scripture has a single author then you're not uncomfortable taking a springboard from seventy times seven and getting a New Testament view or putting it another way did Jesus Christ have this in mind when he was asked shall I forgive my brother seven times he says seventy times seven right and what's he doing he might be quoting Genesis 4 24 with a twist okay possibility I'll leave it to you to you know get comfortable with that one way or the other birth of Seth Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and called his name Seth for God said she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew now the word Seth apparently implies either appointed or substitute both ideas are perhaps closely linked and from from Eve's point of view since she you know she lost Abel so she got Seth instead but anyway has 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 Enosh then began men to call upon the name of the Lord and we're not sure what all that implies but it certainly is a call to public worship this is this is what's starting to happen here it's going to be very important to us and we'll jump into the generations here because now we're this chapter five is a lengthy list of genealogy but it's very it's going to be there are a couple of things in there we're going to want to sift out but before we get into that I'd like you to consider Cain and Abel three ways and we're going to start doing this again and again through the book of Genesis the first way is the way we consider it that's historical there really was a guy by the name of Cain there really was a guy by the name of Abel and indeed Cain killed Abel and so forth and I don't want anything I say subsequently to cloud the fact that that really happened historically there really was a Cain and he really did these things so don't misunderstand me and we've gone through this part of it and I'm going to call the historical view and it's valid it's real we know that for sure I'd like you to consider though something else that the Holy Spirit might have for us here and that's to look at Cain and Abel representatively or as types and I'm going to suggest to you we have the lost and the saved in view and I'm going to suggest to you that both of them were subject were children of fallen parents both of them were born outside of Eden they both were judicially alienated from God the one that was lost attempted to approach God on the basis of their own works and their own merits his own merits Cain the other one approached God on the basis of faith in God's finished work ultimately in Jesus Christ they were both taught the death of a substitute the need for a suitable covering by death that their own works were not acceptable and that God would provide the answer Cain represents the natural man and he comes to God on the grounds of his own personal worth I'm as good as the next guy I've done pretty well I've given to the charities go to church every Easter and Christmas or even every Sunday or whatever and you can find him referenced in Jude 11 Jude go to the end that's Revelation 1 first it's Jude verse 11 one chapter book well Jude says woe unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished against Zechariah the way of Cain what does Jude mean with the way of Cain Jude is discussing here a whole string of people who are in trouble and he speaks of the way of Cain I'm going to let you answer that yourself on your way home or as you think about what we've talked about tonight we don't have to beat that to death in contrast I'm going to suggest that Abel confessed that he was fallen he offered his offering by faith Hebrews tells us it was a slain lamb and it was the shedding of blood that was involved he was acting on faith the difference between them is not one of character but of their offering of the basis that they're approaching God on and I'm going to suggest to you that representatively they can also represent Egypt and Israel a short time later well not a short time quite a time later and the only difference that the destroying angel as he went through Egypt saw was that some of the household had blood on the doorposts and some didn't it wasn't that they were Israeli or Egyptian it was that they had blood on the doorposts if you were an Israelite and you didn't put blood on the doorposts what happened to you you lost the firstborn ok if you were an Egyptian home that had a Hebrew servant and put the blood on what happened to your house the house was passed over the basis was not the ethnic background the basis was the shed blood that's the whole thing on Passover it's Friday the 13th to the Egyptians it was the 14th of Nisan to the Israelites and the significance of that we'll understand better when we look at Noah's ark in chapter 2 later blood on the doorpost ok so we can make a whole thing representatively but rather than spend all time on that let me go one step further and let's look at this mystically and I have a brief list here of 35 parallels and I think you'll follow me as I go so you don't have to take notes if you're really interested in if this sounds like it makes sense to you do it yourself and make your own list if you're really interested it'll be on the tape and you can run through it now I'm going to give you 15 observations quickly about Abel he was a shepherd and as a shepherd he presented an offering he was hated by his brother without cause he was slain because of envy and he did not die a natural death he had a violent end by his brother and his blood cried from the ground let's talk about his offering it was presented unto God Hebrews 11 4 by faith he offered the firstling of the flock that is a lamb by faith okay which honored the will and the word of God his offering was excellent Hebrews 11 tells us God had respect that is he accepted the offering we know from the scripture he obtained a witness that he was righteous by that Hebrews 11 tells us God testified of his righteousness and his blood still speaks to us Hebrews 11 tells us right now let's talk about our Lord he was a shepherd right as a shepherd he presented our offering John 10 11 tells us he was hated by his brothers John 15 25 tells us he was delivered for envy Matthew 