Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

Titus 1:1 KJV
[1] Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

Titus begins here with a standard letter-writing format, which included the sender, recipient, and a greeting. The sender is Paul, a former persecutor of Christians, who was formerly known as Saul (Acts 7:58; Acts 8:1–3).

He encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, where he planned to arrest Christians. Instead, Saul believed in Jesus, changed his name to Paul, and was baptized (Acts 9).

Thirteen of Paul's letters are included in the New Testament, known as the Pauline Epistles (Romans through Philemon).

These make up nearly half of the books of the New Testament. Paul considered himself "a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ."

The Greek term Paul used is doulos, which means a "slave," or a "bond-servant."
As a willing servant, Paul was bound to follow God's commands. Paul also claims to be an apostle—from a Greek word meaning "sent one"—and a missionary of the good news of Jesus as the Messiah.

He served "for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth," a phrase referring to Christians and their spiritual growth. He served in a way "which accords with godliness," meaning one which would be approved by God.

Our topic today is:

The Children Of Cain And A GODLESS Civilization Discussion

We find that Cain moves out from God, and he establishes a civilization that is apart from God altogether. The children of Cain establish a godless civilization. Cain has murdered his brother and received God's punishment.

This included a loss of his ability to farm, and exile from his family. After receiving God's promise to take vengeance on anyone who would kill him, Cain leaves. Specifically, he leaves God's presence. This phrasing is interesting, since it implies something more than just a physical action.

Apparently, before the murder of Abel, Cain, and perhaps all humans enjoyed some special relationship with God. Now Cain has lost that. The rest of the Bible will demonstrate that sin often separates us from God, as well as from other people.
Cain wanders, according to the curse given by God.

However, in what seems to be a direct defiance of God's punishment, he then settles down. Cain establishes a city (Genesis 4:17) to the east of the Garden of Eden in a land called Nod. In Hebrew, the word Nod means "wandering." This society is productive (Genesis 4:17–22), but seems prone to evil and depravity (Genesis 4:19, 23–24).

In spite of his fears, Cain's life did not come to an end as a result of the murder of Abel. God's punishment for his crime was severe, but not fatal. Instead of farming, Cain began to build a city where he had settled in the land called Nod. This seems to run contrary to the punishment meted out by God, that Cain would be a wanderer.

Then again, as mankind begins to multiply, God seems to be less directly involved in their lives—this would include allowing more room for people to sin and suffer their own consequences.

Whether Cain is blatantly defying God, or if the "wandering" God had in mind was simply to be forced into exile, the Bible does not say. Cain also got married.

Where did his wife come from?

Our best understanding is that the murder of Abel happened decades—perhaps many years—after Cain and Abel were born. The first generations of humans after the garden lived for hundreds of years. It is very likely that Adam and Eve had many more sons and daughters after Cain and Abel, and before Seth.

Ancient genealogies very often only mention offspring directly related to the story at hand, so we would not necessarily expect the Bible to spell out every child of Adam and Eve. It's very possible, by the time we get to Cain's wife, that there were other sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, who themselves had children and perhaps grandchildren.

With such a long reproductive cycle, the population of the earth could have increased exponentially over several hundred years. The point is that Cain likely married a sister or one of many nieces or even grandnieces. This early in human history, intermarrying with one's direct sibling would not have carried the genetic risks it does now.

It was not forbidden by God; in fact, it would have been the only option for populating the earth. Later, as mankind's biology becomes more polluted, God will forbid Israel from this practice.

Cain, apparently a proud father, names his city after his son Enoch. Genealogies serve a valuable role in anchoring the text in a historical context and helping to approximate the passing of years and generations. The stories in Genesis are about real men and women who were born, lived, and died in real time.

Genealogies help us to remember and recognize that. At the same time, a key point to remember in these genealogies is that they are not particularly detailed. There are many names not mentioned—brothers and sisters and others not specifically named.
Also, times are given in typical ancient style: in vague terms.

The point of the genealogies is to show the flow of bloodline from one person to the next, not to give exhaustive details on the entire family line. In this case, the lineage being given is that of Cain, and his more notable descendants.

The family line of Seth, who was born after the murder of Abel (Genesis 4:25), is given a separate explanation. Some of the names used during this time frame, are similar or identical to names of different characters seen later in Genesis.

Just as with modern families, given names in these stories are not always original.
Cain's son Enoch—not the more famous one seen in chapter 5, the son of Jared and father of Methuselah—has a son called Irad. Irad has a son called Mehujael. He has a son named Methushael, and he fathered Lamech.

Again, this is not the same as the father of Noah mentioned in chapter 5. After tracing the generations from Cain to Lamech, the story slows down to give us a close look at Lamech and his family. The Bible gives no explicit reason for this, but it seems to be focused on the spiritual flaws in Lamech and his family.

For starters, Lamech took two wives, Adah and Zillah. Marrying multiple women was common throughout history, including the history of God's people Israel, but this is the first mention of it in Scripture. Many scholars see Lamech's choice to marry two women as a rebellion against God's design for marriage as described in Genesis 2:24.

Later, Lamech bragged about killing another man. This was not self-defense—the Hebrew word Lamech uses is the same used to describe Cain's killing of Abel. Not only did Lamech boast about his crime, he claimed even greater immunity than Cain.

This blatantly evil, anti-God attitude sets the stage for the upcoming story of Noah, and God's judgment on a depraved society.