Genesis 1-3 is among the most important chapters in the Bible, in that they lay out the basic worldview and perspective (i.e. the lens) through which we are to read and understand the entire biblical story and God’s actions in history. That being said, there is one specific thing mentioned in Genesis 3 that not only helps us begin to see how the entire structure of Genesis 1-11 is laid out, but it also helps us better understand overall perspective of biblical history as a whole.
The War of the Offspring
That thing is found in when God curses the serpent. The key thing to see with that is that God essentially declares war on sin and death, and that war will be fought between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring. God further promises that eventually the woman’s offspring will “crush the head” of the serpent, although the serpent will strike at their heel. Like I said in the last session, God says He will use humanity to defeat sin and death somehow.
Now, I can’t stress this enough: the rest of the Bible can be viewed through that basic lens. The entire history that unfolds throughout the entire Bible is a record of that “war” between the woman’s offspring and the serpents’ offspring that God declared in Genesis 3.
That being said, let’s be honest, right when you read that in Genesis 3 itself, that whole “war between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring” thing still seems a bit murky. Sure, we might get that the woman’s offspring will be the woman’s children, but who are the serpent’s offspring? Snake people? I doubt it. I’m pretty sure Genesis 3 is not some sort of ancient Near Eastern science fiction. But seriously, I don’t think too many people have ever really thought about who the serpent’s offspring is referring to.
Well I think I have a pretty good idea. To get what the serpent’s offspring is all about, you just have to see how Genesis 1-11 as a whole is laid out. The answer is right there, and it begins to unfold in Genesis 4.
Cain and Abel, and the Ripple Effect of Sin
Genesis 4 tells us the famous story of Cain and Abel. Like most biblical stories, people think they know what it is about, but they really don’t understand what it is saying. Now, we know the basic story: Cain and Abel are the two sons of Adam and Eve; they both bring offerings to God, yet God accepts only Abel’s offering; Cain gets mad and ends up killing Abel; and then God confronts Cain and he is banished.
Now let’s ask the fundamental, exegetical question: “So what?” What is this story really about? Is it just informing us about the first murder in human history, or is there something more to it? Well, it should come as no surprise: of course, there’s something more to it. Fortunately, we only need to point out a few key things in the Cain and Abel story that should put the story into perspective.
At the most fundamental level, Genesis 4 illustrates the further fracturing of relationships: (A) Adam and Eve’s initial sin fractured their relationship with God; (B) when God confronts them, we see that Adam blames Eve, and this illustrates that their relationship with each other is now fractured; and this fracturing is seen when God describes the consequences that will befall the woman: the man will rule over her; and now, here in Genesis 4, (C) we see that disintegration in relationship in the form of sibling rivalry. What begins as a sin against God has a ripple effect throughout humanity and the created order (as we will continue to see).
But in addition to that, there are a number of details in Genesis 4 that we cannot overlook, for they have a tremendous impact on how well we understand the unfolding plot in Genesis 1-11. First of all, notice that Cain is described as “working the soil.” The Hebrew word for “soil” here is adamah—the very soil that was cursed because of Adam and Eve’s sin. Therefore, it should not be surprising to find that God did not accept Cain’s offering—it came from the cursed adamah.
Secondly, notice that when God warns Cain, He tells Cain that “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” This is similar to when we are told that Eve’s “desire” would be for her husband, but that he would “rule” over her. Basically, what we find is the “ripple effect” of sin—the sin of Adam and Eve clearly has implications for Cain and Abel. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it gets bigger and bigger and more dangerous until it triggers an avalanche.
Third, notice how the consequences of sin are further increased as well. Adam and Eve’s sin made the ground cursed, but Cain now is cursed more than the ground. Adam’s curse was that there would be painful toil to bring about the fruits of the ground, and now Cain’s curse is that his painful toil of the ground wouldn’t even produce fruit. Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden because of their sin, and now Cain is driven further out, becoming a fugitive and wanderer. Thus, whereas Adam and Eve’s relationship with God is broken, and their relationship with each other is affected, the consequence of Cain’s sin is that his entire relationship with his family is broken.
That being said, there is a hint of good news, even here. Just like God made garments for Adam and Eve to cover their shame (i.e. a type of salvation and protection), God provides for Cain as well by putting a mark on Cain’s forehead to protect him from being killed by others. Unfortunately, we have come to assume that the “mark of Cain” was God’s punishment and curse on Cain for his murder of Abel. But the context of Genesis 4 says something quite different: the mark is a sign of God’s protection, even of Cain. And so, Cain goes off, and in 4:17-24, we are given an account of his lineage.
Lineages and Offspring: Genesis 4-5
…Or should I say “offsprings”? When it comes to the various genealogies in Genesis 1-11, both here, in chapter 5, as well as in Genesis 10 and 11, most people really don’t know what to do with them. What’s the point? Young earth creationists total up the years in those genealogies and conclude that the earth can’t be much older than 6,000 years, but I think we would be wrong to understand these genealogies as literal, historical lineages.
Rather, we need to see how these genealogies function within Genesis 1-11. How they function is actually pretty straightforward: they are the fleshing out of God’s declared war between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring. That is, we are beginning to see hints as to the identity of the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring. What we should see is that, by giving in to sin, Cain and his lineage in 4:17-24 reflect the serpent’s offspring. Then in 4:25-26 we find that Adam and Eve have a new child, Seth, and it is his line that reflects the woman’s offspring and continues until we arrive at Noah at the end of Genesis 5.
Therefore, what these genealogies are telling us is that this war between the offspring of the woman and the serpent will take place within human history, within the human race itself. No, Cain’s descendants are not some sort of biological “snake people.” It is a metaphor, and thus the lineage of Cain represents the “offspring of the serpent.” By contrast, the lineage of Seth that we see in Genesis 5 gives us, metaphorically, the lineage of the “offspring of the woman.” This will be fleshed out by the time we get to the genealogies in Genesis 10 and 11.
Now, there isn’t much need to elaborate on all the specific names mentioned in both Cain’s lineage in 4:17-24 and Seth’s lineage in Genesis 5. There are a number of names that are similar to each other. In particular, the lineage of Cain essentially culminates in the description of Lamech in 4:19-24, who is depicted as so wicked, that if God promised to take seven-fold vengeance on anyone who killed Cain, that Lamech would require God taking seventy-sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed Lamech. The bottom line is this: Cain’s lineage is really, really bad.
By contrast, the culmination of Seth’s line can be seen with another Lamech (5:28-31)—one who fathered a certain man named Noah. And Noah, as we will soon see, is to be the one through whom God acts to judge the primordial world of its sin. Now, the interesting thing to note about Noah here is that his name means, “rest.” That gives further significance to Genesis 5:29. After reiterating that the ground (adamah) had been cursed, we are told that it will be through Noah that humankind will be given “rest” from the “painful toil of our hands.” Simply put: it is through Noah that God will address the curse of sin and death for the first time.
