The Beginning of Life and Death

Theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

In this eight-part series we are looking at how God began everything and how God begins again.

We talked about how God created beauty from chaos and order from nothingness.

God created the world good and designed life to reproduce and to multiply His goodness throughout the earth.

But with the fall of mankind, there is now both good and bad seed that is reproducing, not only in the earth, but in humans as well.

God gave humanity a choice to know and decide for themselves what is good and evil or to simply eat from the tree of life and live in the presence of God in innocence.

One they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they were banished from the garden, from the presence of God and from the tree of life.

But God did not give up on humanity.

He already had a plan to redeem mankind with the sacrifice of his own son.

But there would be some lessons to learn before that would happen.

Because we live in a sinful world, we are constantly making choices.

We need to recognize what is really good and what is evil and continually chose good and reject evil.

Because both good and evil are in our nature, it means sorting out our own desires to figure out what we really want.

It means resolving our wrong choices and managing our lives in such a way as to perpetuate the good and not the evil.

It is the choice between life and death, not only for ourselves but for the legacy that we leave behind.

Mastering your desires

Last week we talked about how sin twists our desires so that we live for ourselves instead of in relationship with God and others.

Because of that, there was disharmony between woman and man and between man and his environment.

We don’t know how many children Adam and Eve actually had, or if they had any children before the fall or only after.

What is clear is that all of humanity was impacted by the fall.

The Genesis account will go on to mention two sons who embody the choice between good and evil.

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.

So for Eve, even though childbirth is now painful, there is redemption in it - she came from man but now she gives birth to men.

Even in many cultures today where women are undervalued, they achieve status in the family by giving birth, especially to sons.

I know that seems chauvinistic to our society, but to readers of the scripture down through the ages, Eve is getting what all of us want - affirmation.

Everyone has a desire for affirmation.

Adam and Eve are making the best of a bad situation.

They are doing what God originally gave them to do, multiply and fill the earth.

But now it is harder, because it is not just God’s goodness that is multiplying but also some bad stuff with it.

The first two sons mentioned in the Bible - Cain and Abel - represent the good and the bad.

Genesis 4:3–5 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.

Adam’s job was to care for the animals and to cultivate the soil.

It seems that Cain and Abel were each delegated different tasks.

Abel is domesticating animals and Cain is farming crops.

Those are both great jobs!

But then it came time to give God a portion from what they had grown as tribute.

Abel offers an animal and Cain offers grain.

There is precedent for both animal offerings and grain offerings in scripture - that’s not the problem.

But God somehow affirmed Abel’s offering in a way that Cain’s offering was not affirmed.

Maybe it rained on Cain’s offering or the fire went out.

Cain was offended that his offering was not received.

Bible scholars point out that a blood sacrifice was what was really needed here- because there was sin, there had to be death.

A life needed to be exchanged for life.

Sure, a grain offering is great for thanking God for an abundant harvest, but it does not atone for sin.

If God wants animal sacrifice, a simple solution would be to trade grain for an animal and offer it to God.

I’m sure Abel needs grain for his animals, they should be used to trading.

God is using this as a teaching moment, but Cain can’t get past the fact that God somehow rejected his offering.

It’s not about what God wants, its about what’s mine!

That’s the sinful nature, always craving affirmation.

Eve feels she needs sons to feel valued as a woman.

Cain feels he needs to offer his produce, not Abel’s.

Everybody wants affirmation, but when that desire comes from a place of insecurity and emptiness, we feel it as a need.

Sometimes we may feel the need for validation.

Validation is the desire to have someone else's approval or agreement with what you say, believe, or do.

It is more than just affirmation - “you did good!”

You need someone to tell you that that you are OK, that you are adequate and that you have value.

Why should those things even be a question for people who are created in God’s image?

Because now we are a mixture of good and evil, of God’s image and selfishness.

We have to sort it out, but we often expect others to do it for us.

Genesis 4:6–7 ESV

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.”

Note what is happening here: God is still speaking to Cain!

God has not rejected him.

God still loves Cain.

God is trying to redeem the situation by getting Cain to see what he needs to do to obey.

God is always there, loving and seeking to redeem.

Why can’t Cain see it?

Because he is looking through the lens of his own selfish desire.

Cain wants to be right, more than he wants to be righteous.

He wants to be loved, more than he wants to love God or others.

He wants to be validated, proven worthy, more that he wants to reflect God’s image.

Cain has mixed feelings, but only Cain can decide which side will win.

God uses the same language that he uses of man and woman who were once one, now being separated and having differing desires from each other.

Cain has the same thing going on inside of him - like he is two persons who don’t get along and can’t decide what they want.

Just as God told Eve, that since they are now in conflict, the man is going to to assert rulership.

God is telling Cain that he needs to assert rulership over his own heart and mind - he needs to decide which side will dominate.

