Cain and Abel

Good morning. I’m very excited to be here this morning and to have this opportunity. I’m thankful for any time Chris lets a scrub like me get up and share the Word. Chris, of course, is with our mission team in Reynosa, Mexico as part of our ongoing and yearly relationship with the Rio Bravo Children’s Home and School there. It’s an incredible ministry that we have enjoyed serving in for over twenty years. Be in prayer for them as even now they are worshiping Jesus in another language at a local church in the area.

For those who may not know me, my name is Cameron Frank, I am the media and connections pastor here at CHBC.

Anyway…

If you would, please open your Bibles to Genesis 4, we are continuing our study through the book of Genesis. We’ve spent the last five months working through the incredibly dense first 3 chapters of Genesis, with a few breaks here and there. This morning we begin to move away from what has essentially been the extended creation and Eden narrative to now looking at how the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion will affect and set the course for conflict and redemption for all of humanity.

I’ll be honest, there are a lot of really cool things for us to explore in this familiar passage of Cain and Abel—lots that I would love to nerd out about, but we simply don’t have time to explore every dynamic. I will attempt to be faithful in sharing what I believe the Holy Spirit has prepared us for this morning.

This is a bit of a lengthy passage, we will read the whole chapter, so I won’t make you stand with me the whole time, but nonetheless, we do continue to honor Scripture as God’s special revelation to us. Let’s read.

Scripture Reading

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lordand settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20 Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. 22 Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

23 Lamech said to his wives:

“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man for striking me.

24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,

then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

Let us pray…

So I want to talk a bit through what is happening and what we’re seeing here. This should be a familiar story to many, if not all of us. Even in the secular world it’s not uncommon to see turns of phrase that incorporate Cain and Abel or this theme.

At its core, this account runs in direct parallel to what we’ve learned from Genesis 3 the last couple of weeks. It’s really a heartbreaking look at how the curse that came upon Adam and Eve would begin to express itself violently in the very next generation after Adam and Eve.

Last week, Chris pointed out the importance of Genesis 3:15 and the prophecy that there would be enmity between the seed of man and the seed of the serpent throughout the generations, and I believe the narrator structures this account in such a way as to really draw attention to the first embodiment of this new, sinful reality.

Through this account, I want to illustrate a few key points for us this morning. We will see that God’s method and timing are good. We must overcome and subdue sin, but the good news is that God has a plan for our redemption.

So what do we see in this narrative?

Two brothers are born. Some have hypothesized that they could be twins, and it’s possible, but I think it’s likely they were simply born close in age. Depending on the day, I can kind of see my two sons reflected here. I’ll let you guess which one is which. If you know them, you know what I mean. I love them with all of my heart, but whew.

So we see two brothers, the firstborn is named Cain. I want to point out that names often have meaning, especially in ancient cultures. We don’t know exactly what Cain means, however. It can mean something like a metalworker, but can also be a wordplay on “to get or acquire” in Hebrew, which reflects Eve’s very first observation that she has, “gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” In verse 1.

Then she bears another son, her second-born named Abel. This is a kind of cruel wordplay—again, names are important—you’ll see throughout the rest of the Bible that God is really big on something called “nominative determinism”. There are a lot of syllables there, so I’ll explain what it means. It’s the idea that you will often grow up to be like your name or to embody the meaning that your name implies. This seems like a tangent, and maybe it is, but this can be a very important lens to view Scripture with—names very often mean something.

For example, have you ever known a kid named Rowdy? I’ve met a couple. I have never once met one who is chill and mellow. If you name your kid Rowdy, buckle up. You’re in for a treat. If you name your kid Kyle, he’s going to drink energy drinks and play too many video games, it’s just how it goes. Like any good millennial or Gen Z, I perhaps communicate best in memes, so here’s a meme that helps illustrate this point: [Hanks Brothers]

Abel, or “habel/hevel” in the original language means breath or vapor. It’s used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe the brevity of life, notably throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, where we see that “all is vanity”—that word is hevel, all is vapor, all is a fleeting breath. So Abel’s name literally carries the meaning and the connotation of what would become the first murder in the Bible.

So we have these two brothers, they have evenly divided Adam’s responsibilities. Remember that Adam was charged with dominion over all created things, to cultivate, subdue, and preserve both things that grow from the ground, and the animals on earth (as well as in the sky and water), but especially livestock. Now we see Cain and Abel divide these roles amongst themselves, Cain to work the land, and Abel to manage livestock.

