Must Be Alive To Die

Adam had relations with his wife again;

and she gave birth to a son,

and named him Seth.

Genesis 4:25

God’s mercies are new every morning. Adam and Eve grieved over the death of Abel, and in their grief, God blessed them with Seth. Seth called upon the name of the Lord.

A distinction was now made between those who would go the way of Cain and those who, like Seth, would call upon the name of the Lord. The distinction is so great and so evident that when God inspired Moses to write the book of Genesis, there is no mention of the death of Cain or the death of his children.

On the other hand, with the generations of Seth and his descendants, beginning with Seth’s father, Adam, God made the point to say, “And he died.” For someone to die, he must first live. Cain never lived.

There are many like Cain who appear to be alive but are not connected to the life, and so therefore, are already dead.

An illustration of those without Christ can be seen in a vase. We can see a beautiful vase of flowers on a table. The flowers appear to be alive and thriving. You can even smell their fragrance and touch the softness of their petals, but if you return to that same vase of flowers a week or so later, the truth is made evident. Those flowers in that vase are now wilted and slimy, and they stink. Death has made itself evident.

The flowers only appeared alive for a short time because they had been cut off from their life-giving source. Now, someone who knows more about flowers than I do could have taken those cut-off flowers and placed them back into their life-giving source and those flowers would have lived.

We are like those flowers.

In the garden, when sin entered the world, we were cut off from our life-giving source; we were separated from our Creator. We may appear alive, but left without him, we too become wilted, slimy, and we stink. Death makes itself evident. Cain remained dead in spirit, and his children followed him. Never coming to God to receive life, they merely existed, and then existed no more.

Oh Father,

The death of your children is precious in your sight (Psalm 116:15); the death of the righteous, those who have called upon your name and waited for your promise. Even though they did not receive it in this life, they waited. Father, your Word is true, and they died believing your Word was true. They believed in the promised seed before he came in the flesh, and that faith, that belief, brought them life then as it does me now. Father, I pray that my life will count. Thank you for my life in Christ, for I did not even know I was dead until I finally lived.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

[Since the publication of this book I have continued my research and study in the Scriptures. I would like to share some insight that I have gleaned concerning the verse that speaks of Seth calling upon the name of the Lord. At first I interpreted this verse to mean that Seth began the generation of prayer communication between man and God, but after further study, I believe it is much more. As we study further in the Word we discover that when men called upon the name of the Lord it was usually a cry for Him to move on their behalf, to deliver them from an enemy or an oppressor, it was a cry for help. If we consider the placement of this chapter in God’s Holy Word we have to notice that this reference of calling upon the name of the Lord, precedes the chapter of the flood and follows the chapter that speaks of the murders of Cain and Lamech. I believe that Seth’s call upon the name of the Lord was the righteous ones calling upon God to deliver them from the great oppression of the wicked that now filled the earth… thus the flood. Seth’s calling on the name of the Lord was much more than a simply prayer of fellowship it was the same cry we see over and over again in the Word of God clear up to Revelation 6:9-10 “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ]