The Bible Period by Period | Page 6

Cain and Abel. These two, who are apparently the oldest children of the
first pair, were no doubt born soon after the expulsion from the garden.
One tilled the soil and the other was a shepherd. They each appear to
have been attentive to worship. Their offerings, however, were very
different and no doubt revealed a difference of spirit. The superiority of
Abel's offering was in the faith in which it was made (Heb. 11:4),
meaning perhaps that he relied upon the promise of God and that he
apprehended the truth that without shedding of blood there is no
remission. (Heb. 12:24).
Because God granted to Abel a token of acceptance of his offering and
failed to grant a like token to Cain, the latter became jealous and finally

slew his brother. Thus early did Adam and Eve begin to reap the effects
of sin. The record, in kindness to them, makes no mention of the great
sorrow that must have come to them as they saw their second son
murdered by their first-born. These two sons represent two types
running through all the Bible and indeed through all history-the
unchecked power of evil and the triumph of faith. They represent two
types of religion, one of faith and the other of works. Then as in all
succeeding ages the true worshipers were persecuted by false
worshipers.
God showed his mercy to Cain whom he sent away from the place of
worship at the east of the garden by putting upon him the divine mark
so that no one should destroy him. He also allowed him to prosper and
it was through his descendants that civilization began to show itself.
Cain and Seth-Two Races. Another son was born to Adam named Seth.
Probably others have been born since the death of Abel but none of a
like spirit to Abel and hence none worthy to become the head of a
spiritual branch of mankind. Cain's descendants applied themselves to
the arts and to manufactures, to the building of cities and the making
those things that furnish earthly comfort, while the descendants of Seth,
were selected to be the instruments of religious uplift and to have
communion with Jehovah. Through inter-marriage with the
descendants of Cain, however, the generation of Seth was corrupted.
This led to a period of great wickedness and the destruction of the
people by the flood.
The great age of those who lived in this period may have been a
provision of nature for the promotion of a rapid increase of the race and
for the advancement of knowledge. The revelation of God to them
could thereby be the better preserved. Then, too, the body of man was
not originally subject to death and when it became so because of his sin,
the process of decay may have been less rapid. And, besides, the effect
of hereditary disease had not begun to effect and weaken the race.
The Great Wickedness. As indicated above, this Wickedness seemed to
arise from the intermarriage of the descendants of Seth and those of
Cain. The descendants of Seth were called "the song of God," because

they were the religious seed. When they looked upon the beautiful
daughters of Cain (called the daughters of man because they
represented the irreligious portion of the race), they married them and
thereby brought the whole race into such corruption that "every
imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen.
6:5). God therefore declared "My Spirit shall not always strive with
man" and set the limit when he should quit thus striving with him at
one-hundred and twenty years (Gen. 6:3). After that God proposed to
destroy the whole wicked race from off the face of the earth (Gen. 6:7).
Noah God's Chosen Man. The narrative tells us (Gen. 6:8) that "Noah
found favor in the eyes of Jehovah." This was no doubt because his
character and acts were acceptable to Him. He was the tenth and last in
the Sethic line. He was the son of Lamech (Gen. 5:28), a godly man,
who had felt the weight of burden because of the curse which God had
pronounced upon the ground because of Adam's sin. He was called
Noah by his father, because he said the child would be a source of
comfort concerning their toil growing out of that curse (Gen. 5:39). He
was a just and perfect man and walked with God (Gen. 6:9; 7:1).
Compare also I Peter 3:20 and Heb. 11:7. He is also called a preacher
of righteousness (II Peter 2:5) and it is probable that, during the
one-hundred and twenty years that were likely employed in building
the ark, he preached to his generation and tried to lead them to
repentance. He was, however, unable to influence any