Both brothers portray acts of devotion, an acceptable offering. We see later through Moses that the examples of offerings the brothers bring are well within acceptable practices, and yet, God shows favor to Abel, but has no regard for Cain’s sacrifice. There’s nothing explicitly in this text that tells us why God chose Abel over Cain. Over the millennia, many have speculated as to why—the best guess, in my opinion, would be that maybe Abel is favored for bringing the firstborn (what Leviticus illustrates as the prime sacrifice), while Cain simply brings a nonspecific gift. But this is speculation, and we should not shout where Scripture whispers, so we can hold any interpretations here with an open hand. We don’t know exactly, but we don’t need to know. I don’t think that we’re necessarily even supposed to care, but we do get one great look at something we will see God do many times through the rest of the Bible: he rejects the firstborn.

It seems to be the natural order that the firstborn is favored, it’s something that seems almost ingrained in us, but we don’t see this is God’s economy. Here, the firstborn is rejected, and I think that’s significant.

Cain is incensed at this rejection at what seems to be the natural order. Cain views this as a gross inequity. (we will see this theme many times throughout the OT, enmity between the firstborn and those who receive blessing).

Cain views this very much as a personal rejection. His thoughts begin to stew. “if I can’t have God’s blessing, than neither should Abel”. He’s like a puppy I had growing up. If you’d give her a puppy treat, should would never actually eat them. She would horde them. But if you tried to take it away, she would growl and snap at you—she couldn’t have it, but she was for sure not going to let anyone else take it either.

So Cain burns with anger, and God in his omniscience calls out to Cain and gives him a warning. Which is ironic—Cain feels like God has rejected him, but the simple act of God stepping in and asking Cain to reject the sin in his heart is an amazing act of grace and mercy on God’s part, but Cain was too bitter to see it. God could’ve just left him to his anger, but in his grace and wisdom, he stepped into Cain’s life and reminded him of the way to go.

But as we know, Cain doesn’t listen. Now remember, there is no indication in the text up to this point that God has rejected Cain outright. In fact, in verse 7, God even reminds Cain, “if you do well, will you not be accepted?”

So this comes to our first point:

1. God’s Method and Timing Are Good

Genesis 4:6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?

There is an opportunity for Cain to trust in God’s timing and method and trust that if he continues doing what he is supposed to do, that God will indeed show his favor. This is very reminiscent of the account of the fall, just as Adam and Eve were presented with a choice, so is Cain in this moment. Just as the enemy whispered in the ear of Eve, “don’t you think there could be more for you?”, Cain began listening to and believing that same voice.

Drive-by statement: sometimes we read these biblical narratives and put ourselves in the way wrong spot. Here, we want to be Abel. We want to be Esther. We want to be John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Can I burst your bubble? We’re usually Cain. We’re Haman, the jealous aggressor in Esther’s story. We are far more reminiscent of Judas the betrayer than John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. I’m sorry if that shatters some optimism in the room, but it’s true.

So how does Cain reflect us in this moment? We don’t like to wait for God’s timing. We don’t want to see if he’ll come through later, we just assume that if he doesn’t come through the minute we ask or in the way that we ask, that he’s just ignoring us or whatever else, and so we start letting our mind wander.

It’s like my kids—they’ll ask me for something like a glass of water or why giraffes have spots or whatever, and if I don’t drop what I’m doing in that precise moment and answer them or fulfill their little wishes, it’s the end of the world.

You and I are not so different.

We start contemplating other options. We start taking the initiative on our own, instead of waiting to see how God will come through. Far too often, we end up right in the same position that Cain finds himself in, and his parents before him.

So every single day, we are presented with an opportunity to trust God or to take matters into our own hands.

What do we do? [let the question breathe]

Within God’s warning, we see our second point today:

2. We Must Overcome and subdue Sin

In the rest of God’s warning, God tells Cain that, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)

What we see here is a very intentional zoomorphism of sin—that’s another big word. Sin is given the attributes of an animal, a better rendering of that sentence might be “sin is a croucher.” Or sin is a crouching predator.

This, too, is very intentional imagery. This is an aggressive picture, it’s descriptive of the way a predator may be coiled and ready to strike. [Image of aggressive tiger] this is the picture that we are meant to have in our mind with this warning. Sin is a croucher, a carnal adversary that seeks to ruin us. Its desire is against us. But look at what God says, “you must rule over it.”

