If you haven’t learned this from watching cable news, it only takes one act to alter your legacy forever. When earth’s first couple participated in original sin by breaking God’s only boundary placed in the Garden of Eden (not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge), the sinful nature was conceived. Subsequently, when Cain, the first-born child on earth, had his own moral dilemma, a peptalk from God couldn’t alter the decision he had already made in his mind. Cain eliminated the source of his jealousy, Abel.
So Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod [wandering], east of Eden. 17 And Cain’s wife [one of Adam’s offspring] became pregnant and bore Enoch; and Cain built a [f]city and named it after his son Enoch, Genesis 4:16-17.
According to Jude 1:14, Jared’s son Enoch lived seven generations after Adam. When you take into consideration Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, Eve gave birth to two girls. Each of these two were likely women Cain and Abel eventually married. Since Abel’s life was struck down before he was able to have children, Cain’s wife gave birth to the first Enoch. This is what I call a God instance, not a coincidence as Enoch would go on to alter Cain’s legacy as a man and a father.
When Enoch was 65 years old, Methuselah was born. 22 Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God after the birth of Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him], Genesis 5:21-24.
Since the earth’s population was reduced from six to five people following Abel’s murder, God didn’t give Cain the death penalty. Rather than cut the earth’s population back to four, Cain was sentenced to a life as a vagabond. However, Moses does record his family’s lineage in the passage above. Instead of dwelling upon and being haunted by his grave error in judgment, Cain devoted his life to raising Enoch. Like Solomon in the book of Proverbs, Cain did all he could to point Enoch in the right direction by avoiding the same mistakes he made in life. As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you now the rest of the story” of how just one child can alter your legacy on earth. If a murderer can raise a godly child who Cain built a city to honor, anything is possible.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 