A Tale of Two Seeds

Intermarriage between the people of God and the people of Satan:

God is happy for people of various races, languages, and cultures to marry each other, as long as each person is part of God’s people. But throughout history, He has always required that the people of God do not marry people of the world who do not know God. In the New Testament, God makes Himself very clear:

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

And in the Old Testament, with the people of Israel, God likewise made Himself very clear:

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you . . . . You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-4)

This law of God applies today, and it likewise applied for Israel. And the same truth applied even prior to Israel. In Genesis 3:15, God made it clear that the seed of the serpent would be at war with the seed of the woman. When speaking to the serpent, God says:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed” (Gen. 3:15).

So, it would have been an abomination for a believing child of Seth (the seed of the woman) to marry an unbelieving child of Cain (the seed of the serpent). But instead of God’s people consistently marrying each other, they began to marry unbelievers. And not only did this bring an end to Cain’s descendants . . . it also almost brought an end to Seth’s descendants. The line of Cain corrupted the line of Seth. The only one to escape was Noah, along with his family.

The descendants of Cain were the seed of the serpent, the “daughters of men”. The descendants of Seth were the seed of the woman, the “sons of God”. And in Genesis 6, we find that they intermarry:

‘Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. . . . Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.’ (Genesis 6:1-8)

The seed of the woman began to intermarry with the seed of the serpent. And the result was widespread wickedness. God saw that “every intent of the thoughts” of men were “only evil continually”. Thus, God sent the Great Flood as a judgment upon widespread sin.

Why did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord? The next verse answers this question for us:

Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. (Gen. 6:9)

Genesis 5, the previous chapter, does not record any intermarriage between the descendants of Cain and Noah’s direct ancestors. Noah was perfect in his generations. All the way back to Seth, his ancestors did not intermarry with pagans.

Of course, this is only half of the story. The first half of this verse is also quite important. As this passage says, “Noah was a righteous man”. So, not only was he “perfect in his generations”, but he also walked with God spiritually. Both of these facts are important in this passage.

In the Great Flood, God wiped out all of Cain’s descendants, and most of Seth’s descendants, who had intermarried with them. Because of the righteousness of one man (Noah), not only was Noah saved, but his entire family was saved as well. Eight people were saved through water, because of the faith of one man. Noah trusted God, and because of this, his entire family received a type of baptism.

In Genesis 4, we saw the seed of the woman threatened, because Abel was killed. But God preserved the seed of the woman by providing Seth as a replacement (Gen. 4:25). Now, in Genesis 7, God eradicated all descendants of Cain. So now where can we find the seed of the serpent? In Genesis 9, this question is answered for us. Of Noah’s sons, Shem is blessed, and continues the line of the seed of the woman, and Ham’s line

(specifically that of Canaan) is cursed, to take the place of Cain as the seed of the serpent

Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” (Genesis 9:18-27)

Now we can add two names to our summary chart of the two seeds:

Summary of the “two seeds” in Genesis 4-9:

The Covenant of Grace