My friend Dr. Bill Hinson told a favorite story about a mother who had several children. She sent them out to play hide and seek the same day roofers were putting new tar on the apartment roof. The youngest found an exquisite hiding place, in an empty tar barrel. After he won the game, his siblings reluctantly returned their brother, smudges and all, to his mother at the door of their apartment. The mother looked at the boy and said, “What have you done? It would be easier to make another one than to clean you up.”
We may wonder if God felt that way after Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. God’s heart was broken by the sin, but he worked to redeem. There was mercy in the mark of Cain protecting him from the death he had so willfully inflicted on his brother. Even a murderer found a wife and started a family. Cain founded a city and named it for his son. In his lineage came Lamech. Lamech’s three sons became pioneers in nomadic shepherding, music, and tool manufacturing respectively. These three boys shared the same father, but showed very diverse interests. Like his ancestor Cain, Lamech also killed a man in a fight. He claimed the same immunity Cain had been given.
Thankfully, God was not finished with Adam and Eve yet. Though they had lost both of their sons, one to death, and one to exile, God gave them another son, Seth. Jesus would descend from Adam in this line through Seth’s offspring. Seth also had a son and named him Enosh. At this time, people began to call on the name of the Lord. Here is hope: after all the mistakes mankind had made, God still heard their prayers.
Our failures are not fatal. We come from a long line of sinners. But we serve a gracious and powerful God. Just when we think humankind will spin hopelessly out of control, a child is born who has a heart for God. John Newton summed up God’s great master plan near the end of his life as he lost his eyesight. He said, “I have forgotten many things but two things I remember: I am a great sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Savior.” Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). We still have a prayer. Hold on to that hope today.
