This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-4” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 28, 1993.

Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he built a city, and he called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

After Enoch was born, Irad. And Irad became the father of Mechugiel, and Mechugiel became the father of Mechugiel. And Hushiel became the father of Lamech. And Lamech took to himself two wives. The name of the one was Ada, the name of the other Zillah. And Ada gave birth to Jabal.

He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. And his brother’s name was Jubal, and he was the father of all those who played the lyre and pipe. As for Zilla, she also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naomi.

And Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zilla, listen to my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For I have killed a man for wounding me, and a boy for striking me. If Cain is avenged, Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, God hath appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. And to Seth, to him also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

Father, we know of the effectiveness of your word in many places in the world. receive the information we have heard tonight with gladness that there are opportunities for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Bulgaria, in Mongolia, and also in Ethiopia.

Lord, be pleased to hear us on behalf of these efforts, and would you raise up those who are especially gifted of you and called of your to work productively in these fields. May we participate in the proclamation of the gospel in these places and rejoice that we have a part in such a ministry. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Now, Genesis 4 verse 17 is one of those marvelous texts, because it is packed full of things. It teaches so much. In fact, it sets before us so many things that we won’t be able to cover them all tonight. and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch after the name of his son.”

The first thing that I want to call your attention to in this passage is the fact that this text affirms for us the marriage state and the sanctity of that ordained institution as a common good, as a common good. That is a good that is enjoyed by all of humanity, regardless of whether they have faith or not. It’s obvious that Cain doesn’t. So here is the affirmation of the state of marriage, the sanctity of that ordained institution as a common good.

Now, to be sure, tragedy is looming. Let’s drop down a few verses. Verse 19, to be exact, there we are told about the assault upon the institution of marriage by a man named Lamech. Truly a vile example of humanity, he loads himself up with two wives. In Genesis 6, the story goes on. In Genesis 6, we are told about a greater tragedy still. Here in the second verse of that sixth chapter, Scripture confronts us with the mixing of the races.

Now, it’s not what you might think. It’s not what some have imagined, specifically the mixing of the races. It is rather a mixing, a mixing about which God is supremely concerned. It’s not the mixing of black and brown. It’s not the mixing of yellow and white.

God isn’t concerned about that. What God is concerned about is the mixing of the seed of belief, or the seed of covenant, with the seed of unbelief. Paul, later on in the history of salvation, in the ethnically diverse and mixed world of his day, had but one word from the Lord on this matter. Let believers marry only in the Lord.

Then he moves through the book of Genesis, the tragedy continues. The stories of Abraham and Jacob set before us the handmaiden custom of the ancient world. If your wife can’t produce, then maybe her handmaiden can. The stories of Abraham and Isaac set before us the regal royal right to a harem on the part of pharaohs and Philistine kings. The stories of Jacob and his sons present to us polygamy, rape, prostitution, adultery, And the story of Lot, backing up a bit, presents to us the hideousness of homosexuality and incest. What a mess. And the tragedy is compounded because God’s elect line seems to be drawn into all of these intrigues and moral monstrosities.

But here, before the dissent begins, in Genesis 4.17, as we are looking specifically now at the unbelieving line, the line of Cain, a norm, a standard, is set out before us.

Kane is bound to his wife, and it is within that context that we are told about their intimacy. There is no other legitimate context. a beautiful affirmation of God’s intention and order, even for a fallen world. Christ himself later will say, He who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. then is a standard set out by which the believing and the unbelieving world are then to be ordered.

But further, what a beautiful affirmation of the benevolence of God, even to those who are hostile to him. or indifferent about him. Although the institution of marriage is about to be plunged into a nightmare, a nightmare that’s going to overtake even the elect, although the institution of marriage is about to become a battleground in which domestic wars are waged. Although the institution of marriage is about to be assaulted by every form of perversity, God preserves for himself in the institution of marriage a testimony with regard to himself and his kindness. Within marriage and through marriage, then, blessings come upon humanity. And by marriage, God in his benevolence restrains evil and promotes that which is commonly good. Indeed, Psalm 145 verse 9 says, is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works.

We who do believe might then well bless our God even for the testimonies of mercy that are evidenced amongst the unbelieving world. the institution of marriage and its sanctity. I might say that this quote as an aside is because of the drift of this argument that the Protestant Church has rejected the Roman Catholic doctrine that marriage is a sacrament. You see, marriage doesn’t just belong to the Church, marriage belongs to the whole world.

