This little phrase from Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. encapsulates so much of Geerhardus Vos’ eschatological program. The phrase is meant to convey the idea that God has a plan of eschatological, consummated life laid out for Adam even before the fall into sin.  The Covenant of Works was put into place with the offer of that reward.

When attempting to demonstrate this point, we often appeal to the Tree of Life and its “reappearance” in Rev 2:7 and 22:2, 14, 19.  This occurrence demonstrates the realization of the blessings offered to Adam prior to the fall. But one place we do not often consider is the book of Job.  Job 42 offers a similar perspective on the question of eschatology.

Job undergoes terrible trials and loses almost everything.  Job was blessed in 1:2-3: “here were born to him seven sons and three daughters.  He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.”  All of this he lost at the hands of Satan who received permission from God to persecute him.  The book continues through several questioning episodes from Job’s friends who are convinced Job must have sinned in order to receive this portion.  Retributive theology is at work among his cohorts.  The LORD eventually speaks up in the face of Job’s questions.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (Job 40:6-14, ESV)

Shortly thereafter, in chapter 42, Job is restored, and this is the interesting eschatological point.  Look at the details of his restoration in Job 42:12-13 “And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters.”

His blessings are doubled [except for the sons, an interpretive issue we'll save for another day].  The inheritance is expanded to his daughters – something unheard of in Job’s contemporary culture. Moreover, his daughters are named and the sons are not.  This is perplexing, but I think is illustrative of the expansive reach of the New Covenant blessing (similar to how the covenant entrance sign of baptism is given to both men and women).

God’s plan and goal for a consummated glory was in place even before man fell into sin.  It was set out for Adam to attain.  He would have entered into eschatological, consummated life had he obeyed throughout his probation period.  But he fell and now a second Adam must come to provide a way for God’s elect to reach that original goal.

This eschatology is behind the message of Job.  Job’s “salvation” is not a return to his original blessing.  Likewise, we do not look to the Garden as our heavenly reward.  We look to the New Heavens and New Earth.  Job is a prototypical righteous one who suffers while pointing to the eschatological one who comes to suffer vicariously.  This is the Christ, the one who ushers in eschatological blessings greater than anything ever present before.

But there is another way. Maybe Israel’s history happened first, and the Adam story was written to reflect that history. In other words, the Adam story is really an Israel story placed in primeval time. It is not a story of human origins but of Israel’s origins.

Everyone has to decide for themselves which of these readings of Genesis has more “explanatory power.” I (and other biblical scholars) come down on the second option for a number of reasons, some having to do with Genesis itself while others concern other issues in the Bible.

This piece comes on the heels of Tremper Longman’s video on the subject.  I struggle to see how one could subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms ex animo while holding to such a view.  It may be the case that Enns and Longman, both former professors at Westminster Theological Seminary, have experienced significant change in their views since departing from the seminary.  It may also be possible that both men differ from my understanding of what it means to “subscribe” to the standards. At present, I don’t see a third option.

The latter would be a troubling situation.  For me, the issue of subscription is central because the standards presume the historicity of Adam and the system of doctrine demands it.  The parallels Paul makes between the first man Adam and the last man Jesus Christ (Rom 5) form our understanding of much of this theology.  The Covenant of Works, the New Covenant, and the imputation of Adam’s sin to believers, the believer’s sin to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to believers are all predicated on Adam being an historical figure.  To deny the historicity of Adam is a much deeper issue than some suggest.

It is, in fact, the case that Abraham’s descendants (i.e. those who have faith in Christ, see Gal. 3) become heir’s of the “world,” in Him who overcame and received the inheritance of the world from His Father. In Christ, we too become heirs of God and of the world. This is also the explanation of our Lord’s words, “The meek shall inherit the earth,” and Peter’s reference elsewhere to the New Heavens and the New Earth. Believers will come to possess “all things,” as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 6.

