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Scripture Reading: Gen. 4:4-5, 10-22, 25-26; 5:21-24; 6:1-22; 8:20—9:27; 11:1-9
I. Working on His saints from Abel to Noah:
А. After saving Adam, God continued to work on some of his descendants who took God’s way of life based upon the principle of the tree of life and became God’s saints according to God’s election:
1. God had regard for Abel and for his offering — Gen. 4:4.
2. God appointed Seth to replace Abel — v. 25.
3. God began to have His name called upon by Enosh — v. 26.
4. God prophesied concerning the deluge through Enoch naming his son Methuselah, which means “when he is dead, it [the deluge] will be sent” — 5:21.
5. God gained Enoch to walk with Him for three hundred years and took Enoch away from the earth before the deluge — vv. 22-24.
6. God gained Noah to walk with Him and to prepare the ark for the salvation of him and his whole family from the corrupted age through the deluge — 6:9-22.
7. God was pleased with the satisfying fragrance of Noah’s burnt offerings to keep the earth with its systems and to covenant with Noah and his descendants and with all the living creatures that they all would not be destroyed anymore by a flood but would be multiplied and replenish the earth — 8:20—9:17.
8. God prophesied through Noah concerning his three sons that Ham’s son Canaan would be a servant to Shem and Japheth, that Shem would have God as his God, and that Japheth would be enlarged by God and dwell in the tents of Shem — vv. 18-27.
B. The above are the works that God did before His calling of Abraham.
II. Judging the world from Cain to Babel:
А. While working on His chosen saints positively, God was judging negatively the rest of Adam’s descendants who took Satan’s way of death based upon the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became the world under God’s condemnation:
1. God had no regard for Cain and for his offering — 4:5.
2. God judged Cain, causing him to become a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth to invent the human, godless culture — vv. 10-22.
3. God judged the corrupted world, composed of men who had become flesh, by the deluge to terminate the age of Cain — 6:1-7, 11-13.
4. God judged at Babel the world, which had abandoned Him and had joined Satan as one, to terminate the race of Adam — 11:1-9.
B. God’s judgment on the world is a strong evidence that the God-created yet rebelling world is still under His sovereign ruling.
We want to continue to see God’s history in time in the book of Genesis. We have seen that in time God worked to restore the judged universe and create man (Gen. 1:2—2:25). Then He saved man from his fall (ch. 3). In this chapter we will see how God worked on His saints from Abel to Noah and judged the world from Cain to Babel. The record of this history is from Genesis 4 through the first part of Genesis 11. This portion of the Word is only about seven and a half chapters, but all the items recorded in this short part of the holy Word are very, very crucial. My burden is to help us to know, to realize, to enter into, and to experience the Christian life. Actually, this line on the history of God in His union with man is still on the Christian life.
If we do not know what God did with Abel, with Seth, with Enosh, with Enoch, with Methuselah, and with Noah, we still do not know what the Christian life is. All these persons lived the Christian life. We may ask, “Was Abel a Christian?” He was not a Christian, but the life he lived was a Christian life. His life was a model, a type, of the Christian life. Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and sheep at Abel’s time were used for sacrifices. They were not used for food, because at that time God had not ordained that people eat animal meat (1:29). It was not until after the flood that God said that man could eat meat (9:3). Sheep at Abel’s time were not for food but for offerings to God.
Have you ever realized that the first full-time co-worker was Abel? He raised up sacrifices for God’s offering. This was his job, his work. This was also his kind of living. Abel was a person doing nothing on the earth but offering to God. Genesis 4:4 says that God had regard for Abel and for his offering. How good it was that Abel was a full-timer doing nothing but living for God! Abel was not in the line of good and evil. He was in the line of the tree of life, living for God and living to God.
Those of us who are serving the Lord full time should compare our full-time service with Abel’s. When we compare ourselves with Abel, we probably need to say that we are part-timers, not full-timers. Abel was living a life that was absolutely for God; his living was for God, not for food, for eating. Abel’s elder brother Cain was the opposite. Cain was living for his daily necessity, for food.
