Angelic Conflict part 106: Human history – Gen 4:1-15; 6:1-8; 1Ti 2:1-7; Heb 4:14-16.Title: Angelic Conflict part 106: Human history – Gen 4:1-15; 6:1-8; 1Ti 2:1-7; Heb 4:14-16.
Cain and Able: Gen 4:1-15.
Gen 4:1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild withthe help of the Lord."
Gen 4:2 And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;
Gen 4:5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."
Gen 4:8 And Cain told [talked with; led him away alone] Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Verses 9 – 15 details the judgment upon Cain.
Gen 4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
God first asks him a question, just like his parents, giving an opportunity for a confession of guilt. The response is not the blame game of his parents but the first lie in the Bible. And he compounds the problem by saying: am I my brother’s keeper? This is the first human question in the Bible. We can glean a couple of first mention principles here.
First lie indicates man’s thinking that God is like a man, in that, the lie might be believed.
Num 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
First human question indicates man’s thinking that God’s questions are inappropriate.
Isa 46:11 Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.
Cain is satanically influenced to think that God is no more than a man and that God’s thinking and questions are inappropriate.
Now God takes on the role of a prosecutor. The question was an accusation.
This mimics satanic thinking at the fall: “I will be like the Most High” – God is no more than creature. “How can God cast me into LOF” – God’s decisions are inappropriate.
Gen 4:10 And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.
And now God issues the curse of Cain.
Gen 4:11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Gen 4:12 When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you; you shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."
For Cain the ground is cursed further. And we might assume that the same occurs for all those who reject God in the way of Cain.
So, Cain loses his green thumb.
Secondly, Cain is to become a vagabond who will be rootless and detached. Those who go the way of Cain will be restless.
Gen 4:13 And Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is too great to bear!
Adam did not protest his expulsion from the Garden, but Cain, a rejecter of God’s provision for sin, objects to his.
The more people reject God’s gospel the more they will protest their miserable circumstances.
Cain brings up four things about his punishment that he protests.
Gen 4:14 "Behold, Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Thy face I shall be hidden, and I shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and it will come about that whoever finds me will kill me."
1. Loss of farming ability. 2. Loss of fellowship with God (?). 3. Vagabond or nomad. 4. Will be killed.
This really shows how messed up in the head he really is. God gave him the ability to farm. He could have easily maintained his fellowship with God by offering the blood-sacrifice, showing he really didn’t care for it that much. He doesn’t want to roam around alone since it will get him killed, yet he deceitfully lured his brother to a place, alone, and took his life from him.
We often ask ourselves how some people can be so dense. Look no farther than the first born into the world of sin.
It is likely that Cain fears that the others will know what he did. Everyone on the earth at this time is a close relative and he committed the first murder of his brother and Abel is the brother, uncle, or cousin of many others.
Gen 4:15 So the Lord said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold [complete or perfect measure]." And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain [speculation at best], lest anyone finding him should slay him.
Just on a note of interest the word used means that it was a visible sign and the sign was well known, whatever it was. Lamech, his great, great, great grandson, knew of the sign in Gen 4:24.
The sons of God and the daughters of men; Gen 6:1-8.
Satan’s schemes continue. Since it was not Abel that was the promised Seed and several generations have transpired and there are sons of Seth (the new line that replaced Abel) and sons of Cain, unbelievers, perhaps thousands by this time then the Seed could be anyone. The next scheme is to infect the human seed with angelic seed.
This program is more effective the sooner it is done. The fewer people there are the quicker that human pure human genetics can be corrupted with angelic impurities. If the defeater of satan is to be the woman’s Seed then even if he can contaminate this seed by even a fraction of a percent then the promise cannot be upheld. He doesn’t have to get everyone to be half angel half man, for even a quarter, eighth, sixteenth, etc. will suffice to discredit the promise.
This passage is debated quite a bit as anyone would imagine. The oldest view is that the sons of God are angels. The other view, held vigorously by many fine theologians, older and newer, is that the sons of God are Sethites and the daughters of men are Cainites. I admit that I may be biased since this passage has only been taught to me as the “sons of God” referring to angels. The other, more liberal view solves the questions that naturally arise from angels copulating with women, but it also has the problem of the need of a Flood just because believers married unbelievers. There is also the word Nephilim, which indicates for angels, the need for a flood, the term “sons of God” used in other passages, and NT passages that reveal certain angels who did not keep their proper abode.
