Jubal


It would be wonderful if we could say that it was the people of God who invented music and song.  It would be even more wonderful if we could say that God’s people invented music and song – specifically – in order to praise and worship their creator God and Saviour.  The book of Genesis however points out that the reality is a little different.

Of course it goes without saying that music and song have an enormous role to play in the life of God’s redeemed people.  That was true already in long ages past.  Some weeks ago I pointed out that at the Exodus Israel's victory song is sung to honour God's defeat of Pharaoh – with Miriam playing the tambourine for the occasion.  Music and song will also be important in God’s restored creation when Jesus returns.  At the end of the Bible there is John's apocalyptic vision of multitudes of victors singing the song of Moses and the Lamb – this time accompanied by harps given by God.  And then somewhere, in between those two victory songs, we have Psalm 150 in which there is a whole orchestra to praise our God – it even includes ‘the clashing cymbals’.  For that matter, in the Psalms, we have a whole Bible book devoted to music and song.

Yet it remains true that it was not the children of God who first discovered the gifts of song and music – and certainly not as appropriate tools to worship the Giver of these gifts.  Scripture first associates music with one of the three sons of the godless and bigamous Lamech.  Genesis chapter 4 traces the family tree of the wicked Cain.  That family tree climaxes in the arrogant Lamech who virtually defies God to strike him down.  It is from that family (and not the family of the godly Seth in Genesis chapter 5) that we first hear the notes of music in the pages of the Bible.

Here’s the record from Genesis 4:
“Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.  Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.  His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.  Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.”

What a legacy this son of Lamech has left the world.  Even his name lives on in our English word ‘jubilation’.  We owe that to Mrs. Lamech number one, who named her musical genius ‘Jubal’.  The Hebrew word meant ‘a flowing stream’ and symbolically came to mean an abundance of joy, jubilation, exultation, triumph..!  This ancient forerunner of The Beatles has the distinction of being the father of both string and wind instruments.

However, if you’re a Christian please resist the temptation to bemoan this fact of history.  It becomes a lovely picture of the redeeming grace of God who weaves our discords into wonderful harmonies.  Our God is a God who is amazingly generous with His gifts – even to those who thumb their noses at Him.  We call that God’s ‘common grace’ – the grace that is shown (as Jesus said) when God gives sunshine and rain even to the godless and wicked.

If we didn’t already know it, this would remind us that the people of God do not have a monopoly on the gifts of God.  Yet when the family line of Seth (from Genesis 5), in the person of David, takes up the musical instruments of the family of Lamech it all takes on a far richer meaning as those instruments serve the praises of God’s redeemed people in profound ways – all to the glory of their saving God.

It’s a wonderful thing that God takes those instruments of music that come out of a setting more akin to the Rolling Stones than a Sunday worship service and in Psalm 150 calls for them be used to His glory and praise both now and in the new creation.

Let me add that all this is true in so many other areas of life.  When I visited Philadelphia in 1997 we dropped in on an Amish community and bought some things in their shop.  Their community resist the use of all modern conveniences.  They still get around via horse and buggy.  They should have learned the lesson of Jubal and his musical instruments.  God’s people redeem the things of the world and use them for God’s glory.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM 26/1/2025

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