When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NASB)
Genesis 5 says his image about Seth, and nobody else.
The Rabbis wondered about this and suggest that Adam and Eve may have had other offspring after Cain and Abel, before Seth. These offspring were… different. Not like Adam. Something monstrous.
This points to the Nephilim in Genesis 6.
Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 4:23-24 (NIV)
Seventh from Cain, we have Lamech boasting a 7-fold to 77-fold vengeance. I mentioned previously that Jesus flips this with this a 7-fold to 77-fold forgiveness.
When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:28-31
Eighth down the line from Seth in Genesis 5, we have a different Lamech, tied to the number 777.
Lamech’s son is Noah: Comfort.
In Hebrew numerology, 7 means completion. Perfection. But 8 symbolizes new creation. A new order.
It’s so fascinating. It’s like the numbers tell us about God creating a new order, undoing vengeance and overcoming it with forgiveness to bring us comfort.
Consider the law of the Kinsman Redeemer:
If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
Deuteronomy 25:5-6
This law defines how to be a “brother’s keeper.” Perhaps we’re told that Cain left and knew his wife (Genesis 4:16-17) specifically because he wouldn’t marry Abel’s wife in order to continue his dead brother’s name.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)
Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 4:23-24 (NIV)
You can relate to Eve, because we’ve all put our trust in something and had it fall apart on us, and perhaps you can relate to Cain, who was under a lot of pressure from his mother.
Eve names Seth, but in Genesis 5, the text says Adam does, so the implication may be that they both did. And perhaps that’s the point. We are meant to work together.
Eve knows God will redeem the world through her children, but one is lost by murdering the other. All of her hope is destroyed.
She holds Seth.
How she must have trembled at his first cry. How she must have clung to him and pressed him close to her body, but also feared losing him, just like she lost the others.
Could she trust God with this child? She trusted him with the first two, and we know what happened.
I weep for Eve. For us.
How do we trust after we’ve been let down? How do we hope when everything we hoped for has been dashed?
The story of Eve and Seth is a story of God healing the broken hearted. It will require time. It will require God.
Eve assumes God will use Cain – she says as much when she first speaks. And we, seeing Abel’s sacrifice, assume God will use the younger son to fulfill the blessing of “be fruitful and multiply.” But our assumptions are dashed by murder. Cain leaves the scene, and Abel dies. What will God do to solve this problem?
Perhaps the right name of the story should be “Not Cain, not Abel, but through Seth.”
Seth’s name means “appointed.” As in, selected by God to be used for a specific purpose. God’s purpose.
This is the nature of things.
Cain means acquired
Abel means a breath; vanity
Seth means appointed
“By the work of my hands, I attempt to acquire a name for myself. But this, too, is vanity, a grasping for the wind.
But God appoints another way. God’s way.
But seven generations later, the seed of wickedness grows into mockery and even greater violence. Perhaps this is the way of Cain.
Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
Pay attention to my words,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me!
If Cain is avenged seven times,
Then Lamech seventy-seven times!”
Genesis 4:23-24 (NASB)