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garden of Eden). And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou (as the first-born) shalt rule
over him."
Jude links together in an unholy trinity "the way of Cain", "the error of Balaam" and
"the gainsaying of Korah" (Jude 11). Any gospel that is not based squarely on the
offering of Christ for sin, is advocating the way of Cain and is sheer deception. Our
pulpits today are full of such a travesty of the real `good news'. "Try to be like Jesus,
imitate Him day by day and do your best" is the basis of many sermons, the hope being
that somehow God will make up the deficiency and ignore our failures because He is
love. Millions are being lulled into a sense of false security by such teaching, but this lie
can only end in eternal death. In Christ Jesus alone we have the one Mediator and
Saviour "Who gave Himself a ransom for all" and whose blood "speaketh better things
than that of Abel" (Heb. 12: 24).
Two attitudes to the curse on the ground.
Most believers will remember that Enoch was the one who walked with God and was
translated (Heb. 11: 5). A glance at Jude 14 reveals that the writer refers to Enoch as
"the seventh from Adam". Why should he say this? Simply because there was another
Enoch who can easily be confused with the former one. Cain's first son was also called
Enoch (Gen. 4: 17; 5: 19). This Enoch had as his descendants Irad, Mehujael,
Methusael and Lamech, while the Enoch of Gen. 5: 18 had as his father, Jared, and as
his son Methuselah, who in turn had a son named Lamech, the two names Irad and Jared
differing only in the initial letter of the Hebrew.
This similarity of names is used by the arch-deceiver, Satan, in a similar way as at
Babylon, there was used `brick' for `stone' (Gen. 11: 3). At the end of this dispensation
Satan is going to fabricate a system that is so like the truth that `if it were possible' it
would `deceive the very elect' and it will finally deceive the whole world except those
faithful ones whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life (Rev. 13: 7, 8, 13, 14).
Then the deceiver will at last get what he has been scheming for since his fall, the
worship of all mankind.
In Genesis it would be easy to mistake Methusael for Methuselah, whilst both
Lamechs are identical in spelling. There is more in this therefore than a mere accident or
superficial likeness. It is a further division of the two ways, the way of Cain leading to
the Lamech of Gen. 4: 18 and the way of Enoch leading to the Lamech of Gen. 5: 25.
Two further links are found in the narrative. Lamech makes his boast:
"If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold" (Gen. 4: 24).
"And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years and he
died" (Gen. 5: 31).
There is a fundamental difference between the two Lamechs. Cain was cursed from
the earth (Gen. 4: 11). The Companion Bible here reads: