Bible Survey - #4 - Genesis 4-11

“The Day of Death”

Death came into the world through Adam. People first experienced death when Abel died before his parents through the horror of one brother murdering another. God knew what Cain concealed. The genealogies that followed reinforced the fact that the “day” of death had come.

Even before anyone died, the power of death was expressed in lives of sin that grew from generation to generation. The strong thought they had the right to abuse the weak. Men and angels rebelled against the Lord of life by stealing, killing, and destroying. God hated sin, and He brought His judgment upon evil through the flood in the days of Noah. Only those who followed His Word and took refuge in the ark of His blessing were saved.

After a new beginning, the Lord announced through Noah the pain of history that would provide the context first for the Old Testament and then for the New Testament. In a sweeping prophesy involving thousands of years, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and the later salvation of many Gentiles through the Lord's best blessing upon the Jews was in part revealed and in part concealed. What men could not know, the Lord has accomplished. The way to heaven has not come through the works of people, but through the Son of God.

The sin of Cain, the blood of Abel shed,

The mighty men that push aside the weak,

Display the terror of the day of death;

But Jesus Christ secured a day of life.