Genesis 4:1-16 - Cain & Abel

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Genesis 4:1–16 ESV

1 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 Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Two Brothers, Two Kingdoms

Introduction

The story of Cain and Abel is well known to every Christian.

Known to most as a story of sibling rivalry, its the story of one brother’s fit of jealous rage which ends in the murder of the younger brother Abel - the first recorded murder in human history.

As with most old testament stories, there are many ways that the story is retold, and lots of different conclusions drawn about what exactly the point of the story is.

For some, it is a warning against jealousy or anger.

For others, its a lesson that God prefers meat over vegetables

Then for others, its a lesson about the dangers of alcohol - after all, it was “cane” that killed Abel.

But as I have often pointed out in past sermons, there is always more than meets the eye in these old testament stories than merely a moral lesson.

The Bible is much, much greater than a book of rules, instructions and moral guidelines.

The Bible as a whole is about Jesus Christ. It is the revelation of who He is, what He came to do, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

And Genesis, as I pointed out in the first sermon in this series, is more than just the beginning of creation, but the beginning of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So even in the story of Cain and Abel, we must look beyond the rivalry between two brothers, and look for more than a mere lesson in morality.

What we must look for is what God is teaching us through this story about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

God willing, that is what I hope to bring to the surface as we study this story together today.

To help with our digestion of the passage I have divided it into 3 main points:

Two Brothers

Two Sacrifices

Two Kingdoms

1. Two Brothers

Genesis 4:1–2 ESV

1 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.

The story of Cain and Abel actually begins with a sense of hope.

We have to read Genesis 4 in the context of Genesis 3, and particularly in light of the Fall of Adam and the promise of God in Genesis 3:15

Adam’s sin of rebellion and treason against God in Genesis 3:6 had catastrophic consequences.

His sin brought a curse upon himself and his wife, as well as all of their offspring after them - which, by the way, includes you and I.

And the entire world has been groaning in corruption, tragedy, pain and death ever since.

Because God is holy, He did not overlook their transgression, but brought swift justice against the law breakers.

For Adam, the curse was to be felt in the sweat of his brow and the pain in his back.

There wasn’t going to be any more garden paradise to live in, where God provided him with every good thing to eat.

Now, he would have to break his back under the hot sun and among the weeds to provide for he and his wife.

As is still true today - without hard work, there will be no food on the table.

For Eve, the curse was to be felt in the realms of her roles as both a wife and a mother.

Child birth was going to be incredibly painful for her, and

her relationship with her husband would be strained

But the most serious result of the curse was exactly what God had warned them would happen if they disobeyed His commandment.

That consequence was the reality that both Adam and Eve and all of their offspring after them were cursed to die.

And yet, though in his holiness God did not hold back judgment and justice against sin...

in mercy He also gave them hope and a promise of redemption from the curse.

This is found in God’s sentencing of the devil who deceived Adam and Eve in the garden:

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is known as the protoevangelium - the first declaration of the gospel.

In this declaration of Satan’s doom, God promised Eve that she would some day bear a son...

and this son would accomplish what her husband Adam had failed to do - he would slay the serpent.

So Eve held onto that promise by faith. Though she and Adam had fallen, she had hope that God would provide a saviour to destroy Satan and break the curse.

And that is why I say the story of Cain and Abel starts with hope.

When Eve gives birth to Cain, there is a sense of hope and wonder that maybe he is the promised seed who would fulfill God’s promise.

So when Cain is born, the language is more poetic - Eve conceived and bore Cain, saying “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

By contrast, Abel’s birth is stated more “matter of fact”.

For now, Eve’s hope is that Cain is the fulfillment of God’s promise, and all is well in the family.

2. Two Sacrifices

Genesis 4:3–7 ESV

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.”

Now it came to the time for sacrifices to be made to the Lord.

The sacrifice was a significant event - it was an act of worship to God.

That means that the sacrifice was something to be carried out with a sense of awe and reverence for the Lord.

Now Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices to the Lord, but we are told that while Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God, Cain’s was rejected.

Now why was that?

There are a number of possible reasons that have been offered for why Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s wasn’t

Maybe Abel had brought his best sheep, while Cain had not brought his best vegetables.

Maybe God just doesn’t like vegetables.

Maybe the smell of the meat was just more pleasing to God.

The fact is, this text doesn’t explicitly tell us why Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was rejected. It just says that that’s the way it was.

But, the writer of Hebrews gives us an answer…

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

The answer to the riddle is faith.

By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

And it was through his faith that he was commended as righteous.

The difference between Abel’s offering and Cain’s offering, was that Abel’s offering was brought in faith.

If Abel had indeed brought God the best of his sheep, it was because Abel had faith in God. He held that he was sacrificing to a real God in whom he had placed all of his trust.

To me then, it seems that the same is true for all worship.

There is worship that is acceptable to God, and there is worship that is not acceptable to God.

Only worship that is offered to God in faith is acceptable worship.

If we have faith in God, then we believe God and we believe His Word and we submit to His Word.

