Genesis 4:25

Another seed, instead of Abel

Seth

To Eve is born a third son; and he comes to them as the gift of love and the pledge of hope.

Eve names him Seth, which means “set” or “placed” or “appointed,” as being expressly given to her in room of Abel, whom Cain slew. In this her faith shows itself again; for in the ease of her three sons it is she herself who gives the names, and in them displays her faith. In Cain, it was simple and triumphant faith, that had not yet entered into conflict, nor known what trials and crosses are. In Abel’s, it was the utterance of hope deferred making the heart sick, and realizing strangership on earth and “vanity” in creation. And now, in Seth, it is faith reassured and comforted, brought to rest in God, as able to fulfil to the uttermost all that He had promised.

1. She recognizes God in this. It is not the mere “law of nature”; it is the Lord. It is in the fulfilment of His sovereign purpose that He is doing this.

2. She gives a name expressive of her faith. She calls her infant the appointed one, the substituted one. She saw God making up her lose, filling up the void, providing a seed, through which the promised Deliverer was to come.

3. She fondly calls to mind her martyred son. The way in which she does this, shows the yearning of her heart over him who was taken away, as if his place was one which needed to be supplied, as if there were a blank in her bosom which God only knew how to supply. (H. Bonar, D. D.)