Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 4, Heb. 11:4, Mic. 6:7,
Isa. 1:11, 1 Cor. 10:13, 1 John 3:12, Genesis 5, Gen. 6:1–5.
Memory Text: “ ‘If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you
do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but
you should rule over it’ ” (Genesis 4:7, NKJV).
I
n Genesis, what follow immediately after the Fall, and then the
expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, are mainly births and
deaths, all in fulfillment of God’s prophecies in the preceding chap-
ter. As parallel chapters, Genesis 3 and 4 contain many common themes
and words: descriptions of sin (Gen. 3:6–8; compare with Gen. 4:8),
curses from the ’adamah, “ground” (Gen. 3:17; compare with Gen.
4:11), and expulsion (Gen. 3:24; compare with Gen. 4:12, 16).
The reason for these parallels is to highlight the fulfillment of what
went on before, the prophecies and predictions that God had given to
Adam and Eve after the Fall. The first event after Adam’s expulsion is
full of hope; it is the birth of the first son, an event that Eve sees as
the fulfillment of the promise that she heard in the Messianic prophecy
(Gen. 3:15). That is, she thought he could be the promised Messiah.
The next events—the crime of Cain, the crime of Lamech, the
decreasing life span, and the increasing wickedness—are all fulfill-
ments of the curse uttered in Genesis 3.
Yet, even then, all hope is not lost.