So Adam and Eve begin their life outside of the Garden of Eden. Eve knows that now she’s going to have some very intense pain when giving birth and Adam is going to have to have to farm constantly in order to keep his family alive. It is outside of the garden that Adam and Eve have their first child, Cain. 

 

“I’ve gotten a man, with God’s help!” Eve cries out. I can’t imagine how overwhelmed she feels at this moment. The first pregnancy of all time has just taken place. This thing has been living inside her and now it’s alive and moving in her arms! She had cursed the human race after eating from the tree of knowledge and yet God has been gracious enough to give her a child! To let humanity live on! Later Adam and Eve have another child and name him Abel.

 

Time passes and Cain and Abel find their place in tending the Earth. Cain becomes a farmer while Abel becomes a herdsman. The two brothers would bring offerings of their work on earth to God to show their love and thanks to Him. 

 

One day Cain and Abel approach God with their offerings— Cain with the produce of his farm and Abel with some of the firstborn animals of his herds. Now these are some choice cuts of meat! God sees these offerings and likes Abel’s. 

 

However, Cain’s offering doesn’t get his approval. It’s not as thoughtful or great a gift as Abel’s. 

 

It’s nothing out of the ordinary. 

It’s nothing special. 

It’s not the best of the farm.

God deserves much more!

 

Now here’s something to think about. What do we give God today as a sacrifice? 

 

Later, in the Bible we are told to give a part of our money to God as a sacrifice. We still practice this today at our churches during offering. But it’s so difficult isn’t it? And it’s a hundred times more difficult to go above and beyond giving the normal 10% of our paycheck to God! We tend to be like Cain. “Here’s some normal produce I gathered for you, God.” Actually, statistics say that we actually give even less than Cain! Did you know that an estimated 8% of evangelical Christians tithe? Interesting little fact.

 

And you know what’s really funny? Cain and Abel actually KNOW what God thinks of their offerings after they present them. Yet Cain still doesn’t give of his best! It’s obvious that humanity struggles with giving back to God and this story is a great example.

 

My pastor said it best this past Sunday. The reason that we give money is actually to give God our heart. God can see our heart by what we give. Just as he saw Cain and Abel’s heart by what they gave.

 

Cain gets ticked off big time and looses his temper. God speaks to Him about His offering. “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in the wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got master it.”

 

What God said here is such a huge thing for us as Christians to remember. Sin IS waiting around for us. It’s hoping that we won’t do well— that we’ll screw up— so that it can pounce on us like a lion and rip us apart. 

 

Sin is out to get us. 

It is constantly on the move.

We must master it.

 

But Cain is still ticked off and goes to meet his brother out in a field to talk. Cain must have blocked out everything that God had said because it ends up that sin does get the best of him. 

 

Cain commits murder.

And Abel is dead.

 

God speaks again to Cain. “Where’s Abel?”

 

Cain tries to hide his sin like many of us try to do. “How should I know? Am I his babysitter?”

 

But God knows what’s up. There is no hiding from Him. “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s blood is calling to me from the ground.” And again we see that with sin comes consequences! Apparently Cain didn’t learn from his parents mistakes. 

 

Cain’s Consequences:

From now on you’ll get nothing but curses from this ground; you’ll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You’ll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You’ll be a homeless wanderer on earth.”

 

Cain isn’t quite so angry anymore. Instead he’s freaked.

 

“My punishment is too much. I can’t take it! You’ve thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I’m a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me.”

 

“No. Anyone who kills you will pay for it seven times over.” (You’ll find that seven seems to be a very popular number in the Bible.) Then God put some kind of mark on Cain to protect him— so that no one would kill him. God shows mercy to this murderer, but the consequences are not removed.

 

Cain and his wife move out east of Eden to No-Man’s-Land. There they have a son named Enoch. Cain also builds a city at this time and names it Enoch after his son. Now Enoch goes on to have his own family and we see history repeat itself in Enoch’s Great, Great, Grandson, Lamech.

 

Now Lamech has two wives named Adah and Zillah (Times were different back then and remember that reproducing was very important to keeping humanity alive. I imagine part of the reason to having more wives was to create a variety of people and at a fast pace). 

 

With Adah, Lamech has two children. One of them is named Jabal and the other is named Jubal (which means music). These two brother’s go on to have their own families and each family becomes notorious for something different. Jabal becomes the ancestor to all of the people who live in tents and herd cattle—kind of like a family business. Jubal on the other hand becomes the ancestor to all who play the lyre and flute (a lyre is like a small U-shaped harp). This is the first time we hear of music in the Bible and it is definitely an art form that was passed on throughout the years.

 

Lamech also has two children with Zillah— a girl and a boy. The boy was named Tubal-Cain and he worked at a forge making bronze and iron tools. His sister was beautiful and named Naamah.

 

But how did history repeat itself with Lamech you might be wondering? Well, one day Lamech calls his wives to him and tells them to hear him out. “I killed a man for wounding me, a young man who attacked me. If Cain is avenged seven times, for me it’s seventy-seven!” Again we see murder in the family tree.

 

Let’s return to Adam and Eve. Here they are with one son dead and the other one cursed and off in No-Man’s-Land starting his own family. When Adam was 130* God gave him and Eve a son whom they named Seth. Happiness again overwhelms her. “God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed (hence the name Seth which means substitute).” Seth was very much like Adam. He had Adam’s same spirit and image. Adam lived on for 800 more years after Seth was born and had more sons and daughters. He passed away at the age of 930.

 

Adam’s family tree continued grow more and more; family by family. Kids had kids who had kids who had kids who had kids. But something amazing happened when Adam’s Great, Great, Great, Great Grandson was born. His name was Enoch (not to be confused with Cain’s son Enoch or his city. This is a totally separate person). It seems that this Enoch got it right. What I mean to say is that he must have lived a very holy and pure life. The Bible tells us that he walked steadily with God for the 365 years he was on Earth. Then one day, God simply just took him away—no death. 

 

Now God wants to see us walk steadily with Him all the days of our lives. Yet we seem to struggle to do so with the 70 or so years we have on Earth.

 

While Enoch was on earth, he did give birth to Methuselah. Methuselah was the longest living man recorded in the Bible at 969 years old! During the 969 years he was alive he gave birth to a son named Lamech (obviously names were very popular back in Bible times. This is not the same Lamech that descended from Cain). Now Lamech becomes the father of a very famous Bible character who’s name is:

 

Noah. 

 

“This one will give us a break from the hard work of farming the ground that God cursed,” Lamech said. That’s why he named him Noah, which means rest or respite. Or in other words, a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant. 

 

And in a sense Lamech was right about the break from farming—it is rather difficult to farm when the entire Earth is covered by water. Lamech lived for a total of 777  years before passing away (told you seven is a popular Bible number).

 

So now we have reached the story of Noah. Join me here next time for “FLOOD!!!” Remember kids, don’t talk to strangers.

 

 

 

 

 

This lesson has been taken from:

Genesis 4 & 5**

 

 

 

 

*At the bottom of my note called “The Creation Architect” is a theory as to why they lived so long.

 

**Genesis is a list of a family tree—you know, one of those chapters that a lot of times we hurry up and get through because it’s a bunch of names and years and what not. I encourage you to really read those. Half of what I wrote  here is from that chapter and I was amazed at what I learned from a bunch of names.