Genesis 4:25 - Meaning and Application

This is the first time Adam is mentioned in this chapter. There is no doubt that Abel’s murder, and Cain’s stubborn refusal to repent and his turning away from God, were a deep grief to Adam and Eve. It hurt even more because their own sin was now correcting them, and their waywardness was rebuking them. Their foolish choice had brought sin and death into the world, and now they were suffering from it, since they had lost both sons in one day (Genesis 27:45).

When parents grieve over their children’s sin, they should use that sorrow to mourn the corrupted nature they passed on to them. That corruption is like a bitter root. Still, here we see God giving our first parents comfort in their trouble.

God let them see their family being built up again, after it had been badly shaken and weakened by that sad event. They saw another child in place of Abel (Genesis 4:25). We should notice God’s kindness and tenderness in the way he cares for his people. When he takes one comfort away, he gives another in its place, and that new gift may turn out to be a greater blessing than the one they thought they could not live without. This new child was the one through whom the church would continue and be preserved. He comes in place of Abel, because each new generation of faithful people is like the revival of the martyrs, almost like God’s slain witnesses rising again.

In that sense, we are “baptized for the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:29), meaning that by baptism we are brought into the church in the place of those who have died, especially those who died as martyrs. We take their place and carry on. Those who kill God’s servants hope to wear out the saints of the Most High, but they will be disappointed. Christ will still see his seed. God can raise up children for him even from stones, and he can make the blood of the martyrs into the seed of the church. Their inheritance will never be lost for lack of heirs.

By a spirit of prophecy, Adam and Eve called this son Seth, which means set, settled, or placed. They gave him that name because, through his line, humanity would continue to the end of time, and from him the Messiah would come. While Cain, the leader of rebellion, is made a wanderer, Seth, through whom the true church would come, is made steady and fixed. In Christ and his church, there is the only true place of rest and settlement.

They also saw Seth’s son, Genesis 4:26. Seth had a son named Enos, a name that is also a general word for mankind. It points to human weakness, frailty, and misery. The best people feel these things most deeply, both in themselves and in their children. We are never so settled that we do not need to remember how fragile we are.

God also let them see religion awakening again in their family: “Then people began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). It is little comfort to a good man to see his children’s children if he does not also see peace in Israel and those who come from him walking in the truth. God’s name had surely been called on before this, but now two things happened.

First, worshipers of God stirred themselves to do more in religion than they had done before. It may mean not more than was done at the very beginning, but more than had been done lately, after Cain’s falling away. People now began to worship God not only in private and in their families, but also in public and solemn gatherings. Or the change may have been so great that it was, in effect, a fresh beginning of religion. The word “then” may point not only to Enos’s birth, but to the whole story before it. Then, when people saw the sad effects of sin in Cain and Lamech, and when natural conscience and God’s judgments showed the evil of sin, they became more alive and more determined in religion. The worse other people are, the better and more zealous we should be.

Second, the worshipers of God began to separate themselves openly. The margin reads, “Then began men to be called by the name of the Lord,” or to call themselves by that name. Cain and those who had abandoned religion built a city and openly declared for ungodliness, calling themselves the sons of men. In response, those who stayed faithful to God began to declare for him and for his worship, and they called themselves the sons of God. This was the beginning of the distinction between those who profess faith and those who are openly godless, a distinction that has continued ever since and will remain as long as the world stands.