Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-16)

Introduction

If you haven’t yet, please turn your Bible to Genesis 4:1-16.

So, we’re working our way through the book of Genesis and so far, we’ve witnessed the creation of the universe by the voice of Almighty God. In Genesis 1-2, we’re told of how things were meant to be—that Adam and Eve lived in the garden, which was made to be a paradise. God created all things and He calls them all very good.

Last week, we worked through Genesis 3 and in that passage, we learned essentially what caused everything that was created as very good to go very wrong, which was (simply put) sin—it was the sin of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that caused God’s very good creation to be marred by sin. Remember my emphasis last week that it wasn’t the temptation itself that was sin, but the disobeying of God’s command that was sinful.

This morning, we’re working through probably what is a very familiar passage of Scripture for most of us in this room. The unfortunate part of a passage being familiar is that we can sometimes glance over it and not pay too much attention to what the passage actually means. Or, we’ve been so influenced by what people say about the passage, that we don’t actually pay attention to what it means. So, let me encourage you this morning before we jump into the text to lay aside any preconceived notions that you may already have of Cain and Abel; and let’s take the text as it is.

The transition from the entrance of sin into the world to Genesis 4:1-2 provides a simple, but profound truth. After sin started marring mankind, it didn’t take long for us to see just how devastating the effects of sin are. In vv. 1-2, we’re introduced to Adam and Eve’s children Cain and Abel before we see the account that made them most well known. Cain was the first-born—a worker of the ground (or a farmer); and Abel was a keeper of sheep (a shepherd).

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) Cain and Abel’s Worship of God (3-7) and (2) Abel’s Murder (8-16). We’re going to study this familiar passage (again, with the goal of not letting our preconceived notions get in the way) and what we’ll see is a simple concept—God demands proper worship and when we choose to worship something other than God, we sin. This morning’s sermon will hopefully cause us to reflect on our own worship of God—to see if we’re worshiping the way that God wants us to worship; and to repent if necessary.

Prayer for Illumination

Cain and Abel’s Worship of God (3-7)

So, our text starts and we see Adam and Eve have two children by the names of Cain and Abel. And immediately, we’re brought into a situation in their life in which they’re bringing forth an offering to the Lord. There’s really three things that are notable here:

First, despite the fact that the Old Testament law and the sacrificial law hadn’t been written yet, God still demanded worship.

How exactly Adam and Eve and now Cain and Abel knew what was needed for worshiping the Lord, we aren’t sure. We’re not positive on whether God had a conversation with them and explained what was required or if Adam and Eve had been given a vision or dream by God that revealed the need to worship the Lord with sacrifices and offerings.

It could be that Adam and Eve through their relationship with God, recognized that they ought to give something to the Lord—whether that would be an animal or fruit, that wasn’t the point, they simply knew they ought to give something.

Regardless, God demanded worship and in this scenario, that worship included the giving of an offering to the Lord.

Second, note that in the giving of their offerings, their gifts to the Lord are a result of their work. Or, in other words, they gave to God what they themselves produced.

In the case of Cain, he brought fruit of the ground; in the case of Abel, he brought a member of his flock.

Let me clarify one thing—there are some who think that the reason for God’s rejection of Cain’s gift has to do with the fact that later on, God requires a blood offering for sin. There are two mistakes with that idea:

First, remember where we are in the chronology of the Bible—we’re in Genesis 4, which is way before the Law of God was ever given—thus, we can’t assume that Cain would know that he needs to give a blood offering for sin.

Second, to claim that this was a sin offering assumes that this is indeed a sin offering and not just a regular offering given to the Lord—the Bible actually doesn’t tell us if this was an offering to atone for sin or if it was an offering simply to give as part of their worship.

All we know from this portion of the text, is that their gifts were tied to what they did for a living—they gave of what they earned.

Third, we see that God had regard for Abel and his offering, but not for Cain and his offering.

And this lack of regard for Cain and his offering caused Cain to be visibly angry, we see this in v. 5, that his face fell.

This point causes us to ask “why exactly does God disregard Cain and his sacrifice?” And there have been all sorts of suggestions for this, including the one that I mentioned just a minute or two ago—that this wasn’t a blood offering according to the Old Testament Law, but again, the Law didn’t exist yet.

