1. The Family of Seth.
THERE was once a man named Enoch, and two things describe his life: “He walked with God,” and “He was not, for God took him.”
It was a sad world in which Enoch lived. The multitude walked in “the way of Cain” who slew his brother, and who, for this reason, was driven from God’s presence, and organized the world as we see it to-day. When Eve listened to the words of the serpent, and the first man fell, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life found a dwelling-place in man’s heart (Gen. 3:6; 1 John 2:16). It was thus, as to its principles, that the world was formed. Shut out from God’s presence, Cain organized it by building the first city, and thus gathering men together in society with all the advantages of wealth, commerce, art, and pleasure (Gen. 4:17, 22). Doubtless this city was possessed of some sort of religion, for Cain was a religious man in his way (Gen. 4:3). What is the difference, let me ask, between Cain’s world and the world of to-day, unless it be that now the world is fully manifested as the enemy of God, consequent upon the murder and rejection not of Abel, but of the Son of God Himself?
In the days of Enoch, many hundreds of years after the murder of Abel, wickedness had increased on the earth. Men had become ungodly, openly defying God, and their words and actions bore out this impression (Jude 15). A few centuries later, and the earth, “corrupt before God and filled with violence,” was ripe for judgment (Gen. 6:11). Thus we see that even before the Flood there had been phases in man’s history. Between the Deluge and the final judgment by fire there are further phases. Cain’s family, once destroyed, is seen again in its moral characteristics after the cross of Christ, and according to Jude’s epistle it has three successive stages: the “way of Cain,” the “error of Balaam,” and lastly the “gainsaying of Core,” or the open defiance by apostate Christendom of the person of Christ.
Amidst the ruin of Cain’s family, God appoints to Eve in the person of Seth, another seed, instead of righteous Abel whom Cain slew (Gen. 4:25). Seth became the head of a new race, linked by God, not with Cain, but with a slain Abel. He and his descendants were like a resurrection of Abel, the just one. Cain was “of that wicked one” (1 John 3:12), and his family became the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15); but, blessed be God! the death of Abel, as did later that of Christ, bore fruit, and there was then as now a family of God on the earth, created and preserved by Him.
Now let us look at the moral characteristics of the family of Seth. We are told that to “him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos”―i.e., man, mortal (Gen. 4:26). In thus naming his first-born son, he acknowledged that the judgment of God rested on all men, and that death, the fruit of sin, was their due. Cain admitted this judgment, but did his best to forget it, whereas Seth proclaimed it. To acknowledge oneself to be a lost sinner is faith’s first movement.
There was a second trait belonging to Seth’s family: “Then began men to call on the name of the Lord.” This is a sign of faith. It is written, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?” (Rom. 10:14).
To call on the name of the Lord is in the first place to find salvation by faith, with all the countless blessings therein contained. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). But when I possess salvation, then I call upon the name of the Lord to worship Him, and this is the meaning of the expression, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” Thenceforth there were worshippers on earth of the true God, and every man of faith in the Old Testament called upon the name of the Lord. Abram built an altar at Bethel, and called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:8). David built an altar at Moriah, and called upon the Lord (1 Chron. 21:26). Elijah built his altar, and called upon the name of the Lord (1 Kings 18). One might multiply examples. To call upon the Lord is to worship Him, and according to these passages, worship is connected with sacrifice. We become priests unto our God, in virtue of the slain Lamb who is Himself the subject of our adoration before God. “We have an altar.... By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Heb. 13:5).
By these two traits we can recognize the family of Seth. Not that all who were born to this man of faith and to his descendants were saved, for the household of faith at the time of the Flood was reduced to eight persons; but in this descent the link with God was recognized. Nevertheless, as we have seen, death existed, the terrible result of sin. The words “and he died” recur like a funeral dirge all through this chapter. Lamech died five years before, and Methuselah the very year of the Flood, as if the Lord wished to take His own to be with Himself before the great cataclysm. Enoch was born to the family of Seth
(To be continued.)