Who Did Cain Marry? & The Mystery of Enoch (Genesis 4-5 Bible Study)

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has taught home-style Bible classes for twenty years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting, people say, the time seems to fly by. And now, here's Les Feldick. Okay, let's pick up again where we left off last week, and that was in Genesis, chapter 4, and we'll start back at verse 16. Again, just for a word of review, we want to remember that Cain, after murdering his brother Abel, continued to be rebellious, and he leaves the very presence of the Lord, in other words, has nothing more to do with him. I think, and I haven't made it plain before, I think perhaps after Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, you remember it said back there in chapter 3 that God placed angels at the gate of the garden with flaming swords reaching each way. I would agree with those who maintain that this was probably the place where they met the Lord with their sacrifices. It was probably a designated place that if they would come to this area of the angelic gatekeepers with their sacrifice, that's where the Lord met. Well, anyway, Cain just totally removes himself from any contact with God. He goes out from the presence of the Lord, it says in verse 16, and he begins to build a civilization. Now, the question, of course, came up after our last study, well, who does Cain marry? Well, it's obvious, and that is these early families, married sisters, and then gradually they married cousins, they married next of kin. Now, that sounds awful to us, but you want to remember back here at the beginning of human history, the physical makeup, the gene makeup was so pure, it was so perfect, that there wasn't any problem with intermarriage of next of kin. In fact, all through the Scriptures until almost, I think, up until well after the time of Abraham, even Abraham himself, remember, married a half-sister. And it wasn't until sometime later that God put a taboo on close relatives marrying, or even as we would use the term, incest, because by now, you see, the gene pool had degenerated to such a place that it was causing genetic problems. But don't have any problem with that back here at the dawn of the human race, because they were so pure, their gene pool, as we would use the term, was so perfect that it didn't cause any problem whatsoever. So they married sisters, and like I said, then cousins and what have you. All right, well, verse 17, Cain now then takes a wife from the sons and daughters, as we'll see in Genesis chapter 5. You want to remember, Adam and Eve had far more children than Cain and Abel, all right? So he knew his wife, and she conceived and bear Enoch, and as we pointed out in our closing remarks, they built a city. They didn't become cave dwellers, and they weren't uncivilized wild people, but rather they immediately began with the very—I call it the very core of civilization, because the first thing humans do when they're civilized is they congregate together, and they form communities. And so they built a city, and they called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. All right, then verse 18, now as these families are beginning to enlarge, and as I've said earlier, you want to remember that sometimes with just a punctuation mark, a comma or a colon, we skip over many, many years of time. So this isn't all happening in just 12 or 24 months. There's a lot of time going by, because you want to remember, how long did Adam live? 939 years. Now, that's almost a thousand years. See, we can't comprehend that. And in that period of time, Adam and Eve continued to have sons and daughters. Their children lived that long and had sons and daughters. And again, the race is so pure, there was very little death by sickness or disease, and so they were profound in their populating the earth. All right, now you come on down to verse 20, where it says, Ada bared Jabal, and he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of those that have cattle. Now there you've got your domestic animals, you've got livestock production, you've got ranching in full bloom. Now you've already got people living in a city. Now like I said last week, we're not talking New York or Chicago, but nevertheless they're living in a fairly good number of people in a concentrated area. But out over the countryside now, there are those who are beginning to raise herds of livestock. All right? Now we're on to verse 21. His brother's name was Jubal, and he was the father of all such as handled the harp and the organ. Now what have we got? Music! Musicians! And I always say this isn't the little old kindergarten tonette that most of us learned our first four or five notes on. These were the complicated instruments, the harp and the organ. And so everything is coming together now. We've got city dwellers, we've got livestock people, we've got music, and along with the music I will just put in all of the aspects of culture. Now let's read on again to verse 22. And Zillah, she also bare to Buccain, an instructor or a craftsman of every artificer in brass and iron. Now again, you go back to secular history and the evolutionists, and they maintain that the human race didn't know anything of the metals until way, way down the line. Well here we are at the very dawn of human history, according to the biblical account, where they were already mining the ore and what have you, the metallurgy that they could put brass together and their iron. Now, what are they beginning to do with it? They're manufacturing. They're beginning to produce things made with these metals. Now put all that together and what have you got? You've got a civilization beginning to bloom, it's beginning to grow, and its technology is going to explode. Now when I say explode, all I have to do is call to your mind how much of what we take for granted today was evident, well, let's go back just before World War II. Most of us are old enough to remember that far back. From 1940 on up to where we are, the last 50 years, do you realize what an explosion of technology we've experienced? Just in 50 years? I read here not too long ago that something like 80 percent of the items that are in your supermarket tonight were unknown in 1945, just after World War II. So if we look at a period of time from Adam to the flood of over 1,600 years, and they're starting out this well, can you imagine what they had by the time we get to Noah's flood? And I usually shock people when we get to Genesis chapter 6, and I'm not going to go into it in detail now, but I make the comment, and I have not had to retract it yet, that is, the technology and the lifestyle of the pre-flood people, and I mean just before the flood, was equal to or surpassed where we are tonight. And there's evidence. There's a little paperback book, I wish I could