Some argue that it has to do with Abel bringing forth an offering from the ground, which is now cursed. I don’t think that’s a great argument because later in the Old Testament Law, God requires offerings from the ground.

Others argue that this whole scenario is an example of how God can choose or disregard whomever He pleases, which is true, but I don’t think that’s the point of this scenario.

I would argue that it really has to do with the individual, his attitude, and his heart.

Remember, while we’re looking at the outward scenario, God is looking at their hearts and even though they both seem to be going through the right motions, there are some hints that Cain and Abel are going through the motions for different reasons:

Even in the description of the offerings, we can sense a difference:

Cain brings forth an offering of the fruit of the ground, there is no other description—its just the fruit of the ground.

Abel brings forth an offering of the firstborn of the flock and their fat portions—its more than just one of the beasts of the flock.

The firstborn of the flock has significance—the firstborn is often the best of the flock. What happens if the rest of the flock are born still or if they’re blemished or if something else happens?

We don’t think much of the fat portions of animals, but the fattier portions of meat are the tastiest bits of the meat—that’s why when we go to a steakhouse, you hear conversations about marbling in the meat.

But there’s more to it than just tasty food. In this time period, the fat portions were utilized for several different things—in the Ancient Near East, they would use animal fat in oil lamps, it could’ve been used as a type of soap, salves, and balms.

Cain just gave fruit and by the sounds of it, it almost sounds like he’s just giving whatever he had leftover. Abel brings the best that he has and he gives the first that he had received.

Really, if we read this closely, what we see is that Cain was just going through the motions because he knew he ought to, but Abel was worshiping the Lord in love, which explains the difference in the way they gave.

In addition, we see in the way that Cain responds to God’s disregard of his gift the heart of Cain that God could already see.

God’s disregard of Cain’s gift is the catalyst that causes Cain to reveal his true heart—and it’s revealed in anger.

Cain is absolutely angry and God confronts him about his heart. In vv. 6-7, we read, “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 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.’”

God’s response to Cain here seems similar to how He responded to Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. He’s not exactly scolding Cain, it’s a little bit rhetorical, but it’s meant to appeal to Cain, to reason with him.

It’s very similar to how a parent might ask their child about something that the parent already knew the child did, but he wants the child to admit to doing it and repent—that’s exactly what God is doing with Cain.

God knows his heart and he wants Cain to not just recognize what’s going on in his heart, he wants Cain to reject the temptation that he’s experiencing due to his unrighteous anger and to repent before he succumbs to additional sin.

Isn’t God’s picture of sin eyeopening? “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Its a picture of a wild beast ready to pounce on its prey—that’s how God describes sin—its something that isn’t tame, it’s rather dangerous.

It’s something that is just around the corner; and it’s something that Cain needs to have mastery over.

What we see in God’s description is that this issue of sin is Cain’s choice—he could choose to repent and he could choose to succumb to his sin.

It is truly his decision.

It’s interesting that way at the beginning of the Bible, there are images of sin being like a predatory animal because that idea continues through Scripture. We’re told that sin is like a roaring lion waiting for whom it may devour. We’re told that if sinners are enticing you to sin, that you need to run like you would from an animal waiting to eat you. Paul’s description of the inner battle over sin sounds an awful lot like sin is something that is pursuing you. Keep this in mind because we’ll come back to this idea in the application.

Abel’s Murder (8-16)

Our text continues with Cain meeting his brother in a field and murdering him. We’re not told all of the details, all we know is that Cain murders Abel and God confronts him again.

In v. 9, God asks Cain “Where is Abel your brother?”

Again, it is a bit rhetorical of a question, God already knows what happened, but in asking, he gives an opportunity for Cain to admit what he had done and for him to repent.

But his response is that of defense, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

In v. 10, God continues, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 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.”

Again, that “What have you done?” is a rhetorical question—God already knows what had happened and we see that as God continues his accusation against Cain.

It is notable that it’s very similar to how God questions Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

God is using some rather descriptive language to describe the sin of Cain—that Abel’s blood cries out to him from the ground.