27 18 tells us he did not obviously die a natural death Acts 223 says he was he was slain by wicked hands he was crucified by the house of Israel Acts 236 that he met a violent end by his brothers his blood cries from the ground and of course his murders were punished in Mark 12 9 he presented his offer himself was an offering to God Ephesians 5 2 he was of course the lamb and you could take lots of verses there take one Peter 1 Peter 119 as an example he was offered by faith Hebrews 10 7 through 9 will cover that he's a more excellent offering Ephesians 5 2 again a sweet smelling savor and so forth God had respect for this how do we know he was seated at the right hand of God afterwards right that's pretty good testimony Hebrews 10 12 he obtained a witness that he was righteous and we got at least several to Jesus Christ one was a centurion at the foot of the cross another was none other than Satan himself in the person of Judas who testifies to his innocence his righteousness okay and God testified testifies to Abel and as far as Christ concerned his testimony was as raising from the dead according to Acts 2 32 and of course his blood now speaks as Hebrews 12 24 highlighted to us we're making it okay let's talk about Cain a little more complicated now if if if Abel was the Lord who's Cain well Cain may turn out to be in this is stretching it one step further in this you may relate to this so you don't this is not something you prove or disprove it's something you either sort of see or you don't and that's fine Cain was a tiller of the ground let me give you a handful of these things he was a tiller of the ground he rejected God's offering he was he chose his own by himself his own form of offering and it was the result of his own offering which in turn was rejected by God okay and God gave him a privilege to rule over his brother but he forfeited that privilege so instead of ruling over Abel he had to flee right he was slain it was envy that delivered him up God charges let's see God charges him with the crime right it was through envy that he causes the crime and God charges him with that crime the blood cried for vengeance because of the shed blood that God puts a curse on Cain because of the curse the ground is to them barren he becomes a fugitive and a vagabond his punishment is greater than he can bear he is driven out of his land he is hidden from God's face everyone in the world is has their hand against him he has a mark set upon him there's a sevenfold vengeance pronounced on anyone that touches him though and of course he left the land for the city now who fits that Israel the identity with the land is early and you can Genesis 13 15 can be used to most of that if you like he would they rejected God's offering John chapter one verse eleven referring to the lamb of God they set up their own set up their own righteousness according to Paul in Romans 10 3 which is really based on their own labors Romans 9 21 that was rejected by God according to Acts 13 39 and if they keep in God's statutes he says in Deuteronomy 28 13 that they would rule over their brothers however they forfeited that according to Isaiah 9 14 and they they were delivered their brother to be slain through envy according to Acts 5 30 God charges them with the crime in Acts 2 22 and 23 and the blood cries for vengeance in Matthew 27 25 and because that shed blood God puts a curse on them and I'll lean on Jeremiah 24 9 for that because of this the ground we no longer is fruitful to them Leviticus 20 26 34 35 and they are fugitives and they are according to Deuteronomy 28 65 now their punishment is greater than they can bear is a proclamation they are yet to make and this gets into Zechariah 12 10 and Hosea 6 and those we took over that when we talked about Zechariah 12 we went into that whole thing about how Israel nationally will ask Christ to return in effect okay of course they were driven out 40 years after the crucifixion of Christ and they were driven they were hidden from God's face according to Hosea 1 9 and for 2000 years everyone has had their hand against them as was predicted by Deuteronomy 28 66 and the sevenfold vengeance Genesis 12 3 and you can go ahead and play with this yourself you either sort of see a model or you don't it's between Cain and Abel and between Israel and the Lord okay amazing we've been we snuck through that with just a few more minutes to play around with some other things so we've covered perhaps slaughtered Genesis 4 let's see if we can't zip through Genesis 5 and leave you with enough so that if you want to run into Genesis 5 you can and the thing that I love to do is start with your homework assignment if we're going to leave this for next week was to figure out if Methuselah was the oldest man in the Bible how could he die before he died and and that's an interesting little question to try on your kids or something chapter 5 verse 1 this is the book of the generations of Adam that's a very interesting expression it occurs only one other place in the scripture this is the book of the generations that occurs in 5 1 and Matthew 1 1 this is the book of the generations of Adam New Testament opens up Matthew 1 1 this is the book of the generations of the second Adam Jesus Christ right it's a it's a it's another one of those hints that they're structured as a whole in the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him male and female created he them and he blessed them and called their name Adam their name Adam Mr. and Mrs. Adam if you will in the day when they were created and Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in his own likeness God's likeness no notice the changes seen there the shift of gears all right in the day that God Adam was created in the image of God Adam's children were created in the image of Adam not quite the same thing something's lost in reproduction perhaps begot a son in his own likeness and after his image and called his name Seth you notice that the writer here is ignoring the he's interested just in a particular chain so we're going right to Seth we're ignoring the hundreds of maybe of others and in the days of Adam after he begot and Seth were 800 years and he begot sons