Genesis 4: Cain And Abel

Cain's parents thought he would be the chosen seed to crush the head of the serpent. Instead, Cain became the seed of the serpent by murdering his own brother and being arrogant towards God. Meanwhile, another brother is born who would be chosen by God.

Transcription:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder. I am your host. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are going through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

This episode we will be in Genesis chapter 4, the story of Cain and Abel. The famous story where Cain murders his brother. So let's get to it.

So the chapter starts off Adam and Eve, they are now outside the garden. They have a child named Cain and then another child named Abel. Abel was a shepherd. Cain is a farmer and the chapter tells us that both brothers decided one day to bring their offerings to God from their work. And the author tells us that God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's offering.

Now Abel had brought the firstborn of his flock. Cain brought the fruit of the ground is what the text tells us. So there's a difference there between what Cain brought and what Abel brought. And God accepted Abel's offering of the firstborn of his flock of sheep, but rejected Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground.

So Cain became angry. God warned him of the dangers of anger, but Cain ignored the Lord's warning and killed his brother Abel. So God cursed Cain. God tells Cain that the ground will not yield its strength because it received Abel's blood from Cain's strength. In verse 11 it says, "Now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength."

So by Cain's strength, Abel was dead and his blood was received by the ground, and so now the ground will no longer yield its strength to Cain. That was the first part of the curse.

The second part of the curse is that he will be a fugitive and a wanderer. So he's going to wander the earth. He's in exile. And we see that because he goes further east. East, if you remember from previous episodes, east is symbolic, it is indicative of exile. And so Cain is in exile.

But God places a protective mark on Cain, and then Cain went east to the land of Nod, where he had a son. He named his son Enoch. He built a city and named it after Enoch. And then we get a short genealogy of Cain down to Lamech, who is a descendant of Cain and happens to be the seventh generation from Adam.

As we read about Lamech, we see that he is a murderer. He is a polygamist. He's tyrannical. He is arrogant. He believes he's greater than God, as we'll see as we get deeper into the chapter. Then at the very end of the chapter, we find out that Adam and Eve have another son named Seth. Seth has a son named Enosh.

So Cain is born in verse 1. The name Cain means I've got him. That's what it literally means. She says, "I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord."

And that's why she named him Cain. The implication is that Eve may have thought that Cain was the seed promised by God. He's the firstborn son. God had promised Eve in the previous chapter that there would be a seed through her that would crush the head of the serpent. And so Eve named Cain, I have got him, or I've gotten a man, thinking that I've got the seed, the seed has come. Instead, Cain turned out to be the seed of the serpent.

Then we also have Abel, and Abel means vapor. And the picture is that the vapor, it is gone quickly. It is there and then it's gone. The vapor does not stick around, the vapor does not last along. It goes away quickly, very similar to Abel's life.

So Cain and Abel says: In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering and Abel also brought an offering. So they bring an offering to the Lord. Now, where are they bringing their offerings? The Old Testament, typically we think of people bringing their offerings to the temple or the tabernacle. There is no temple or tabernacle at this point.

So where are they bringing their offerings? It's possible that they're actually bringing their offerings to the door of Eden. And the reason is because in the previous chapter, at the end of chapter 3, there is a cherubim guarding the way to Eden. And when we see cherubim, the cherubim are always guarding the presence of God. We see that in the Ark of the Covenant where the mercy seat is surrounded by cherubim.

We see in Ezekiel 10 in verse four it says: And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of God, and the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

And so we see it in several other places, these cherubim that are guarding the presence of God. So what that implies is that this cherubim that is guarding Eden means that God is still in Eden. Just because man has left Eden does not mean that God did. God is still there. And so Eden now becomes like a temple. And in reality, that is what the temples and the tabernacle and the temples in the Old Testament, that is what they are modeled after. And we'll see that as we continue to go through.

Another reason why they could have been bringing their offering to the gates of Eden is because God warned Cain that sin is crouching at the door. What door is he talking about? Many people will spiritualize this and say that sin is crouching at the door of Cain's heart. But there's no indication that that's what God is talking about. There's no reason to assume that this is anything but literal. Sin is literally crouching at the door that Cain has brought his offering to. Anger and hatred and a murderous spirit is right there waiting for him at that door where he is standing making his offering to God.

