Foundations: Study in Genesis Part 7
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Genesis 4 - Cain and Abel
Genesis 4 - Cain and Abel
Open with prayer
1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”
2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
So we have the first human being ever born on the earth. Cain was the first baby. His name means “craftsman” or “metalworker”, but it also sounds like the Hebrew word translated “I have acquired.” This statement of Eve’s can be translated “I have acquired a man with the help of the Lord” or “I have acquired a man, the Lord.” This latter translation gives rise to the thought that Eve may have thought that Cain was the promised “seed of the woman”...that Cain himself was the promised Messiah. If so, she was gravely mistaken. The name Abel means “vapor” or “breath.” It seems that to Eve, Abel was an afterthought.
They grew up and they each chose separate professions. I want to just make a statement about this, which it seems to me that most commentators pass over. One of these men Cain became a tiller of the ground...a farmer. Abel became a husbandman, a keeper of animals. It is interesting to me that from the beginning God put certain preferences in the hearts of men. This is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. What if everyone wanted to be farmers? There would be no one to tend to the flocks. What if everyone wanted to be husbandmen? Mankind would have quickly starved to death as there would have been no one to tend to the ground. We all have different giftings...different knacks for certain things. The Lord has given me a desire and an ability from an early age to teach the Bible. For some of you, that would be the very last thing you would want to do. Others of you have mechanical skills that I greatly admire. I wouldn’t know the first thing about most of that! Societies have flourished most rapidly when they have embraced division of labor among its people. Throughout history, we have tended to want to make our children in our own images. Men especially have wanted to make their sons follow in “the family tradition”, whatever that might be. But we need to let our children find their own paths. Adam and Eve to their credit didn’t try to force Cain and Abel down a certain path that they prescribed.
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
There was nothing more noble or right about one of the professions over the other. Both were honorable professions. Neither was there anything intrinsically wrong with an offering from the fruit of the ground over the offering from the flock. Grain sacrifices were an acceptable offering to the Lord under the old covenant in Moses’ day.It is true that only animal sacrifices were acceptable to God as sin offerings, but we have no indication from this text that these were sin offerings. It seems more likely to me that these were thankofferings. God taught them that they were to make offerings to Him as a way of thanksgiving.
The fundamental difference in these offerings seems to me to be in the way that they were chosen. There is nothing in Cain’s offering that indicates that he gave the firstfruits. It seems to have been a rather careless offering. On the other hand, the text makes it plain that Abel offered the “firstlings” of the flock and the “fat portion.” This indicates to us that Abel’s offering was the very best. This I think is why that God regarded Abel’s offering and not Cain’s offering. How that he made this known to them, we don’t know. Perhaps fire fell down on Abel’s offering and consumed it (like Elijah’s offering many centuries later) and Cain’s just sat there. In any event, in some way it became apparent that God regarded Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s.
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 4
Abel’s offering seems to demonstrate great care and attention to his relationship with Yahweh. He offers exactly what later texts indicate Yahweh requests of his people (
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
Let us also notice another aspect of this. It wasn’t just that God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. He accepted Abel and rejected Cain. Why is this? I think the NT gives us a clue...
4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
The offerings revealed the men. Abel’s offering of the firstling of the flock revealed that he feared God...that He loved and respected him. It revealed that Abel was righteous. It was an offering given by faith. He gave the very best that he had. Not only that, but he gave the firstfruit of the flock. This is I believe why this was a faith offering. He dedicated the first animals that were born to him. This took faith, as he had to trust that there would be more born after the firstling. Cain’s offering was an afterthought. This indicated the condition of Cain’s heart, which is about to be displayed more clearly in the next few verses.
These two offerings are even today the same offerings that men want to give to God. One is accepted and one is rejected. The “Cain offering” is the offering of dead religion. It is an offering that is less than 100%. I mentioned Sunday that any offering to God that is less than giving our all is not acceptable to God. Romans 12:1 says that we are to be “a living sacrifice” to God. On the other hand, the “Abel offering” is the “living sacrifice” offering. It is given in faith...not holding anything back. It revealed Abel’s deep relationship with Yahweh. The sacrifice was made as a testimony to the relationship that already existed.
Discussion: Any comments?
As the end of verse 5 indicates, this infuriated Cain. He wasn’t just a little upset. He was indignant.
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
This is an act of sheer grace on the part of God. He gives Cain a good “talking to” as we would say in the south. He asked Cain why he is so upset. “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” is translated NLT “You will be accepted if you do what is right. I think that God was telling him that there was no reason for him to be upset. There would be other opportunities to make the right and appropriate sacrifice.
Then God says something amazing to Cain.
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
He tells Cain that if he chooses to not do well, then this opens up the door of his heart to sin. Sin here is personified as a predator just waiting to swoop in and take Cain captive. “It’s desire is for you” is translated in NIV as “it desires to have you” and NLT as “eager to control you”. But God tells him that he must be the master over sin.
Since sin has entered the human race, it has crouched at the door of each of our hearts. It wants to take us captive, but we must master it. I wonder if Paul had the story of Cain and Abel in mind when he wrote these words in Romans:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
As believers in Jesus Christ, filled with the Spirit of God, we have no excuse to harbor sin in our bodies. We don’t have to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. We have resources that Cain did not have. We can present our ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness to God.
Cain rejected God’s gracious instructions. Read on:
8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
What an unutterable tragedy! It shows that sin even in its inception in man was a terribly potent force. The first man born on the earth rises up and kills the second man born on earth. His own brother, who had done nothing at all to deserve such a thing. It was totally for envy that Cain killed Abel. He was animated by the spirit of the devil.