A proper understanding of the purpose of the land of Israel opens a new area of research into the significance of the Garden of Eden. Eden was a special place, a physical location (or land), in which Adam was place by God at Creation. It was the prototypical promised land. There is also identification between Eden and the Temple–the place where God is worshiped by man, and dwells with man. The presence of lilies, palm trees, and pomegranates in the very fabric of the Temple are meant to bring the minds of the people of God back to Eden. Phil Ryken notes:

[the Temple] really was like the gates of Paradise. And for many people the way of access was still denied. Unless they were priests they would never see the golden wonders inside. Only the High Priests would enter that most holy place. Yet however limited it was there was access. You see God was opening back up the way to Paradise. You might think of Solomon’s temple as a kind of spiritual portal. The paradise lost could be regained.¹

It must be firmly established in our minds that God was always, throughout the Old Testament era, moving toward the restoration of the blessing of Eden. This in turn ought to move our attention back to the Garden of Eden to find hints as to the land/world connection. This is the case if we begin at the beginning, with the creation of man.

In Genesis 2:7 we learn that God formed man “out of the dust of the ground.” The “ground” is man’s natural environment. [As an aside, there seems to be a relationship between man and the rest of creation as a direct result of his being made out of the ground. On account of man's sin and idolatry (Rom. 1) this manifests itself, in the greatest act of perversion, in man worshiping the creation (i.e. beasts, animals, tress, etc.). This explains why men now exalt the created order above the image bearer of God and above God Himself. The hippie movement of the 60's, environmentalism and all naturalized forms of religion are correct, in one sense, to draw a connection between man and the value of his environment. The fault lies in the subordination of man to the environment and, at the same time, the exaltation of the creation over the Creator Himself. The close relationship between man and beast may be argued, in part, from the fact that both are created on the same day (Gen. 1:24; 26-27), as living, moving and breathing beings. The dissimilarity is to be observed by the fact that man, who alone is made "from the ground," is alone the image bearer of God. We are told that the LORD commanded the earth to bring forth the beasts of the field, but we are not told that they are made from the "ground," nor that they bear the image of their Maker. Add to this that the Hebrew word for "ground" is [Adam]. The very name of the man is the name of the place from which he is taken. Genesis 1:24 is the first time the word [Adam] is mentioned. There it is in regard to the animals. God is said to have created ever living thing that moves “on the ground.”]

There is another reference to the “ground” found in Genesis 2:5 where we read, “…there was no man to work the ‘ground.’” The “ground” is the sphere of blessing and fruitfulness. Eden especially carries this meaning. God intended to create an image bearer who would “work the ‘ground.’” Therefore, God made man from the “dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7). The sphere of blessing that would be the source of fruitfulness is the place that man is taken from. He is taken from the ground and he is created to work the ground. Adam is made to “be fruitful and multiply,” and to “dress and keep” the Garden. Adam is to work the ground and take the Garden out into the world. His task was to turn the world into the Garden.

Sadly, we know how quickly man forfeited his task by sinning against his Creator. In the pronouncement of judgment on man (Gen. 3:17-19) we discover that the sphere of blessing, the very place where man originated, is now cursed and turned into a thorny, barren wilderness that man will have to suffer toilsome labor in order to cultivate the once fruitful land. The “ground” is cursed on account of Adam’s sin. Adam was taken from the ground, the ground was the sphere of God’s blessing man–the environment in which blessings would be uncovered–but Adam rebelled against His Maker. God now curses the very place out of which He made man.

Adam’s sin and the depravity and corruption that he brought on all his descendants manifests itself, in the worst way, in the life of his firstborn son. Cain kills his brother, shedding Abel’s blood on the “ground” that he, incidentally, tilled. When the LORD confronts Cain He makes this astonishing statement: “The voice of your brothers’ blood cries out to Me from the ‘ground.’” Cain had sought to hid the body of his brother in the ground, but God is not limited by time and space, as fallen man wants to think about Him. The blood of Abel “cries out” to God to bring vengance and judgment on Cain.