Abel lived on God in a spiritual sense, and he lived on what God did, on what God provided, in a physical sense. If we are full-timers, we should live as Abel did. We should not live on anything worked out by ourselves. Cain was different from Abel because he lived on what he did. He was a farmer producing food for himself. Thus, we can see that it is not too much to say that Abel lived a Christian life. If we live the Christian life merely according to what the New Testament teaches, that is not adequate. We have to come back to the Old Testament to see the first typical full-timer for God — Abel.
After saving Adam, God continued to work on some of his descendants who took God’s way of life based upon the principle of the tree of life and became God’s saints according to God’s election. These particular descendants of Adam were separated people, sanctified unto God according to God’s election, God’s choosing.
We saw in the previous chapter that Genesis 3 reveals that God works to save lost and fallen sinners. Following that, God continues to work on His saints who take His way of life. Abel lived a model of the Christian life as a full-timer who was absolutely for God. But do you believe that without God’s moving on and with Abel, Abel could have been a person who was living God full time? Abel could be such a person only because God moved and worked on him, through him, and with him. He was a fallen person, a fallen descendant of Adam, yet he could live such a life. It would have been impossible for him to do this by himself without any kind of support. Abel’s doing was not by himself; it was God who worked on him and made him such a person.
We cannot serve the Lord as full-timers by ourselves. In ourselves and by ourselves we cannot make it. In ourselves and by ourselves we would already have given up long ago. Paul said, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul was what he was because of the sufficient grace of Christ (2 Cor. 12:9). It is the grace of Christ that has made us what we are in Him. If Abel were here today, he would say that the very God whom he worshipped made him such a person. This is God’s work. God produced people who would take His way of life based upon the principle of the tree of life. Otherwise, God would have no testimony on the earth. The beginning of the Bible shows us a person named Abel who can be considered as the first full-timer on the earth to live God. This was God’s work to produce such a person.
God had regard for Abel and for his offering (Gen. 4:4). The word regard is a weighty word. If we regard someone, this means a lot. God, the Creator, had regard for a person, His creature. If the president of the United States has regard for a person, this is an honor to him. Genesis shows us God’s work in having regard for Abel, one of His creatures. Such a fallen person received the salvation and the sustaining power from God to be a person living for Him. Abel was the first person to be honored and regarded by God. At that time he was the most glorious person on earth. All of us should aspire to be like Abel. All the full-timers should be Abels.
God appointed Seth to replace Abel (v. 25). This is the only thing that the Bible says concerning God’s work on Seth. Abel did not live long. He was martyred, so there was the need of a continuation. Right away God came in and appointed Seth. The word appointed is a strong word. For God to appoint Seth to replace Abel means that Seth was the same as Abel. This was also God’s work.
God began to have His name called upon by Enosh (v. 26). We also need to give the credit for this to God. Do we think that calling on the name of God was initiated by Enosh? Actually, it was not initiated or motivated by Enosh. God moved Enosh to call on Him. The name Enosh means “frail, mortal man.” Enosh was very frail, weak, and fragile, so he realized that he had nothing to trust in. At that juncture God came in to motivate him to call spontaneously, “O Jehovah. O Jehovah.” Calling on the Lord’s name started in this way.
Some people oppose the truth and practice of calling on the name of the Lord. But we have to realize that all real Christians, when they feel that they are so weak and fragile, would spontaneously call, “O Lord.” Even before we knew the truth concerning calling on the Lord’s name, many of us practiced it. Whenever we got into trouble, whenever we felt so weak, fragile, and helpless, we spontaneously called, “O Lord.”
Actually, when we felt so weak and helpless, God the Spirit motivated us from within to call, “O Lord, help me.” This was not only the practice of calling upon the name of the Lord but also God’s working. All the positive doings we see in the Bible are always something motivated by God. We human beings actually are not inventors but imitators. God is the unique Inventor. God invented everything, so He is the One who motivates, who invents. We are those who follow His motivation.
After we were saved, there were a number of times when we could not manage our situation, so we called upon Him and exercised our whole being to trust in Him. In mainland China during the Second World War, I was put into prison by the invading Japanese army. While I was there, I spontaneously called on the Lord and exercised my whole being to trust absolutely in Him. At that time it was a small thing for the invading Japanese army to kill people, and I was under their hand. They could have killed me at any time. If I had not trusted in the Lord, in whom could I have trusted? He motivated me to trust in Him.
