SEEDS, CITIES AND THE REMNANT

And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a CITY, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch – Genesis 4:17

Human civilization has involved the cycles of seeds and cities. Men produce SEEDS (children) and build CITIES to perpetuate their legacies. In order to build the cities, the seeds learn and acquire SKILLS and gradually spread civilization. However imperfect these might have been, they aligned with the command to “be fruitful and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Although Cain had become a Vagabond who departed from the presence of the Lord (Gen. 4:16), Jehovah’s covenant of fruitfulness and dominion was never nullified. It is instructive that the fugitive became the first City-Builder and named it after his son: “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names” (Psa. 49:11).

Then we see the origins of several enduring features of society:
- Polygamy – “…Lamech took unto him two wives:..” (vs.19);
- Tent-dwelling and Animal husbandry – Jabal pioneered these (vs. 20);
- Musicians and Instrumentalists – Jubal pioneered these (vs. 21);
- Technology – Tubal-Cain pioneered the fabrication of tools and implements (vs.22);
- War and human conflicts of which Cain had sown the winds and Lamech was reaping the whirlwind (vs. 23-24).

Though increasing in number and substance, Cain’s corrupted and contaminated lineage could not fulfil the redemptive dimensions of God’s purpose. This phase of human history received a dose of divine intervention in the form of an Appointed SEED – Seth – “ANOTHER SEED instead of Abel, whom Cain slew” (Gen.4:25). Seth (meaning “substituted”) replaced Abel, and produced Enos. Only then did humanity begin “to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4: 26).

No matter how evil or deplorable the state of mankind ever becomes, God will never lack a RIGHTEOUS SEED among men – His Remnant:
- “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small REMNANT, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9).
- “And the REMNANT that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward” (Isa. 37: 31).
- For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the REMNANT of this people to possess all these things (Zech. 8: 12).