Latest / Reformed Thinking / Culture Without God: Cain’s City, Lamech’s Vengeance, and the City of Christ (Genesis 4:17–24)

Transcript

Culture Without God: Cain’s City, Lamech’s Vengeance, and the City of Christ (Genesis 4:17–24) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. This is the part of the program
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  from our team here at Reform Thinking where we take a small
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  piece of scripture or history and really try to get to the
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  bottom of. It and today we are looking at a
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  really dense little section in Genesis chapter 4, specifically
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  verses 17 to 24. It's a strange passage, isn't
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  it? The book starts with creation.
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  Everything is in order and then boom, the fall and then the
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  first murder Cain kills Abel. Right.
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  It's a very rapid descent into disorder.
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  But then, right after Cain is exiled, the story to something
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  you wouldn't expect, it slows down to give us this genealogy,
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  this family tree of the murderer.
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  And it describes the birth of the first human culture, a whole
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  society built from the line of cane.
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  That's why we've stacked up our sources on this.
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  It feels like a detour, but it's not.
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  Why spend time listing the inventors of music and
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  metalworking right here? So that's our mission for this
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  deep dive. We want to understand what this
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  early biblical passage is showing us about human nature,
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  about society itself. Because it's a perfect picture
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  of this duality we see in humanity.
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  On one hand you have these incredible gifts, intelligence,
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  creativity, what we'd call God's common kindness, flourishing.
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  But on the other hand, you see those same gifts get twisted.
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  They're bent toward pride and violence and self glorification
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  that, you know, deep corruption we call depravity.
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  And this contrast right here at the start, it really sets up the
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  whole Bible's theme of the city of man versus the city of God.
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  The paradox is just so sharp. You have The Pioneers of art and
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  technology, and right alongside them the first recorded case of
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  polygamy and a man, well, a man singing a song bragging about
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  murder. A refined yet godless
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  civilization. That's the tension we need to
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  get into. OK, so let's set the scene.
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  The story kicks off right after Cain's sin.
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  God confronts him and the sentence is pronounced.
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  Cain is to be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
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  And you have to understand what that meant back then.
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  It wasn't just being homeless. It was a loss of identity, a
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  loss of protection from a tribe or family.
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  It meant you were completely vulnerable.
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  But the text adds another layer. It says he goes out from the
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  presence of the Lord. That's a huge theological
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  statement. It's everything.
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  He's moving himself geographically and spiritually
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  away from God's special care. He's choosing exile.
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  He ends up in the land of Nod, which is specifically East of
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  Eden. That direction E keeps coming up
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  in the Bible, doesn't it? It almost always means moving
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  away from God. It does.
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  It's the direction of exile. Adam and Eve were cast out east
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  of the Garden. Later Lot moves east towards
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  Sodom. It's the territory of
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  separation, of being under the curse.
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  So Cain, who's been sentenced to wander and be unstable, what's
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  the first thing he does? The very first thing he does,
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  the most defiant, stabilizing thing imaginable.
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  He builds a city and he names it Enoch after his son.
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  Which is his answer to God's curse, really.
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  It's a non repentant answer. God says wander.
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  Cain says no, I'll put down roots, I'll build walls.
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  The act of building a city is his attempt to, you know,
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  insulate himself from the curse without ever dealing with the
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  sin that caused it. She's trying to find security in
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  his own work. Exactly.
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  He's looking for security in stonewalls more than in God.
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  He's afraid of being killed, so he gathers people, builds
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  defenses. It's a human solution to a
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  spiritual alienation. And the name Enoch?
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  He's naming it after his own lion, his son.
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  It's about making a name for himself, not calling on the name
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  of the Lord. Precisely.
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  The city is a monument to human effort, to human legacy.
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  It's the first city in the Bible, and it immediately sets
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  this pattern for human society trying to find its own security,
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  its own fame, apart from its Creator.
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  And the genealogy that follows isn't just a list of names, it's
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  showing us what grows in the soil of that city.
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  It's the road map. It shows what sort of figure
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  grows out of this city building self naming society.
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  Cain planted the seed of self-reliance and, as we'll see,
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  is the toxic fruit that grows from it.
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  It's a grim foundation for human society.
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  But then, in this very family, something remarkable happens.
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  We see this explosion of skill, of craft.
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  And this is where that idea of God's common kindness or common
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  grace is so clear. The fall doesn't just erase
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  human gifts. People are still creative, still
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  intelligent. They still bear the image of
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  God, even if it's fractured. That's right.