Why is this important?

Chaos and sin thrive in a vacuum- good requires order - rulership.

Failure to decide is a decision to let the sinful nature run it’s course.

James 1:15 ESV

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Cowards take the path of least resistance and wonder why things don’t turn out right.

The Bible tells us what the ultimate end of the sinful nature will be.

Sinful desires lead to sinful actions which lead to death - which is separation from God.

Do you see how the sinful nature seeks to unravel God’s creation?

So what happens if evil is allowed to do what evil wants to do”

Genesis 4:8 ESV

8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

What happens if we don’t rule over our hearts and our selfish desires?

We respond to unmet needs or demands with violence.

1 John 3:12–15 NLT

12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

How could Cain commit murder? What was he doing that was so evil?

Cain was hating on his brother out of jealousy.

There was a solution to Cain’s problem - trade with your brother.

God had not rejected Cain, only his offering - but that’s not how Cain saw it.

Cain needed someone to validate him - he needed God’s approval as if he didn’t already have it -

And he saw his brother as an obstacle to getting what he wanted instead of the means by which he might be reconciled to God and others.

Sin leads to death and hatred leads to murder, it’s what happens when you don’t rule over your own heart.

People do not naturally gravitate to violence, but when their desires are so twisted that they thing the only way to get to good (approval, affirmation and validation) is to go through evil, they are calling evil good.

What about Abel? Why should the good guy have to suffer?

Hebrews calls him a hero of faith.

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.

Not because he did anything we might consider heroic, but because he was just faithful in offering his sacrifice.

And Cain thought he was killing his brother, shutting him up for good.

But the Bible says that Abel is alive and still speaking!

It makes you wonder, who is alive and who is really dead?

Resolving your past

Cain has to live with what he did, which may sometimes be worse than dying.

He is now a man with a past.

Some people write him off at this point but God doesn’t.

Once again, God is still talking to Cain

And as long as God is still talking, there’s hope that you might listen.

Genesis 4:9–10 ESV

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.

What have you done? - that’s a real question!

Learn to take responsibility.

If you have made mistakes in the past, the first step toward redemption is owning up to what you have done.

God’s first question, “Where is your brother?” is an echo of his question to Adam, “Where are you?”

It’s almost as if God feels that something is missing and wants them to acknowledge it.

We are all interconnected in imperceptible ways.

There is nothing that we do that does not effect others in ways that we would never imagine.

Cain’s response is one of denying any responsibility.

“It’s not my turn to watch him” - Pastor Joel paraphrase.

It could be interpreted as a indictment against God who is “all seeing and all knowing.”

People often respond with, “God, why didn’t you stop this?”

As if it is God’s responsibility to intervene when we make poor choices.

If Cain has recognized that he was making a choice, perhaps he would also have taken responsibility.

But he was not ruling over his own desires.

He was a coward, giving in to impulses as if he had no choice.

And now, like a coward, he is going to run away.

Genesis 4:11–14 ESV

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.”

The ground was already cursed, but this is a double curse.

The ground has a mouth, it speaks.

The ground will constantly remind him of what he has done.

It has a will, it will no longer cooperate.

Adam fell our of harmony with his environment.

Cain’s environment has just become hostile.

Cain is going to become a wanderer.

When the going gets tough, cowards like Cain, run away!

Stop running from your problems.

Why did Cain become a wanderer?

Because he would not take responsibility.

He can’t stay because he can’t face reality.

Every time he goes out to the field, picks up a stone or sees red clay in the ground - he’s going to be triggered.

Time to move on to where there are no fields, no stones and the soil doesn’t remind him of blood.

Oh, and because he has gotten away with murder, he is going to expect to be killed.

He will always be thinking that someone is out to get him.

He will be constantly waiting for “the other shoe to drop.”

This expression probably has its origin in boarding or rooming houses of the early 1900s, where residents were crowded into multiple tiny rooms and the walls were thin, or from multi-floor apartment dwellings in cities like New York and Chicago, where one tenant’s bedroom was always directly underneath another.

You can imagine that when someone came home, perhaps a worker with heavy boots, they would sit on their bed or chair and take off their footwear. They take off their first shoe and let it drop to the floor where it makes quite a loud noise. Now imagine that the residents in other rooms hear this shoe drop, knowing exactly what it is. They then wait for “the other shoe to drop.”

The resident, though, perhaps realizing what a loud noise he just made, places the second boot softly on the floor instead of dropping it. This leaves the other residents anticipating a noise that doesn’t come, but they keep waiting, not wanting to be caught unaware and startled.

Cain is paranoid that he is going to be murdered.

Because if he got away with it, what is to prevent someone else from doing it to him?

And since he is not owning up to it, it is eating away at him.

Genesis 4:15–16 ESV

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.

Recognize God’s mercy.

