The Origin of Society

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2019 · 24 February 2019

Well, let's continue in Genesis 4. What I'm concerned about is getting the meaning here and digging out the riches of what is available in this text. When we come to Genesis 4:17-22, we come to a theme, the origin of society. And while on the surface the text may appear to be isolated, it is strictly informational. It is the story of civilization, the story of society, the story of man in his development in human history.

And that unique era of human history is called “pre-flood”. Or as scholars call it, the "antediluvian" society," that is, the civilization on the world before the flood. Now when we come into Genesis 6, 7, and 8, we're going to be looking at the universal flood. God sent a flood which covered the entire earth, and it drowned all humanity with the exception of eight people.

Therefore, the only history we have of the earth pre-flood, is in Genesis 4. It is therefore an important portion of Scripture. If we want to understand this part of the saga of man - then we have to understand Genesis 4, because it is the only record of the antediluvian society or the pre-flood civilization. Here then is God's Word, the only account of the first civilization that is available.

Now, prior to the flood, the world was very different from now. And we will learn more about it when we study the flood, but there was essentially no weather pattern. There was no wind, no rain and no snow. The terrain had more flat land surfaces. The climate was mild and warm. There was an abundance of plants and animals covering the earth, and it was an even environment with no natural disasters.

We also know about this pre-flood time because we have a Genesis 5 genealogy from Adam to Noah starting in verse 1 all the way to verse 32. That is the pre-flood genealogy of the line of Seth. We learn from that genealogy that people lived long lives for 1600 years. Adam himself lived 930 years, and Methuselah lived for 969 years. God planned for people to live very long lives.

We know because it's repeated in the genealogy of Genesis 5, that they had sons and daughters. We do not know how many sons and daughters 900-year-old people could have. But they could certainly be having many children. A good guess into the lifespan of Cain, who lived 800 years that the earth was populated with millions of people. In 1600 years, you could have approximately 7 billion people on earth.

The earth was different with a mild environment. In the early generation, all marriages at first were brother-sister marriages. Before the flood, there was purity in the human genetic system. And in its bloodstream were very few mutant genes. That's one of the reasons they lived so long. The first created microorganisms were beneficial to assist life in that first great age span.

People then would be stronger than we could ever imagine. You have to be very strong to live 900 years. They would be very healthy with resistance to disease and aging. They would be very intelligent and skilled. Can you imagine doing something for 600 years? So here is a society that's very creative, productive, strong, healthy and very intelligent. But because of the curse there is a decline in every aspect of life.

We are getting weaker physically. We are supported now by certain scientific inventions in the area of medicine; but generally, the law of entropy works, and matter breaks down. The people then were more intelligent and stronger and they lived in a far more benign and congenial environment. This pre-flood time was an amazing golden age where God provided many blessings.

Even though the world could be populated by millions of people, by the time the flood came and destroyed them all, the Holy Spirit choose to build the history focused on two families. The family of Cain and the family of Seth. Both of them were sons of Adam. So we are talking about the first family now in Genesis 4:16-24, we see the story of Cain's family; and in verses 25-26, we see Seth's family.

So the contrast here is between two families. Now God is teaching that to us because truthfully there are still only two families in the world today. There is the secular family, and there is the sacred family. And that's the way it's always been. There are only two families from the divine perspective on the planet. And Cain and Seth model for us the secular family and the sacred family.

The line of Cain is evil. And that line is illustrated by Lamech. The line of Seth is good. And that line is illustrated by both Enosh in Genesis 4 and Enoch in the Genesis 5. And so we are seeing God divide all of humanity. There is the secular, the material, the rebellious, and evil culture; and there is the sacred, spiritual, worshipping, and righteous culture. And those coexist until the end of time.

Secular culture is a provision from God for man's life. It is a common grace. God has given man all things richly to enjoy on this astonishingly rich planet. The earth itself is so full of riches that it never ceases to amaze us. We can draw out of the earth all of the materials that we use to build things and to produce fabrics, from natural products all the way to metals and jewels.

In Genesis 4 you are before the flood and the whole shape of the earth has been so dramatically changed after that such that man at his best archeological efforts can't really reconstruct what life was like then. But his creativity would be beyond anything we can imagine; and they developed a sophisticated culture in 1600 years. And there is no caveman chewing raw flesh. And there never has been any evolution.

Verse 16, "Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." Cain rejected God. He refused to believe in the true and living God as his God. He loved his sin; he did not want forgiveness of sins. He didn't want to obey God, he didn't want to acknowledge God; he was an apostate. He was a doomed man full of self-righteousness.

He chose to do everything he could to avoid God. That's why in verse 16 to 26, you never read anything about God. God had no place in the line of Cain. God has no place in secular culture. So he is the first of the doomed sinners who refuses God's forgiveness. Somewhere along the line, Cain married. Because verse 17 says he had relations with his wife. And he married his sister.

Now notice Genesis 5:4, “The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters." So there were plenty of children in his family - more sons, and more daughters from which Cain could choose his wife. So Cain got married. I don't know how easy it was for him to convince one of his sisters to marry him, because, after all he had murdered Abel.