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  So God and his patients allows skill to flourish.
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  He sends rain on the just and the unjust.
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  He lets civilization develop even in a line that is actively
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  defying him. And the Bible is very careful to
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  point this out. The text uses this specific
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  phrase for Lamech's sons. He was the father of those who.
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  Yes, that's a marker. It's saying these men weren't
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  just dabblers, they were originators.
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  They established entire fields of human work that would shape
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  history. Let's take them one by one.
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  First is Jabal. He's called the father of those
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  who dwell in tents and have livestock.
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  So this is a massive economic innovation.
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  Before this you might have had small scale herding like Abel,
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  but Jabal seems to have professionalized it.
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  He's the pioneer of nomadic herding.
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  Which would require a lot of organization.
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  A ton managing large herds, knowing where to find pasture,
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  developing portable shelters, tents.
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  It's the start of a whole economic system based on
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  livestock. It's organized labor.
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  So he's still exercising dominion over creation, which
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  was part of the original mandate in Eden.
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  He is, but he's doing it within this culture of self-reliance
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  for his own ends. The skill is from God's
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  kindness, but the motive is bent.
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  OK, so after the economic innovator, we get his brother
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  Jubal and he moves us into the arts.
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  Right into the arts, he is the father of all those who play the
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  lyre and pipe. So stringed instruments and wind
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  instruments. This is the birth of formal
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  music. It's a huge cultural leap.
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  It shows that this society is concerned with more than just
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  survival. They're creating beauty,
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  expressing emotion. Music is a powerful organizing
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  force in any culture. And again, the phrase father of
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  all those who play suggests he's seen as the true source of that
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  whole craft. Yes, he's the wellspring of
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  organized art. And think of what that requires
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  an understanding of rhythm, harmony, melody.
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  These are incredible gifts reflecting the Creator's own
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  nature, and it's just so striking that they appear in
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  this line of all places and. Then finally we get Tubal Kane,
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  the son of Lamech's other wife Zilla.
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  And this is a move into hard technology.
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  A major move. He is the forger of all
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  instruments of bronze and iron. We can't overstate what a
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  massive technological jump this is.
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  Metalworking is not simple. Not at all.
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  You need to find the ore, build furnaces that can reach
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  incredibly high temperatures, and then develop the skills to
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  shape the metal. This points to a complex
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  organized industry. And the text says bronze and
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  iron. These are serious materials.
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  Very serious and they have a dual use which is key to the
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  whole story. On one hand, an iron plowshare
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  changes aggregate culture forever.
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  You can support a much larger population.
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  It's progress. But on the other hand.
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  On the other hand, bronze and iron make much better weapons.
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  Swords, spearheads. This same technology that can
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  build a civilization can also make warfare much more deadly.
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  So Tubal Kane's invention is a perfect picture of the whole
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  family. Amazing skill that can be used
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  for good or for evil. It's the perfect summary.
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  This family was gifted, energetic, creative.
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  They were advancing society, but it's all happening away from the
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  presence of the Lord. Their culture is productive, but
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  it's morally empty. And this is the great warning.
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  You can't confuse technological progress with godliness.
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  It's sobering to think that all this cultural brilliance is
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  happening inside a family that is, at its core, morally broken.
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  Which brings us to Lamech himself.
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  Right. Lamech isn't introduced as an
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  inventor, He's introduced as a distorter.
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  He's the one who commits the first clear distortion of
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  marriage in the Bible. The text says he took two wives,
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  Ada and Zilla. This is the first recorded
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  instance of polygamy. And it's a direct repudiation of
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  the pattern God said in Eden. One man, one woman becoming one
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  flesh. That was about covenant
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  partnership. Lamech actions are about
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  something else entirely. It seems to be about power and
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  status. Absolutely.
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  In that kind of society, having multiple wives was a display of
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  wealth and strength. It's about acquisition, not
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  companionship. He's bending marriage away from
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  what it was meant to be and turning it into a tool for male
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  self exultation. He's applying the spirit of his
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  ancestor Kane, building security for himself to his own family
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  life. Yes, that's a great way to put
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  it. He's taking more than God
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  allotted because he can. Sin is now corrupting the most
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  basic unit of society. And you see how he views them
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  later when he calls them to listen to his song.
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  They're not partners, they're an audience.
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  They're an audience for his violent victory speech.