God prophesied concerning the deluge through Enoch naming his son Methuselah, which means “when he is dead, it [the deluge] will be sent” (5:21). This is the first prophecy after God prophesied concerning Christ as the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15. Enoch brought forth a son and named his son Methuselah. This means that when Methuselah died, God would send the deluge to judge the world.
Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty-nine years (5:27). When he had lived one hundred eighty-seven years, he begot a son named Lamech (v. 25). When his son Lamech lived one hundred eighty-two years, he begot a son by the name of Noah (vv. 28-29). At that time Methuselah was three hundred sixty-nine years old. Then when Noah had lived up to six hundred years of age, Methuselah died, and the deluge came (7:11). That was exactly nine hundred sixty-nine years after the birth of Methuselah. Enoch’s naming of his son was actually God’s prophesying of the coming deluge.
At the age of sixty-five Enoch begot Methuselah. Afterward, he still lived for three hundred years, and during these three hundred years, he walked with God (5:22-24). This implies that God also walked with Enoch. God took Enoch away from the earth before the deluge. It was a great thing for God to walk with a person on the earth for three hundred years. Walking implies living. God and Enoch lived together and walked together for three hundred years.
Enoch and God surely conversed with each other during that time. Enoch could have said, “God, look at the world today. All the people have become flesh, and the world is totally evil and corrupted.” God could have responded, “Enoch, be at peace. One day I’ll send the flood to judge this world. But you should not worry. Before that time, I’ll take you away from the earth.” I believe that Enoch and God should have conversed in this way. The book of Jude tells us that Enoch as the seventh from Adam also prophesied concerning the Lord coming with myriads of His saints (v. 14). Enoch lived with God. He walked with God. He and God were together for three hundred years. This was part of God’s working in His history in time.
God went on to gain another person named Noah (6:9-22). Noah was a great-grandson of Enoch. Enoch begot Methuselah, Methuselah begot Lamech, and Lamech begot Noah. Noah’s great-grandfather walked with God, and Noah followed him to also walk with God. God gained Noah not only to walk with Him but also to prepare the ark for the salvation of him and his whole family from the corrupted age through the deluge. It was Noah who made the ark, but it was God who motivated him. It was God who charged Noah to do this. This was again something of God’s work, of God’s move among men on the earth as a part of the history of God.
God was pleased with the satisfying fragrance of Noah’s burnt offerings to keep the earth with its systems and to covenant with Noah and his descendants and with all the living creatures that they all would not be destroyed anymore by a flood but would be multiplied and replenish the earth (8:20—9:17). This was all God’s doing.
God also prophesied through Noah concerning his three sons (vv. 18-27). Noah was a godly man, but he became loose. When we become successful and happy, it is easy for us to become loose. Noah planted a vineyard, drank of the wine, became drunk, and was uncovered within his tent. One of his three sons exposed his failure, but the others covered the nakedness of their father. When Noah awoke, God prophesied through him.
First, God cursed the son of the one who exposed his father’s failure. Canaan, Ham’s son, was cursed to be a servant to Shem and Japheth (v. 25). Ham is also the father of Cush (10:6) and Cush is the forefather of the Ethiopians. Cush later begot Nimrod (v. 8), who built up both Assyria with Nineveh as its capital and Babylon with Babel as its capital (vv. 8-11; Micah 5:6). Assyria and Babylon became the primary nations opposing God’s people. The first nation that invaded Israel was Assyria, and that nation was built up by Nimrod.
Canaan, the son of Ham, was cursed, but Shem and Japheth received the blessing (Gen. 9:26-27). Japheth is the forefather of the Europeans. God gave him the blessing of being enlarged. The Europeans, especially in the last five centuries since the time of Columbus, have been enlarged, spreading throughout the whole world. But regardless of how much Japheth has been enlarged, God said that he would dwell in the tents of Shem. A tent is a place where people may dwell, rest, and have peace and enjoyment. Japheth’s tent is with his brother Shem.
