The Way Forward

Introduction

There are sometimes in my ministry career that I will never forget and I will always draw upon for wisdom and direction.

Praise God there are only a couple where I have blow it so big time that I should have had bigger consequences.

**My hope is not to embarrass anyone, so I’ve made a lot of changes to the story but the larger truth is accurate.

I once led a group of high school and junior high students on a mission trip, one of the first ones I had done independently with a volunteer team. On this trip, one student was continuously struggling, which is not uncommon during short-term missions. Serving others non-stop and dealing with personal issues (as God exposes our hearts that we might deal with Him) can be challenging, especially if not properly managed.

This student was disrespectful to a leader, didn't listen to them, and was generally unkind. This behavior persisted throughout the week, culminating in a heated argument with me on the last day. I felt there needed to be consequences (JUSTICE!). One of the leaders suggested sending the student home a day early, alone, on a plane. I consulted with the rest of the team and made the difficult decision to send them home.

When I returned home, my pastor and boss called me in for a meeting. He asked me straight away, "Are you sorry for what you did?" After a moment, I acknowledged my regret. He allowed me to keep my job, and we had a discussion about why my decision was wrong and irresponsible. I apologized to the student, their parents, and my pastor, and admitted to my team that I had made a poor judgement call.

That moment of grace and mercy changed me. Grace is powerful - it helps you grow and encourages you to make better choices.

Years later, while leading another team, a similar incident occurred. However, this time, the students' actions were far more severe. Remembering my previous experience, I ruled out sending anyone home. When the students returned from disobeying safety rules, I simply expressed my disappointment and asked for an explanation. They responded with remorse, apologies, and a desire to mend relationships.

The desirable outcome I had tried to force previously resulted in regrettable decisions. This time, I achieved it through grace, kindness, transparency, and vulnerability.

God is yet again, His grace and kindness on full display.

If you have your Bibles, or on your devices, would you turn to Genesis 4:9-26

If you are able and willing, would you stand with me as I read God’s word this morning.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Amen. Please be seated.

A Lament (again)

We pick up our text where we left off. Cain’s anger shifted from God’s rejection of his sacrifice to where his brother Abel bore the fury of his anger. He kills his brother out of envy, anger, rage.

Before this, we see God coming to Cain in a desire to speak to him in his is frustration:

Genesis 4:6–7 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.””

I want to remind us again of God’s character as He describes Himself in Exodus 34:6–7 “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.””

God meets Cain and exhorts him.

This is our desire as we walk with loved ones. Our children, our parents, our nieces, our nephews, our friends… “hey, be careful… I’ve been down this road and it doesn’t end well.”

I’ve been able to encourage folks as a pastor and mistakes I’ve made. I’ve been able to encourage dads, brothers, parents, uncles as I have had some success in discipling and encouraging young people.

It’s a kindness to step in and encourage people. If you are like me, it can be difficult to accept it when people make choices that break relationship or cause unnecessary harm to others.

Cain allows his anger and envy to dictate his actions (instead of ruling over them as God exhorted him), and he kills his brother.

God meets Cain and we see the second lament of God… “Where is your brother, Abel?”

As before, God is not seeking information because he doesn’t know, but it is a cry of lament for Cain has done. Just as God sought out the man and the woman, “Where are you?” He would ask.

Where is your brother?

I want to remind us of the prayer that Malissa led us through last month. She said this,

“From your mouth also came the first lament. The first pain and heartache experienced in this good world you created, was yours. And you allowed your first image bearers to bear witness to it. You have never withheld anything of yourself from us but given us everything freely and without restraint, including this gift of your holy sorrow.

What kind of God mourns in the presence of his creation, open and unashamed? “Where are you?” The call of a loving Father, seeking Adam and Eve, mourning the brokenness of relationship and the separation now there. “What have you done?” The sorrowful cry from a broken heart, knowing what your world and your people will now endure. And we will break your heart over and over again. We will cause you to mourn over and over again.

And so Father, we remember your first lament over us. Thank you for the gift of your sorrow. Give us eyes to see all that was lost, so that we can see all we have gained.”