People have treated the “mark of Cain” as if it were a curse, but the Bible tells us that it was God’s mercy.

We don’t know what the mark was, but it was a deterrent to anyone who might want to kill him.

Elsewhere in the Bible, being marked is used in the context of either belonging to God or not.

In Ezekiel 9:4 those who mourn for Jerusalem are marked as belonging to God.

In Revelation 14:9 those who worship the beast are marked as not belonging to God.

God knows who are his, and even though Cain seems to have given up on life and on God right now, it seems that God has not given up on him.

The mark proves that he still belongs to God or at least that he is not abandoned.

God is still protecting him, even as he wanders.

I think that this passage speaks to the depth of the mercy of God.

We might like to kill Cain off, but God doesn’t.

We might like to curse Cain or just forget about him, but God doesn’t.

We might want Cain’s family line to end, but God doesn’t.

God is far more patient and merciful than we are - and thank God for that or some of us wouldn’t be here!

You may not be reflecting God's image right now, but you are marked!

God says, “This one is mine - they may not know it yet, but they are mine!”

Cain is not really owning up to what he has done, but God is not done with Cain.

Cain is punishing himself and running away from God’s presence, but the Bible tells us that there is no where on this earth that you can go from his presence.

Psalm 139:7–12 CSB

7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, 10 even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”— 12 even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.

If you are listening to this message and know that you are running from God, good luck with that!

Everything is going to catch up with you sooner or later.

Why not make it sooner?

Managing your outcomes

If you understand sowing and reaping, then you will live your life in the present so as to better manage your outcomes.

Galatians 6:7–8 ESV

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Sowing and reaping is basically creation 101.

Everything reproduces.

Everything reproduces after its kind.

Good seed produces good fruit with more good seed init.

Bad seed produces bad fruit with more bad seed in it.

Cain is a farmer, he knows this stuff.

You will reproduce what you are.

Genesis 4:17–19 ESV

17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Cain and his wife are obedient to at least one of God’s commands - they are multiplying.

Cain’s sons are building cities which suggests a lot more multiplying than even the names that are recorded in scripture.

Now Cain is not all bad, but he is not all good either.

His descendants do some good things like like learning animal husbandry, developing instruments and moving from the tool age into the bronze age - maybe even the iron age.

But there are also some bad things - like Lamech for example.

He is the seventh from Adam in the full genealogy -

seven being the number of completion -

so Lamech embodies the outcome of sin.

He’s the first recorded man to practice polygamy.

His wives names are “ornament” and “shadow.”

Some see their names as an indication of the further degrading of women to be just a “wallflower” or always in the shadow of the man.

Lamech is showing the same selfish disregard for others as Cain, but even more so.

Your choices will be magnified.

Genesis 4:23–24 ESV

23 Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

Lamech is the second murder in the Bible.

He’s not even ashamed of what he has done - he is bragging about it and justifying it.

He completely misunderstands and misinterprets God’s mercy toward Cain as permission to do the same.

God’s warning of seven times vengeance was probably just another way of saying that if you perpetuate this seed it is going to increase!

But Lamech, because he craves affirmation and validation, chooses to see it as God’s approval.

He thinks that if God spared Cain, he will be even more gracious toward Him?!

Paul talks about this twisted thinking too.

Romans 6:1 The Message

1 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?

How can things get so twisted?

Sowing and reaping is not only reaping the same kind of thing that was sown, but reaping with increase!

That means that the course that you set for your life will not only influence future generations, but will be magnified as it does.

That is unless something or someone intervenes....

God’s purpose will still be accomplished.

Genesis 4:25–26 ESV

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Just know this - if we do not make right choices, God will find another way.

If we do not obey God, he will find someone who will.

If you do not live out your God-given destiny - God will accomplish His purpose through someone else.

It will be a great loss, but not one that cannot be overcome.

Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, from whom a righteous line would survive, and from which would come the Messiah.

Jesus the messiah is called, “the second Adam.”

He became the sacrifice for sin.

His death brought the possibility of regeneration - good overcoming evil.

The writer to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus death as the answer to Abel’s cries.

Hebrews 12:24 ESV

24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Abel’s blood calls for justice - Jesus brought that justice.

Abel’s blood reminds us of guilt and sin - Jesus’ blood tells us that we are forgiven.

Abel’s blood says that death has arrived - Jesus’ blood says that new life has come!

Which voice are you listening to?

Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT

19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Questions for reflection:

Do feel the need for affirmation and validation? Where do you go to get it? Do you get angry when you don’t get it? Did you know that as a child of God you already have it?

Are you like Cain, a person with a past? Have you taken responsibility for it? Or are you still running from it? What if, what you thought was God’s punishment was really His mercy? He has not given up on you.

What seeds have you sown that you would rather not reap? Jesus died to intervene in our sowing and reaping. Ask him to rule over your heart and to turn your bad seed into good seed.