Worship that is offered to God in faith is worship that is conducted in obedience to God’s Word, by people who have submitted their entire lives to God’s Word.

On the other hand, worship that is not offered to God in faith is not acceptable to God.

Worship that is not offered in faith is worship that is not offered in obedience to God, but with a disregard for how God has said He ought to be worshipped.

I think it is worth pointing out that there was at least one significant physical difference between Abel’s offering and Cain’s offering...

Abel’s offering followed the example of God in Genesis 3:21, when God sacrificed the life of an animal ,shedding its blood in order to cover Adam and Eve’s shame

Cain’s non-bloody sacrifice, by contrast, followed the example of Adam, who tried to cover their shame with some plant leaves.

Abel, by faith, followed the example of God by offering him a bloody sacrifice

Cain followed the example of Adam.

Faithful worship is worship that follows the example of God.

Unfaithful worship follows the example of man and the world.

Now here we can talk about all sorts of crazy things people and churches do, which they call worship but it really isn’t.

We can talk about church services that look more like nightclubs.

We can discuss some of the charismatic chaos, angel dust, angel feathers, everybody speaking gibberish and rolling around on the floor…

All these are things people do with a disregard for the example of Scripture and how God has said He must be worshipped,

which Paul says we must do decently and in order, and the writer of Hebrew says we must do in reverence and awe of our God who is a consuming fire.

But we mustn’t think that we can approach God in worship and that as long as we are standing up straight, wearing acceptable clothes, singing respectable hymns and being all prim and proper and respectable and as reverent as can be, that the worship we are offering is acceptable to God.

Worship that is acceptable to God is worship that is offered in faith, and those who offer worship in faith are those who have also submitted themselves in obedience to God’s Lordship over their lives.

So if on Monday to Saturday you are carrying gossip, slandering others, being entertained by sin and chasing after every idol, and then on Sunday you come in your best church clothes and sing the most beautiful hymns man has ever heard… your worship is not acceptable to God.

Because willfully disobedient people do not and cannot offer up worship to God in faith. Because if they had faith, they would believe, and if they believed, they would obey.

Or as I said to a bunch of people in a Facebook group the other day, which earned me a lot of hate…

If your church is openly pro-abortion, or pro-homosexual, and refuses to practice church discipline against those who willfully engage in homosexuality or any other ungodly lifestyle...

... then that church is in open rebellion against God and cannot offer acceptable worship to God.

In fact, I said it this way: God hates their worship.

As you can imagine, that really ruffled their feathers and they were horrified. Maybe you’re also horrified that I would say such a thing.

“How can you say that God hates their worship? God is a loving God, he would never hate people worshiping him!”

I can say that because that is exactly what God has said.

Go and look up Isaiah chapter 1

God is addressing the nation of Judah - not some evil gentile barbaric nation - but Judah.

He describes them in verse 4

Isaiah 1:4 ESV

4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

And then look at what he says about their worship and their sacrifices because of their sin:

Isaiah 1:10–15 ESV

10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

All who have faith in God and live by faith offer acceptable praise and worship to God.

And by their faith - not their obedience but their faith - they are commended as righteous according to Hebrews 11

But those who don’t have faith in God are exposed by the way that they live their lives, which is not in submission to God but in rebellion against God.

Because if they believed God they would also obey Him.

And since they do not have faith in God, they cannot offer worship to God that is acceptable to Him.

Worship is not just singing. Worship is not just praying. Worship is not just pitching up at church. Worship is not just putting something on the altar to make a burnt offering to God.

Worship is complete submission to God in heart, body and mind, and attributing glory and honour and giving praise to Him.

ANGER

Now when people are told that their worship is rejected by God because of the absence of obedient faith, they get angry.

I definitely saw that happen on Facebook in the incident I shared earlier

And we see it here in Cain, who becomes so angry when God rejects his worship that he murders his brother in a jealous rage, and then lies about it to God.

The son who Eve hoped would fulfill the promise of Genesis 3:15 , rather than representing the hope of mankind, represents the immediate effects of the Fall on mankind

Terrible sin, anger, jealousy, lies, faithlessness.

Man is a terrible saviour

The pain for Adam and Eve must have obviously been terrible.

Their young son murdered by his brother,

The older brother cursed and condemned to be a fugitive for the rest of his days

The loss of both sons would have only been made worse by the sense of hope lost.

Their hope was in God’s promise of a seed of Eve destroying the work of the serpent

And now both their sons are dead.

Who would be their saviour?

Who is the seed who would crush the serpent’s head and break the curse?

THE TRUE SAVIOUR

Of course, with the help and insight of the New Testament, we now know that what we see in Genesis 3 and 4 all point to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross.

Jesus is the promised seed. Jesus is the promised Saviour.

And in these pictures in Genesis 3 and 4, we see 3 fundamental truths about the salvation that was achieved for us by Jesus.

