STARTING with Gen. 4:16-24 we have a list of the descendants of the man Cain, who “went out from the presence of the Lord,” and in the land of Nod “he builded a city.” There he and his descendants made themselves comfortable, and cultivated mechanical and fine arts. Meanwhile plunging deeper into sin, until the wrath of God being out-poured, every representative of that guilty family perished by the Flood. Now, turning to 1 Chron. 1:1, we read, “Adam, Shah, Enosh;” but not one word about Cain and his descendants. The reader mighty “Neither is Abel's name there given.” Quite so, for he left no son; but hew very often in the New Testament is honorable mention made of Abel?
SETH'S DESCENDANTS.
Gen. 5, in giving us a list of these, presents some very striking facts. For not only are their respective, ages given, but the very great ages, to which most of them attained, enabled certain “holy prophets,” whose names are here given, to testify to many succeeding generations the wondrous works of God. Before the flood there was delivered an oral testimony. Adam and Methuselah were contemporary for over 240 years. One interpretation of the name given to the latter by his father Enoch is, “At his death the breaking forth of waters.” These two things are certain, viz., that Enoch foresaw coming judgments, and that the days of the long life of his son was in itself a manifestation of the longsuffering of God ere that judgment by water was outpoured. For Methuselah died just before the flood. The words, “and he died,” repeated so many times in this chapter, furnish us with a striking contrast to the words, “And He shall live” written with reference to David's Son and Lord in Psa. 72:15.
NOAH'S DESCENDANTS.
For a clear and concise explanation of the origin of the many different nations of the earth men search in vain among the ancient records of Nineveh, Babylon, and Egypt. The inspired record given in Gen. 10 stands alone in its very simple, clear, and accurate account of a matter, which, but for the information therein supplied, would to this day have remained an unsolved problem. (That many of these nations will take a prominent position in the ratter day, and be visited with swift judgments, is clear from Ezek. 38.) Gen. 10:25 tells us exactly when that division of the earth amongst the nations took place; as Dent. 32:8 explains the impose the Most High had in view in separating the sons of Adam. One remarkable fact (Gen. 11:10-26) disclosed is the longevity of Shem, who out-lived quite a number of generations of his own descendants; which in its turn discloses God's gracious purpose in his very long life. Eye-witness of the flood, and honored saint of God (Gen. 9:26), he lived to bear witness to very many of the things which he had himself seen and heard. How the heart of Shem must have grieved when not only the sons of Ham and Japheth, but his own children, declined to gross idolatry (Josh. 24:2)! He was living at the time when God called Abram. The sons of Ishmael (Gen. 25:12-16), and the sons of Esau (Gen. 36.) became great, numerous, and opulent, while as yet the chosen seed of Israel were born into adversity and bitter bondage. Both families are briefly mentioned in 1 Chron. 1. but the Spirit of God proceeds no farther in the register. Henceforth their posterity are not written with the righteous.
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