The City of Man and His Tin-Pot Anthem Text: Genesis 4:16-24
Introduction: The Tale of Two Cities
The story of humanity, from the very beginning, is the story of two cities. It is the story of two lines, two posterities, two rival kingdoms vying for dominion over the earth. This is not a conflict that began with Augustine, or with the founding of Rome, or with the tower of Babel. It began here, in the shadow of Eden, with two brothers. One line begins with Abel's blood crying out from the ground, a line of faith that looks to God for vindication and a city to come. The other line begins with Cain, a man with his brother's blood on his hands, who turns his back on God to build his own city right now.
When Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, he did not just take a long walk. He was performing a profound act of covenantal apostasy. He was formally seceding from the kingdom of God. And what does a man do when he rejects the city of God? He immediately sets out to build his own. This is the primordial impulse of fallen man: to construct a world, a civilization, a culture, a security system, that does not need God. Man wants to be his own savior, his own provider, and his own lawgiver. He wants to build a fortress against the curse, a monument to his own name.
This passage, then, is the founding charter for the City of Man. It is a brilliant, compressed account of the origins of secular civilization. And what do we find at its heart? We find three foundational pillars of rebellion. First, a rejection of God's presence in favor of a man-made city. Second, a rejection of God's design for marriage in favor of polygamy. And third, a rejection of God's justice in favor of arrogant, personal vengeance. This is the unholy trinity of humanism, and it culminates in the first poem recorded in Scripture, the bloodthirsty boast of Lamech.
We must not read this as a quaint story about ancient peoples. This is the blueprint for every godless society, from Babylon to Rome to the secular West. The technology changes, the music gets more complicated, but the heart of the city remains the same. It is a city built east of Eden, in the land of Wandering, by men who are fleeing from the presence of God.
The Text
Then Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Then Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son. Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. And Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock. And his brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. And Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give ear to my word, For I have killed a man for striking me; And a boy for wounding me; If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
(Genesis 4:16-24 LSB)
A Fugitive Fortified (v. 16-17)
We begin with Cain's exile and his defiant response.
"Then Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Then Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son." (Genesis 4:16-17)
To go "out from the presence of Yahweh" is the definition of damnation. It is not primarily a geographical statement, though it certainly was that. The presence of the Lord was specially located near Eden, where He communed with man. But more than this, it is a spiritual and covenantal reality. Cain is excommunicated. He is cut off from the place of worship, the place of fellowship, the place of grace. And where does he go? To the land of "Nod," which means wandering. God had cursed him to be a fugitive and a wanderer (Gen. 4:12), and Cain goes to the land that bears the name of his curse.
But notice the defiant irony. He settles in the land of Wandering. He refuses to wander. God says, "You will be a nomad." Cain says, "I will build a city." This is the heart of sinful rebellion. It is a direct, steel-eyed refusal to submit to the judgment of God. Cain's city is an attempt to create his own stability, his own security, his own salvation. He will find his refuge in bricks and mortar, not in the Lord. This is the spirit of Babel before Babel. He seeks to make a name for himself, naming the city after his son, Enoch. He is trying to establish a humanistic dynasty, a legacy of man, in the very land that was supposed to remind him of his judgment.
And of course, people get hung up on the question of Cain's wife. Where did she come from? The answer is as simple as it is obvious. She was his sister, or perhaps a niece. Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, and their children necessarily intermarried. At this early stage of human history, the gene pool was pure, and such unions were not yet prohibited by God's law. To get tangled in this question is to miss the entire theological point, which is about the founding of a rival kingdom, the City of Man, in defiance of the curse of God.
The Culture of Cain (v. 18-22)
The genealogy that follows shows us the rapid development of this godless civilization. It is a culture of impressive technical and artistic achievement, but it is built on a corrupt foundation.
"And Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah... Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock... Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe... Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron..." (Genesis 4:19-22)
The line culminates in Lamech, the seventh from Adam through Cain. Just as Enoch is the seventh from Adam in the godly line of Seth, Lamech is his dark counterpart. And his first recorded act is to shatter God's creation ordinance for marriage. "Lamech took for himself two wives." This is the first recorded instance of polygamy. God's pattern was one man, one woman, one flesh for life (Gen. 2:24). Lamech, in his pride, decides he can improve upon God's design. He treats women as property to be collected. This is not a trivial matter. The family is the basic building block of society. When you corrupt the family, the entire structure of the city becomes corrupt.
