Chapter 4:
| Calvin
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
Genesis 4
The
separation of the families of God and of the enemy: Cain
and Abel
But grace could work. The
grace of a God above the evil of man, and Abel approaches
Him by faith.
Hereon follows the
separation of the families of God and of the enemy, of
the world and of faith. Abel comes as guilty, and, unable
as he is to draw near to God, setting the death of
another between himself and God, recognises the judgment
of sin—has faith in expiation. Cain, labouring
honestly outwardly where God had set him to do so,
externally a worshipper of the true God, has not the
conscience of sin; he brings as an offering the fruits
which are signs of the curse, proof of the complete
blinding of the heart, and hardening of the conscience of
a sinful race driven out from God. He supposes that all
is well; why should not God receive him? There is no
sense of sin and ruin. Thus is brought in sin, not only
against God which Adam had fully wrought, but against
one's neighbour, as it has been displayed in the case of
Jesus; and Cain himself is a striking type of the state
of the Jews.
Sin and its
present consequences
In these two chapters we
have sin in all its forms, as a picture set before us, in
Adam's and Cain's conduct—sin in its proper original
character against God, and then more particularly against
Christ (in figure) in the conduct of Cain, with its
present consequences set forth as regards the earth. We
may remark, in both Adam's and Cain's case, how the
government of God on the earth is set in prominence as to
the effects of sin. Separation from God of a being
capable of, and naturally formed for, intercourse with
Him, is there, but left rather for the moral weighing of
the soul. The publicly revealed judgment is that of
consequences on earth. It is clearly said no doubt,
"He drove out the man" with whom He was to have
held intercourse (chap. 3); and "from thy
face," says Cain, "am I driven out" (chap.
4). But what is developed is the earthly condition. Adam
is shut out from a peaceful and unlaborious paradise, to
labour and till the ground. Cain is cursed from the earth
in this very position, and a fugitive and a vagabond; but
he will be as happy there as he can, and frustrate God's
judgment as far as he can, and settle himself in comfort
in the earth as his, where God had made him a vagabond
[1]; and that is the world. Here it is
first pictured in its true character.
Man's state and sin apart from
God
Remark also the two solemn
questions of God: "Where art thou?"—man's
own state
apart from God—intercourse with Him lost;
and, "What hast thou done?"—sin committed
in that state; of which the consummation and full witness
is in the rejection and death of the Lord.
Lamech
In the history of Lamech
we have on man's part,
self-will
in lust (he had
two wives), and vengeance in self-defence; but, I
apprehend, an intimation in God's judgment, that as Cain
was the preserved though punished Jew, his posterity at
the end, before the heir was raised up and men called on
Jehovah in the earth, would be sevenfold watched over of
God. Lamech
acknowledges he had slain to his hurt, but shall
be avenged.
Summary of chapters 2, 3, 4:
Seth, the heir of God's counsel
In the second chapter then
we have man in the order of created blessing, the state
in which he is; in the third, man's fall from God, by
which his intercourse with God on this ground is
foreclosed; in the fourth, his wickedness in connection
with grace in the evil state resulting from his fall;
what the world thereupon became; man being driven out
from the presence of Him who accepted by sacrifice in
grace, and ordering its comforts and pleasures without
God, yet borne with; and a remnant preserved, and the
heir of God's counsels, Seth, set up, and men calling on
the name of God in relationship with them, that is, on
Jehovah.
Driven from the presence
of God, Cain seeks, in the importance of his family, in
the arts and the enjoyments of life, temporal
consolation, and tries to render the world, where God had
sent him forth as a vagabond, a settled abode and as
agreeable as possible, far from God. Sin has here the
character of forgetfulness of all that had passed in the
history of man; of hatred against grace and against him
who was the object and vessel of it; of pride and
indifference; and then despair, which seeks comfort in
worldliness. We have also the man of grace (Abel, type of
Christ and of them that are His) rejected, and left
without heritage here below; man, his enemy, judged and
abandoned to himself; and another (Seth) the object of
the counsels of God, who becomes heir of the world on the
part of God. We must remember however that they are only
figures of these things, and that in the antitype the Man
who is heir of all is the same as He who has been put to
death.
[1]
Nod is "vagabond." God had made him Nod; and he
settles himself, calls "the land after his own
name," or at least his son's name, as an
inheritance, and embellishes his city with arts and the
delights of music—a remarkable picture.
Chapter 4:
| Calvin
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Revelation Exodus
This version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
