04 March 2024
Is it clear enough yet? Our fallen existence is a curse; it is meant to be punitive. The only hope for mitigation is the Covenant. Obedience of the Word of God is a privilege. If we were left to ourselves to live against the natural world, we would not live that long.
God has unilaterally limited the threats in our favor, but the natural chaos of the time axis would devour us sooner or later. For people without the Word, it is a mark of God's mercy that He allows them to build civilizations with artificial laws of the space axis. They are a poor substitute for the Word, and civilization is wholly unnecessary when you submit to the Word. But God tolerates ignoring His Word for extended time frames, until He decides He's had enough, and unleashes the forces of chaos. It typically comes in symbolic cycles of time.
Cain's descendants were allowed to build the first of human civilization. Pageau notes that, in Genesis 4, his descendants are given symbolic names. Lamech's wives in particular: "Adah" is a Hebrew name indicating decoration or menstruation (i.e. spotting); she is the exotic wife. Her sons (Jabal and Jubal, names related to Jubilee, a washing flood in the cycle of time) represent nomadic herders and musicians. Without the Word, a shepherd is not a noble protector, and a musician does not worship the Lord. They and their mother represent the foreign folks who unravel organized living.
Zillah ("my shadow") represents the familiar woman who can re-produce Cain's seed faithfully, unlike Adah who tries to re-create it. There is a subtle difference in those two words in English that captures the Hebrew thinking. Zillah's son Tubal-cain ("skillful son of Cain") is a toolmaker, a dedicated builder. Notice that this is the Sabbath (7th) generation after Cain, the time when rest is mandatory, and God lets the natural forces restore the flooding.
Pageau notes that the last quote from Lamech is highly symbolic, something that would have been connected to common knowledge among Hebrew people in ancient times, but is apparently lost to us today. Instead, he cites a very shaky tradition that I would not credit. In essence, Lamech went blind and had to rely on his sons for things like going hunting. The legend claims that Tubal-cain mistook his own ancestor Cain for a game animal and killed him unintentionally (not for vengeance). Then, in his deep sorrow over this, Lamech in his blindness accidentally kills Tubal-cain. However, what really matters is the symbolism of regression: Lamech and his sons had become morally blind, and were very far from the Word. They cannot shape their own destiny; they only thought they could.
This fulfills the paradox of Cain being both the killer and would-be avenger. He murdered his brother, but would have been obliged to avenge that murder on himself. In due time, this paradox was amplified in the arrogant claims of Lamech. But the tables were turned, as Lamech's clan moved farther yet from the privileges of the Word. It represents a sort of moral feedback loop.
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