And just like the previous sins committed by Adam and Eve, Cain is placed under a curse for his sin.

That when he works the ground, when he tills, when he farms, the ground will not give anything to him.

God tells him that his punishment is to be driven away as a fugitive and as a wanderer on the earth.

Now, again, remember that God had given him multiple opportunities to own up to what he had done and repent, but instead, Cain clearly has chosen not to. In fact, when Cain does speak, he still doesn’t repent, “Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. 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.”

Note that in that whole statement from Cain, he never actually repents—his only concern is that when he’s driven away, someone will kill him.

His only concern is that while he’s wandering, someone will find him and in an act of retribution will attack him and kill him for what he did to Abel.

Which, just think about how absurd that is—he murdered his own brother, he’s faced with separation from God, and punishment, but his only concern is that someone might kill him.

Despite God giving him opportunities to repent, Cain chooses to reject God, reject repentance, and he chooses to follow his own path.

It’s almost impossible for us to see how someone could act and respond this way, but the reality is that we do exactly the same thing when we’re confronted with sin.

We sin and just like Cain, we attempt to hide it, we try to talk our way out of the culpability for our sin.

Often, instead of owning up to our own sins, we dig our heels in and instead of dealing with our sin with repentance, we tend only to be concerned with temporal consequences.

Matthew Henry, in his commentary about Genesis 4 says, “Cain complains not of his sin, but of his punishment. It shows great hardness of heart to be more concerned about our sufferings than our sins.” (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ge 4:8.

Cain knew he was guilty of murder and when given the opportunity to genuinely repent, he showed no concern for his sin and chose to continue his sinful life apart from the presence of God.

In vv. 15-16, we see that when Cain brought up his concern that someone would murder him, God responded with, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.”

And God places some sort of mark on Cain to prevent others from attacking him—what that mark was, we aren’t certain. All we know is that it had to have been something visible enough that people would notice it and would choose to avoid him.

This passage then ends with what is probably the saddest part of the whole situation and I can say it’s the saddest part of the situation because of one detail.

Yes, Abel was murdered, but judging from his offering and really the heart behind his offering, I don’t have a doubt that he was a follower of God. Thus, after his death, he would’ve been in the presence of God.

Cain gets confronted for his sin and the Bible says in v. 16, that despite God prompting him to repent throughout this passage, Cain chooses to leave God’s presence. He decided to reject God.

Allen Ross, “After murdering his brother (v. 8) Cain repudiated responsibility for it (v. 9) and claimed that God’s punishment (cropless soil and wandering, vv. 10–12) was too severe (v. 13). God graciously protected him by some mark or sign that would be a deterrent to an avenger (v. 15—nowhere is the nature of this “mark” clarified), but God condemned him to a life of ceaseless wandering (v. 12). This was his curse, to be banished from God’s presence (v. 14).” (Allen P. Ross, “Genesis” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: AN Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 34.

Again, Cain rejecting God is probably the saddest part of this entire account; especially, since he is given so many opportunities to simply own up to what he did and repent. Keep this in mind as we work through our application together. As we worked through the text this morning, we broke it into two parts—(1) Cain and Abel’s Worship of God (3-7) and (2) Abel’s Murder (8-16). Our application works within those two division—so, for part one, Cain and Abel’s Worship of God, we have the truth that God Demands Proper Worship and, for part two, Abel’s Murder, we have the truth that Sin Requires Repentance.

Application

God Demands Proper Worship (1-7)—from the debacle of Cain and Abel’s situation, we see something vitally important to this day in the way that the whole account goes down. Though some get caught up in trying to guess why exactly God rejects Cain’s offering, the wording does help to clarify it. Abel gave of the best of the firstfruits of his flock—he gave because he loved God and wanted to give God his best offering. Cain gave, but he didn’t give of his best or of his first harvest—he gave because he knew he was supposed to and thus, he went through the motions—not because he loved God. Or, in other words, the motivation behind worship matters and God always demands proper worship with right motivation.

We know this for sure from Hebrews 10—the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 40, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired . . . in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure . . . then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.”

The author of Hebrews then continues by stating that Jesus has offered the sacrifice once for all in His body in which sins and lawless deeds are remembered no more.

