Cain and his sons and grandsons kept themselves busy with notable advances to civilization: city-building, animal husbandry, music, and metallurgy.
But Cain’s brother Seth took a different tack. Genesis 4:25-26 paints asharp contrast between the two families.
* When Cain had a son he built a city and named it after him. At Seth’s birth, however, his parents readily saw the gracious hand of God. His mother Eve named him “Appointed,” for she was ever on the lookout for the promised “seed” God said she’d bear who would crush the Deceiver’s head.
*Lamech murdered, then composed his “sword song” to boast of his invincibility. But Seth fathered a son and named him Enosh which means “man” and may point to his mortality and weakness in contrast to God’s immortality and omnipotence.
* Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain have already told us how they spent their time. But over in Enosh’s camp, “men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26).
Not that city-building is wrong. Or that the simple life is more righteous.
But it seems the author is letting us in on the fact that one family was focused on tearing down their barns in order to build bigger barns. While the other family had chosen the good part which would never be taken away.
All of this is made much more sobering when you realize that the flood is coming—that night by which their souls would be required of them, along with the accompanying question, “Now who will own what you have prepared?’ (Luke 12:20)
O Lord, grant strength, courage, and resolve to spend our lives on that which will endure beyond the night when our souls are required of us.
Blessings,
Questions? Comments? paul@discoverwoodlandhills.com