Seventh Sons

[dave c]

HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #131aae Re-Written 03JUN09

Save Me Today—Part Fifty Seven: Seventh Sons

by rev dave c

A friend once told me, “We do not live in a universe that is ‘fair’—we live in a universe that is just”. If God was fair, we would all be going to hell. Although we hear a great deal of cultural grumbling about the intolerant nature of the God of the Christians, it is only through Christ that there is any hope for you and for me in the right here/right now and forever. Christianity alone told me what I already knew: I was a hopeless sinner destined for the destruction of both body and soul (Mt 10:28). But it alone also offered a permanent solution to that sinfulness: Call upon the name of Jesus, repent, and begin to show the fruit of repentance (Ac 26:20; 2Pe 1:1-8). The New Testament alone teaches that by faith in the blood and body of Jesus Christ I can be forgiven my sins, declared legally righteous, and pronounced eternally innocent. Do I want what’s fair? Heavens, no. Outside the justice of a loving God the Father, Who sent His Son to save me through the power of the Holy Spirit, I would be lost without hope of redemption and reconciliation—both for today and for all the future (Jn 3:16&17).

The story of Cain and Abel in Genesis Chapter Four has a great deal to teach us concerning our created natures; the expectations of our Creator, Sustainer, and Lord; and the consequences of our obeying, or disobeying, the living Word of God. How we are created within the womb, or trained by our environment, may be useful in explaining why we decide to think and act in certain ways, but they provide neither excuse nor pardon for those occasions when we willingly choose evil disobedience over righteous goodness. I know that there are people who, by their very natures, are people of integrity (whether or no they are Christians)—I also know that I am not one of them. Years ago, God showed me that I have the heart of a thief, but that it was up to me to choose which thief I would be: The one on the left of the crucified Christ who mocked all truth, or the thief on the right who asked the Savior to remember him when He came into His kingdom (Lu 23:39-43). Each moment, each hour, each day, I make decisions for humbled obedience; or I willfully turn from “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).

Chapter Four of Genesis continues describing the linage of Adam and Eve’s children and grandchildren. In 4:17 we read that Cain founded the first city recorded in the Bible and that he named it for his son, Enoch (the third generation of man). Verse 4:18 then outlines a succession of decedents through Cain that culminates in the birth of Lamech as the seventh generation of humanity. In Lamech we are shown a peak in the arrogant and vain pursuits of mankind as he takes two wives and murders a young man for injuring him. Lamech then boasts that while God may have promised vengeance seven times over for anyone who killed Cain (v15), he avenged himself seventy seven times for merely being assaulted (vv23&24). In Lamech’s three sons we are provided an outline of humanistic endeavors that continues to the present as they worked to provide for themselves without felt need for God’s blessings: Jabal (v20) raised livestock and represents all who study and seek livelihood from creation; Jubal (v21) played the harp and flute, which are symbolic of the arts; and Tubal-Cain (v22), as a blacksmith, was a developer of technologies. Throughout the millennia and into the 21st Century we see that materialism/science, rationalism/arts-communication, and pragmatic-eclecticism/technology are to this day the founding pillars in the religion of Humanism.

As opposed to the humanistic/Godless line through Cain, we are told in verses 25 and 26 of Genesis Four that with the advent of Enosh as the third generation of man through Seth, “people began to call upon the name of the Lord” (NIV). By the seventh generation we reach a peak in the Godly line in the person of Enoch—who we could say pursued the “City of God” as opposed to his namesake cousin through Cain after whom the first “City of Man” was named. Throughout the Bible the number seven represents “perfection, completion, and/or the ultimate.” In Lamech (the seventh son via Cain) we see an ultimate example of mankind’s futile reliance upon self to achieve salvation from “the curse” through works. In Enoch (the seventh son via Seth) we see faith in and from God perfected. Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away (Ge 5:22-24; NIV).

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (NIV).

All of Scripture teaches us that from first to last, salvation comes through faith in the Word of God’s promise and that obedience is the shoe-leather of faith. [The Son of Man] through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith (Ro 1:4&5; NIV). Amen.