Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #19 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 4:17-23-24:

And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

In our last study we saw that Lamech’s statement that he had “slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt” identified with a verse in Exodus that stated that if anyone wounds someone, he will be wounded and if anyone gives a stripe, he will receive a stripe – “stripe for stripe” and “wound for wound.” Lamech is indicating that since he has broken the Law of God through the slaying of a man, it was also done to his own wounding and to his own stripes, meaning that he will receive punishment. It is a recognition of the punishment he will receive, just as God punished Cain for murder, so Lamech is acknowledging that punishment will also come his way.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 4:24:

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Lamech is referring back to Cain. Cain was afraid that anyone finding him would kill him and it said in Genesis 4:15:

And JEHOVAH said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And JEHOVAH set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

We discussed this and we saw that Cain was guilty of killing his brother. He and his brother Abel are a representation or picture of the people of God within the corporate body of the New Testament churches and congregations, like the wheat and the tares that were dwelling together. Then God let it be known that He required a sacrifice and He also let it be known which of them was accepted and which was not accepted, just as God let it be known at the end of the church age which were wheat and which were tares. He did this through the mechanism of revealing His command that His people come out of the congregations and those that stayed behind were revealed to be tares. Now we know that not everyone that came out of the churches was elect, but all the elect did come out. That was the process God established. That is why God said He would punish anyone that killed Cain and take vengeance on anyone that killed Cain “sevenfold” because Cain represented the corporate church under the judgment of God. Even though God stretched out His hand in wrath against the corporate body, it did not give anyone else allowance to strike them or afflict them. This was God’s judgment against Esau in the Book of Obadiah; in the day of his brother Jacob’s calamity, Esau sided with the enemy. That is the reason God places a penalty upon anyone that would slay Cain and indicates that He would take vengeance “sevenfold” It represents the judgment of God against any that would dare stretch forth His hand against God’s anointed.

Again, why does Lamech recognize that he has done wrong by slaying a man to his own wounding and a young man to his own hurt? He is acknowledging his sin, in a sense, but he also says in Genesis 4:24:

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

If anyone killed Lamech, he is saying that person is also to be avenged “seventy and sevenfold.” The first thing we notice are the numbers. The term “sevenfold” means seven times, but Lamech is indicating the avenging is to be “seventy” above that. If we add them together, it is “77” and that number is “7 x 11.” The number “7” points to perfection and the number “11” points to the coming of the Messiah, as the Lord Jesus entered into the world after 11,000 years of history.

Here, I think emphasis is likely more on “70” and “7” or seventy above the seven times that God would have avenged Cain. The number “70” is “10 x 7,” representing completeness and perfection or the perfect completeness of vengeance, which is what is in view. That is what is being discussed. If Cain would be avenged seven times, then Lamech would be avenged “seventy and sevenfold,” or the complete perfection of vengeance. And when does the complete perfection of vengeance take place? It takes places in Judgment Day, the final judgment of mankind, and I think that is what is in view. Cain is avenged “sevenfold” because he is a picture of the corporate church. Lamech is a later descendant of Cain, but he did not have the same relationship with God as Cain did before Cain was driven out. Lamech is a few generations later and he had grown up in the land of Nod, the land of wandering. He was an outsider to Eden which represented the corporate body or outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth. Lamech had spent his entire life dwelling in a place that was away from the presence of JEHOVAH, just like the (unsaved) people of the world. I think the reason Lamech makes this statement is that he is someone that identifies with the unsaved people of the world, while Cain, in particular, identifies with the unsaved people that have a relationship with God within the corporate church body and who take the name of Christ and call themselves Christian.

In Matthew, chapter 18 we see some similar use of these numbers as Peter comes to the Lord Jesus. It says in Matthew 18:21:

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

This is interesting because it is “sevenfold.” It means seven times and that is what God had said concerning anyone that killed Cain. Then it goes on to say in Matthew 18:22:

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Of course, “seventy times” is different than “seventy and seven,” which is “77,” but seventy times seven is “490.” But we still have the “seven times” brought up with the number “seventy,” so there is a similarity. Instead of addition it is multiplication. Peter asked Jesus how often his brother can sin against him and Peter must forgive him. If you do not forgive your brother, what are you really doing? If you are unforgiving, you are taking vengeance against your brother. Jesus said, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” It is until the complete perfection of whatever is in view and what is really in view is all of time in this world because God commands us to forgive. Vengeance belongs to the Lord and we are not to take vengeance while we live in this world; when someone does a wrong against us, we must not respond in wrath or in judgment. According to the Law of God and His perfect will, we are not to respond that way and the true believer learns to be forgiving and forbearing of one another as we realize that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us. The commandment of God is to forgive “seventy times seven” and this draw on the seventy weeks of Daniel, chapter 9 because a week is seven day. It is seventy weeks or seventy “sevens” or “490,” so the Lord Jesus is really drawing upon the reference to the seventy weeks which extend all the way to the time of the end. So Christ is indicating that we are to forgive until the end or until the world is gone.