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  Ada and Zilla hear my voice. It's a command.
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  He's treating them like trophies, not like joint heirs.
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  This is what happens when a headship in the family is
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  totally detached from any fear of God.
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  Which sets the stage for what he's about to say.
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  This advanced, sophisticated culture is built on a foundation
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  of moral chaos, starting right in the home.
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  And that chaos finds its voice in Lamech song.
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  Yes, this is Genesis 4 verses 23 and 24, and it's the first
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  recorded human poem after the fall.
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  This is the first piece of human literature we get in the Bible
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  after Eden. And it's just chilling.
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  It's not a Psalm of praise. It's not a lament or a prayer
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  for forgiveness. It's a speech designed to boast
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  about his own violence. It's a killer's anthem.
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  He's very specific about what he did, he says.
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  I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
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  The specifics there are the whole point.
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  A wound, a strike. These are likely minor injuries,
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  an insult, maybe a shove. And his response was lethal
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  force. The disproportion is what he's
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  proud of. It's the source of his entire
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  boast. He's proud that he crushes
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  anyone who even dares to touch him.
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  He treats this act of overkill not as a tragedy, but as a
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  trophy. It's a sign of his honor.
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  And you just have to compare him to Cain.
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  When Cain killed Abel, he was filled with fear.
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  He complained to God. My punishment is more than I can
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  bear. That's the crucial development.
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  For Cain, murder brought fear and misery.
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  But for Lamech, just a few generations later, murder brings
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  swagger and song. Violence has gone from being a
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  tragedy to being a sign of strength that you celebrate in
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  public. He's the end product of Cain's
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  self reliant spirit. He really is.
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  He's untouchable and he's singing about it.
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  And then comes the darkest part of the poem, the boast about the
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  number. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,
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  then Lamex is 70 sevenfold. And this isn't just him picking
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  a big number. It's a deliberate, blasphemous
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  twist of what God had said. Remind us of the context for
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  that sevenfold. When Cain was afraid of being
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  killed, God put a mark on him and said that anyone who killed
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  Cain, vengeance would be taken on them sevenfold.
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  That was God's declaration meant to restrain bloodshed.
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  It was about his justice. A way of saying vengeance is
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  mine, I will handle it. Exactly.
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  But Lamech grabs that divine formula and not only hijacks it,
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  but inflates it. He's boasting that his personal
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  rage will outdo God's justice. He's moved it from divine
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  judgment to human vendetta. His creed is destruction without
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  limit. If you touch me, I will destroy
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  you and your family and everything you have 77 times
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  over. And he's probably singing this
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  to the music that his son Jubal just invented, using the beauty
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  of art to celebrate the ugliness of his own rage.
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  It's the perfect picture of a fallen culture.
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  The way Genesis is structured here is just brilliant because
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  right after we get this picture of Lamix refined but brutal
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  culture, the narrative shifts completely.
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  It puts another lineage right next to it for comparison.
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  The line of Seth. It forces you to compare the 2.
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  Structural foil 2. Humanities 2.
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  Civilizations developing side by side with totally different
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  goals. And the contrast becomes
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  sharpest when you look at the 7th descendant from Adam in each
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  line. It's a perfect literary mirror.
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  In Cain's line, the 7th is Lamech, defined by polygamy and
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  murderous boasting. The absolute peak of the city of
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  man's pride. But in Seth's line, the 7th from
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  Adam is Enoch. A different Enoch, obviously.
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  And how is he defined? He walked with God.
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  He lived in fellowship with God so closely that God just took.
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  Him. One ends in a song of violence,
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  the other ends in communion with God.
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  Let's go back to Cane City for a moment.
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  We see all this skill, all this culture.
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  What's missing? God completely.
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  There's no altar mention, no prayer, no sacrifice.
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  It's a productive society, but it is morally disordered and
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  totally indifferent to its creator.
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  It's all skill with no submission.
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  And what's the defining feature of Seth's line?
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  The key phrase comes after Seth's son Ina, born.
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  It says at that time people began to call upon the name of
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  the Lord. That's the start of something
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  completely different. It's the beginning of public
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  corporate worship. Their defining activity isn't
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  building monuments to themselves, but calling out to
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  God. Together.
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  They are the line of faith defined by their dependence on
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  God. So you have these two paths laid
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  out right at the dawn of history, the way of Lamech,
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  which uses human skill to magnify human rage.