Let’s think for a moment. Did you know that much of our legal system is based on the Bible? In the law of Moses, there were various penalties for different types of murder. There was a penalty for unintentional though perhaps careless taking of a life. We call it manslaughter today. There was a murder which took place “in the heat of the moment.” It had its own punishment. Under our system, this probably be 2nd degree murder. Very serious offense, but not the most serious. Finally, there is 1st degree murder. Which is planned out by the offender. The phrase “malice aforethought” in English common law (which was largely the basis of our legal system here) was based itself on the Mosaic understanding of a deliberate murder being worse than one “in the heat of the moment.”
So the question is: Which kind of murder was this? It would be 1st degree murder in our courts, right? The first murder was not just a crime of passion but a premeditated crime. Sin was as black as could be!
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Like father, like son. Cain in such a cavalier way just says to God, “how should I know? Am I responsible for my brother?”
The answer is, “yes we are our brother’s keeper.” It is right and good that we should be caring not only for the needs of ourselves but for the needs of others.
David Guzik quotes from Spurgeon:
Spurgeon was shocked at the way Cain replied to God: “The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother; and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker.”
God doesn’t waste any time pronouncing a sentence on Cain. In a day before there were no human judges and no courtrooms, God Himself was the judge and the field in which they were standing was the courtroom.
10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
11 “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear!
14 “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
So Cain’s sentence is banishment. The way that God would do this was that Cain would no longer be able to cultivate any food and then be forced to wander the earth in search for something to eat. Cain is unrepentent, but is horrified by his punishment. Cain complains to God that I will be out in the world with no protection whatever and whoever finds me will kill me. (He who found his brother and killed him for nothing is now afraid that others would do the same to him.) God in his grace will put some kind of mark on Cain and would in effect declare to the world that vengeance would be sevenfold on whoever would kill Cain.
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
This to me is perhaps the saddest verse of all. Even in his terrible state, Cain had a relationship with God. He actually talked with God and God talked with Him. The worst part of Cain’s punishment I believe is found here. He left the presence of the Lord. No more, for the rest of his days, will he have any contact with Yahweh God. This verse also is the last verse in Genesis that refers to Eden. Man would never have contact with the garden again. The name Nod means “wandering” or “exile”.
I’d like to pause here to talk about what Cain’s murder of his brother represents. We might look at the sin of Eve and then Adam in the garden and God’s reaction and say, “Wow! That’s a lot of punishment for just eating one piece of fruit! What was the big deal?” The thing is disobedience begets disobedience. This first sin of disobedience, small though it seems to us, polluted the stream of mankind. And it didn’t take eons of time for it to finally result in what we might call “the ultimate sin”...the murder of a human being by another human being. It only took one generation! Do you remember what James said?
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
We see this in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. We see this magnified in the story of Cain and Abel. The seemingly innocuous sin of one generation gives rise to the deadly sin of the next generation.
17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
So now we have the age-old question that seems to come up...Who did Cain marry? It is obvious that he had to marry his sister (or maybe a niece of grand-niece. Genesis 6:3 says that Adam had other sons and daughters) We might recoil at this in horror, but from a practical standpoint, it had to be this way in the beginning. Adam and Eve’s genetic systems had no mutant genes in them, so it would not have been dangerous as it was today. Many generations later, Abraham was allowed to marry his half-sister Sarah, although eventually in the Mosaic law this would not be permitted.
BTW, this Enoch is the first of two Enochs we will read about in the early chapters of Genesis. We will read about the more-famous one next week in chapter 6.
18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech.
19 Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah.
20 Adah gave birth to 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 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
Give heed to my speech,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me;
24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
So now we have Cain’s lineage. We are given almost nothing but names until we get to Lamech, the seventh from Adam. The first thing we find out about Lamech is that he took two wives. This is the first recorded instance of this in the Bible. We have a number of people in the Bible who took two wives. None of them turned out well! Though it seems that God permitted in earlier ages, it never was His original plan. In every case that I can think of in the Bible, there was contention between the two wives.
Can you name any of these? Jacob married Leah and Rachel. Elkanah married Hannah and Peninniah. We might include Abraham marrying Sarah and taking Hagar as a concubine. Then when we get to David and future kings of Israel, they would take multiple wives.
Back to Lamech.
We find that through the line of Lamech (and therefore through the line of Cain), there were several accomplished people. Jabal was the father of nomadic people who dwelled in tents and had livestock, Jubal was called “the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe”. Their half-brother Tubal-cain was called “the forger of all implements of bronze and iron.”
The line of Cain was severed at the flood, as only the descendants of Seth (in the family of Noah) survived the flood. So we know that when it says that these men were the father of all who dwell in tents or who play instruments is not to be taken literally. Like George Washington is “the father of our country.”
Let’s look at this “poem of Lamech.” As bad as Cain’s sin was, he never bragged about it. Lamech here actually brags that he killed a boy for striking him. He was so proud of it that he wrote a poem about it! He was boasting here that if anyone tried to avenge the murder he would take care of it himself. So in many ways, Lamech represents that further de-evolution of the line of Cain.
25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
26 To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Now we are back to Adam one more time. It is the line of Seth that will continue on. We have this interesting little tidbit of information that in the time of Seth’s son Enosh, men would began to call upon the name of the Lord. Some have called this the first revival in history. I don’t know. However, there is some pathos in this in that it indicates to me that the intimate relationship with God that existed with Adam and Eve and even with Cain and Abel was now no longer possible. They called on the name of the Lord (Yahweh), but there is no indication to me that there was a close relationship with God. It would take future generations for that to be re-established, ultimately through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Discussion and prayer
