898 Biblical Characters - Cain and Abel (Gen.3.20 – 4.16)
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
- Some of you may remember the song from 1971 called “One Tin Soldier”
- It is a song written mostly against war & speaks to the question of fairness
Listen, children, to a story that was written long ago
‘bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure, buried deep beneath a stone,
and the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.
Go ahead and hate your neighbour, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowing, come the judgement day.
On the bloody morning after… One tin soldier rides away.
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom, with our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.
Now the valley cried with anger, mount your horses draw your swords!
And they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure, on the mountain dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it… “Peace on Earth,” was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbour, go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end.
There won’t be any trumpets blowing, come the judgement day.
On the bloody morning after… One tin soldier rides away.
—Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter
-----------------
- There is greed in the world & people are often happy to walk over others which means they make other people’s lives worse, if it has some material benefit for them
- But this is life in a sin-filled world
- But you don’t have to have people treat you badly for life to be a disappointment – all sorts of things can go wrong in life – that’s life!
- There is a saying that we are all familiar with: “Like’s not fair”
- One commentator has suggested, the truth is that we really mean life’s not fair to me
No, when we complain, “It’s not fair,” we’re most often complaining about the way we perceive God to have arranged things for us. Whether our best friend has a relationship and we don’t, our brother has a high-paying job and we’re unemployed, or our son or daughter has special needs and our friends’ kids are all in college, our sense of unfairness usually pertains to what we have or have not received in comparison with whom we live.
-- Ellen Jennings1
------------------------
Q. How do you respond to the choice between Godhood & being man?
- Well we see that the first pair were not happy with being the creature (the created ones) and wanted to be like God
- We saw how that went for them & it didn’t go well
--------------------
Q. How do you respond to God acting with divine prerogatives?
- If God arranges life – your life – in ways that you don’t like – how do you respond to Him & indeed, others around you?
- Some people in life seem to live with God’s favour – if we could call it that
- They have wealth; they have need of nothing; they live in pleasure all day long; they have the best medical treatment available; their children get sent to the best & most expensive schools that gives great access to the best paid jobs in the world
-------------------------
- Then there are people who struggle with the basics of living
- Depending upon where you live, you might be living in poverty; not only unable to afford health care, but barely able to see a doctor at all; some work virtually day & night in sweat shops & make barely enough to live on; their children get poor education in schools overwhelmed with bullying & violence; at best they may end up working in the rice fields – jobs that pay next to nothing
-------------------
- Now all this may simply be a matter of where you were born; what type of family you have been born into & the like
- Yes, there are good examples of people who have been disadvantaged & made some great strides in their life like Ben Carson who became a Neurosurgeon (came from a poor family, single mother)
- But even with that example, it would have to be due to the impact of the gospel that transformed society & gave people like Ben Carson a chance at something higher in life
--------------------
- My point in all this is that a person can be very bitter about their life
- They can court all sorts of bitterness, resentment & anger at other people; they can can live life defeated & depressed with a constant attitude of discontentment
- This is a sad state for anyone to be in
- Whilst we are living in the lucky country, this same sense of imbalance is felt by many people in the great land of Australia
-----------------------
- If you are in the middle class, you may still be discontent & have cravings for the upper class
- If you are in the lower class, you may be seething with jealousy, bitterness & anger at those who enjoy what you cannot afford
- So life goes on its bitter way
--------------------------
- Of course, you can look at what I’ve just said from the perspective of someone who doesn’t believe in God, or you could look at this from someone who does believe in God
- But Genesis gives only one perspective as there are no other reality in God’s world
- What we are looking at here today is how one handles divine prerogatives
- When God makes a choice for you – what is your response?
------------------
- I can guarantee that if I asked you all about what the story of Cain & Abel is about, you will give me the NT answer
- The NT is true, of course
- However, we need to understand that there are 2 levels here
1. What is this passage here saying?
- It should be obvious that the NT was written a long time after the OT
- So what did this passage originally mean to all the people who read it before the NT came along? That surely must be a relevant point
2. Often, the NT writers used the OT merely to illustrate the point that they were making
- In other words, the NT writers were looking at it from a different level
---------------
- Let me give you an example:
22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.
- God called His son (little “s”) out of Egypt – who is His son here?
