Genesis 4:17-26
Categories: Bible Study LessonsTHE ANCIENT LINES OF CAIN AND SETH CONTRASTED
We are given some insight here into our ancestor’s ingenuity and industry. They were not cave men but had highly advanced intellects.
Perhaps God wants us to know that the line of Cain had choices. They were not oppressed or deprived or disadvantaged. The decisions they made were their own. They simply made evil decisions. They continued in the way of Cain, their father, and another notable murder is recorded for us. Lamech evidently settled his business with a young man using Cain as an example. It is interesting to note as well that the practice of polygamy is first attributed to the line of Cain. As Jesus said, “from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8).
This infamous line is then contrasted with the line of a new son of Adam and Eve. Seth is introduced to us. Seth is extremely important in the scheme of redemption because his line is the line of Christ (Luke 3:38). Notice the vast difference in the two lines. One is characterized by murder, the other by “call[ing] upon the name of the Lord.”
With these two examples the children of Israel were encouraged to emulate the line of Seth and not that of Cain. Later in the story they will be further led in that direction by the utter end of Cain’s sinful line by the judgment of God.