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  And the way of Seth, which uses human breath to seek God's
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  presence. And this shows us something
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  critical cultural advancement doesn't fix sin.
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  Skill doesn't equal godliness. Only grace can change the heart.
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  This contrast, especially Lamb exposed of 77 full vengeance,
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  become so important later on that specific number doesn't
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  just disappear from the story. No, it becomes a target.
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  Centuries later in the New Testament, you have the Apostle
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  Peter trying to figure out the ethics of Jesus's new Kingdom.
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  And he asks a very practical question.
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  Lord, how often should I forgive my brother who sins against me?
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  Up to seven times. And Peter probably, I thought 7
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  was very generous. It's the number of completeness.
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  He might have even been thinking back to that sevenfold
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  protection for Cain. He's looking for the limit.
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  He wants to know when he's done enough, when he can finally
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  stop. And Jesus's answer is just
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  staggering. He says I do not say to you 7
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  times, but 77 times. He takes the.
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  Exact number. He deliberately takes the exact
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  number that Lamech attached to limitless vengeance and
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  reattaches it to limitless forgiveness.
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  It's a complete reversal. Where Lamech multiplies revenge,
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  Christ multiplies mercy. That's it.
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  Lamech's creed was Hurt me and I destroy you.
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  Christ's command is if your brother repents you, forgive him
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  again and again. Without keeping score, he
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  completely overturns Lamech's entire worldview and establishes
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  the code for his new community. And of course, Christ's own
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  actions are the ultimate answer to Lamech's song.
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  Lamech kills a man for a minor strike.
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  And Christ, the only truly innocent one, is struck, beaten
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  and crucified. He endures the ultimate
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  injustice and his response from the cross is Father, forgive
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  them. The cross answers Lamech's song
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  by absorbing wrath instead of inflicting it.
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  That's right. Because Christ settled the score
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  with justice on the cross, his followers are freed from the
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  need to pursue Lamech's path of personal vendetta.
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  We're commanded to extend mercy because we've received it.
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  So to bring this all home for you listening, we need to see
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  the big picture. This sets up this contrast
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  between Cain city Enoch and the city God is building, the New
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  Jerusalem. Genesis 4 really gives us the
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  blueprint for the conflict between the city of man and the
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  city of God. Cain, A murderer, builds a city
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  as a monument to human effort. That's the city of Man.
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  While the New Jerusalem, the city to come, has God himself as
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  its designer and builder, it's built by grace, not just human
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  effort. Cain's city relied on stone
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  walls for security, a human attempt to find safety in a
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  cursed world without repentance. But God's city offers a better
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  home, a heavenly 1 where security comes from being right
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  with him, not from bigger walls. And finally, the name Cain's
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  City has a human name, Enoch, for human fame.
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  But in the New Jerusalem, God writes his own name on his
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  people. The glory is all his.
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  So the story of Cain's culture is a huge warning for us today.
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  It shows that you can have amazing technology, beautiful
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  art, and a spirit that celebrates cruelty and revenge
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  all at the same time. We can't ever confuse
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  sophistication with godliness, and so the question this passage
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  leaves you with is where are you placing your confidence?
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  Is it in your own skills, your own projects, your own stone
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  walls? Is that where you look for
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  security and meaning? Or are you like Seth's line,
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  defined by repentance and faith by calling on the name of the
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  Lord? Because Cain's city produces a
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  Lamech, but Christ City produces people defined by mercy.
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  And that really is the dividing line, isn't it?
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  What our gifts are for? Cain's line had the gifts, but
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  they use them for their own glory and to amplify their
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  violence. Well, Seth's line was defined by
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  dedicating their lives to worship, and so the whole story
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  is an invitation to flee from Cain's pattern of vengeance and
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  self exaltation and to find your citizenship in that new city,
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  the city where our gifts are finally used for their true
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  purpose, to worship the Creator. And that leaves us with one last
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  thing for you to think about. We said Jubal invented music,
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  the lyre and the pipe, and the very first recorded use of that
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  art, that poetry and song, was by Lamech to boast about his own
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  murderous rage. Art was born and was immediately
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  put in the service of pride and violence.
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  So here's the question. What happens to our art, our
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  technology, our whole culture when we stop calling on the name
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  of the Lord? What is the purpose of a song or
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  a skyscraper or smartphone in a world defined by the spirit of
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  Lamech versus the world defined by the spirit of Christ?
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  That's something to consider as you reflect on these two paths
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  laid out for us right at the beginning.