What's with Lamech?

[Tamweop]

I delayed asking this in case it would become apparent later but I'm now in the middle of Levitique and I still don't know.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Why is Lamech saying this? I know about God's pledge to Cain, but this here does not make any sense, why does Lamech think he should be avenged 77 times?

 

[dvd_holc]

23​

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Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,a young man for injuring me.​

24​

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If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Ah...Lemech said to his wives...Not God...​

 

[Tamweop]

Ah...Lemech said to his wives...Not God...

Yes, but what is the point? What does that teach to Christians?

 

[dvd_holc]

I am not the best at the early stuff....This is a thought thou...At the time, there was a huge amount on blessing and curses. He saw what his father had done and what he done also. So, here is the first written example of generational sins that is a sin that lines of offspring commit just like their parents. Lemech did not respect the other guy just as he respect himself. Lemech grew anger with the other man. Lemech gave into the rage and gave magnitude higher in pain to the point of death in revenge. He did not show love, kindness, forgiveness, etc…to the other man. Lemech also lost sight of God during his rage. Lemech say afterward that he was the same as his father. Feeling the guilt and shame…he imposed on himself a curse that he felt fit the crime. Yet, if he really turned his heart back to God or not for salvation…but we do see is that he pursued some justice to the crime (sin). And, justice is from God so he might have been appling to God for forgiveness of his crime. His motives are not said thou…

 

[Sketcher]

The man was arrogant to the extreme. That's why he boasted to his two wives, which is another ego trip. He had no respect for God at all.

 

[Tamweop]

But nothing bad happens to him, God let him be. Is that to teach Christian that God is unpredictable?

 

[Eruliel]

But nothing bad happens to him, God let him be. Is that to teach Christian that God is unpredictable?

It's like the verse in Galatians. Let me see if I can find it: Galatians 6:11-"Notice what large letters I use as I write these closing words in my own handwriting". This is surrounded by stuff about living in the spirit, and walking close with God, and then Paul breaks to say something about his handwriting! It teaches us something though...it teaches us about Paul, that maybe he was nearsighted and needed to write large to see his own handwriting. Maybe it's telling us to pay close attention to the closing words.
Maybe the verse about Lamech shows that he has an arrogant, and vengeful nature that we should avoid duplicating in our lives with God. I mean you will not talk to a Christian who says "I want to be like Lamech in Genesis!" and that's because (those who've heard of him) don't want to be arrogant cold blooded murderers, and those who haven't heard of him will be like "Oh who's he?". That's my guess anyway.

Tamweop, God is unpredictable. To have him be otherwise would mean he would be an understandable diety, much akin to those found in mythologies around the world: merely glorified humans with the same weaknesses and fickle behaivour as us.
Jehovah of the Bible is an amazing God, and our inability to predict him makes him all that more worthy of our praise. God is a paradox...100% love, 100% wrath. He doesn't break his promises, but he deals with each person individually. He saw fit to punish Cain and not Lamech, and we may never know why, but there are alot of things we won't understand about God. That's one of the reasons why I'm sure God is God and no other. I can't predict him. He can't be explained 100% and therefore become mundane and like another human to me. He is awesome in every sense of the word.
Slainte!
Eruliel

 

[SolomonVII]

Lamech's boast shows a steady deterioration in the human condition starting from the fall.

The sin of Adam and Eve did not arise our of a hearts fully hardened and jaded by sin.
Doubt, fear, desire, and even curiosity may describe their actions in the Garden.

The murder by their first son, Cain, demonstrates how quickly mankind descends as a consequence of the initial sin. His murder of his brother was brooding and hot-blooded, and the consequences were in his words "more than he could bear". In his crime there was no joy, and no reason to boast.

By the time Lamech and the seventh generation of Adam's sin, the lineage of Cain has become thorougly corrupted. What for Cain was a mark of shame for the generation of Lamech becomes a mark of pride, and also for the mark of the total, final corruption of a lineage that exists apart from the presence of God.

With Jesus, and his words to forgive transgressions seventy times seven times, the meaning is one of infinite grace and a call toward forgiveness in profound abundance.

And yet even as the family of God is being called toward infinite forgiveness, the lineage of Cain turns not to repentance, but recognizes in God's infinite mercy a way-a legalistic loophole if you will- to literally get away for murder.



From Genesis 4
6 So the LORD said to Cain: "Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? 7 2 If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." 8 Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out in the field." When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" 10 The LORD then said: "What have you done! Listen: your brother's blood cries out to me from the soil! 11 Therefore you shall be banned from the soil that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 If you till the soil, it shall no longer give you its produce. You shall become a restless wanderer on the earth." 13 Cain said to the LORD: "My punishment is too great to bear. 14 Since you have now banished me from the soil, and I must avoid your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, anyone may kill me at sight." 15 3 Not so!" the LORD said to him. "If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged sevenfold." So the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him at sight. 16 4 Cain then left the LORD'S presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 5 Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Cain also became the founder of a city, which he named after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael; Mehujael became the father of Methusael, and Methusael became the father of Lamech. 19 Lamech took two wives; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who dwell in tents and keep cattle. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe. 22 Zillah, on her part, gave birth to Tubalcain, the ancestor of all who forge instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Naamah. 23 Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my utterance: I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me. 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

 

[SolomonVII]

But nothing bad happens to him, God let him be. Is that to teach Christian that God is unpredictable?

The usual expectations of God's judgements are wrath and punishment. In fact, patience and mercy are more the ways of God.

The consequence for the lineage of Cain was already spelled out when Cain no longer walked in the presence of the Lord. It follows that anyone that follows Cain's path no longer walk with the Lord either.

Not so much a punishment then, but Cain's banishment was a consequence of his turning away from what God was telling him.

And Lamech had already been born into that consequence of being a lineage outside of the Lord's presence.

What God offered to Lamech was really the same as he offered to Cain. This was a mark to protect him from others taking vengeance against his murder. To maintain a semblance of order, his murder becomes protected, lest the society degenerate even further into an orgy of blood feuds.

And in a sense, God's worst 'punishment' takes the form of this protection. Where murderers are protected, their punishment is that they must live their lives out in a society with murder as its basis.

Violence becomes the very foundation of their societies. Their socieities are not held together by the bonds of brotherly love, but by power relationships.
And just as those who 'live by the sword, die by the sword', violence and threats of violence become their constant companions.

Note also that Cain and his descendants are noted as founders of the city (ie civilisation), and the arts and technology that arise out of civilisation. Civilisation itself then, arises out of the ongoing protection of murderers.

 

[Radagast]

But nothing bad happens to him, God let him be.

And God lets us be, most of the time. That doesn't mean He approves.