- The Israelites that He brought out of slavery in Egypt
- Here is the original level of the passage – God’s son is Israel
--------------------
- But we come to the NT & we are on a different level
14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
- God’s son was Israel & that is what the prophet was saying on the first level, but on a greater level, the prophet was referring to Jesus as God’s Son (capital “S”)
- Both statements are true but from differing perspectives or contexts
- So I’m suggesting to you that in order to grasp this important passage in Gen. 4, we must understand what it is saying here on this first level
1. A Brave New World of Sin and Death
1. A Brave New World of Sin and Death
- Adam & Eve have now been banned from the Garden of Eden
Q. What is the significance? They no longer have access to the tree of life to live forever
- Imagine if we had genes that did not cause ageing
- Obviously, you would have to age beyond a baby but to stop the ageing at say, 23 yrs old
- To live forever was God’s original intention for Adam & Eve & the human race
- They had a pristine environment there in the Garden of Eden, but they have now been cast out into a hostile & cursed environment
-------------------------
- Life will be hard – but that is not all
- Mankind, that now has the knowledge of good & evil & is all messed up about what is good & what is evil, now faces a situation in a somewhat hostile environment & where they will need to live under the sovereignty of a creator God that makes choices they may not like
- Again, man faces the issue – will he & she accept that they will never be equal with their creator
- The whole notion of equality touches down on the very issue of God making choices that don’t go your way
----------------------
- I think a classic example of this is Job
- Job was a upright man, fearing God & turning away from evil– he was righteous & deeply desired to honour God with not only his life but the life of his family
Q. How did it go for him?
- We see in the initial chapters, Satan complains that God has placed a fence around Job & all that he has & won’t let him be tested because as far as Satan is concerned Job will immediately curse God
- He challenges God over Job’s integrity
---------------------
- Some of us might not like the fact that God allowed Satan to destroy everything Job had, even his health
Q. Where is the justice in that? Where is the fairness?
- Some will go so far as condemning God since He is sovereign over the events of the world & yet He let that happen
- There are things that we just don’t understand & we need to remember that this is the very issue that the book of Job is dealing with
--------------------
- You should read the final chapters from chp.38 & following
Q. Does Job get an answer for God’s choice in allowing him to suffer loss? No, he doesn’t get a reason
- Job even gets to the place of seeing himself as more righteous than God
Q. How does God deal with that?
– God points out to him that he is not God
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 3 “Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it?
- Job gets a dose of I am God, you are creature
- Job does not get an answer for why God permitted him to lose everything
- But Job did get the point of what God had impressed upon him
1 Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ 5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
- Job simply came to that all important foundational point – that he is not & can never be equal with God & for this reason, God can do what He likes
- That God does what He wills & Job is to live life within God’s sovereignty by accepting that God is God & he is not
- That’s hard, but that is the message
---------------------
- However, we find that God then blessed Job in a greater way than what He had blessed him formerly
- He had 7 sons & 3 daughters who were the fairest in the land
- He was comforted by his family & he lived to see 4 generations - his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren & his great great grandchildren
2. Dealing with Divine Choices
2. Dealing with Divine Choices
Q. What can we learn from Cain’s anger/depression?
- He was depressed because God made a choice& he was unhappy that his offering was not acceptable to God
- This passage, to be sure, is silent on why God accepted Abel’s offering & rejected Cain’s – totally silent
- So most commentators try & fill in the blanks with what is said in the NT or on the difference between a sheep & fruit from the ground
- People try & understand this story of Cain & Abel by grounding it in other parts of the Bible, but few actually base their interpretation on what has gone before in Genesis, esp. chps. 2-3
----------------------
- Both the offering of flock from Abel & the fruit of the ground from Cain are acceptable offerings under the Law of God
- You might say that blood was the thing that was important because it leads to blood sacrifices & ultimately to Christ’s sacrifice
- That may be a projection of where God is heading but it is not the message given here – we must address the message
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.” 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.