It is a whole different matter when we look at God coming in judgment with all the saints with Him, as it says in 1Corinthians, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” That is a different matter. That has nothing to do with judging our brother, our friend or even our enemy because they stepped on our foot or we were offended by something they said. The believers are with Christ as Christ came as the Judge of the earth and as the believers share that information they are taking part in the process of judgment with the Lord Jesus, but it has nothing to do with a personal wrong against you. They are two different matters and Christ is addressing Peter’s question about forgiving a brother that has sinned against him or offended him in whatever way and that forgiveness must go until the end of the world. We are always to forgive, even though we are now living in the Day of Judgment, the day when God has begun to spiritually judge the unsaved inhabitants of the earth and we are judging with Him. Christ is the Judge and we are only involved by sharing the things the Bible reveals, but we are not pointing the finger at any individual in our relationships with family, friends, coworkers or strangers.

So we are to forgive to the completeness of perfection or “seventy times seven,” which points to the end of the world and this is one of the reasons why Lamech said he will be avenged “seventy and sevenfold,” or the completeness of the perfection of vengeance above that of the vengeance for Cain, which was seven times. It would seem to indicate that the “seventy and sevenfold” has to do with the final judgment of unsaved mankind.

It is a difficult verse and, yet, I think that through the numbers used this is the understanding the Lord would have us to see.

Let us move and read Genesis 4:25:26:

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.

Let us just look at a couple of things here. There is a very big teaching in these verses and it extends into Genesis, chapter 5, so for the remainder of this study we will just look at a couple of things and, Lord willing, in our next study we will look at the larger picture and larger doctrine God has hidden in these verses.

We know that Adam is a figure of Christ. It says, “And Adam knew his wife again,” and Adam’s wife Eve had come out of his side, so she is a picture of the elect and a type of the mother of us all, Jerusalem above. She had born a son Abel and he was a righteous man. Many Scriptures tell us that, so that is a certainty. Cain slew Abel and we saw earlier in Genesis 4 that God made a point of using language, “And it came to pass at the end of days” that Cain slew Abel and we related that to the end of the church age and the separation of the wheat and the tares.

Now Adam knew his wife again and she bare another son and called his name Seth. The name “Seth” means “appointed” and that is why it goes on to say in verse 25, “For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel.” The reason she called his name “Seth” was that God had appointed another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. The name “Seth” is derived from a word that means “appointed.”

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 4:26:

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos…

The Hebrew word translated as “Enos” is related to a word that is translated as “men,” so it goes on to say, “then began men to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.” This is all happening after Cain slew Abel and after Cain had been driven out. We just went through a lot of information that God gave us regarding Cain, but now the attention is turned back to Adam and Eve and Eve bearing another son appointed to her by God instead of Abel. Then Seth had a son named Enos and “men began to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.” This is very important. You know, there are people that have just given up on the timeline of history and of God saving the great multitude because they do not “see” them anywhere, physically, and based on their own experience they have allowed their outward perceptions to cloud the things of the Bible and they no longer believe them. Yet, here in Genesis 4 we have seen this whole matter about Cain and Abel that came to pass “at the end of days.” Then “another seed” is appointed instead of Abel and at that point Seth has a son and “men began to call upon the name of JEHOVAH.”

Now let us go into Genesis 5 and take a look at Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

This means that this took place 130 years from creation. Adam was created in the first week of the world’s existence, so the world is 130 years old at this point and Cain has slain Abel and God is identifying it “as the end of days” and God has appointed another seed instead of Abel named “Seth.” Do you see it? Is it me? Or, was it Mr. Camping or other of God’s elect that are making these things up? Are we arranging the Scriptures in this kind of way? The number “13” identifies with the end of the world and “130” is “10 x 13” or the completeness that comes at the end of the world. Is it a coincidence that the separation of the wheat and the tares that took place at the end of the church age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation in 1988 was exactly the 13,000th year of earth’s history or “10 x 10 x 10 x 13”? The 13,000th year of earth’s history was the end of the church age, the beginning of the Great Tribulation and the time when the wheat would be divided from the tares, just as we read in Genesis that “in the end of days” Cain and Abel were divided by God. We are given just one timeline here and that is the age of Adam of 130 years.

If our timeline is all wrong and we are so incorrect and we do not know where we are in the timeline (if we listen to practically everyone else), then why is it that Adam is not 115 or 146 or 152? Why is it 130? It is the age of Jacob when he entered into Egypt after two years of the famine, with five years of famine to go, in the year 1877BC and that seven-year famine was “great tribulation,” according to Acts, chapter 7. God ties in the age “130” with Great Tribulation and, here again, in Genesis, chapter 4 and 5, God is linking the dividing of two brothers to the age of “130.” Just a coincidence? No – this is the Bible. This is the Word of God. This is the Book where God declares the end from the beginning. This is God revealing things that will unfold thousands of years into the future and He is revealing a Biblical timeline or Biblical calendar of history.

When we get together in our next study, we will look at the big doctrine God just revealed to us and then we will make preparation to enter into Genesis, chapter 5 where we will begin to slowly and carefully go into that Biblical calendar of history which has given us so many key dates.