In studying this out on my own with as open a mind as I can have, though it disagrees with some that I hold in high regard, and agrees with others I hold in high regard, I lean much more towards the intermarriage of fallen angels with human women. However, this should never be a point of argument. The conflict of our world is clear and that angels conflict with men is very clear and that Christ is the One and only who resolves this conflict is very, very clear, and if this passage is misinterpreted it does not in any way effect any major doctrine in the Bible.
However, I’m fairly certain that this is the right interpretation because all throughout the OT satan had been trying to stamp out the human line of Jesus. So before we get into Gen 6 I want to give you an overview of these attacks.
In the first declaration of the gospel in the scripture remember that Jesus Christ as savior is “seed of the woman.” This is a title for the humanity of Christ with special emphasis on the virgin birth. Christ had to be born of a virgin in order to be qualified in His humanity to die for our sins and to bear our sins.
It is true that most believers have no clue as to the significance of the humanity of Christ and why Christ had to become a man.
But the very first gospel message in the Bible, Gen 3:15, places the emphasis on His humanity and on the virgin birth.
While most Christians do not understand the importance of the humanity of Christ, Satan does and Satan has. He has understood so thoroughly that one of the great subjects of the Old Testament are the tremendous number of attacks upon the line of the Lord Jesus Christ as the seed of the woman—Genesis 3:15.
This means that somewhere between Adam and the virgin birth there must be a line of genealogy which must go specifically through purely human families.
For example, it was apparently originally intended that the line would go through Abel, the first child of Adam and Eve who was born again. The murder of Abel made that impossible and so in all of the genealogies of Christ they are always traced through Seth.
God is not a combatant in this conflict. It’s not as if He can fail no matter how dire things may look at any given time. He is entreating us through all communications like this throughout His word and in circumstances of our own past to believe this.
The murder of Abel – Seth born to reopen the line of Christ.
The seed begins with Adam’s seed then to Seth, eventually to Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Judah, and through David by his son Nathan so that Christ comes through the Davidic line.
Satan tried to hinder the humanity of Christ at all of these points. He made specific attacks on the humanity of Christ in order to keep Jesus Christ from coming into the world, for if Jesus Christ is in any way frustrated from coming into the world then there is no salvation.
The doctrine of the humanity of Christ is a part of the doctrine of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. In essence, Jesus Christ is God. He is also true humanity. In His deity Jesus Christ is eternal life, and eternal life cannot die. He is immutability, and immutability can’t change. He is sovereignty, and divine sovereignty is not subject to death.
And yet the only way for man’s salvation is the cross, and so Christ had to become true humanity for it is the humanity of Christ which died.
Only the true, uncorrupted humanity of Christ could bear the sins of the world. Heb 2:9-14; Phi 2:5-8.
No true humanity; no saviorhood.
Also involved are some other principles.
Christ had to be true humanity to be our mediator. The mediation is between God and man and a mediator must be equal with both parties.
Jesus Christ is deity, in His essence He is equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. In His humanity He is equal and superior to all members of the human race. And since the mediation is between God and the human race He is equal with both parties in the mediation by virtue of the fact that he is God and at the same time humanity.
1Ti 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,
1Ti 2:2 for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
1Ti 2:3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
1Ti 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men [not 99% human1% angel], the man Christ Jesus,
1Ti 2:6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time.
1Ti 2:7 And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Christ had to be true humanity to become our high priest as representing the human race before God.
Heb 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus [humanity] the Son of God [deity], let us hold fast our confession.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
He can’t be tempted in all things human if He is not 100% human.
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Then in order for Jesus Christ to reign as the son of David He also had to become true humanity.
Satan understood all that these prophecies implied when they were revealed and consequently he made every attempt in Old Testament times to frustrate the virgin birth, to keep Jesus Christ from becoming true humanity.
When it became apparent that the seed of the woman would come through Abel Satan inspired Cain, the first religious man, to murder his brother Abel.
Consequently, the line had to go down through another born again child of Adam and Eve, Seth. From the point of Seth there were a number of attacks to keep the promise of Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman, from being fulfilled.
The second attack is the attack of Gen 6, an angelic infiltration into the human race attempting to destroy true humanity.
Make no mistake, this was an elaborate attack made upon our salvation.
It was so successful that the line by which Jesus Christ could come into the world was narrowed down to one family, the family of Noah. Had it not been for the flood the attack would have been entirely successful for there would have been no true humanity left in the human race. All of the human race would have been part human and part angelic.