Does that sound familiar? It should. The narrator is drawing us back to what God had ordained for Cain’s parents: to subdue and rule. In the same way that Adam and Eve had the opportunity to subdue and rule creation in the serpent (the personification of sin), the adversary who came to antagonize them (by way of the accuser, Satan) Cain has the opportunity to subdue the “croucher”, the sin that is waiting to overtake him. This linguistic parallel is no accident. God is presenting Cain the opportunity to succeed where his parents failed.

I want you to realize that this description of sin is not intended only for Cain in this moment. Sin is still very much a “croucher” for us today. Sin is an aggressive beast waiting at our door for the smallest opportunity to devour us.

The saddest part? In our flesh, we love to keep that door cracked. Just like Adam and eve, and just like Cain, we are unwilling to subdue the enemy that is drooling with hunger to consume us.

To put it plainly: we flirt with sin far too much. We are far too tolerant of it. We don’t seek to subdue it, we think that we can just give it some boundaries and hope it doesn’t take advantage of us. The problem with those boundaries is that in our human nature, we don’t make the boundaries a fortified, impenetrable wall, we make the boundary a balance beam.

We don’t make boundaries to corner sin and eradicate it, we play gym [mime balancing] and have fun teetering on the edge and seeing how close we can get to falling in. Show the picture of a tiger again, would you go to the zoo if a balance beam was the only thing separating you from this? Would you walk along that balance beam and taunt it?

But oh man, when it comes to sin, the game for us is always about finding out just how close we can get before we actually sin. We make sin comfortable. We make sin tolerable. I have heard people say unironically that some things are “bad but in a tolerable way.” And that’s the problem with how we view sin today.

We make sin tolerable and acceptable as long as it’s not too bad. There’s a threshold of acceptable sin. Running a stop sign or speeding is fine. Gossiping is okay if you don’t get caught. Watching shows like Game of Thrones or whatever else in that vein that we know we shouldn’t, but we do anyway. Following social media accounts that we know we shouldn’t (I'm trying to be discreet because I know it’s family worship today).

There are even some things that aren’t directly sin (maybe one show or book or another doesn’t cause you to directly sin), but those things are still basically covering you in raw meat and whetting the appetite of the sin licking its chops right outside your door.

Can you honestly say that you are looking more like Jesus every day when you are allowing sin or even questionable things to maintain a stronghold in your life? Sin is a croucher and it’s waiting for you at the door.

Why leave an opportunity? Is it really worth it?

Don’t flirt with sin. At best, it will ruin you. Yes, at best it will ruin you. What’s worse, you ask? It’s ruinous for others.

A pattern of sin doesn’t only affect us, it affects others around us. It’s true of us today and it was true of Cain then. I’m not saying that your gossiping or social media misuse will lead you to murder your brother, but it can no less be destructive. Look at what adultery and divorce does to children. Look at what addiction does to families. Do you have any idea how many bridges I’ve burned and relationships I’ve ruined and people I’ve hurt because of sinful habits in my past?

Sin always escalates, sin always devours, sin always destroys.

Stop flirting with sin and it cut it off at the source. Rule over the temptation. Can’t stop watching shows you shouldn’t? Cancel your streaming service. Can’t stop looking at things you shouldn’t? Get a flip phone instead. If that doesn’t work, cancel your home internet. Do those things sound too valuable to get rid of? Maybe. Who cares?

Jesus told us to cut off our right hand or our eye if it causes us to sin. That’s not just metaphor, Jesus is telling us that there are absolutely no limits on how far we should go to eliminate sin from our lives. It’s also important enough that Jesus used that same point in two different sermons, once near the beginning of his ministry at the sermon on the mount, and once toward the end of his time on this earth. In Jesus’ day if you couldn’t work with your hands or if you were blind, you were essentially valueless in society. When Jesus spends a lot of his time healing the lame and blind, he is literally returning the personal value and dignity to those people. But when he says multiple times to cut off our hand if it’s causing us to sin, he is illustrating unambiguously that we should be ready to give up everything that gives us earthly value in order to inherit eternal value.

Sin is a croucher. We must subdue it.

Cain was unable to subdue it. He gives in. We get a peek at the first murder in Scripture. In the footsteps of his parents, Cain fails to subdue the lurking sin, and demonstrates the continuation of the curse laid upon humanity.