All the Jews are of Shem. Shem received the blessing of having God. God became his blessing, and this God is the rest to man, the peace to man, the enjoyment to man, and the salvation to man. All the Europeans today are strong and enlarged, but they must dwell in the tents of Shem. If they are going to worship God, they must believe in the God of the Jews, receiving rest, peace, enjoyment, and salvation in the Jewish tent.
The Old Testament was written by the Jews. The New Testament was also written by the Jews except for one Gentile, Luke. But Luke got all the teachings from the Jews. Eventually, the New Jerusalem bears the names of the twelve tribes and of the twelve apostles, all of whom were Jews (Rev. 21:12-14). Thus, the New Jerusalem bears the names of the Jews. Furthermore, all the Gentile and Jewish believers in Christ, as the new creation, are the real Israel of God (Gal. 6:16).
Today we are in the tent of Shem. The Lord Jesus, one of Shem’s descendants, was the tabernacle, a tent (John 1:14). Eventually, the New Jerusalem is the ultimate tent of Shem, the tabernacle of God with men for eternity (Rev. 21:3). What a great blessing it is to be in the tent of Shem! All the Europeans, regardless of how strong they are, have to take the Jewish God. They have to enjoy their salvation in the Jewish tent, the tent of Shem.
This prophecy concerning Shem and Japheth is part of God’s marvelous work. Today we have gone to Russia to bring the descendants of Japheth into the tent of Shem. They are homeless, but we are bringing them into the tent of the Jews, the tent of Shem. Now many of them are in this tent, and they are happy and restfully enjoying God in Christ. Thus, we can see that God prophesied through Noah concerning his three sons that Ham’s son Canaan would be a servant to Shem and Japheth, that Shem would have God as his God, and that Japheth would be enlarged by God and dwell in the tents of Shem. This is also a part of God’s history. (I would encourage us to read Message 33 of the Life-study of Genesis, for a more thorough view of this part of God’s history.)
Before God called Abraham, God worked on His saints from Abel to Noah, the forefathers of God’s chosen people.
While working on His chosen saints positively, God was judging negatively the rest of Adam’s descendants who took Satan’s way of death based upon the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became the world under God’s condemnation. The world is a negative term, referring to fallen mankind. Fallen mankind is the world under God’s condemnation. While God is working positively on His chosen ones, He is also working negatively on the rest of mankind who take Satan’s way of death. Fallen mankind has become the corrupted, rotten world under God’s condemnation.
God had regard for Abel and for his offering, but He had no regard for Cain and for his offering (Gen. 4:5). God rejected Cain, judging him because he did not take God’s way of life. Instead of offering the God-ordained sacrifice to God, he offered the produce of the earth to God. Cain forsook God’s way of salvation and offered according to his own concept and opinion. Cain did not take the way of God, so God judged him by rejecting him.
After Cain murdered his brother Abel, God judged Cain even further. This judgment caused Cain to become a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth to invent the human, godless culture (vv. 10-22). The first culture invented by man was the culture under Cain. Cain built a city for his self-existence (v. 17). His descendants then invented cattle-raising for making a living, music for amusement, and weapons for defense (vv. 20-22). Human culture is the same in principle today. The primary thing in human culture is man taking care of his living. The second item of human culture is amusement. The United States today is filled with worldly amusement and entertainment. The third item is the making of weapons. Today on earth people are consumed with these three things: what to eat, how to have amusement, and how to fight, how to build up the national defense to protect themselves. These are the contents of human culture invented by the descendants of Cain. This was Cain’s culture.
God judged the corrupted world, composed of men who had become flesh, by the deluge to terminate the age of Cain (6:1-7, 11-13). The first age of human culture was the age of Cain, and that age, that part of the world, was terminated by the flood.
God judged at Babel the world, which had abandoned Him and had joined Satan as one, to terminate the race of Adam (11:1-9). The judgment of the flood terminated the age of Cain. Then the judgment of Babel terminated the race of Adam. The race of Adam was through with God because they had abandoned God and had joined Satan as one.
God’s judgment on the world is a strong evidence that the God-created yet rebelling world is still under God’s sovereign ruling. This is God’s work on the negative side to judge the world from Cain to Babel. This is also a negative part of God’s history.