From this corrupt family comes a flourishing of culture. We have animal husbandry through Jabal, music and the arts through Jubal, and technology and metallurgy through Tubal-cain. Now, it is essential that we think clearly here. Tents, livestock, lyres, pipes, and bronze implements are not evil in themselves. They are all part of the cultural mandate given to Adam to fill the earth and subdue it. The problem is not the culture, but the covenantal context. This is culture divorced from worship. This is art for art's sake, technology for man's sake, civilization for Cain's sake. These good gifts are being forged in the city of rebellion, and they will become instruments of that rebellion. Music can be used to praise God or to seduce and distract. Technology can be used to build plows or, as we are about to see, swords. A beautiful and sophisticated culture that is not centered on the worship of the true God is simply a well-decorated path to Hell.
The Anthem of Arrogance (v. 23-24)
This section concludes with the first poem in the Bible, the "Song of the Sword" by Lamech. It is a chilling window into the heart of Cain's city.
"And Lamech said to his wives, 'Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice... For I have killed a man for striking me; And a boy for wounding me; If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.'" (Genesis 4:23-24)
Lamech gathers his wives, the symbols of his domestic rebellion, to be the audience for his public boast. He has killed a man, perhaps a mere boy, for something as trivial as a scratch or a bruise. This is not self-defense; this is disproportionate, hair-trigger vengeance. He is proud of his violence. He has taken the law into his own hands, and with the bronze and iron weapons forged by his son Tubal-cain, he feels invincible.
The climax is his blasphemous distortion of God's word to Cain. God had placed a mark on Cain, promising a sevenfold vengeance on anyone who killed him. This was an act of God's common grace to restrain the spread of violence. But Lamech seizes this divine promise and twists it into a personal threat, a statement of his own murderous autonomy. He multiplies God's number by eleven and says, "If God avenges Cain seven times, I will avenge myself seventy-seven times." He is declaring his independence from God's justice. He is his own god, his own protector, his own avenger. This is the anthem of the City of Man: raw, arrogant power, fueled by pride, and contemptuous of God. This is what a civilization built on murder, polygamy, and godlessness produces. It produces violent, boasting men.
The Song of Grace
The City of Cain appears strong. It has technology, art, music, and powerful men. But it is a culture of death, founded on the blood of a brother and destined for judgment. This story sets the stage for the great conflict of the ages: Babylon versus Jerusalem, the City of Man versus the City of God.
The spirit of Lamech did not die with him. It echoes down through history in the boasts of tyrants and the pride of nations. But God did not abandon the world to the line of Cain. He would raise up another seed, the line of Seth, and ultimately, the line of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus who provides the final, definitive answer to the song of Lamech.
Centuries later, the disciple Peter would come to Jesus and ask about the limits of forgiveness. "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" (Matthew 18:21). Peter, thinking himself generous, offers the number of divine perfection, the very number of vengeance attached to Cain. And what is Jesus's reply? "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:22).
This is not a coincidence. Jesus takes the anthem of the City of Man, the boast of limitless vengeance, and He inverts it. He transforms it into the anthem of the City of God, the command for limitless forgiveness. The spirit of Cain and Lamech is to exact revenge seventy-sevenfold. The Spirit of Christ is to extend grace seventy-sevenfold.
We are all born citizens of Nod, east of Eden. Our natural inclination is to build our own cities, trust in our own strength, and sing the song of Lamech when we are wronged. But the gospel calls us out of that city of pride and violence. It calls us into a new city, the heavenly Jerusalem, a city founded not on the murder of a brother, but on the self-sacrifice of the Son of God. His blood was shed not for vengeance, but for forgiveness. And so we are left with a choice. Which song will you sing? The tin-pot anthem of Lamech, or the glorious hymn of the Lamb who was slain?