and daughters in other words lots of others the the the Chronicler here is letting us know that this is not an exclusive tree and all the days I should say inclusive tree anyway and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died fulfilling God's prophecy in Genesis three Seth lived a hundred and five years and begot Enosh and Seth lived after he begot Enosh eight hundred and seven years and begot sons and daughters and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he died and Enosh lived ninety years and begot Kenan and Enosh lived after we got Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years and begot sons and daughters and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years and he died and Kenan lived seventy years and begot Baha'u'llah and Kenan lived after we got you know eight hundred and it goes on and in the interest of making use of the time let me just skip ahead here we get a lot more of these and we finally get down here to verse eighteen and Jared lived a hundred and sixty two years and begot Enoch now this Enoch is a very interesting guy Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years and begot sons and daughters and the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty two years and he died and Enoch lived sixty five years and begot Methuselah Enoch walked with God that's only said of two people in scripture Adam and Enoch and he begot Methuselah three hundred years and begot sons and daughters and all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five years and Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him and he died and now we don't know much about this other than the fact he didn't die he God just snatched him away okay now Enoch was a prophet his prophecies are mentioned later in the scripture so he's a preacher now it says Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty seven years and begot Lamech and Methuselah lived after he begot Lamech seven hundred and eighty two years and begot sons and daughters and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty nine years and he died it's a very interesting number because it's the oldest menace there's no other recorded longevity older than Methuselah and that's very important to you and I for a reason I'll come to but just to finish the chapter and we'll come back to that Methuselah then Lamech lived a hundred and eighty two years begot a son called his name Noah saying the same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed and Lamech lived and after he begot Noah five hundred and ninety five years and begot sons and daughters and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy seven years and he died and Noah was five hundred years old and begot Shem, Ham and Japheth and these guys are going to go build a boat now the whole inside of this is to recognize first of all that Enoch was a prophet we find reference to his preaching in the book of Jude you can look that up on your own Enoch names his son Methuselah and Methuselah means son of Jephthah when he is dead it shall come when he is dead it shall come now we don't know one other thing if you go through the trouble and that is more fun if you do it on your own to lay all this out lay out a little chart and when someone was born and how many days and the next guy was born and how many first of all you will discover that there is only two generations between Noah and Adam because one of the sons I forget which one it is now I forgot to refresh myself one of the sons of Adam lives long enough to overlap is it Lamech and I frankly forgotten it has been a while but the point is that you will discover that it is only one if it is in terms of first of all it probably did have writing back then despite some of what you may have heard but also even if it is an oral tradition it is only one or two away it is pretty close and in fact a lot of what we have here may be well I won't get into that right now the point is if you go through all that trouble you will discover that the day correction the year that Methuselah dies the flood comes and from that little insight we have a whole different insight in Enoch Enoch was a prophet he walked with God and we know elsewhere he pleased God there is only two people in scriptures that pleased God who is the other one Jesus Christ and he always has preeminence and he always pleased God we don't have Enoch was apparently given a revelation and when his child was born he was given a revelation that he named the child because God told him as long as that child shall live the earth will be spared from judgment but that the flood was coming Enoch knew that now it is interesting can you imagine Enoch first of all preaching to an unsaved world can you imagine how he felt every time a kid got a cold right and yet Enoch becomes sort of God's time peace and as long as Enoch is alive as long as Methuselah is alive everything is cool but one year comes by when Methuselah dies and that is the year the flood came overlapping this by as much as 120 years there's no guys are building a boat so that's itself interesting it's also interesting something else to the extent that Methuselah becomes a type or a symbol of God's grace as long as he's alive the judgment is spared right but even that comes to an end when he dies and the flood comes Methuselah does of course eventually pass away and the flood comes it's interesting to notice that his life the life that thus becomes the measure of God's grace is the longest life in the Bible isn't that interesting Methuselah is known you know the name of Methuselah has become synonymous with long life because it is the oldest recorded life but you may or may not have realized that he was a living prophecy to the coming of the flood and this is a great introduction to next time when we'll take Genesis chapter 6 and talk about the greatest catastrophe well one of the greatest catastrophes the earth has ever seen and we'll get into that next time and we're right at our time so next time you can study Genesis 6 now so praise the Lord I look forward to seeing you next Monday night and we'll get in over our heads on the flood this concludes the seventh study in the book of Genesis