Third Son From The Rock

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131aac Re-Written 27MAY09

Save Me Today—Part Fifty Five: Third Son From The Rock

by rev dave c

Many Bible commentators state that sin first entered Creation the moment Adam and Eve sampled the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The presence of the serpent in the Garden of Eden presents an obvious problem with that teaching. When the serpent is described as “crafty” the Hebrew meaning is “cunning—usually in a bad sense” (`aruwm; Strong's # 6175). With the reading of just the first verse of Chapter Three we discover that the serpent was a liar, a deceiver, and a seducer. When verse four reveals his murderous heart, it becomes readily apparent that the serpent is a manifestation of Satan, “the Adversary.” As to Satan’s origins, please read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. When Romans 5:12 tells us, ...sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…(NIV), Paul is saying that sin entered the world of man, individually and collectively. Because God had given man dominion over the Earth, when Adam and Eve chose the rebellious way of the serpent dominion passed to Satan and the Kingdom of the Earth was born in opposition to Godly righteousness—i.e., the Kingdom of God. Second Corinthians 5:17-19 explains that, through Christ, God is reconciled to us and to the world, and He gave to the Church the ministry and the message of reconciliation.

In full communion with God, Adam and Eve were placed into the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to enjoy it...as well as each other. Then the sin of their disobedience caused the pair to be driven out of the Garden and into a life full of merciless toil and suffering—but with a promise for the future. Genesis 3:14&15 tells us, So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (NIV). The message is clear: The serpent (i.e., Satan) who brought about the terrible downfall of humanity will be destroyed by a child of the woman, with the implication that the broken relationship between God and Man would be subsequently restored. For all people everywhere, and throughout all of time, there is a sense that the life we are born into is less than it should be. Ours is a story of desperately striving to raise the quality of material, rational, and spiritual existence in order to reach expectations that are continually beyond our grasp.

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man" (Ge 4:1; NIV). The name, Cain, is from the Hebrew root word, kah'-yin (Strong's #7013), which is from #6969 in the original sense of fixity; a lance (as striking fast): --spear. In turn, #6969, quwn, means to strike a musical note, i.e., chant or wail (at a funeral): —lament, a mourning woman. “Cain” is also an Hebraic pun for #7069, qanah, which denotes, among other things, teach to keep cattle, and provoke to jealousy. Genesis 4:2a tells us, Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel (habel, #1892, from #1891) means, emptiness or vanity; fig. Something transitory and unsatisfactory; a vapor. The verse continues, Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil...and we are all familiar with how Cain eventually slew Abel as a reaction to God’s choosing the animal sacrifice from the younger brother, while rejecting the grain offering from the elder. As judgment from God, Cain’s gift for farming is then taken from him, he is banished from His presence, and the wretched first born begins to build a city in the land of Nod. The final verse of Chapter Four reads, Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him" (Ge 4:25; NIV). The name Seth, in this context, means substitute (#8352, from #7896).

In the names of the first three sons of Father Adam and Mother Eve, we see simultaneously an outline of the kingdom of this fallen earth and a prophecy for the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 10:10) of redemption and reconciliation. Eve apparently assumed that the fulfillment of God’s promise would come through her first son. Perhaps she thought that victory over the serpent would be swift, and that her eldest would be “a spear that strikes fast” so that the curse would soon be ended. Ironically, Cain proved to be the one who must be taught to keep cattle, he was provoked to jealousy, and by committing the first murder in the Bible record he became the servant of the serpent who would eventually strike the heel of the Savior by orchestrating His crucifixion. John 10:10a tells us that the Devil comes only to steal and kill and destroy—and in his service are all those who, in their ignorance and arrogance, hate all Godliness and seek to steal away the souls of the unsuspecting, to kill the hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to destroy the lives of those who seek righteousness. This is the kingdom of the flesh.

Abel’s name is reminiscent of David’s lament in Psalm 39:4-6 concerning the brevity of this life in this time and in this place…it is transitory, unsatisfactory, and but a vapor. When Eve named her third son Seth, she was probably thinking of him as a substitute for her second born, but it is through this line that Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, would come to be the Spotless Lamb of God sacrificed upon the Cross for our sins as the perfect and eternal substitute for the Divine judgment so that we might be saved today from the wrath we deserve. “He paid a debt He did not owe—I owed a debt I could not pay….” Thank you, Jesus, for bearing upon the cross the burden of my sins. Amen.