This is so profound as we think about sin, grief, and lament. Often times I think through how it affects me. What has God lost? What has been taken from God by our selfish and envious choices? Cain didn’t only rob Abel of life, he robbed Adam and Eve, he robbed himself of his brother, and he robbed God of His beautiful and wonderful creation.

Cain’s heart is revealed as he is dismissive of God when confronted, Genesis 4:9 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?””

We see that an answer to God’s question is first a lie and then an evasive denial of responsibility. Perhaps we should see irony in how far one chapter has brought us from wanting to know everything about good and evil to knowing nothing. Walton, J. H. (2001). Genesis (p. 265). Zondervan.

The works of the flesh are evident here. Paul the apostle in Galatians 5 tells us that the works of the flesh don’t inherit or belong to the kingdom of God. There are a few of them that Paul lists, but what we can identify here is hatred, discord, jealousy/envy, fits of rage. Our unrighteous action does not accomplish the work of God.

THE ENDS NEVER EVER JUSTIFY THE MEANS. If we go about something and there is a perceived good at the end, how we get there matters.

What God demonstrates are what the apostle Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit, those characteristics that come about when we walk in the Spirit of God… it would make sense if it comes from God, that God would be this way. We see on full display love, forbearance, faithfulness, and gentleness.

Cain should be killed, but he is not.

A Gracious God

God meets him

God comes to him after Cain murders his brother

God is just and allows him to suffer the consequences of his action. Genesis 4:10–12 “The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.””

Abel’s blood no doubt calling out for Justice… praise be to God that the blood of Jesus calls out “Grace!”

It’s a furtherance (more severe) than the curse that was pronounced in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve. Adam’s curse was that by nervous anxiousness you’re not sure if the ground is going to produce, you’re going to work hard but not always have a lot to show for it.

Here the ground won’t yield any longer for you. He is rendered useless in his vocation. God is allowing the consequence of his action to take root and that fruit of that action is coming about.

Where as the casting out of Adam and Eve was from God’s presence, we see Cain’s is also from God’s protection. Likewise because Cain denies the responsibility of family, he is deprived of family.

Blessing requires responsibility. If we deny the role and responsibility of family we are deprived of family. It goes both ways. In that if a parent or guardian abuse the responsibility of family, the children leave and want nothing to do with them. If the child abuses and hurts the family, they can be outside the protection, provision, and care that comes in that community. Extend that to the church community, to the community at large… we have responsibility and when we neglect that, then we find ourselves dealing with the ramifications of that.

When we refuse to take responsibility for our sin, to accept blame for the consequences of our actions, and to be held accountable for what we do and say, we burn down the bridges of reconciliation. The only way back to reconciliation, forgiveness, and God has as its first step a recognition of the problem and repentant desire to do something about it. To put the problem another way, distance from God is not just because we sin; it is because we enjoy sin, cherish sinful ways, even protect our right to sin, and resist any attempt to harness our depravity. To neglect the exhortation of God to Cain, sin’s desire is for you but you must rule over it. Walton, J. H. (2001). Genesis (p. 268). Zondervan.

Cain cries out in despair because of the consequence to God’s pronouncement. Genesis 4:13–14 “Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.””

We would probably say… well that’s what happens when you kill your brother. This is Cain fashioning his own “fig leaves” if you will. He acknowledges he can’t survive in this new way of having to live… so as God shows Adam and Eve grace by fashioning clothes, so to God is gracious and clothes Him (a mark) as we will see in a moment.

God is gracious, slow to anger, compassionate, merciful… not delighting in evil but rejoicing in truth (1 Cor 13:6)

God is more gracious than often what we want for others, but for us we need God to be kind and gracious to us. This is the message of Jonah. Jonah runs from God, runs from fulfilling his role as a prophet, God shows mercy and compassion towards Jonah when He was righteous to kill him, Jonah relents, goes and does what God wants in warning an evil people of God’s coming judgement, and is angry at God when he shows them great compassion, the same compassion he showed Jonah.

God relents… God shows kindness and mercy, Genesis 4:15–16 “But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”

Cain travels further East. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Adam and Eve exited the East of the garden that was in Eden. Cain travels further East. He seeks refuge further away from God’s presence, or that which is identified where God was.

Church in the midst of sin, bad choices, and accountability, we humble ourselves. We seek forgiveness. We seek God. The end and consequence of rebellion and sin is death.