But there is good news:

3. God Has a Plan for Our Redemption

After Cain has murdered Abel, God comes to him just as he came to his parents: with gentleness, patience, and a pointed question:

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” (Genesis 4:9)

Again, this is an intentional parallel to the account of the Fall in the previous chapter.

And just like his parents, Cain responds with defensiveness. He evades the question. He defers blame. The Lord of course knows what has transpired and just like with Adam and Eve, God levies a curse against Cain. But rather than the penalty of death (which we might expect, and later, the Levitical law will affirm), God demonstrates his grace once more. Just as with his parents, Cain is exiled even further east into the land of Nod, which means “wandering”.

So rather than fulfill his previous role of cultivating the land (which necessitates staying in one place) he is exiled to a lifetime of wandering. But Cain petitions God out of self-preservation, he says “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”, and God extends a hand of grace. He places a mark on him that will set him apart and whoever would harm him, God will repay in his divine vengeance sevenfold.

Did you catch that? Cain petitions the Lord, and the Lord has a ready supply of grace.

Cain leaves and establishes his family (there’s a whole rabbit trail here of who in the world did Cain marry, but that’s not the point of the narrative, nor do we have time for that rabbit hole). He builds a city, which is another act of rebellion (another rabbit trail here, but basically he is not trusting God’s promise, because cities in antiquity imply protection). Then we are given his lineage to the seventh generation.

Remember earlier when I mentioned that names matter? These names are significant. They stand in contrast to the genealogy that we’ll read next week, the genealogy of Seth. Every one of Cain’s descendants is a distorted reflection of the lineage of Seth in chapter 5. Many of the names are similar, and in Hebrew use the same letters or sounds, just in a different order.

The narrator here is pointing out that there is a direct line of the serpent and a direct line of redemption. If you are ever bored and looking for a light read, checkout Matthew chapter one, where you see Seth as part of Christ’s line. Cain, the first murderer illustrates a distortion of God’s plan and escalating violence that culminates in Lamech, who murdered someone and wore Cain’s curse proudly in his poetic declaration to close the chapter.

Sin always escalates. Death leads to death.

But there is life in Christ.

Even from the beginning, Cain wasn’t satisfied with God’s method and his timing, and so he allowed bitterness to stew in his heart. He allowed sin to overtake him, and even after God extended grace and mercy, he still built a deliverance for himself.

Where are you in this narrative?

Are you satisfied with God’s timing? Are you satisfied with how God has chosen to work in you and around you?

Are you dealing with the sin that is crouching at your door? Or are you treating the line between sinfulness and holiness like a balance beam and playing games?

Does God truly satisfy you unlike anything else?

Sin gives us a fleeting satisfaction. What sin offers us is a vapor—it’s hevel to borrow from Abel’s name.

Even though in our hearts we are murderers, adulterers, selfish, unjust, impatient, angry, and unsatisfied, God stands ready to forgive us. Paul says it this way:

Titus 3:3–5 (ESV)

We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy

To Cain he gave a mark to protect him from physical harm, but to us he has done the opposite: through Christ he has washed the stain of sin—he has removed the markings of sin from our souls and from our hearts and has provided a more permanent salvation for us.

We can be free of the bondage of sin and shame if we would only turn our hearts toward Christ and set Him as the Lord of our life. The lineage of death only leads to more death.

Here’s what I want to do. We’re going to take a moment to be still. Before we stand up to sing, before we start planning our lunch spot or the rest of our afternoon, take a moment to bow your head and close your eyes. Let’s listen to what God has to say.

What is he saying? Is he asking the same thing that he asked Cain? Listen for his voice. “why are you angry?” “Why are you jealous?” “Why are you committing adultery in your heart?” “Why are you watching that?” “Why are you letting pride in?” “Why don’t you trust me?”

[pause]

Sin is a croucher. Sin is a predator. Don’t entertain it any longer! What is God asking you to deal with this morning?

[pause]

Remember that in Christ there is no condemnation. God doesn’t bring condemnation without an opportunity for restoration. As you hear the Lord pulling on your heart about something you know that you should deal with, remember that you can cry out just like Cain, “This is greater than I can bear!” and God will hear you and provide for you and protect you and preserve you. Share your burdens with him.

Maybe you need to find someone in this room and confess some junk to them. Maybe you need to find a place at this altar and confess some junk to God. Take a moment, listen for his voice, and find some freedom in Christ this morning.