remember the author's name, but the title of the book, and I imagine you could find it someplace, is We're Not the First. It's just a little paperback. He is certainly not a Bible believer, and he writes all of his information, just what he's gathered from archaeology and everything, and he shows ample proof that at some point in our human history, there were people who had space travel, they knew air travel, they had tremendous technology, they had computers, they had the storage battery that we use in our cars, they had even found replicas of the internal combustion spark plug. Well, now we know that none of that has been evident since the flood, so it had to be before the flood, and I put it in this civilization. In this kinetic civilization, there was a literal explosion of knowledge and technology. Now why can I say that? Number one, Adam was a perfect human being. He had a mind that would probably just blow hours. His children were not that much below him, and then on top of that tremendous intelligence, look at all the years they had to use it, 900 and some years. And I've made this analogy for people. What if Einstein, who died at the age of 90 or 91, if I remember correctly, what if Einstein could have lived to the age of 900? Can you imagine what that mind would have produced? Or an Edison? Or any of these great men that have been responsible for so much of our time? What if they could have lived 10 times longer than they did? Can you see what would have happened? And that's what you've got here. You've got people with tremendous intelligence, but they had 900 years of time to use it. And so I stick by my guns that there was a tremendous technology on the scene by the time we come to the Flood. But always remember, where were these people spiritually? Out there in utter darkness. Without God, it's a satanic-inspired civilization. All right, look at our own. Now am I getting hot water? I hope not. Look at our own. All the things that man is accomplishing, and we enjoy all of it, but really, how much of it is to glorify God? Now when I talk about our technology, I'm talking about our transportation facilities, our air travel. Look at our technology in the war, our smart bombs and what have you. Is God the architect of all that? Why no. And you always have to remember that Satan will promote anything. He'll promote a beautiful city park. He'll promote a beautiful work of architect. He'll promote anything as long as it keeps men's eyes and hearts from God. Never forget that. And so this is Satan's domain tonight. The world is his, and I pointed that out a few weeks ago when at the temptations with the Lord Jesus back there in Matthew chapter 4. And when Satan offered the kingdoms of this world, if he would fall down and worship him, was he sincere? Sure he was. They were his to offer. They won't always be, but tonight he is still the God of this world. All right. This kinetic civilization then is driven by the very forces of Satan. Now, if this will help you understand this a little better, what was the state of this great civilization by the time we get to Noah's flood? Oh, in spite of all their intelligence and all their technology, where had they gone morally and spiritually? Rock bottom. And that tells you again who was driving it. Satan was. All right. So now then, let's come on down to verse 23. And here I think, if I'm not mistaken, we have the first instance now then of multiple wives, what we call polygamy. And Lamech said unto his ... what's the word? Wives. See? It's the first time. Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding. Now, you know what he's really saying? I have killed a man who was trying to kill me. He killed in self-defense, we would call it today. And a young man to my hurt. In other words, someone who was trying to attack him. Verse 24, if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. Now I can't put a lot on that except to say that here again, there was no human government or a system of justice to maintain law and order. Now by the time we get to chapter 6, which may be yet in these next few moments, but I doubt it, we're going to see that the thing that I think came before the heart of God more than anything else in that pre-flood civilization was the murder. They were killing each other just left and right. We're seeing just a little bit of that in our own society today, aren't we? Every newscast, what do we hear? Murder. On every hand. I read way back, I think it was in the middle 70s, and at that time Detroit, Michigan was the murder capital of the country. It's changed now, you know, it's Washington, D .C. But at that time, some statistician had put together a set of numbers that a baby born in Detroit in 19, I think it was 75, 76, somewhere back in there, but a baby born in Detroit at that period in time had something like a 1 in 3 or a 1 in 4 chance of being murdered before he was 25. I mean, we just can't comprehend this. But that's exactly what happened here in this pre-flood civilization. They had a tremendous society. They were just going like crazy. And as Jesus refers to it in, I think it's in Luke's Gospel, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of the Man. For in the days of Noah they what? They ate, they drank, they married, they gave in marriage, they builded, they were busy as a colony of ants. You know, every time I go through a metropolitan area, even now, whether we're in recession or whether we're not in recession, what do you see? Build, build, build. Every place you look, they're putting in new highways, they're building new high-rise. Hey, this is where we're at, as it was in the days of Noah. So, if you've ever had the idea that the pre-flood civilization were cave dwellers, I hope you'll forget it. These people had everything going for them. They were living in cities. They had manufacturing, they had music, they had culture, they had livestock production. And remember, I said in, I think, the other half-hour lesson, whenever you've got a society living in a city environment, you've got services, and you've got just as many people working in areas of service as you do in production. All right, so now let's leave that kinetic civilization for just a moment and go on now then to verse 25, and God is going to pick up and bring on the scene a replacement for the spiritual man that was murdered, a replacement for Abel. Now, again, I imagine Satan thought he had already licked God before things had gotten too far by removing the spiritual seed, Abel. But God is sovereign, and now He comes back to Adam and Eve once again, and they have yet another child, but again, this is a special individual because He's going to, as I've just said, replace Abel. And Adam, verse 25, knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. Now you want to remember that name because Seth, again, is the son of