The author of Hebrews picks up on the idea of Abel’s blood “crying out,” when he–while comparing Old Covenant and New Covenant worship–writes:

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)

Abel was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blood that Abel shed was on account of Christ. Abel, was a “righteous” man, putting his faith and trust in the promise of God for a Savior (Gen. 3:15). Just as Cain, the ‘seed of the serpent’ (1 John 3: ), killed Abel, the ‘seed of the woman,’ so the apostate Jews and unbelieving Romans, the ‘seed of the serpent’ (Matt. 3:7; John 8:44) killed Jesus, the Seed of the woman (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 3:23-38; and Rev. 12:1-5). The blood of Abel cried out from the “ground” for judgment on the ungodly, but the blood of Jesus “speaks better things than that of Abel,” crying out for redemption and salvation. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, agonizing under the realization of what He would suffer, Luke tells us that “his swear became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” The blood of Jesus fell into the ground in the Garden, and it was shed into the earth at the cross. While, the most important aspect of the blood of Christ is that it is sprinkled on the mercy seat in heaven, it nevertheless, falls to the ground, the place of curse that He came into the world to turn to the sphere of blessing.

Returning again to Genesis we soon discover that God pronounces a curse on Cain, further cursing the “ground” that had once yielded its fruit for him. Cain had shed his brothers’ blood into the ground, therefore, God cursed the ground, from which man was taken, to an even greater extent than he had before.

When Lamech, a descendant of Seth, bore a son, he called him “Noah” (lit. ‘rest’), because he believed that, “This one will comfort [lit. give rest to] us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed (Gen. 5:29).” Noah is also a type of Christ. Lamech names his son “rest” because he is believing the promise of God (Gen. 3:15), that He would send a Redeemer to give rest from the burden of sin manifested in God’s curse on the “ground.” Interestingly, Noah does give “typical” rest to the ground by obeying the LORD when he is called to go into the ark with the animals and his family. Man and beast, were brought into the ark. God would actually provide rest through the judgment He brings on the earth with the flood. Rest would be provided through judgment. Likewise, Jesus, the greater than Noah, provides eternal rest through the judgment He endures as the sin-bearer. When Noah left the ark, the “rest” that he typically provided for man is seen in the fact that he is, essentially, the head of humanity on a “new earth.” All of the flood narrative is moving toward the “re-creation” of the earth that had been so polluted by sin. So Christ, does not just redeem His elect, He also purchases the “new heavens and new earth” with His blood. He provides ‘rest’ for “us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.”

Moving backwards again to the creation account (Gen. 1-2) we learn that there is a “Sabbath,” a day of rest pointing forward to the eschatological rest that Christ would provide for us. It is interesting that Jesus healed many people on the Sabbath, giving rest from physical infirmities. In this way He was showing that He was the one who could give “rest” for the soul (see Matt. 11:25-12: 14 for support of this idea). In the OT the rest that Christ came to give is typified, first with Noah and the “ground” then with Israel and the “land.” Meredith Kline noted:

Another indication of the royal nature of God’s Sabbath rest is afforded when the Bible interprets the entrance of God’s covenant people Israel upon their royal inheritance as the securing of a Sabbath rest. Thus Israel’s occupation of the promised land is described as God’s gift of “rest” (menucah) to them (Deut. 3:20; 12:9; 1 Kings 8:56). In fact, in Hebrews 4, Israel’s dominion rest in Canaan (viewed as forfeited by the generation in the wilderness but typologically achieved through Joshua’s conquest of Canaan) is expressly interpreted in terms of the Creator’s seventh day rest…

The link here would be between typical “Sabbath rest” for Israel in the “land,” and eternal Sabbath rest for the people of God in the “new earth.” Again, the link between the promise that Abraham would be heir of the land and that he would be heir of the world is made through the relationship of Christ to the Sabbath.

