My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

The Hope of Eve

Have you ever gotten your hopes up only to be disappointed? 2 weeks to slow the spread

I want to direct your attention to verse 1 where Eve gives birth to Cain and right after he is born she says, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Now, this seems like just a simple, “Thank you Lord for my baby.” statement here and that’s a good thing for her to say but I think there is something more here.

Eve knows that God is going to provide a deliverer who will crush the serpent and that she is Eve, the mother of the living. And her heart is so full of expectant hope that she bursts forth with faith here believing that this is him! This is the deliverer, the serpent crusher! His very name, “Cain” means to acquire.

Notice, however, the change in attitude as she names her second son Abel. There’s no statement recorded, no praise, no meaningful name. The name Abel means, “breath or vanity.” It seems that this could be a foreshadowing at how quickly he will leave the story, or it could be that Eve has already seen within her first child that perhaps this deliverance isn’t coming as quickly as expected.

The Heartless Worship of Cain and The Horrors of Sin

Have you ever met someone who is fake before? Have you ever heard of the western robber named Jesse James before who was notorious for robbing trains and murdering those who got in his way. Well, did you also know that he was also a faithful attender of a Missouri Baptist church where he was a preachers kid that loved to sing in the choir and teach people how to sing?

The Heart of Cain’s Worship

So here is a story about a farmer and a shepherd who go to sacrifice and worship the Lord, the farmer gets jealous that his cold, dead worship is rejected and he being filled with rage, storms away visibly angry. And in v6-7 the Lord approaches Cain and calls on him to master this temptation of rage that he’s dealing with but Cain in v8 invites his brother out to the field and while they’re out there together, Cain murders his own brother.

Now why would Cain do this? Why would he get mad over his offering being rejected? Well, the New Testament gives us insight into this story. Hebrews 11:4 “4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” So here we learn that it was Abel who had a genuine heart of faith in his worship but Cain’s heart was cold and dead. He did the bare minimum, he wasn’t in love with the Lord! He was going through the motions!

Do you know that God cares about our worship? He doesn’t disconnect the worship from the worshipper, as a matter of fact there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with Cain’s offering, it’s Cain’s heart! Isaiah 1:10-17

Isaiah 1:10–17 NKJV

10 Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: 11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble 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 hear. Your hands are full of blood. 16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

You may be wondering why I’m bringing this up because as we read the story we often go, “Oh, how awful! I’m nothing like this bad man! I would never do something like that and I would never get mad at the Lord!” But what we should be thinking is that the same potential that was in Cain is in us without God’s grace. We look to direct acts of worship to us. And we get mad at the people who God brings into our lives and our hearts fill up with rage against them when they don’t give us the respect or recognition that we fill we deserve and our hearts are full of hatred.

As a matter of fact in 1 John 3:11-12 we read his point that proves that hate in our heart is murderous!

1 John 3:11–12 NKJV

11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

The Hardening of Man’s Heart

Now what I want to highlight here in passing is the response that Cain has toward God versus the response of Adam and then I want us to notice Lamech, Cain’s grandson’s action as well.

When Adam was approached by God, he blame-shifted to Eve, but in this story Cain rejects the intervening wisdom of the Lord and goes on to kill his own brother and when God approaches him, he responds arrogantly to the Lord. But following the judgement of God on Cain in v11-12 Cain’s hope is only on the Lord. (EVER WONDER WHO CAIN IS AFRAID OF?) (HIGHLIGHT THE JUDGEMENT)

Now, let’s notice Cain’s great, great, great grandson Lamech. Lamech is one rough man who had two wives and following the murder of a young man he goes home to sing his praises about it and in the midst of his sinful life there is no remorse. There is no fear of judgement and there is no reliance upon the grace of God for forgiveness or any help whatsoever.

If Genesis 3 showed us the root of sin, Genesis 4 is the fruit of sin. And what we are beholding is the heart of man growing more and more rebellious against God. We see the rise of Godless society already in the 4th chapter of the book of Genesis where men are singing about murder.

If you look around today, you may be wondering, “Why is everything so bad? Why are there wars, why is there murder, heartache, death and broken homes? Why do people hate the Lord? What is wrong with the world?” And Romans 5 gives us a beautiful explanation of the heart of fallen man. Romans 5:12

Romans 5:12 NKJV

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

The Heart of God

Now at this point in the story we’re supposed to be heartbroken. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. You thought there was hope. That there was going to be a deliverer and now your eldest son is a murderer who killed your only other boy and you see no light at the end of the tunnel. Cain has been banished from community and has built a society apart from God and there seems to be no hope that there will be any deliverer to come. But in the middle of the darkness, God allows Adam and Eve to have Seth. And Seth will be the one carrying on the lineage of the promise and when God destroys the world, all of Cain’s descendents will be gone and only 8 people will survive and they are Sethites.

Now I want us to notice that phrase, “Called on the name of the Lord” in verse 26. Where Cain was alienated from the presence of God in v16, Seth’s children practiced and declared the Word of the Lord. In the midst of this darkness, there is hope.

Conclusion

So, I say all of that to tell you this.

When your world is falling apart and even those you look up to disappoint you, you can look to Christ.

Yes, the world was bad here in Genesis and it’s dark now. There’s sickness, wars, fighting, pain and wickedness all around us. And just as Romans 5:12 said, we have a sin nature. Men love darkness rather than light. But in the darkness of the world, there is still light. Romans 5:18-21

Romans 5:18–21 NKJV

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.