has had far reaching effects. Since that day in Paradise, the world has been under the curse of futility until now. Futility is variously described as: useless, fruitless, unimportant, vain, abortive and worthless. One need only look around to see the nations rise and fall, leaders come and go, happiness is fleeting and no matter what is attempted it doesn’t produce true happiness. Man lives in a world dominated by futility, death, destruction and unpredictability. Solomon said: Vanity of vanities, [futility of futilities]” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is futility” What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever…. All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-9).
Although man was cast into a world of sin upon his fall from paradise, evidence of that sin is immediately manifested in the first family. Cain, the older son of Adam, rose up and killed his younger brother Abel in the field. The story goes that each was to bring an offering to the Lord. Abel, a sheepherder, brought his first fruits lamb without blemish as his offering. Cain, on the other hand, was a farmer and brought the first fruits of his crops. God was pleased with Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s. Cain became angry. The Lord gently counseled him, trying to give him an opportunity to change his attitude. (Gen. 4:6-7). Cain did not listen and the first recorded murder resulted.
Why this occurred involves some conjecture. Probably both had been educated by Adam as to what was and was not acceptable to God. Abel’s offering was a thing of great value – his first born, unblemished lamb. Cain’s gift was from the land that God had cursed when He ejected Adam and Eve from the Garden (Genesis 1:17-19). In any event, God must have assumed Cain knew better, otherwise, the God of justice could not have punished Cain as He did for something done from ignorance. Also, Abel’s offering was a first-born lamb without blemish, as Christ was referred to as the Lamb of God. Abel’s revelation may have been deeper than Cain’s and thus presented a sacrifice which was symbolic of the restoration to follow from the cursed ground. God told Cain essentially that, since he (Cain) was now aware of sin (sin means in Hebrew "missing the mark") that he could find a happy countenance by mastering that sin and “hitting the mark”. Cain may also have been jealous of his brother since Cain was the firstborn son of Adam. He may have felt that Abel was going to usurp his place of honor, normally going to the first born of a family.
God banished Cain completely from his presence. No true family can be properly constructed with the presence of evil within it. This can be compared with Satan who was thrown out of heaven because his rebellious, evil, accusing presence was a distraction to God and his plan for mankind. Cain went out from the Lord to the Land of "Nod". The word Nod has been variously associated with: wanderer, vagrant (New American Bible Version), nomad, aimless, unrest, commotion, a terror round about, a dreadful sound round about, and a land of exile (Matthew Henry's Commentary). So the land of Nod was spiritually separated from God in a terrible land where there was "no rest for the wicked".
Therefore the land of Nod was where Cain settled and built the earth's first city (Gen 4:17), As Adam was banished from Paradise onto the earth, so Cain was banished from God's presence on earth. In this land Cain became the builder of the first large city on the earth. He set the stage for the later evil that would eventually cause God to send the flood destroying all humanity. The descents of Cain were those that began to engage in worldly pursuits (music, city building, nomadism, work with metals, probably alchemy, sorcery, cattle breeding, etc) Genesis 4:17-24.
Adam had another son Seth who also began a line separate from that of Cain. It was with Seth that men began to call upon the Lord again (Genesis 4:25-26). The line of Seth included Enoch who walked with and God translated him like he did later with Elijah. It also included Lamech who was the Father of Noah.
However, in Chapter 6 we see man being completely corrupted. “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose… The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:1-2, 4).
Nephilim means literally “fallen ones”. The heavenly beings referred to as the “sons of God” (called Watchers in some extant books i.e. the Book of Enoch) were actually fallen angels that fell to earth, mated with earthly women, and produced Satanic offspring called Nephilim. These Nephilim were the closest thing Satan had to offspring as they were ½ demonic and ½ human. They produced what were called “giants”, men of renown; men like those depicted in Greek and Roman mythology such as Hercules etc.
These Nephilim continued to exist after the flood. They were confronted by the spies who spied out the Promised Land. “So they [the spies] gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:32-33). The Nephilim hid out in the land of Hebron, from which Goliath the giant arose. “When they had gone up into the Negev, they came to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak were” (Numbers 13:22).
It was because of these Nephilim that God decided to destroy man, because they had made the earth so corrupt. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them” (Gen. 6:5-7).
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). Noah, the son of Lamech, had three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) of whom we will learn more later. God told Noah exactly how to construct the ark (Gen. 6:14-17). And He told Noah to stock the ark with sufficient food and told him to bring male and female animals, birds, and creeping thing onto the ark. This Noah did. When he, the animals, and his family entered the ark it began to rain and rained 40 days and nights. And: “The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died (Gen. 7:20-22).
There is today considerable scientific and archeological debate as to how this could possibly have occurred as it is written in the Bible. There is no real scientific or archeological proof. The only answer is that it was a miracle. “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23-26). And: “Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27). “And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You;” (Mark 14:36). The answer to the scientific debate is that to God all things are possible, where they are impossible even for man to imagine.
END PART 1
Noah to Abraham
After