Before saying that we can now “have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,” or we can now enter into God’s presence.

And in saying this, he tells us that we need to do this genuinely or authentically, we need to do this with confidence, we need to do this with steadfastness, and we need to do this together.

Likewise, we know the motivation behind our worship matters because of what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman in John 4 that there is coming a time when people won’t worship God at the temple, but rather they’ll worship God in spirit and in truth.

Meaning that there will be time, which occurs after His resurrection, when worship of God isn’t location based or ethnicity based, but rather based on knowing the truth of the Gospel.

And there is coming a time, which happens after His resurrection, when worship isn’t based on the rituals of the temple, but rather on the inner working of the Spirit of God.

So, proper worship of God demands a genuine or authentic intention, it demands a confidence to be in God’s presence, it demands steadfastness on the truth of the Gospel, it demands worship based on the truth and worship based on the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

And then, Romans 12 tells us one other aspect of proper worship when Paul says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Worship of God demands us to be holy and acceptable to God, which only occurs by the process given in v. 2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Or, in other words, true worship of God doesn’t occur just when we gather together and sing songs or whatever else we do as a church. True worship of God happens day after day as we seek Him.

And He changes us by the renewing of our minds.

Proper worship of God is a multi-faceted idea that happens when we understand the truth mentally and our understanding of the truth drives us or compels us to worship in our spirit.

True worship of God causes us to come to God authentically, to be in his presence confidently, to stand firm on what we believe. True worship of God comes when our hearts and minds are changed by the working of the Holy Spirit and it continues as the Holy Spirit continues its work within us.

Or, in other words, the modern concept of worship--where its like a mini-concert in which you utilize songs of the radio because they’re upbeat or well-known; the modern concept of worship—in which worship is an experience that you come and enjoy on Sunday; this idea that worship is an emotion-filled and emotion-led time isn’t the full story and it actually represents more of what worshipers of false gods in the Old and New Testaments did rather than what believers in Jesus Christ did.

Yes, you can worship God with upbeat music that’s well-known or you can worship God with more somber music that’s more reflective. Yes, you can worship God during a Sunday morning service, but you can also experientially worship God from your home at the dining table with just your family. You can worship God and it be filled with emotion and you can worship God with calmness and peace that only He gives. I would be weary of allowing your emotions to lead how you worship, but that’s a different idea for a different time.

God demands proper worship and that proper worship is done when you understand the truth of the Gospel and you allow it to effect every aspect of your life to the extent that you’re able and willing to come into the presence of the Lord authentically and genuinely (to be in His presence). True worship of God happens as the Holy Spirit works within you to renew your mind and change your heart. True worship of God happens when you praise Him even when there isn’t upbeat music, when you worship Him experientially even at home, when you worship Him even when you don’t feel like it. True worship of God isn’t dependent on emotions, it is wholly dependent on knowing the truth, worshiping Him from within, and (in conjunction with Genesis 4) offering your best to Him and Him alone.

You need to worship the Lord properly with the right motivation.

Sin Requires Repentance (8-16)—multiple times God gives Cain the opportunity to repent through rhetorical questions. God clearly knows the answers to all the questions, He is omniscient—meaning He knows all things. He doesn’t have to ask, and yet, He does and by asking, He gives Cain the opportunity to own up to what He did and repent. However, when confronted, Cain lies, he rejects repentance, and he ultimately chooses to leave the presence of God and wander.

In this life, we sin. We all do, we all struggle with different sins.

Now, for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ and we’ve repented of our sinful lifestyles, we aren’t paying for the eternal consequences of our sins because Jesus has taken those consequences and has paid for them on the cross.

However, we still need to be cognizant of our sins and we still need to continuously be repenting of them to live in the way that Jesus wants us to live—holy and acceptable to Him.

And this idea of being cognizant of our sins naturally include three things:

First, it involves us actually acknowledging when we do sin.

We can’t continuously repent of our sins if we refuse to acknowledge when we do sin and God employs a variety of ways to make us aware of our sins.

For instance, part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to make us aware of our own sin, to convict us for that sin, and to call us to repentance.

This is done when we pray, when we read the Bible, and when we hear the Bible read, taught, and preached.