Moving on in this text, we have a second matter, a matter that may well help us with regard how we might interpret Scripture. We have a very direct lesson here with respect to the principles of biblical interpretation. This rises for us because it is this text that has always proved to be a puzzle for interpreters The proverbial question, where did Cain’s wife come from? Now the immediate response is that Cain married his sister, only his sister isn’t mentioned previously to this. I’m not saying that that’s incorrect, neither am I saying that it’s correct. What I will say is this.

It is at this point that we are given marvelous opportunity for understanding better the intention of Scripture in its entirety. The Bible is a book about redemptive history, salvation history. Bible is not a book of comprehensive history. In other words, the Bible isn’t telling you everything, and it’s not telling you about everyone. This means, then, that the Bible, being the book of redemptive history that it is, is concerned to lay before us those facts which are important for the realization of salvation through God’s work in history.

The matter of Cain’s wife is a question of relative unimportance, generally, to salvation history. Her birth is not of importance. Her name, seemingly, is not of importance. We are enabled better to guard against drawing out of a biblical text more than we ought, making hasty decisions about a scripture passage. We may well assume, for instance, that Cain was Eve’s firstborn and that Abel was her secondborn. I’ve preached through this chapter as if that were the case. We might also assume that because we are not told about other children, the only children that Adam and Eve had were Cain and Abel. That is obviously not the case, since this woman did come from someplace.

We must realize, then, that Scripture’s purpose is not an encyclopedia. any more than it is a book of comprehensive history. Drawing this out a bit further, the Bible is not a science book. It is not a book of philosophy or a book of morals. It is not a manual even for systematic theology.

It is at heart a book of very selective history, the purpose of which is to lay before us the story of that battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, a conflict culminating in the birth of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection is triumph over Satan. The Bible’s failure then to mention the origin of whom’s wife or even her name is a go for us in the direction of a better understanding of the Bible’s intention. We are forced to read the Bible on its own terms.

Tonight I have a couple more remarks to make to you. I want to speak about the child. The child’s name is Enoch. This child is born into the world. We have the accounts of the births of Cain and Abel previously. This child’s birth seems to be of a line with theirs. In other words, the birth of this child set before us a normal physical human being.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t the tragedies of birth. We know about those tragedies. But even here there is affirmation once more of the continuing grace, common grace of God, even to an unbelieving world. Not only are their marriages an affirmation of the order that God has set within his creation, but the very children that they produce are a testimony to the same end. Secondly, with regard to the child, notice this. Child’s conception and birth are seen to be as of a piece. They belong together.

Why specifically mention the conception? What purpose does that serve? As far as the people of God are concerned, or the history of redemption is concerned. Why mention the conception? Why not just mention the birth? The conception and the birth are seen to be as of a piece. They belong together. They are mentioned together. They are told together. This specific mention of the conception testifies to the general witness of the scripture, that is, life begins at conception. There it is. Now this is what the Bible says, regardless of what science says, regardless of what the Supreme Court says. Life begins at conception, according to the Bible.

The unbelieving world doesn’t believe the Bible. It is a great tragedy when, in counter-variance to the witness of Scripture, that world denies that life begins at conception and even goes so far as to execute its unborn. But how wonderful when the unbelieving world, despite its unbelief, affirms this truth and resolutely refuses to act so wickedly. Only the Church can rejoice when the unbelieving world refuses to execute its unbelief. But how wicked it is when believers, claiming that they accept God’s word, reject this clear testimony of scripture.

The world itself has something to say about our hypocrisy. Be assured, God will have something to say himself about our hypocrisy. and he will judge us. These matters thus far, somewhat disconnected, I must admit, are now a consideration of Genesis 4.17. The sanctity of marriage, even within the unbelieving world, a clue as to how to approach reading your Bible, interpreting it. and also the matter of life, the generation of children, and how that generation process is to be viewed by us who claim to embrace the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, as with this text, so with all texts, Lord, bless us with understanding through your Spirit that we, in seeing the things that are laid out for us here by your Spirit, might live obediently.

If there is then that respect for marriage within the unbelieving world, what of ourselves? If we witness the respect for life within an unbelieving world, then what about ourselves? So God, give us then your grace abundantly that we might not say one thing and do another.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.