A Light in the Darkness (Genesis 4:17-26)

Have you ever been in total darkness,

so dark that you could not see a thing right in front of you? That is... uncomfortable? Frightening? However you might describe it, unless we are purposely needing darkness - like to get over a migraine headache, or to develop film, or when observing the stars, or when we want to cover up some behavior -we don't exactly prefer darkness. What's the first thing we do when we walk into a dark room?

We turn on a light.

I read a story recently about a guy who lived in Germany and went on a camping trip in the Black Forest.

While living in Germany, I had the fortune of going camping in the black forest. I found out quickly why they call it the black forest. When the sun goes down it is pitch black and you can barely see your hand in front of your face.

We had just finished setting up camp and I had to run back out to the car to grab my backpack, which was about a mile away. As soon as I started to trek back to the campsite the sun went down and before I knew it I had no idea which way was what. I was lost. After a small panic attack, I calmed myself and started to walk very slowly in the direction of where I thought the camp and my friends were. Just a few moments later I noticed a very small light peering out into the dark. It was like a lighthouse for me. I set my course to walk directly toward the light. The closer I got the brighter the light, and before I knew it I walked back into the campground to see that my friends had set a lantern in a large tree that was over our tents.

That lantern not only expelled the darkness from where we were in the forest, but it also gave us safety from the dark and was a lighthouse to find our way.

We need light to navigate in the dark. In the Bible, darkness is a powerful metaphor. Isaiah 9: 1 uses darkness to represent the spiritual condition of those who reject God. In John 3: 19, Jesus explained that evil people love darkness rather than light because they can hide their evil deeds. Second Corinthians 6: 14 teaches that there is no fellowship between light and darkness. Paul undoubtedly had in mind Genesis 1: 4, where God separated light from darkness during the creation of the world. The Apostle John described Jesus as the light shining in the darkness, which neither comprehended the light or conquered it (John 1: 5). And Paul reminded believers in Ephesus that they once were in darkness but in Christ, they were children of light (Ephesians 5:8). You get the picture: darkness represents evil; light represents God, and good.

These are not opposites. Darkness is not the opposite of light; it is the absence of light. So, evil and sin are not opposite of God and holiness; they are the absence of God and holiness.

The people that Isaiah described as walking in darkness, he wrote further, "saw a great light." Just as the camper needed a light to lead him through the thick darkness of the Black Forest, people without Christ need a light to lead them from the thick darkness of Sin to salvation. That's why Jesus said that his disciples are "the light of the world. "

What does all this talk about darkness and light have to do today with our text in Genesis 4? Let me tell you.

Our text today is a genealogy; specifically, it's the genealogy of Cain's descendants. We met Cain last Week in the first 16 verses of Genesis 4. He’s the guy who was so jealous of his brother, Abel, that he murdered him, in spite of the fact that God himself tried to intervene and warned him that his evil (dark) desire would devour him. God even told Cain that the desire, like a prowling lion, could be conquered. But Cain refused to listen to God and he killed his brother.

Consequently, God came calling to convict Cain of his sin, but Cain's heart was hard, and God sentenced him to a life of nomadic wandering on the earth. So, we are a little surprised when we turn the page and read that rather than a nomad, Cain is building a city. Rather than a lonely, miserable life, it seems, at first, that things are going pretty well for Cain and his sons and grandsons. Life looks pretty bright. However, as we read on, we discover that the darkness of sin is yet a thick shroud over Cain's descendants. Then after the summary of Cain's descendants, a bright light appears. God provided a new beginning for Adam and Eve: a light in the darkness. Maybe there is hope for the world after all. Let's explore the story.

Cain Built a City (4:17)

Somehow, this nomad found a wife, who bore him a son he named Enoch. Now, you might remember the story about a man named Enoch who was so righteous that he didn't die. Instead, he walked with God right out of this world and into heaven. That is not this Enoch. Rather than living a nomadic life, Cain settled down and built a city. Allen Ross suggests that this as a defiant act by Cain. He named the city Enoch, after his son.

What's wrong with that? It was his city? The writer of Psalm 49 informs us:

Psalm 49:10–13 (CSB): For one can see that the wise die; the foolish and stupid also pass away. Then they leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their permanent homes, their dwellings from generation to generation, though they have named estates after themselves. But despite his assets, mankind will not last; he is like the animals that perish. This is the way of those who are arrogant, and of their followers, who approve of their words.

Cain was not only defying God and building a memorial to himself, he was attempting, by his own hands, to evade the effects of the curse of sin. Later, people will assemble in the valley of Shinar, where they will build a city, and then build a tall tower in the hopes of making a name for themselves. God is never pleased with that. That is darkness.

Cain's Descendants Built a Culture (4:18-22)

As Cain's "family tree" fills out, we’re amazed. These guys were brilliant. His family free is full of great firsts! The first nomadic herdsman, the first creator of instruments and maker of music, the first artisan.

Culture is shaping up, and it looks delightful, beautifully aesthetic, full of enjoyment, and convenience. But if we pause and observe closely, something is missing. What is it?

What was the purpose of beauty? What was the reference point of music? Who did the arts reflect? Where is culture going? I'll tell you what's missing: God is missing. He is not mentioned. He is not their reference point. He is not the hero nor the audience of their songs. He is absent.

What is the absence of light? Darkness. Like their father, Cain, his sons were attempting to escape darkness by ingenuity and enterprise.

I'm not saying that culture is evil. I'm not saying that music, creativity, beauty, the arts are ungodly. I am not denying the fact that God gives humankind intelligence and skill and creativity and ingenuity. He does.

