EAST OF EDEN

We should not let the genealogy be discouraging when reading the Old Testament, particularly Genesis ~ for it is here we learn of Adam's descendants, including Noah, and the generations leading to the great patriarchs like Abraham, all from the seed of Adam.

We learn of judgment and redemption and how the first generations worshiped God.

Let's continue with the story of Cain.  If you recall, Cain's punishment was to become a fugitive and vagabond.  (AL)

Genesis 4:16  And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

A few comments from John Calvin on Genesis 5:1-4  

And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth..."In the number of years here recorded we must especially consider the long period which the patriarchs lived together. 

For through six successive ages, when the family of Seth had grown into a great people, the voice of Adam might daily resound, in order to renew the memory of the creation, the fall, and the punishment of man; to testify of the hope of salvation which remained after chastisement, and to recite the judgments of God, by which all might be instructed.

After his death his sons might indeed deliver, as from hand to hand, what they had learned, to their descendants; but far more efficacious would be the instruction from the mouth of him, who had been himself the eyewitness of all these things. 

Yet so wonderful, and even monstrous, was the general obstinacy, that not even the sounder part of the human race could be retained in the obedience and the fear of God." 

 

Image: Cain Flying from Jehovah's Curse
Artist: Fernand Corman