The next series of attacks came upon the line of Abraham.
Attacks on the line through Abraham: Sarah wound up on the harem of the pharaoh, Gen 12. Abraham procreated with Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.
Pharaoh in the time of Moses commanded to kill the male line of Israel, Exo 1.
Pharaoh’s attempt to kill Israel immediately after the Exodus is the third attack upon Abraham’s seed, Exo 14.
Jehoram’s six younger brothers were murdered by order of his wife, Athalia. Jehoram died and his sons also and Athalia plotted the murders of the grandchildren. Only one escaped.
Jehoshaphat the seventh king of Judah, descended from David, and in the genealogical line of Christ had a son by the name of Jehoram. Jehoshaphat decided peace could be made between the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah) if he arranged for his son to marry the daughter of the king of Israel, Ahab and his notorious wife Jezebel. Their daughter’s name was Athaliah and she married Jehoram.
You are invited to the union of : Jehoshaphat’s (king of Judah) son – Jehoram Ahab’s (king of Israel) daughter – Athaliah
When Jehoram was thirty-two years of age he succeeded to the throne, and Athaliah became queen of Judah. Like Jezebel, she exhibited a fanatical devotion to the cults of the Tyrian Baal Melqart. The first recorded act of Jehoram's reign is the murder of his six younger brothers. Some princes of the realm, who were known to favor the ancient faith of the nation, were also destroyed (2Ch 21:4). There can be little doubt that these deeds of blood were supported, and perhaps instigated, by Athaliah, who was a much stronger character than her husband.
Obituary: Jehoshaphat has died. He is succeeded to the throne by his son Jehoram, 32 years old and his wife Athaliah. Jehoram’s six younger brothers have died as well as other princes of the realm... hmmmm....
After eight years of royal life, Athaliah became a widow, and her son Ahaziah, then twenty-two years old ascended his father's throne.
Obituary: Jehoram has died. He is succeeded by his son Ahaziah and his loving mother Athaliah. (1 year later) – Ahaziah has died, he is survived by his loving mother and several children.
As queen mother Athaliah was now supreme in the councils of the nation, as well as in the royal palace. Within a single year the young king fell, and the only persons who stood between Athaliah and the throne were her grandchildren. Ambition, fired by fanaticism, saw its opportunity; and the massacre of the royal seed was planned and carried out. One of them, however, the baby Jehoash, escaped by the intervention of his aunt Jehosheba (2Ki 11:2; 2Ch 22:11).
Obituary: All Ahaziah’s children have died (except one [Jehoash] who was hidden away by the high priest – don’t tell Athaliah). The only one left to rule Judah is Athaliah – long live the queen!
With the palace cleared of its royal occupants, Athaliah had herself proclaimed sovereign and she was convinced that none of David’s royal line lived. No other woman, before or since, sat upon the throne of David; and it is a proof of her energy and ability that, in spite of her gender, she was able to keep the throne for six years.
From 2Ch 24:7, where she is called "that wicked woman," a portion of the temple of Yahweh was pulled down and the material used in the structure of a temple to Baal.
David’s line was down to one baby Jehoash, and he was hidden from her by the high priest and his wife. When he was just old enough they conducted a coronation ceremony in the temple. Athaliah rushed into the temple court only to see the boy wearing the crown and holding the book of the Law of Moses. She tore her robe and screamed, “Treason! Treason!” She fled. Some wanted to cut her down as she fled, but this was overruled as her blood would defile the temple. She was taken out and executed at the temple entrance.
Announcing the coronation of king Jehoash (don’t tell Athaliah): He’s young but he’ll do. Athaliah crashed the party. She won the centrepiece, but went out with a bang.
God is not a combatant in this conflict. It’s not as if He can fail no matter how dire things may look at any given time. He is entreating us through all communications like this throughout His word and in circumstances of our own past to believe this.
Hezekiah, king of Judah, was about to die under divine discipline and was childless. God preserved him and his progeny perpetuated the line of Christ.
Haman’s plot, in the book of Esther, was another attempt to annihilate the Jews.
There were many attempts on the life of David, mostly by king Saul.
Rahab, in the line of Christ, was almost killed for helping the spies and in the fall of Jericho.
When Joseph found that Mary was pregnant it was customary to have his fiancé killed as per the Mosaic Law.
Herod’s order to kill all the male children up to 2 years old in Bethlehem, Mat 2:13-18 is another attempt at the same. |