The most amazing truth, unfolded in the book of Revelation, is that all the places that were representative of the sphere of God’s blessing (i.e. the Garden, Land and City) become the language of the redeemed church. Man becomes the environment of God’s dwelling, the eschatological sphere of blessing. The covenant promise that God would dwell with His people and that He would dwell in them is typified from Eden to Christ. In the New Covenant the land no longer has the typical significance it once had. Meredith Kline explained how it is that man no longer needs a typical environment for redemption:

At the consummation man leaves behind the external…he has developed through his earthly history…Glorified mankind is depicted as the city of God, the fullness of the new heaven and new earth…Scriptures identification of the eternal city with the glorified church (Rev. 21:9-10) is accompanied by its proclamation of a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1) and thus intends, of course, no negation of the cosmic dimension of consummated creation…glorified mankind is encorporated into the archetypal Spirit-temple, with which…the cosmos has been intergrated. Hence…it is at once the people-temple and the cosmos-temple, together consummated in the glory temple.

It appears that this interchangeable language between the church as a Garden, Land, City and Temple is founded upon the fact that man is taken from the “earth, land or ground,” the original place of Glory and the dwelling of God with man. It is only through the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ that the “ground” is redeemed, and man again enjoys, this time to a much greater degree, the blessings of God on the land. The blessings of Christ on the land are really typical of His blessings on His people. It is image bearers with which God is most concerned. The environment is simply a way of showing the totality and comprehensiveness of His riches in Christ Jesus. In the truest and highest sense, “He makes His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

]]> http://historiasalutis.com/2009/05/29/a-biblical-theological-perspective-on-the-ground/feed/ 3 http://historiasalutis.com/2009/04/21/the-biblical-theology-of-matthew-henry/ http://historiasalutis.com/2009/04/21/the-biblical-theology-of-matthew-henry/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:26:28 +0000 Nicholas T. Batzig http://www.historiasalutis.com/2009/04/21/the-biblical-theology-of-matthew-henry/ Read more→]]> When discussions concerning Biblical Theology arise, it is unusual for Matthew Henry to be mentioned as a model of this grand theological discipline. As a young believer I would often rush home from a Worship service and read Matthew Henry on the particular passage preached that Lord’s Day morning. On one occasion I distinctly remember finding a biblical theological gem in regard to Christ sweating great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Henry noted:

That, in this agony, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Sweat came in with sin, and was a branch of the curse (Gen. 3:19). And therefore, when Christ was made sin and a curse for us, he underwent a grievous sweat, that in the sweat of his face we might eat bread, and that he might sanctify and sweeten all our trials to us.

It was not long after reading this that I came across the most satisfactory, biblical-theological interpretation of the crown of thorns, in a short pamphlet by Iain R. K. Paisley. In this short work Paisley made the point that thorns find their significance in the Garden of Eden, where Adam sinned and brought down God’s just wrath on all of humanity. Christ, as the second Adam, bears the curse, due to sin, in His body on the tree. The crown of thorns that were pressed into His brow are a symbol of His role as sin-bearer. I think this is one of the most amazing truths in all the Scriptures. The organic relationship between Genesis 3 and the rest of the Bible is evident in many places, but this is perhaps the most penetrating and impressive of them all. The Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), promised to our first parents in the Garden, is the One who would bear man’s curse (Gen. 3:17-19). This thought is also found in the writings of Matthew Henry. In his notes on Matthew 27:28-29, Henry explained:

They platted a crown of thorns, and put it upon his hea d. This was to carry on the humour of making him a mock-king; yet, had they intended it only for a reproach, they might have platted a crown of straw, or rushes, but they designed it to be painful to him, and to be literally, what crowns are said to be figuratively, lined with thorns; he that invented this abuse, it is likely, valued himself upon the wit of it; but there was a mystery in it.

[1.] Thorns came in with sin, and were part of the curse that was the product of sin. Therefore Christ, being made a curse for us, binds them as a crown to him; for his sufferings for us were his glory.

[2.] Now he answered to the type of Abraham’s ram that was caught in the thicket, and so offered up instead of Isaac.

[3.] Thorns signify afflictions. These Christ put into a crown; so much did he alter the property of them to them that are his, giving them cause to glory in tribulation, and making it to work for them a weight of glory.

[4.] Christ was crowned with thorns, to show that his kingdom was not of this world, nor the glory of it worldly glory, but is attended here with bonds and afflictions, while the glory of it is to be revealed.

[5.] It was the custom of some heathen nations, to bring their sacrifices to the altars, crowned with garlands; these thorns were the garlands with which this great Sacrifice was crowned.

[6.] these thorns, it is likely, fetched blood from his blessed head, which trickled down his face, like the previous ointment (typifying the blood of Christ with which he consecrated himself) upon the head, which ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard . Thus, when he came to espouse to himself his love, his dove, his undefiled church, his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night , Cant. v. 2 .

In regard to Christ being striped naked Henry wrote:

They stripped him, v. 28 . The shame of nakedness came in with sin (Gen. iii. 7 ); and therefore Christ, when he came to satisfy for sin, and take it away, was made naked, and submitted to that shame, that he might prepare for us white raiment, to cover us, Rev. iii. 18 .

]]> http://historiasalutis.com/2009/04/21/the-biblical-theology-of-matthew-henry/feed/ 3 http://historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/ http://historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:50:07 +0000 Camden Bucey http://www.historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/ Read more→]]> We’re full into March and every baseball fan knows what time of year it is.  Furthermore, this is an especially wonderful time of year for true Cub fans.  We have especially elevated spirits and look forward to another potential championship year.  And it’s been especially feverish for that last few.  The 2003 season had a significant impact on the mind of those who frequent Wrigley Field.  Now we have "real" hope.  We have a front office willing to spend money to bring a championship to the North Side of Chicago for the first time since 1908.  We have a fighting chance to reverse the curse.  We’ve all heard that phrase with the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2005 Chicago White Sox (I’m getting sick) World Series wins.  The Cubs have won the division two years in a row, and the delusional Wrigley Faithful are looking forward to another season.

As amazing as a Chicago Cubs "curse" reversal would be, what about the curse of the Fall?  We all live under the curse of corruption and death due to the failure to be obedient under the covenant of works.  What does the Bible say about reversing the curse?  Actually, Scripture is very forthright in demonstrating how God will reverse the effects of the fall in the new heavens and new earth.

The blessing and curses of the covenant are spelled out in Deuteronomy 28.  Interestingly, the picture of the new heavens and new earth in Isaiah 65 are very similar, though they show the reversal of the curses.  This blessing to the people of God is rooted in Genesis 3:15 and later in Genesis 12 with the promise to Abraham.  At the heart of the blessing of Abraham is the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  Considered in terms of a prophetic perspective, we get a strong indication of the deep connection between Acts 2 and Genesis 12.  What takes place in Genesis 12 is in redemptive response to the Babel confusion of Genesis 11.  So what takes place in the day of Pentecost as the people hear others speaking an intelligible gospel in their own language is the eschatological initiation of the reversal of the confusion.  We have an eschatological advance on God reversing the curse.

So, God blesses Adam and Eve with at least two children, as we see in the first half of chapter 4. But these two brothers do not work out well. There is sibling rivalry here: Cain rose up against his brother Abel and slew him. Killed him in cold blood.

Now, you can imagine the devastation of Adam and Eve. Even now, they are seeking the promised offspring. “Where is this child in whom we have placed our hope?” Is it Cain? It can’t be Cain because he has shown himself to be on the side of the evil one, of the tempter. He has shown himself to be a heal bitter, the wounder of his brother. If anything, Cain is of the line of the serpent. No, Cain is not the one.

