Genesis
4:25 ¶ And Adam knew his wife again; and
she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me
another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a
son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the
LORD.
Again, not reading
the Bible like a textbook or the user’s manual to a computer we are unable to
count how many times Eve gave birth to children. The Holy Spirit mentions only
certain people throughout history and leaves out a great many whom we find important.
The commonsense likelihood is that she had many offspring before Seth and her
children had many offspring by this time. By reading this literally though, if
there were many other offspring what would Seth’s replacement of Abel mean? By
the text here my opinion is that Seth replaced Abel as a man seeking God which
pleased his mother greatly. Seth’s son, Enos, carried this tradition on as the
use of the colon means that the clause after it explains in some important way
what was stated before the colon. It is possible, as well, that the other
children, if there were any as I have stated, were followers of Cain’s
religion.
Romans
10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
Godliness in the
wicked, pre-Flood world, was carried on by the descendants of Seth and
salvation would come through their testimony. Here is a first example of men
who worshipped and wanted to know God in a very real way standing against the
world whose religion was about their own self-righteous justification and the
feeling of spirituality they received from their meaningless rituals and
prayers that are nothing more than chants. Their religion glorifies man, not
God and is focused on them, not God. As Jesus pointed out;
Matthew
6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking.
In this way, the
first part of Genesis tells the story of two religious traditions and we would
do well to study that as one of the ways we look at it. Here we can see the
yearning for Christ from the beginning, as Job said;
Job
19:25 For I know that my redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not
another; though my reins be consumed within me.

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