Lamech - Moses 5:41-59; Genesis 4:16-26

Even though Cain had just committed the first murder and leaves the presence of God, he leaves with a promise of protection from God. Cain and his wife, who is his brother’s daughter, live in a place called Nod which is east of Eden. They have children, the first one mentioned is Enoch, which makes me wonder if this is the Enoch with the translated city later. But footnotes clear this up saying, “Do not confuse Enoch of Cain’s lineage and the city of his name with the Enoch of Seth’s lineage and the city (Zion) of his name,” so that clears up that. There is a list of genealogy that goes through several generations and notes that Cain’s descendants were quite varied in their lifestyles and talents. Enoch built a city and named it after himself. There is Jabal which dwelled in tents and kept cattle, there was Jubal who was a musician playing the harp and organ. Tubal-cain taught others metallurgy. Lamech was a murderer, so I guess you can’t win them all. The account in Moses gives more detail about Lamech than is in Genesis, in Genesis all Lamech does is tell his two wives “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.” I’m not exactly sure that this means, if Lamech killed someone because they hurt his feelings, I’m not sure what the motivation is. Fortunately, we have Moses’ account which gives us much more information. Cain’s promise to be avenged by the Lord is misconstrued by Lamech because as the footnote tells us, “Lamech presumptively boasted that far more would be done for him than for Cain.” The word “avenged” is difficult to understand here in this context because it implies that Lamech had been wronged when in fact he was the murderer. This statement makes much more sense if we think of it in the context of Lamech thinking that he would be protected more than Cain or that he would be rewarded more than Cain, or maybe Lamech thought he would be protected from the consequences of his actions in the murder more than Cain was. The reason for Lamech’s assumption was because he “entered into a covenant with Satan, after the manner of Cain,” and when one of his kinfolk found out about this covenant with Satan, Irad “began to reveal it unto the sons of Adam.” Lamech is mad that Irad is telling other people about this secret pact made with Satan, so he kills him. This is different than when Cain kills Abel because Cain did it “for the sake of getting gain, but (Lamech) slew him for the oath’s sake.” When it says that Lamech made a covenant with Satan, I don’t necessarily think that means that Satan appeared to him and they shook hands on an agreement or anything like that. I think it probably means that Satan subtly whispered into Lamech’s ear to follow what he had seen Cain do and maybe because Lamech thought that he had done a better job than Cain, he expected more protection. It’s interesting to consider that if you had just committed the world’s second murder, it would probably make sense that you would expect the same consequences as the first murderer got, but that’s not how it was going to go this time. God is angry and “cursed Lamech, and his house, and all them that had covenanted with Satan.” But still, despite God’s cursing, these secret oaths “began to spread among all the sons of men.” It seems like there were a lot of men involved in this mess but “among the daughters of men these things were not spoken.” Now I don’t know if this means that women just aren’t as likely to make secret promises of violence to each other in order to do evil things in secret, or if just in this circumstance if just happened to be men, or if the men didn’t let the women be involved. Either way, when Lamech spills the beans on his secret murder to his wives, “the rebelled against him, and declared these things abroad.” They weren’t interested in keeping Lamech’s secret, so they told everyone about the murder he committed and probably about the secret covenant with Satan, and spoiler alert: no one wants to have that kind of guy in their society, so Lamech was “cast out… lest he should die.” Lamech has to make a run for it because guess what? When you murder people and think everything is going to work out just great for you, people don’t like to have that in their neighborhood. But even when the people’s general rejection of Lamech’s wickedness, “the works of darkness began to prevail among all the sons of men… for they would not hearken unto (God’s) voice, not believe on his Only Begotten Son.” But despite the “people’s” rejection of the gospel, it continued “to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost.” I’ve often wondered what the phrase “god can do his own work” means but it seems like this is a good example of that. God doesn’t need us to preach his gospel, he can do it himself, he just allows us to participate in the process if we want to for our own benefit, and this statement is a good demonstration of that. The gospel was taught from the beginning and not just through preaching and words but “by an holy ordinance.” This keeps structure within gospel, keeps us mindful of our promises, and as the IM quotes President Boyd K. Packer as teaching, “Ordinances and covenants become out credentials for admission into (God’s) presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality.” On the other side of Lamech and his wickedness is A&E’s new son Seth, and Seth had a son named Enos and apparently they were the part of the righteous lineage because when they came around “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.”