And no, Abel is not him either. Abel, now being dead, is rendered unable to raise up his wounded heal and crush anyone. Abel is named appropriately, for his name means “temporary”, “meaningless”, “insignificant”. No; Abel’s life is only for a time. He dies childless. Thus, neither he nor his offspring will represent the line which will lead to the promised devil-slaying child.

And so, here in our passage for today we are told about the lineage of Cain. And we see a distinct lineage. A lineage which is well marked. A lineage which is well characterized for us here. There is doubt in your mind, is there not, over what this heritage will be all about? Cain, we are told, knew his wife.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. From where did Cain get his wife? After all, no other children of Adam and Eve are reported here. This has made some speculate that there were other humans other than Adam and Eve kicking around on earth from even before they were created. But this is nonsense. We are told that Eve is the mother of all the living. In the New Testament, we are told that Adam represented all of the human race in the original covenant. No, there are no other humans around at this time. We are left to infer from the text, then, that Cain marries one of his own siblings. Was that an immoral thing at the time? Well, the text doesn’t say. But the text isn’t concerned at this point with the morality – or the lack thereof – of marrying your sister. In fact, the law against marrying within your own immediate family won’t come until much later in redemptive history. Thus, our text is concerned with the promised seed. Where is the seed? From whose lineage will he come?

From here we are told about the heritage of Cain. And as we might suspect, it is not pretty. No, in fact, we are appropriately disgusted. Cain and his wife have Enoch. And Enoch and Cain are city dwellers. The first city is built, we are told. The line of Cain is a line of urbanites. They will be the cultured ones. They will be the sophisticated ones. Enoch fathers Irad, and Irad Mehujael, and Mehujael will father Methushael. And then, Methushael will father the imfamous Lamech.

In a chapter of so many firsts: the first murder, the first city, we now have the first polygamist. Lamech – wicked, wicked Lamech – takes for himself two wives. He breaks the pattern. Not even Cain had two wives! No, God made man male and female in his image. Humanity images God in this – that humanity is procreated through the union of one man and one woman. Not one man and two women, not one woman and two men! Not one man and one man, not one woman and one woman. But one man and one woman. And here Lamech breaks with what is the natural, God-made, order of things.

And, so we see, Lemech takes for himself two wives. Through the first wife, Adah, we are told that the first livestock herders are formed. They are the ones who will live in tents. But Adah also gave birth to Jubal who would form a great legacy – a musical one. In this chapter of firsts, we have the first farmers and the first musicians. Cultured and cultivating, this family of Cain’s is a family and lineage of movers and shakers- cultural transformationalists. In fact, Lamech’s other wife, Zillah, gives birth to a son. Would this be the son of Eve we’ve all been waiting for? Would this be the promised son from God? Would this be the seed from heaven? No, this would not be the one. Tubal-cain is productive. He too is a mover and shaker. He too is practical, and pragmatically minded. He is sophisticated and cultured. He is a tool maker. Every city needs workers of iron and bronze to build. Tubal-cain is this man. He is a seed of the earth, an earthly-minded man. A man who wants to redeem culture. He builds, he shapes, he makes. He knows how to make a difference.

But in v. 23 we see that Lamech is a poet. He speaks about his sin, in poetic fashion. Murder is made beautiful. Lamech kills the one who wounds. He murders the young man who strikes him. In this way, he sounds like the promised son. A son, a young man strikes at him, and Lamech crushes in return. But no, this is no righteous killing. And he knows it. He invokes the vow of protection which the Lord rendered unto Cain for himself. If murderous Cain would be killed and his murder avenged seven times, then – declares Lamech – if someone murders him, he will be avenged even more so – seventy-seven times! What arrogance! At least with Cain, his protection was divinely declared. Here, Lamech proclaims, he declares, he preaches his own word rather than the Word of the Lord.

