“Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out…
that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth.” _{Psalm 109:13,15}

We want to introduce our readers to Lamech; not the Lamech who was the father of Noah, but rather the earlier Lamech: the man who instituted the practice of polygamy – the taking of more than one wife. This Lamech was the direct descendant of Adam and Eve’s son, Cain: that rebel against God and man who inaugurated the practice of murder! With his two wives, Adah and Zillah, Lamech produced three sons and a daughter. His offspring seem to have brought primitive civilization to new heights of human ingenuity, material convenience and worldly success. In chapter four of the book of Genesis, verses 16-26, we have all the information we need to know about the con­demned successors of Cain, the one marked for protection but presented as an example of ultimate destruction.

The revela­tions in these few verses are powerful warnings concerning the final fate prepared for all those who continue in rebellion against God. Lamech’s sons and daughter might well have achieved temporary fame and transient notoriety but the Bible records that with their deaths all their works, all their achievements and impressive accomplishments were com­pletely cut off. The Almighty’s attitude toward unrepen­tant wickedness is clearly, irreversibly stated: “Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out…that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth.” Psalm 109:13,15

Lamech, the seventh from Adam in the line of Cain, is the last progenitor of that wicked, arrogant, rebellious series of humans. The sons of Lamech produce no seed to carry on their father’s name. His one daughter bears no offspring to insure the perpetuity of his honored memory. God had made it clear to Adam and Eve that they were created to be one flesh. The Almighty also rebuked Adam for hearkening to his wife’s voice instead of obeying the word of the Lord. Lamech knew of these primal confrontations between God and man. He also heard of the curse upon Cain and saw the continuing calamities contingent upon a stubborn spirit of defiance. In spite of such knowledge and experience, Lamech took unto himself two wives, arrogantly ordering them to heed his voice while he ignored God’s explicit commands. Rather than learning from the grievous sin of Cain, his ancestor, Lamech haughtily boasted of his right to murder anyone who might dare to wound him. Moreover, he mocked God’s promise of punishment and bragged of his own vow of vendetta: a seventy-fold vengeance on all his adversaries. Cain had started something by brutally bludgeoning the life out of his innocent brother, Abel. He wandered as an exile but eventu­ally founded a city. Like so many after him, Cain sought his salvation in humanism. Walled defenses close human ties, pacts and agreements of mutual protection, alliances for common preservation seemed to him the secure way to go. Cain’s direct descendants carried on and embellished this apparent formula for prosperity and success. The humanistic program reached a pinnacle with Lamech, his two wives, his four children, his boastful self-reliance and his bitter defiance of his Maker. Satan had had a field day with this doomed dynasty. Urged on by demonic forces, Cain and his crew exalted the human spirit to spectacular heights of achieve­ment. But what Cain had started God finished and the whole rebellious line, the whole wobbly house caved in and came crashing down. It was more real than the famed “Fall of the House of Usher”, for the house of Cain ended not with a bang but with a whimper. The proverbial biblical expression, “the way of Cain” has become a synonym for that deep-seated rebelliousness that ends in woeful desolation; that merits complete and utter destruction.

CORRUPTION:

The practice of polygamy, while it started with Lamech, was by no means confined to his generation. Once introduced, evil ideas and practices have a way of propagating themselves. Even the revered patriarchs suc­cumbed to this social convention of having more than one wife. God merely tolerated it, but polygamy still produced its ruinous effects. Another pinnacle of perversity was sadly surmounted during the reign of King Solomon, the son of David. 

Like his remote ancestor, Lamech, this flamboyant monarch accumulated, not just a couple of wives, but boasted the seemingly outlandish sum of one thousand wives and concubines! It wasn’t just his immediate progeny who were affected, but the whole sacred dynasty of David with God’s personal promises attached to it, were endangered by Solomon’s promiscuous practices. In the end, God Himself intervened to spare David’s house complete destruction.  But polygamy and its attendant vices of adultery and fornication are so closely associated with and are so clearly symbolic of the wickedness and the perversions of idolatry that deep and devastating corruption is consequent upon its introduction into society. 

The Bible informs:

“But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in to these, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto them in love;
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” 1 Kings 11:1-4

So similar to the situation with Lamech! Solomon achieved outstanding worldly fame and renown. His whole regime, though, was riddled with corruption. After his death, his magnificent kingdom was torn away from his offspring. It remains yet to be restored in the pure effulgence of its spiritual glory with the coming of the triumphant Son of David, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Western civilization, nearly all of Christendom, seems to have been spared the social acceptance of polygamy. But, outlawed or not, the harem syndrome, the playboy mentality, the sinfully sovereign spirit of promiscuity still finds a hallowed niche in the hearts of men. Surprisingly, in this age of opposition to sexual harassment and in an era of women’s’ rights, females often, if unwittingly, uphold or accept the idea of multiple liaisons for their own selfish purposes. Too many women find satisfaction in having men fight over them or by preening their egos as the preferred female among many contenders. Opposed to all this self-adulation, sexual devia­tion and gross idolatry is the simple teaching and example found in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter five, verses 30-33.

“For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

Among the many offices and positions in the Church, each with its own role and contribution to the up building of the Body of Christ, I think there is no greater calling, no more powerful force for the cause of Christ than a simple, married couple wedded, first of all, to their Divine Spouse, but loyal and submitted to each other. God states that these two become one flesh. The flesh involves both soul and body, an oneness of minds and affections stronger than mere surface attraction and more intimate than the closest physical ties. Such a couple; complete in their unity in Christ and deter­mined to obey the leadings of the Holy Ghost, con­stantly provide an on-going, twofold witness to the Truth. Instant and agreeing in prayer, their lives become a platform for God’s continuing presence and a provocation to call down His blessings upon themselves and others. The rebellious and disobedient, even though surrounded by friends and follow­ers, are essentially loners. But “those who walk with God from day to day”, as the poet affirms, “will never know a solitary way.”

Conflict of the Ages Series: 

Introduction: The Battles of the Lord

[Part 1 – The Gibeonites]

[Part 2 – A Battle Against Envy and Jealousy]

Part 3 – Perverting the Seed

[Part 4 – Pharaoh of Egypt and Haman the Amalekite]

[Part 5 – Evil’s Ultimate End]