And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD. . . . Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed. . . . But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. . . .Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Genesis 4: 25, 26; 5: 28, 29; 6: 8, 9, 22, NKJV.
Dear Heavenly Parent, We rejoice in Your “grace that is greater than all our sins.” O help us LORD, to extend the grace that You have granted unto us, to others. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
Today, the Lord opened my eyes to the flow of grace in chapters four through six of Genesis! Chapter four begins with a terrible tragedy – Cain kills his brother Abel. As a parent, who have never experienced anything like this, you do not even want to imagine what Adam and Eve must have felt! The world is still in its nascent stage. Sin is still being introduced, as it were, into a perfect world. The knowledge of evil that was never intended for the human family is showing its ugly head. I imagine poor Adam and Eve, bearing not only the unspeakable pain of losing a child, but the almost unbearable guilt, knowing that they have opened this Pandora box.
But thanks be to God – somehow, somewhere, by some divine act of “amazing grace”, Cain knows that even “before the foundation of the world” (1Pter 1: 20) a Lamb was provided! So we hear the first murderer uttering the first prayer in the Bible! “And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me” ‘ ” (Genesis 4: 13, 14). Then comes the second response of grace (the first is found in Genesis 3: 15), to humanity’s dillema of sin:
And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him” (15). God not only speaks grace to Cain, He touches him with it, by putting a mark on him. I have heard so much speculation concerning the nature of that mark! I just like to think that the blood of the Lamb “foreordained before the foundation of the world,” was applied to that destitute soul. Grace abounded!
Sin has a terrible way of multiplying itself. In the same chapter four of Genesis, Lamech also says a man, and though we do not hear a prayer of repentance, but instead a boast of defiance, “. . . I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold” (23b, 24), nonetheless, chapter four ends on a note of victory: ” Then men began to call on the name of the LORD” (26b). And by the time we get to chapter five, we find the “amazing grace” of our Gracious God, at work in the life of Lamech:
“Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed” (5: 28, 29). The name Noah means rest. I do not know how old Lamech was when he slew that man, but by the time he was one hundred and eighty-two years, he seemed to have been tired of the results of sin, and sought rest – true rest – before he died (31). This rest comes only through the abundant grace of God!
Thank God, that in the midst of all the tragedy and evil that exists, God’s grace is constantly searching for sinners. Noah came on the scene, and God’s grace found him! “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” When we find grace in God’s eyes, it is because His grace has already found us! Though chapter six begins on a very low note, it ends in victory: “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (22). Because “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5: 20b).