The 2nd period of testing is Conscience. By this point in time the man had experienced face-to-face fellowship with God in the garden (Genesis 3:8), which was his spiritual life. He had also experienced spiritual death or separation from God (Genesis 2:17 with Genesis 3:6). Through his disobedience in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his conscience had been activated. The man to that time had only known good; now he knew the difference between good and evil (Genesis 3:22). And now God is going to test man’s willingness to follow his conscience, reject evil (disobedience) and choose righteousness.
So, first, what is the conscience? Paul describes it in Romans 2:14-15. “When the Gentiles who don’t follow the Law instinctively do what the Law requires, they demonstrate the presence of an internal law. They, in fact, prove that they have the necessary requirements of the law written in their hearts giving them a sense of right and wrong (conscience) that will either condemn or approve of the decisions they make.” And rather than repeat myself or take up space, to see a more complete explanation of conscience read the article “The Good Conscience” on the website.
The length of this period is probably about 1600 years and is found in Genesis 4:1 to 8:14, and runs from Adam’s fall to Noah’s flood. This may not be an entirely accurate time frame (opinions vary) and it is not really that important. As stated above, the test was to see if man would (of his own free will) choose to follow his conscience, reject evil and choose righteousness or would he allow himself to be overcome with evil.
Man’s inability to govern himself would become a graphic illustration of his need or dependence on God. An example of this is found in Genesis 4:6-7 where the Lord is addressing the failure of Cain after he had killed his brother in a fit of jealousy and rage. “Why are you angry and why are you depressed? If you do what is right, will you not feel better? And if you don’t, your failure is exposed and obvious. It (evil) wants to control you, but you must control it.”
The reason God did this is a practical one. He wanted to guide man in the proper use of his conscience to teach him that it is only through obedience that man can have a true relationship with God, protection from the god of this world and a measure of relief from the curse He had imposed. Given the opportunity to exercise free will and follow the dictates of his conscience, man could choose righteousness and serve God or choose evil and serve Satan and the inclinations of his own sinful flesh.
How did God test man? The combination of man being free to make his own choices, along with the active, evil intentions of Satan, was all it took to fully demonstrate man’s willingness to embrace evil to the point of almost total destruction of the race – proving the inability of man to make his own choices without some kind of restraint. The failure of man to follow his conscience would further illustrate his need for God’s intervention.
What was man’s failure? I think there are 4 obvious examples given. In Genesis 4:1-16 Cain, contrary to God’s instruction, brought the results of his own labor as an offering to God. Although fruits, grains, vegetables, etc. were later accepted as tithes and offerings to support the priests and their families, they were never accepted as sin offerings that illustrated atonement by substitutionary death.
This is the first recorded act of religious self-righteousness. By avoiding the required sin offering involving the death of an innocent animal, Cain circumvented the issues of sin and the need for repentance and forgiveness illustrated in the sin offering. It is evident that God had already established a place where He accepted such offerings and had given instruction on what those offerings were to be. Both Cain and his brother Abel went to that place and Abel brought the correct offering (Genesis 4:3-4). But even after God had confronted him and told him how to correct his failure, Cain refused to do what was right (Genesis 4:6).
Most Bible commentaries state there was a Godly line starting with Seth (born after Cain had killed Abel, Genesis 4:25) and an ungodly line in Cain. It is simply not accurate to say there were only two family lines during this time. The Scriptures are clear that Adam had a number (it is not known how many) of sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4) and all of them would have had many descendants during this time. Cain’s line is only mentioned to the 7th generation (Genesis 4:16-24), while Seth’s line is given in its entirety for this period of time to record the line of Messiah from Adam to Christ. The rest of the lineage is given in Luke 3:23-38.
However, Abel (Matthew 23:35), Enoch (Genesis 4:24) and Noah (Genesis 6:8-9) are the only righteous men named in this period of time. Not only is Seth not mentioned in this company, the Scriptures make it clear he was far from righteous. The last phrase found in Genesis 4:26, referring to the time of Seth, reads in the KJV, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” But when translated correctly, it should read something like, “this is the time when men began to ascribe to their idols the attributes of Jehovah.” This was the beginning of idolatry, an important element in man’s religions through the ages.
Enoch prophesied against the people of this age twice. First, when he named his son Methuselah, which means, “when he is dead, the deluge will come”. The second is recorded in Jude 14-15 and is quoted from the Book of Enoch, a writing known to the early church and mentioned by historians Origen and Tertullian. “It was about these very people that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam foretold this, Behold, the Lord will come with myriads (indicating an undefined great number) of His saints to execute His judgment and convict the unholy of all the ungodly things they have done in such an ungodly manner and all the abusive things they have said about Him.” (My paraphrase)
God’s willingness to “destroy man, whom I have created” (Genesis 6:7) proves that mankind had been overcome by evil during this time. And that included the lineage of Seth. In Lesson 17 we’ll look at the flood.