Ezekiel 28:17 – “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”
The devil, who was the serpent of old, deceived Eve who led Adam into sin and in so doing sunk his poisonous fangs into the nature of human beings. Human beings, after that point, were driven by pride and self. Instead of confessing his own sin, Adam blamed Eve. Instead of confessing her sin, she blamed the devil. Pride blinds us to our own sins and blames them on others. We saw how Cain became a chip off the old block (not a chimp off the old block). His pride was such that he was angry at Abel when Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice while Cain’s was not. Cain eventually displayed his poisonous nature of the devil and killed Abel. Indeed the enmity that was part of the curse (Genesis 3:15) is seen from the start. Cain was of the seed of the serpent and Abel was of the seed of the woman. This is the line that can be traced throughout the whole Old Testament. This is the enmity that was eventually between Israel and the nations. This is the enmity that is seen now between Christ and the world.
That enmity between the seeds is because the nature of the rebellion of the serpent is now part of the nature of human beings. This can be clearly seen over and over in the Bible which gives us the inspired record of the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The Bible moves directly from Cain being cast away to that of the generations or seed of Cain. A few generations down from Cain we find a character named Lamech in Genesis 3:18. Lamech’s proud and desire to be elevated above God is seen in Genesis 4:23-24:
23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me; 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
God had promised to avenge Cain “sevenfold” in Genesis 4:15 if anyone killed Cain. Lamech was so great in his own mind and wanted to be superior to God that he was going to avenge himself seventy-sevenfold. What a display of pride and arrogance, and yet this is exactly what the seed of the serpent does. This seed is at enmity against all but self in its own way but especially against all who love God and then God Himself. The arrogance Lamech has is almost unimaginable, but he is bragging in front of his wives. He wants to show His supposed greatness in front of them and then to show his greatness as compared to God. He wants to show them that he takes greater vengeance than God. It might also be the case that he was trying to control them and retain a strong rule over them. But regardless of all the reasons, the pride of Lamech is on display. It might also be helpful to note that the Lamech of Genesis 4 is not the same Lamech of Genesis 5. The Lamech of Genesis 5 was the father of Noah.
Genesis 6:1-4 records the history of how the sons of God came to the daughters of men and the result of that was that the wickedness of human beings became great on the earth. There have been many ways of interpreting Genesis 6:1-4, but the easiest and most natural way to interpret it is to look within the text of Genesis itself. We must not forget that we have a major theme given to us by the text itself. That theme is the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is not just a physical seed, but it is also a spiritual seed as well. After Cain (seed of the serpent) killed Abel (seed of the woman), we are told that Eve bore another child and his name was Seth. He was named Seth because Eve saw him as a replacement for Abel. In other words, this was the man that the seed of the woman was to come through. It was when Seth had a son (Enosh in Gen 4:26) that “men began to call upon the name of the LORD.” Some think the translation should be “then men began to be called by the name of the LORD.” The latter translation is what fits with the context before and after. In Genesis 5 there is the “book of the generations of Adam.” In verse 1 Adam is said to have been made in the likeness of God. Then in verse 3 it tells us that Adam had a son “in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.” The line is then traced to Noah. There is no mention of Cain being a child of Adam in this context.
It is in this light, I think, that Genesis 6:1-4 should be looked at. It was when those who were called by the name of the LORD began to intermarry with the daughters of men that wickedness spread on the earth even more. It is of interest to note that Abel offered the acceptable sacrifices and Cain’s were not acceptable. We can see the seed of Cain were those that were at enmity with God with Lamech being the example. We see the seed of Seth as being Enoch who walked with God for three hundred and sixty-five years and then God took him. Enoch was the great, great grandfather of Noah who was righteous. After the mixing of the daughters of men with those called by the name of the LORD, we are left with one man named Noah. Pride and self had filled the earth at this point.
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