FORGIVENESS HAS BEEN BOUGHT BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

Genesis 3:21, when God sacrificed the life of an animal to cover Adam and Eve’s shame, it was a picture of the bloody sacrifice of Christ that would not only cover our shame but remove it from us completely

Adam’s covering of plant leaves was just like all of our attempts to mask our shame - its all pathetic and useless

The work of removing our shame is something that only God can do for us

Rom 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death, and

Heb 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

The bloody sacrifice of the animal by God served as an example that though death is the consequence of sin, it is also through the death of a substitute, and the shedding of blood that their guilt would be removed.

In His death and His blood, paid the consequences and purchased forgiveness for our sins.

FORGIVENESS IS RECEIVED BY FAITH

With the help of the writer of Hebrews, we understand that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God because it was offered in faith.

By faith, Abel offered a sacrifice to God that followed God’s own example

By faith, Abel believed God and submitted to Him

Through faith, Abel was commended as righteous.

Abel’s offering of worship was accepted by God because of Abel’s faith.

By implication, we can conclude that by contrast, Cain’s offering was rejected because it was not offered in faith.

Christ’s blood has been shed for our forgiveness, but His forgiveness is only received by faith.

All who come to Christ in faith are received by Christ and forgiven. His blood has washed them clean and taken away their guilt.

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out."

But without faith, there is no forgiveness. No acceptance. No peace.

OUR HOPE IS IN THE RESURRECTION

When the Lord tells Cain in verse 10 that “the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground”, we are seeing the first hint of the resurrection.

Abel was dead, and yet his blood was still heard.

Though Abel died, yet through faith he still lives and speaks

The crying out of Abel’s blood after his death testifies to resurrection and life after death.

Cain may have taken Abel’s life, but God raised him up.

And so through the voice of Abel’s blood after his death, God testifies to the reality of the resurrection.

This is what we are clinging to by faith.

We know that Christ not only died for us, but was also raised and resurrected for us.

If Christ was not raised then our hope and our faith would be in vain.

But because Christ was raised, we know that we also will be raised.

Because Christ lives, though we die, yet we shall live.

Abel’s blood speaking after death points us to that reality.

As the writer of Hebrews says in 11:4.. “...through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”

You see God not only spoke to the Old Testament saints, He also speaks through them.

Through Abel, God was speaking of the great salvation and resurrection that was to come and has now come through Christ.

This story isn’t just about the two sacrifices of Cain and Abel

This story is about the sacrifice of Abel, which pointed forward...

and the sacrifice of Christ, which was to fulfill the promise of Genesis 3:15.

Abel’s sacrifice was not able to take away his guilt, but in faith he offered it up to God because He believed God would keep His promise.

But Christ’s sacrifice was able to take away his guilt, secure his forgiveness and make him righteous in God’s sight - and not only Abel, but everyone who calls out to Him in faith.

The writer of Hebrews again helps our understanding in Hebrews 12:24

Where he says that we who believe have come “… to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

What does he mean by that?

The blood of Abel called out to God for vengeance and justice against his murderer.

God heard, and brought swift judgement on Cain.

But the blood of Christ speaks a better word.

The blood of Christ shed on the cross doesn’t cry out to God for vengeance against you and me - it cries out for mercy and grace.

Christ’s blood doesn’t plead to God that justice should be done, but that justice has been done.

Christ’s blood doesn’t cry out for condemnation, but for justification.

By faith we know that God has heard that cry, and has accepted Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

This God proved by raising Christ from the dead.

3. Two Kingdoms

Now lastly, I mention two kingdoms.

But not to expand too much on that in this sermon but rather as a trailer or sneak peak into the messages to come.

The two brothers here represent two kingdoms - the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of the world and Satan.

The seed of Eve, and the seed of the serpent.

All those who have put their faith in Christ are the seed of Eve and belong to the kingdom of God through adoption

John 1:12 “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”

But all those who do not receive Christ in faith are the seed of the serpent.

1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning....”

In the rest of Genesis 4 and beyond we will see the contrast between these two kingdoms...

Beginning with the contrast between the godly line of Seth, and the ungodly line of Cain.

The important thing for us to ask ourselves today as we reflect on the accepted and life-giving sacrifice of Christ,

is which kingdom we belong to.

We cannot belong to both.

We either belong to the kingdom of God by faith in Christ, made visible and manifest through a life of obedience to God and faithful worship...

or...

by our disobedience and rebellion we expose ourselves as belonging to the kingdom of that serpent, Satan.

There is no halfway line, there is no waiting room in between.

But know this...

That if you should find in yourself a rebellious heart, and a lifestyle of disobedience or apathy towards God...

And you don’t want it to be that way…

And you desperately desire to be taken out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light,

That there is HOPE

Jesus’ blood speaks a better word

His blood cries out that justice has been satisfied

His blood cries out for forgiveness

His blood cries out for mercy and grace,

and God has heard.

1 Timothy 1:15 says “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...”

If you hear his voice saying “come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28), then don’t delay

Come to Him

Call on His name and believe

Romans 10:13 ESV

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”