This is done when the body of believers around us recognize that we’re in sin and lovingly calls us out for that sin in hopes that we repent—that is the whole point of church discipline.

If we don’t ever acknowledge our sin, then we won’t actually repent.

Second, this involves us owning up to our sin.

We can’t continuously repent of our sins if we refuse to acknowledge and then own up to that sin.

For instance, saying that I lied is acknowledging my sin; but, if I immediately make an excuse for that lie, I’m not actually owning up to that sin.

Or, for instance, you can acknowledge that you have a sin problem with unrighteous anger; but, if you immediately then try to justify yourself for your unrighteous anger, you’re not actually owning up to that sin.

What that looks like is this, you have an outburst because someone accidently stepped on your toe.

You acknowledge that you probably shouldn’t have exploded like that, but instead of apologizing or instead of repenting, you then say, “but, I wouldn’t have exploded if you would’ve just kept your big feet to yourself.”

You acknowledged that you sinned, but you didn’t own up to your sin, instead, you made an excuse for it.

If you don’t own up to your sin; if you continue to make excuses for yourself, then you won’t actually repent.

Third, this naturally ends with us repenting of that sin.

And, of course, repentance is the idea that we’re turning away from continuously seeking that sin—what that means is, being cognizant of our own sinfulness doesn’t just include us acknowledging our sin and it doesn’t just include us owning up to our sin. Being cognizant of your sin includes actually repenting of your sin.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t ever struggle with the sin again, but it does mean that you’re actively fighting against that sin.

The prime example of how this works is in what we call life-besetting sins or what we might just call addiction today.

For example, we know that the viewing of pornography is sinful because you’re watching explicit actions and your lusting after the people in the videos.

Now, if you struggle with this sin, but you pretend like you don’t, you’re not acknowledging your sin.

If you struggle with pornography, but you excuse the behavior—you just can’t help it, you’re not owning up to your sin.

If you struggle with viewing pornography, but you don’t actually try to prevent yourself from partaking, then you haven’t actually repented.

Depending on the sin you would take different actions to actively fight against it.

So, in the case of pornography, you need to admit that you’re struggling with it.

You need to stop giving yourself an excuse to keep viewing it.

And, if necessary, if you’re truly repentant, you need to take action to prevent it—that might mean replacing your smart phone with a basic phone (they still make these and they’re actually really cheap now), it might mean utilizing something like Covenant Eyes, which monitors your web usage and reports anytime you view something questionable, it might mean having an accountability partner who will confront you if your struggle with a particular sin becomes apparent again.

If you’re cognizant of your own sin—you’re acknowledging your sin and you’re owning up to your sin, the only part left is actually choosing to reject that sin.

In some cases, you might need help—don’t be afraid of reaching out for help.

That’s what the church exists for.

If you don’t actively choose to reject your sin, you will never truly repent from it.

In Cain’s situation, he was given multiple times to repent and continue his relationship with the Lord and he chose not to. Likewise, when we sin, we’re usually confronted multiple times—if it’s not a public sin, it starts by us experiencing conviction for that sin through the working of the Holy Spirit and as we continue in that sin, when we read God’s Word, hear it preached and taught, as we pray, that conviction will build as the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance. If it’s a public sin or if it’s a sin that we refuse to repent of, then the local church steps in with church discipline. The idea being that maybe the individual is just ignoring the prompting of the Holy Spirit and if the local church steps up and says something, maybe that will catch the person’s attention because it’s not just an inner prompting or conviction—now, it’s clear that the sin is visible to those around him. Just like Cain, we’re given multiple opportunities to acknowledge our own sin, to own up to it, and to repent.

Let me encourage you to be cognizant of your sin, be self-aware.

Because sin requires repentance and you need to repent when your sins are made known to you.

Put simply, what we learn from Cain and Abel’s record in Genesis 4 is that God deserves and demands to be worshiped properly—so, you need to worship the Lord how He deserves to be worshiped; and sin always requires repentance, so, you need to repent when your sins are made known to you.

Learn from Cain’s refusal to worship the Lord and his rejection of repentance. Repent of your sins and worship the Lord.

Pastoral Prayer