the Third Week after Easter
Click here to join the effort!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Genesis 4:17-26
Cain, condemned to being a wanderer, refuses the lot that God has assigned to him and settles down in the world in a comfortable manner. He builds a city for himself and his descendants and each one finds an occupation of his own choice. But social progress does not rectify human nature. The race of Cain resembles its head. The violent and provocative nature of history’s first murderer is reproduced in his descendant, Lamech. This picture gives us a foretaste of the present-day world which put Jesus, the true Abel, to death. Everything continues as though nothing had happened, as though the cross had never taken place. Everything is organized so that life on earth is as pleasant as possible. Nothing is lacking there: science, art, industry and even religion. Only Jesus is absent.
But parallel with Cain’s dynasty, another race makes a quiet appearance at the end of the chapter. Seth takes the place of Abel, and this is when men begin to call on the name of the LORD. The life of the righteous man put to death endures figuratively in the line of faith, showing us how Christ, the second Man, can count on an "appointed" family, bearing His name and living in the fear of God. Reader, to which of these two races do you belong?