I love beautiful things. I'm amazed by craftsmanship. While visiting some friends recently, I was in awe of our friend’s artwork. Amazing paintings! I sometimes sit for an hour or two listening to music. Beautiful music often accompanies my studies; just ask Ron, Sheery, and Ernestine, who share the church office with me. But we all know that the arts, creativity, ingenuity, and enterprise, void of God, defiant of God, is very dark; and so is culture, where God is absent. What appears as light is often actually darkness.

Listen to Paul describe the false teachers in Corinth:

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 (CSB): For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

Darkness Devalues Marriage and Life (4:23-24)

When civilization and cultures advance void of God the result is the advancement of rebellion against God. This narrative of Cain's descendants gives evidence of that. We read back in Verse 19, that five generations after Cain, Lamech took two wives for himself. Three words underscore his defiance of God's ideal for Marriage: took, two, himself.

First of all, the word took is the same rub in 3: 6. where Eve "took" the forbidden fruit. As we discussed, she was taking more than fruit; she was attempting to seize divinity for herself. Lamech was, in a sense, doing the same. He was seizing what was not his.

Two. When describing marriage in 2:24, Moses wrote. "This is why a mean leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife (singular), and they (the two) become one flesh.”

Neither bigamy or polygamy are God's idea. And here, among Cain's descendants, a problem began that society would face for ages to come. Though Genesis does not directly condemn the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. ) for their practice of polygamy, the stories of their families show the painful consequences.

Marriage, as God designed, includes one man, with one woman. But it's more than that: it's being one flesh, united in godliness, love, and surrender to God and each other. But void of God, marriages have the potential of becoming very dark: abuse, infidelity, manipulation, neglect, and other forms of darkness. And in a culture that takes God out of its life, marriage becomes twisted in even more grotesque forms: same-gender marriages, open marriages, and sex without marriage.

The third word, himself, just underscores what we've discussed. Everything is built on selfish desires. Narcissism is a special kind of darkness.

Verses 23-24 also indicate that violence characterizes Cain's lineage. Lamech stands for one among many who try to break the boundaries that God lovingly laid down. He lived by the law of retaliation. Darkness carries a disdain for life.

These verses are a "taunt song." Lamech likely penned and sang it as a demonstration of his strength for the benefit of the women. He presumed upon God's provision of safety for Cain, and bragged about his own act of murder, claiming that if Cain deserved seven times God’s provision for killing his brother, he deserved more, since he killed a youth for simply striking him; in fact, he bragged, he deserved seventy-times seven.

Darkness devalues human life. That's why there is slavery, child abuse, violence, wars, oppression, and abortion. These, and more, are the fruit of darkness, an absence of God.

Here's the our main idea so far:

Though the world may pride itself in cultural and technological advances, these advances devoid of faith in God will ultimately only advance a thicker darkness —a spiritual black hole, so to speak — that sucks people away from God and into eternal death..

Yet, in a world of darkness, righteous people can preserve the light of God (4:25-26)

The chapter ends with a contrast between Cain's family and Seth's family, from whom Noah came. There were still godly people on earth. Adam and Eve are once again one flesh. Eve bears a son. She named him Seth, and in words similar to 4: 1, she displayed her faith in God.

The name Seth may mean something like "new beginning” or "foundation.” Or some say the name means "appointed” or "granted.” All these meanings point to God's Mercy; and Eve declared it. "God has given me another offspring in place of Abel" (4: 25).

Seth gave Adam and Eve a new start. God appointed him as a merciful replacement for Abel's death. God granted mercy for a foundation of faith in an otherwise faithless world.

From Seth another son was born, named Enosh. Moses writes, "At this time people began to call on the name of the Lord" (4: 26). Brilliant light pierces the darkness! Three words shed light on this statement:

I. Call: Sometimes that word in Scripture is used for reading, summoning, or praying. But the primary use is proclamation. Certainly, they were praying to God, calling out to Him to meet their every need. But Moses wants us to observe that a primary and intentional character and action of Seth and his lineage was proclamation. In their own dark corner of a godless world, wracked with pain, and violence, and rebellion, they pierced that darkness with the light of the knowledge of God. They proclaimed the name of the Lord!

2. Name: While we view name as a label, how we refer to each other, the biblical concept of name (as you probably know) refers to a person's characteristics or attributes, and their reputation. Seth and his people were making known, they were announcing and declaring, the nature and characteristics of God to those living in darkness.

3. Lord: This is the word Yahweh. This is the oldest reference to the worship of Yahweh in the Bible. That's interesting, because we usually attribute the origins of that divine name to the story of Moses and the burning bush. Remember? Moses asked, "What name do I give when people ask, 'Who sent you?'" And God answered, "I am who I am", in Hebrew, Yahweh. This means that Moses likely knew that name. It wasn’t new to him. He recognized this name as referring to the God of his ancestors, all the way back to Seth, who proclaimed that name. And it's significant, I think, that in this book of beginnings, Yahweh is proclaimed. For the most proper way to give meaning to that name in our language may be, He who brings into existence whatever exists.

It's important to recall that Moses was writing to Hebrews, poised on the banks of the Jordan, preparing to cross over into the land of promise. They traced their linage to Seth, God's replacement for Abel. Before the expedition into Canaan began, they needed to see the darkness that can overtake a culture who disowns God. They needed to see the consequences: memorials that call attention to human effort; creativity and technology that is godless; life disdained, mistreated, and murdered. Life that is self-indulgent. Darkness. But they also were shown, and here is the main point of Seth’s lineage, that …

In an affluent and self-indulgent society, righteous people — God’s people — must hold on to faith, preserve the knowledge of God, and proclaim him: his nature, his love, his grace, and also his sovereignty.

That's what Moses's audience needed to hear and that's exactly what we need to hear as well.

Lessons for Us

There are many people around us who are walking in darkness.

Our society is being sucked into a black hole of godlessness.

Jesus has commissioned us to be the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14–16 CSB

“You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.