So verse 17 says, “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.” The genealogy shows how sin disqualified Cain's line as the people of blessing. But even Cain had the joy of a marriage. Cain had the privilege of having children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Cain's genealogy here consists of eleven names through seven generations, from Adam to Lamech. It ends with Lamech's four children. In Genesis 5 there is Seth's line covering 10 generations - from Adam to Noah, and ends with Noah's three sons. Cain's line begins with this name Enoch in verse 17. This is not the same Enoch as the Enoch of Genesis 5:22. That Enoch is in the line of Seth.

So, Cain finds a wife and begins his family. Even early on there was an understanding of the legality of marriage. Their child is Enoch, or Hanoch, which means, "dedicate." It can mean, "to initiate," or "to inaugurate," something that is new; something that is inaugural. And there are at least three others named Hanoch, or Enoch, in the Book of Genesis.

Verse 17 continues, "His wife conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city." Actually the Hebrew text is better translated, "he was building a city." And the best interpretation of the "he" refers to Cain. Why was he building a city? Didn't God tell him that he was going to spend his life wandering? Some Hebrew scholars said that the idea here is that he started to build a city.

"City" is a general Hebrew is a word that means, "a complex of dwellings." It could be made out of anything; it could be any size, large or small. He was trying to erect a place to settle down in. The indication of the Hebrew is that he couldn't succeed at it; because he finally gave up and called the name of the city "Enoch," or the name of the complex after the name of his son.

So it is here that you have the beginning of urbanization. It is here that you have the beginning of culture developing. As Cain's first son Enoch finishes a town. This is very important. There was no evolution of society here. There was Adam, his son Cain, and his grandson Enoch. And Enoch is the father of the first town. They're already building a society by the third generation.

Now the next verse identifies four subsequent generations: the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh - all in verse 18, "Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech." Those were just the first born mentioned in the next sequence of generations. You can be sure Cain and his wife had more generations.

So now we have a town and we have a son, who is a townsman. So we have the beginning of business. A society is already beginning to operate within the framework of a town. This is beyond the agriculture of Cain and those like him. This is beyond the tending of sheep of those who were following what Abel did. This is dwelling in the town; they are the city dweller.

And now comes the climax of the genealogy of Cain in the man Lamech. And verse 19 tells us his story. "And Lamech took to himself two wives." Man did not evolve into monogamy. The original design of God was monogamy - one man, one woman for life. In Genesis 2:24, a man and a woman cleave to each other; they leave their parents. From the beginning, and it's reaffirmed all through Scripture.

Lamech is evidence of a decline, not an evolution. You get into the seventh generation from Adam - Cain is still alive at this time; and still in the lifetime of Adam, who lived to be 930 years. Adam sees everything right on down, even to the birth of Noah. Adam actually could see what was coming, because this massively populated world was so corrupt and sinful.

Now Lamech was not the only bigamist. This just illustrates the direction society was going. And then the full comment comes in Genesis 6 where God says, "I looked at the world and it was all evil, and only evil continually." But here is where the recorded illustration of the corruption of marriage takes place. Lamech took to himself two wives, and Abraham and Jacob did too.

Abraham could not wait on God, so he decides to take to himself Hagar the handmaid and have a relationship with her. And you know the result if you go outside God's design for marriage. He has a sexual relationship with Hagar; out of that comes Ishmael, and out of Ishmael come the Arabs, who today are a severe problem in the life of Israel, and have always been.

Jacob also takes two wives, Leah and Rachel; and disaster upon disaster occurs in his family. David also took several wives, and it leads to nothing but total chaos, disaster, heartache, sin in his life. And look at Solomon, who had 700 marriages and 300 concubines. Wherever you see bigamy, or polygamy in Scripture, it brings conflict, sorrow and devastation to families.

Lamech also married two women, Adah and Zillah. These two wives gave Lamech at least four children, three boys and a girl. From its original agriculture, combined with an urban society now develops even further. Verse 20-21, “Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.”

Jabal was the original cattle rancher. This includes all animals that would be domesticated. If you lived hundreds of years and you had people who worked with you who lived hundreds of years; and you went through millions of animals in those years. You would learn about the milk of animals, the hide of animals, and well as the meat of animals. Jabal was the original meat–eater.

Jubal was the father of music. Can you imagine our world with no music? Music is a wonderful blessing to our world, isn't it? God doesn't have to provide a secular world with the beauties of music, but He does. Jubal was given the gift of music. And then he also invented instruments to play it. The word "lyre" is an old kind of harp; but in Hebrew it’s a violin.

Verse 22, “Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.” And how do you make all kinds of things out of bronze and iron? It takes a genius to do that. Metallurgy is a skill of great science. Developing metallurgy, using bronze and iron is a very difficult science that commanded great power and wisdom.

Evolution divides human history into the Stone Age, which is 100,000 B.C. to 4000 B.C. Then comes the Shalcolific Age, from 4,000 B.C. to 3,200 B.C. Then the Bronze Age, from 3,200 B.C. to 1,200 B.C. Then the Iron Age from 1,200 B.C. to 330 B.C. But here are people who did it all. There was just one period, lasting about 1600 years, in which they worked with stone, bronze, iron and made music and developed cities.

Genesis shows there was no evolution. All the elements of civilization, culture, society, and modern life, urbanization, agriculture, animal domestication, industrialization, entertainment all developed in the first seven generations from Adam even before Cain died. However, alongside culture, sin was developing as well. And there is no mention here of God because it was a secular culture. Next week we will study Seth’s culture. Let’s pray.