In his book, The Eye of the World, a fantasy novel by Robert Jordan, he says, “Violence harms the one who does it as much as the one who receives it. You could cut down a tree with your axe.… Wood is soft compared to steel, but the sharp steel is dulled as it chops, and the sap of the tree will rust and pit it. The mighty axe does violence to the helpless tree, and is harmed by it. So it is with men, though the harm is in the spirit.” Walton, J. H. (2001). Genesis (p. 269). Zondervan.

But our hope is in God, specifically through the work and person of Jesus Christ.

Sin and recognition of our own sinfulness should not drive us away from God, but His character should cause us to drive into God through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We are then told about Cain’s lineage and it’s a mess as we get down to Lamech. He assumes God’s protection and God’s grace. This is a dangerous place to be in. We must not assume God’s grace. It is His to give, not for us to take and assume ourselves.

We see the fall of humanity in chapter 3 and now we see the fall of the family in Genesis 4. Cain kills Abel, Cain is considered the Father of culture as his family becomes responsible for husbandry, music, and tools. A nomadic people. We also see Lamech then bring into a deviation from God’s design in having multiple wives.

Culture is not a bad thing in and of itself. We should not look to escape it, we can’t, but the pattern is set here that there is a drift and falling away from the Lord. There is a continual drifting.

What we see though is that we are to honor God in our job, our music, our tools, our relationships with one another. That itself is culture. And as a side note… you don’t change culture by attacking it. You change culture by making more of it, making more of the right culture you want to see. If you are on the keyboard banging away at ills and problems of culture, let me encourage you a better way to change culture is create one that resembles and exemplifies that which is good, right, and holy.

God is true though every man a liar

Adam and Eve come together again and they conceive. Eve gives birth to Seth. Meaning to set, stand, place, foundation

Eve has experienced even more loss and in the midst of this grief there is another moment for joy… Seth is born. Isn’t that often life, where grieving and joy are intermixed.

I don’t know God’s original plan… but the messiah was going to come through either Cain or Abel. It can no longer come through Abel. Cain is cursed and is a murder who moves further away out from Eden out of shame… but what does God do, he forms and creates Seth.

Luke 3 traces the genealogy of Jesus through to Seth.

While Cain’s family is somewhat of a dumpster fire, God prepares another way to fulfill his promise.

Cain’s family is a microcosm: its pattern of technical prowess and moral failure is that of humanity. Kidner, D. (1967). Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 83). InterVarsity Press.

We then get a precursor as to what is going to happen in Chapter 5. We see that there are a people that begin to call on the name of the Lord.

Calling on his name involves proclaiming his reputation and attributes (Ex. 34:5–6; 1 Chron. 16:8; Ps. 105:1; Isa. 12:4; notice the parallel in many of these to “making known his deeds”). It is equated to taking hold of him (Isa. 64:6), aligning with his cause (Isa. 44:5–6), and acknowledging him as one’s God (Zech. 13:9). Walton, J. H. (2001). Genesis (p. 279). Zondervan.

Conclusion

As we reflect on the story of Cain and Abel, and the broader narrative of Genesis, let us remember this crucial truth - though we all fall short of God's perfect standard, He offers abundant grace when we approach Him with humility and repentance. Just as God provided Seth as another way forward after the tragic events with Cain and Abel, He continues to make a way for us today through Jesus Christ.

The gospel message is a call to obedience - to align our lives with God's ways and to be reconciled to Him and others. While we still have today, let us not harden our hearts like Cain did, but rather heed God's loving exhortation. If there are areas where we need to repent and make amends, may we do so boldly, trusting in God's mercy and grace to help us.

Life and peace come from a spirit that is yielded to God. As Seth's descendants began to call on the name of the Lord, so we too can proclaim His excellent attributes and take hold of Him as our God. Despite the brokenness and moral failures we see all around us and in our own hearts, God remains true and faithful.

Brothers and sisters, as we conclude, I invite you to call upon the name of the Lord. Experience His forgiveness afresh and ask Him for strength to walk in obedience. May we be a people who break the pattern of drifting away from God, and instead run towards Him, knowing He is ready to welcome us home with open arms. Amen.