Greetings,
Today I am headed home after being in the Trail, BC. and Castlegar BC for the weekend. God was very good and the people were very hungry. My son Jonathan ministered with me and we got to tag team as a generational blessings and impartation to the community here. I am believing for MORE here of what has always been wonderful in Christ.
I am going to continue with the topic of honor and God’s plan to show honor to someone who was not honorable to Him. Cain loved the ground more than he did God so God in His love made it so Cain could not attach to the ground easily. He would be a wanderer in the earth. These consequences were not meant to kill him. God did not want him to die. He didn’t want anything or anyone to kill him. So God put a mark on him so that no one would kill him. I believe that mark was a mark of consequence. God’s thinking was, “As long as you continue in this course of direction Cain, there is a consequence. The consequence is there because I want you to be alive. I don’t want you to die. I don’t want anyone to kill you. I want you to turn and to see honor. I want you to come to Me. I am putting a mark on you. I am cursing the thing that you love more than Me so you cannot easily attach to it. I am placing upon you a mark of consequence so you will get a revelation. I want your heart to be able to say, ‘You are the Lord my God. You are the source of my life!’”
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Did God kick him out? No! What would be the condition of not leaving? The condition would be to turn and come back to the place of honor and recognize that God is first and God is best, which is what Abel saw. It was not a law! It was a testimony to the source of life. Honor opens the door to life. The ground should honor Cain and give its strength to Cain, but the ground could not give honor to Cain because Cain was not giving honor to God. So what did Cain’s life end up looking like? He went on a journey of wandering. He went to a land of wandering (Nod). This place of wandering was no longer in Eden, a place meaning “desirable”, a place of intimacy and relationship with God. It was not in a place of relationship with God. He had a child named Enoch – meaning ‘dedicated’. He then built a city, a big empire, a business, something he created. He named it Enoch, ‘dedicated’. He became ‘dedicated’ to what he could do. All of his family was dedicated to what they could do. If you follow the journey of the genealogy of the descendants of Cain you will find a descendant named Leech. Lamech means, ‘mighty power belongs to God’. This man was known for sining the song of bitterness to those around him in life.
Genesis 4:19-24 Then Lamech took for himself two wives:the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal- Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal- Cain was Naamah. Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy- sevenfold.
Lamech had three wives and it doesn’t say that he produced children, but his wives bore children. These children were merchant traders of livestock, creators of music and culture, and industrialists of bronze and iron. By all the standards of the world the family of Cain became entrepreneurs, artists, and inventors of new things. They became those who did all the great things that human beings do without God. They were the most successful people on the entire planet, but they didn’t know who they were because they didn’t know who God was. They ended up dying in the flood.
But after the death of Abel, Adam and Eve had another son. His name was Seth, meaning ‘fresh appointment’. Seth had a son named Enosh, meaning ‘mortal man’ – ‘I know I am going to die someday’. At that time men who knew they would die someday turned and began to pray to God.
Genesis 4:25-26 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
If you follow that family line they also produced an Enoch – ‘dedicated’. While the great city of Enoch of Cain existed upon planet earth there was also a humble man named Enoch and he walked with God.
Genesis 4:19-24 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty- two years; and he died. Enoch lived sixty- five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty- five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
One day Enoch got so close to God’s house and he just stayed with Him. The dedication of his life was one of intimacy with God. His focus was on God, who is the first and best. Enoch honored the one who gives life and he didn’t die. He had a son named Methuselah, the oldest living human being on planet earth.
Genesis 4:25-27 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty- seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty- two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty- nine years; and he died.
The descendants of Seth through Methuselah end up producing another man named Lamech. There were two Lamechs on planet earth at the same time. One was tremendously successful. The other was very significant. The significant one had his eyes focused in the right place. He had a son named Noah whose name means ‘rest’.
Genesis 4:28-29 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty- two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.
God found a man that He could rest in and thus when He flooded the earth He said He could rest in the family of Noah. He would destroy the earth, but where He rests it would be new again. The heart of the Father was towards the children and the hearts of children towards the Father. What was God looking for? He was looking for a family. He wasn’t looking for entrepreneurs, musicians, or industrialists. God wasn’t looking for successful people who were dedicated to conquer the earth. He was looking for a family who could inherit the earth. He was looking for a family of honor who would honor Him for who He was and the earth could honor them for who they were in the earth. God could rest there. God was looking for the family who knew who He is and who they are in the earth. This is the place of honor. The future of the earth rests there.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