But now, in v. 25, we get a break. We are brought back in time. Vv. 17-24 took us up afield in history. Now, we go back. We go back again to Adam and Eve. Greiving Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve who have just lost their Able. But they have not lost their ability! No, they are fertile as ever. Adam knows Eve again; and this time she gives birth to a son: Seth (v. 25). Ah!  What a joy this baby brings to Eve! God has given to her another offspring! Another opportunity, another reason to hope that the promise of God will come true. After all, if Abel’s name means temporary or breath – representative of that which is here today and gone tomorrow – then Seth’s name means foundation (elsewhere translated “buttocks!”). It denotes that which is stable and permanent. You see, there is good reason for Eve to rejoice.

Indeed, the news only gets better in v. 26. There we are told that Seth begets a son named Enosh. And we are told this is the time in which people began to call upon the name of the Lord. In this way, then, Seth’s lineage stands over and against that of Cain’s. And we begin to see a dichotomy form in humanity. We begin to see an antithesis form. On the one hand there is the cultured, socially renovating, relevant city builders. They are earthly minded, and good at what they do. Cain’s line with their this-worldly perception are concerned to call upon their own name. Wicked Lamech, with his mind on the things below, proclaims his own name and declares his earthly life protected from all revenge. Lamech refuses to lose his life, that he might find it.

But Seth becomes the foundation for a heritage that is altogether other-worldly. The city of Seth has foundations, for its architect and builder is God. This heritage does not call upon their own name, but they call upon the name of the Lord. The Lord God, and he alone, is their God. And, in fact, this lineage would be the lineage of promise. This is the side of the antithesis which trusts not in works, but in the promise. For this is the lineage which will lead to Noah and his family. And that family will produce the lineage of Abraham. And Abraham will have two children, only one of which will be the seed of the promise. It is not Ishmael, of course, for he is the son of human works and cultural relevance. No, the antithesis will continue here between those who trust in their works versus those who trust in God’s unconditional electing love. See, Ishamel and his heritage will build great civilizations like Lamech’s line. But it will be through Isaac that the promise will come. Through Isaac will come Jacob and all of Israel. And from Israel will come David who will call upon the name of the Lord. And from David will come fulfillment of the promise, the greater David – David’s Son and David’s Lord – King Jesus.

And in King Jesus the true offspring – of every tribe, nation, and tongue – a great multitude will be made to call upon the name of the Lord. Is it not remarkable? Jerusalem is half a world away and Jesus lived there nearly 2000 years ago. And yet, God has made for himself a people in the line of Seth to call upon his name here in America. Even we who have been united to Christ by faith alone – the people of God! And not just us, but all those who have been gathered into the church by the faithful preaching of the Word! Descendents of Seth – not according to the flesh, but the Spirit – are being made even today. As our missionaries go out to the furtherest corners of the earth, the great antithesis continues as the lineage of Seth grows and spreads and sinners are join by faith alone to Jesus Christ, the offspring of Eve who has crushed the head of the devil’s son!

And so, the antithesis continues this day. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Of whose lineage are you? Are you of the earth, of the man of the dust? Are you of the world, enraptured with all of its Cain-ish and Lamechean glory? Do you call upon your own name, and the works of your own hands? Or, are you heavenly-minded, calling upon the name of the Lord – knowing that without that name which is above every name – you have no hope in the world?

And lastly, of what heritage will the church be? Will she be of the earth, awed by the worldly, cultural, social, technological advance and transformation? Or will we be those who seek a better country, a heavenly one? Will we daily seek that city of Seth, that urban metropolis whose architect and builder is God? Will we be a people of the man of the dust, or be of the Man from heaven? Will we idolize man made cultural endeavors, with all of its prestige and worldly reputation? Or, will we not serve mammon, but rather seek the face of Jesus – the author and consummator of our faith? Will you lose your life here on earth, that you might find it hidden with God in Christ in the heavenly places? Or will you seek to save your own life through blood revenge and self-preservation as you labor, sweat, and toil in a dog-eat-dog world? May we be truly disciples of Christ, in the line of Seth, living as children of the promise in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.  Maintain the antithesis!

Amen.