Lately, I’ve been reconnecting with cousins on my mother’s side. Their families lived in small South Dakota towns and “moving” took place within a small radius. My mother had fled small town insularity for Denver. While we grew in places worlds apart, we shared an enigmatic past. Why the stern callousness of some family members, the drivenness to excel and to dominate? Who were the characters, invisible to us, who influenced parental lectures and fueled enduring animosities? Who or what kept us working at a breakneck pace, fearful of slowing down, fearful of coming up short?
“Two sides of the same coin” — it’s a fitting lens for our story. Fear was the currency: Heads? Self protection. Tails? Aggression. My grandfather and his brother became big players in those small towns by founding banks, amassing land, valuing education, and knowing backstories. In places not known to many, they were somebodies. They built fortresses, pulled up the drawbridges, and shot fiery arrows of judgement on those outside. No one could challenge their preeminence, arrogance, and scorn.
Turns out the fear that shaped my maternal family’s side originated much further back than my cousins and I anticipated. In Genesis 4 we see how Cain’s offering — given without much care — gave birth to resentment and how that resentment led to Cain killing his brother Abel. Fear so hardened Cain’s heart that he felt no regret:
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9
All that mattered to Cain was self protection; fear had embedded itself in his heart and he couldn’t even accept God’s promise of protection. Instead,
Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Genesis 4:16.
The story of Cain is sobering — all the more so when we realize that it was only the first instance of how fear has been snaking its way through families throughout time.
He built a city and named it after his son, Enoch. This Enoch, Cain’s son, is the namesake of the city his father built for protection. This is what I’ll be focusing on, even as I learn more about my family background.
The theme of self protection at any cost accelerates exponentially in Lamech, a descendant of Cain (this Lamech is not Noah’s dad). God had promised vengeance seven times over if Cain were harmed, but Lamech ups the ante:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Genesis 23b-24
In contrast, the lineage in Genesis 5 of the new brother Seth, reminds us that redemption is possible: Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26.) Enoch and Noah in Seth’s lineage, walked faithfully with God (Genesis 5:24a). This Enoch is specifically identified as Enoch, the son of Jared (not Cain’s son). And, Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD…. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. (Genesis 6:5-9.)
(Note. Confusion arises between Cain’s and Seth’s lineages because of so many like names in sequence from the different lineages. In Genesis 4:17-24, against Cain’s lineage through his son Enoch (who was not an ancestor of Noah), we consider the genealogy in Genesis 5:3-32; Jared’s son Enoch, who is an ancestor of Noah – the royal lineage of Jesus. The differences in their behaviors were more striking than the similarities of their names.)
by Sherry Sommer
