PRH-03 A World of Violence

Have you ever noticed how young children often go fearlessly into dangerous situations? They walk into the middle of the street without a care in the world. They pick up sharp knives without caution. And sometimes they even go right up to strangers, take their hands, and start to walk off with them — completely oblivious to the violence other people can pose.

But of course, adults know that the world is full of all kinds of trouble. Natural disasters destroy life and property. Diseases bring suffering. Machines can harm us. And we know that perhaps the greatest dangers of all are those posed by other people. Men and women commit violent acts of assault, murder, and war on their fellow human beings. If we are aware of human history, or if we are just paying attention to current events, it is nearly impossible to deny that human beings have filled this world with violence.

We have entitled this lesson, “A World of Violence,” and we are going to look at Genesis 4:1–6:8 where Moses described the troubles and violence that took place in the world shortly after humanity’s fall into sin. In these chapters, Moses described how human beings began to fill the world with violence, and how God reacted to those troubles. We will examine three aspects of this portion of Genesis: first, we will look at the literary structure of this material; second, we will focus on the original meaning of these chapters; and third, we will explore how the New Testament teaches us to apply these passages in our own day. Let’s look first at the literary structure of Genesis 4:1–6:8.

These chapters in Genesis touch on a number of different topics, and include both narratives and genealogies. Now, these complexities often leave us with the impression that the chapters don’t fit together very well. But when we examine this portion of Genesis more closely, we’ll see that it is a carefully crafted literary work with a unified purpose. As we look at Genesis 4:1–6:8, we will see that this portion of Genesis divides into two main sections. The first section consists of 4:1–5:32, and we have entitled it “early violence and hope.” The second section consists of 6:1-8, and we have called it “later violence and hope.”