Adam and Eve, out of whom will come genealogically the man Noah. All right, for God, she said, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah. Now maybe we can go to the board and show what Eve had in mind when she said that God hath given her another seed. Now there comes that word again. Now remember, what we're always keeping in mind is the seed of the woman. Now as the seed came down from Adam, the next one was Abel. Abel was murdered, so God replaces him with Seth. Now through the line of Seth will come Noah, and through the line of Noah we've got the three sons of Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Then, from the line of Shem, we come right on down and we get to the man Abraham. And if I had a still larger board, we could just follow right down through Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob. And then through the twelve sons of Jacob we have the formation of the nation of Israel. And then through the nation of Israel, the line of King David. David's son Solomon. And then the genealogy falls all the way through until we come to the birth of the Messiah. Now that's all based on that word in Genesis 3.15, the what? The seed of the woman. And God keeps it all the way through. Now, this is why I just can't comprehend men who claim to be students of the Bible, lettered men, theologians, and they can't comprehend this. And they try to tell the world that the Bible is not entirely the word of God, and they tell the world that Christ never claimed to be God. Well, the whole idea of Scripture is that beginning with the seed of the woman, beginning with Eve, and through this godly line, it would all end up with the coming of the Christ, the Redeemer, in whom, as he told Abraham, would all the families of the earth be blessed. And it's so evident if we can just search the Scriptures. Well, in the few moments that we have left, let's go on into chapter 5, verse 1. Now, this is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female he created them, blessed them, and called their name Adam. And remember we referred to that in one of our earlier lessons. And the days of Adam after he'd begotten Seth were 800 years, and he begat—singular or plural? Plural. Sons and daughters. And we have no idea how many children Adam and Eve had just between the two of them. All right, verse 5. And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years. But what caught up with him? Death. Remember when we were back in chapter 3, and we said that when he ate of that forbidden fruit, he died spiritually immediately, but physically the seeds of death began. And even though he lived 939 years, yet that finally caught up with him, and Adam, too, died. All right, now let's move on down. We can get ready for the flood on our next lesson, hopefully. We come through the line of Seth. Now we don't have to concern ourselves with every one of these, because I've already shown you the Scripture is so explicit in how the seed of the woman would finally come on the scene, and how Israel's Messiah would come through that godly line. Even though you've got Cain over here, yet now we're going to pick up the godly line of Seth, who takes Abel's place. And again, as before, we had the genealogy of Cain and that civilization back here in chapter 4, verses 16 to 25. Now we pick up the genealogy of the spiritual man, Seth. Verse 6. Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos. You come down through all these gentlemen, and who they have, and their sons, and so on and so forth. And then you come down to verse 22, Enoch, who was the father of Methuselah, the man who lived the longest of any of them. Enoch, the father of Methuselah, verse 22, walked with God after he had begotten Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. But Enoch walked with God, and now there's a repetition again from verse 22, and again in verse 23, 24 rather. Enoch walked with God, and he was not. For what happened? God took him. In other words, Enoch was here one moment and gone the next, and we have no record that he died. He was, I think, a beautiful picture in type. Now I've said before, and I'll say it again, there is nothing explicitly spoken in the Old Testament about the church. But I have to feel that this is a picture in type of what's going to happen to the church just before judgment falls. Now the judgment that's about to fall here, of course, is the flood. And just shortly before the judgment of the flood, this godly representative, Enoch, is suddenly translated. He's taken out. And Enoch, believe it or not, left us some tremendous prophecy before he left the scene. And go back with me to the book of Jude, the little letter just in front of Revelation. And I think most of you are well aware, and even those of you who have been watching us on television are aware, that I certainly believe in the imminent return of Christ for his body, the church, the true believers. And as I've already spoken, the event of Enoch's translation, I think, is a picture in type of the church being suddenly snatched away the same way Enoch was. But I'd like to point out this man, Enoch, how he prophesied of things that are approaching, I think, even our own day and time. Verse 14 of the little book of Jude, And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his... Not angels, but what? Saints. The Lord's going to return with his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. But the thing I want to point out is that this man, Enoch, who was translated just shortly before the judgment of the flood, was able to leave the prophetic statement that Christ is going to return with the ten thousands of his saints. Well, the first thing I have to say is, how can he return with the saints unless he takes them out first? And so the whole concept of our chronology is that the Lord will take the church out one day, we think rather soon. We never put a date on it, but I've got a minute left, so turn with me to Revelation chapter 3, because a question came up in our class last night. Will the church, will the body of Christ go into the tribulation? And I maintain we will not, no more than Enoch went into the flood. All right, and it's in chapter 3, in the letter to the Philadelphians, who were the true believers, I think, representative of all true believers, and to them in verse 10 the Lord Jesus says, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of testing, temptation in the King James, that shall come upon all the world. Now, the only time that that would fit is the tribulation, but the Lord Jesus is promising the true believer that we will be kept from that hour of awful testing that's going to come upon all the world. So if we're a believer tonight, we can rest and take hope that one day soon we're going to be snatched away in his presence. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.