Q. Was Cain rejected because God did not accept his offering?
- Clearly, God told him that he will be accepted if he responds rightly to God’s choices
- In other words, he let’s God be God without lashing out in sin
- If you do well, right, surely you be accepted – is the sense of having your countenance lifted up – pulling out of depression
---------------------
- This is post paradise & God’s choices will never always be what people like
- This passage is intensely theological – teaching us fundamentals about our attitudes towards a holy & sovereign God
- One main characteristic of this message today is the realisation that life is not fair
- We will have great disappointments and wonder why things are going bad for us
-------------------
- But the answer is clearly to do well or right, in spite of the resentment you feel towards others – you are a creation of God & He loves you and will accept you if you can accept His sovereignty
Q. What does that look like now? Accepting Jesus Christ – that is God’s sovereign choice & command to you now
--------------------
- People, however, usually want a cause & effect
- There must be a reason why a person is in a bad situation or in a place where it seems that God is not giving them an easy life
- Like the disciples who saw the man who was born blind as the result, they thought, of someone’s sin – whether the man when he was in the womb or from one or both of his parents (in Jn. 9)
---------------------
- The disciples ask Jesus, who sinned – the man or his parents that he was born blind
- Jesus responded that neither had been the reason for the man to have been born blind
- But it was an occasion for the work of God to be displayed in his life – as in he is being used for the glory of God
-----------------
- We are just not satisfied with a non-answer as to why
- It’s God’s choice & the person who wants acceptance with God should give serious thought to God’s warning here to Cain
- Feelings of discontent, resentment & depression over your lot in life will lead to sin being ready to pounce on you & own you – like a lion waiting to pounce on its prey in a moment when the victim doesn’t expect it
- So the apostle Peter
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
- If you ask me, the apostle Peter is drawing from this story of Cain and sin ready to pounce on him – using instead sin’s ally in Satan
--------------------------
- Christian’s suffer & we wonder why – after all, we have obeyed God & gone His way (like Job, like the apostles who were all persecuted, like Jesus who was persecuted)
- So Peter says to stay humble & accept the sovereignty of God that may have you suffer for the sake of being a Christian
-------------------
- I think it is probable that God is glorified through us having to face, at times, difficult circumstances
Q. Have you ever wondered why the church grows through persecution?
Q. Why in Lk, “blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God”
- Well the poor are those who have to totally depend on God – they have no other support networks – that is why they are blessed
- When we have a great comfortable lifestyle, the comforts & all our needs met tends to leave us with the impression that we don’t need God
---------------------
- I know that we would not set out to do that, but it is a battle for the rich but not for the poor
- The point is not that there is some virtue in being poor, but that a person who is poor is a seeker of God & His help
- Matthew understands what Jesus meant here in Lk, by saying “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
- It’s those who are poor in spirit who cannot make it in life without God
- When they experience this, they are blessed for they will possess the kingdom
----------------------
- I have seen many a Christian who are struggling with this whole issue of imbalance – of some waltzing through life but them, struggling in some ways
- Peter says that Satan wants to pounce as does sin & devour you
- However, the key is to be sober & alert which is to understand the very things God is saying to Cain & to stand strong in the faith
3. What the New Testament Writers See in Cain & Abel
3. What the New Testament Writers See in Cain & Abel
- The heart of the matter is a person’s faith or its lack
- Cain did evil because he did not live by what God said to him
- People who are depressed need to understand their life from God’s perspective
- There is a day of reckoning coming & God is no man’s debtor
- Whatever you have done for the Lord will be remembered
- Every act of faith; every response from you being conscious of God will be recalled by God
- There is great reward for the person of faith, make no mistake about it – just look at the remaining life of Job
-------------------
- Sure, we live in a cursed earth where, for some, life is great & for others, life sucks
- However, living life is about living under the conditions you find yourself in
- Of course, if you can better your situation, you do so
- But if you can’t / be happy that God will say to you as He did to Cain
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted”
-------------------------------
- Finally, how do we reconcile the NT use of Cain & Abel
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.
- This chapter on faith highlights Cain’s unbelief & Abel’s faith
- It seems that here, the better sacrifice had to do with it being offered in faith, God seeing through the heart of Abel & Cain
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
- The key seems to be how Cain reacted. It was not out of faith since He disobeyed God’s warning and let his emotions and feelings get the better of him & went the way of sin & let it master him
- So what we have here is the NT writers seeing this story on a different level – looking at it through the theme of faith & love for brother in Christ
- We see that both sinners, Adam & Cain were banished from God’s presence
- Like Adam, Cain was capable of making the right choice, but he choose poorly
----------------
- I think the message for us is reasonably clear
- Honour God wherever you are & in whatever circumstances you find yourself
- He is in control of your life & my life & we can choose to honour Him right where we are
- If others seem to be blessed more abundantly than you, then be glad for them & accept that God has you right where you are for whatever purpose He has in mind - & you may never know it until glory
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God.
- Yes, strive to better yourself & your situation – this is not a recipe to just accept defeat or failure
- It’s a call to love God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength no matter what conditions life throws at you by God’s sovereignty
- It’s hard to do sometimes, but the Lord will be with you & if you continue to do right by Him, you will be accepted
1https://cpcchurch.org/sermons/sermon-its-not-fair-9-21-14/