So then we see that God did not, in the words of the author, God did not have regard for Cain's offering. It says the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. Why did God not have regard for Cain's offering? The Bible doesn't tell us. At least not in this chapter.

The book of Hebrews does imply a few things about Abel's offering. Hebrews 11:4 says that by faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. So the reason we find out later is because of Abel's faith. It was his heart attitude. It was not what he offered. It was not the time of day. It was not anything other than his heart attitude.

But Cain didn't know that at the time. In fact, Cain was probably thinking, "God, I brought some of my crops to offer to you. Why would you have regard for Abel's offering and not for mine? What is so wrong about what I did? What did I do wrong here? Tell me, God."

And God doesn't tell him what he did wrong. God only asks Cain, "Why are you angry?"

He doesn't say what is wrong with Cain's offering. He doesn't tell him. And so that should lead us to ask, how do we react when we don't understand what God is doing? Have you ever been in a situation where God is doing something, God is preferring somebody else, or it seems that God is preferring somebody else over you? How have you reacted in that situation? So that's what this text is asking us. How do we react in that? Do we react with anger?

And in verse six, the Lord says, "'Why are you angry and why has your face fallen?"

We see that there is a connection between anger and murder. Now in Matthew chapter five, verse 21 and 22, Jesus says he makes the connection between anger and murder. He states the commandment, "You shall not murder," but then he says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment."

So he makes this connection that anger is equal to murder. This is where Jesus is getting this. He's getting it from the story of Cain where the Lord warns Cain about anger because of what it will turn into.

Cain ignores the warning and then murders his brother. So then the Lord continues to question Cain. Just like he questioned Adam. He says, "Why are you angry? Why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?"

God knew the answer to these questions. God knew why Cain was angry. Just like God questioned Adam to find out, to get Adam to see and understand his sin and confess, he was doing the same thing here with Cain. And just like Adam responded by blaming Eve, Cain responded to God with disrespect.

So moving on to verse nine, after Cain murders Abel, now we see that the Lord questions Cain. He says, "Where is Abel your brother?"

Obviously the Lord knew where Abel was. The Lord knew that Cain had murdered Abel already, but he's questioning Cain just like he questioned Adam. Just like he said, "Adam, where are you?" He says to Cain, "Cain, where is Abel?"

And where Adam responded to God by blaming Eve, Cain responds to God with disrespect. He says, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

He blatantly disrespects God. And again, this should get us to ask, when God confronts us regarding our sin, how are we gonna respond? In these two chapters, where God questions Adam and God questions Cain, when God questions us, how are we gonna respond? Are we gonna respond by blaming somebody else? Are we gonna respond with disrespect or are we gonna respond with humility?

The Lord says, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground."

Blood has a voice that God hears. And this is something that we see throughout the Bible, and this is something that should be a sobering thought for us today. Innocent blood cries out for justice. We're going to see that a lot as we go through the Bible. Innocent blood cries out for justice, and God hears that cry. And he doesn't stay idle.

Now Jesus' blood cries out something different. Jesus' blood speaks of restoration to the Father. Hebrews 12:24 says: 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 spoke of justice. Jesus' blood fulfilled that justice and spoke of restoration. Abel's blood cried out for justice. Jesus' blood brought justice and cries out for restoration.

After the Lord is done questioning Cain, now he gives Cain his punishment. And Cain's punishment we see amplifies Adam's punishment.

In the previous chapter we see that Adam had to work the ground in pain. But now the ground will not yield any crops at all for Cain. Cain was a farmer. That's what he did. Whereas Adam had difficulty and pain, Cain, it didn't matter what he would do now. The ground would not yield any crops.

Adam was driven from Eden, and he went east. Adam was exiled from Eden. Now Cain would wander the earth forever. So it amplifies Adam's curse.

Cain responds that his punishment is greater than he can bear. He is terrified that somebody will kill him. And so God places a mark on Cain. Cain is the first one to be marked in the Bible. And there's many people, many times we're going to see that people are marked in the Bible. We'll see it in Song of Solomon. We'll see it in Ezekiel. And of course we'll see it in the book of Revelation.

This mark signifies protection, belonging. God is saying, "Cain belongs to me. No one can harm him. He is under my protection."

So Cain goes east to the land of Nod. Again, he is going east, which means he is exiled again. In this state, being away from the presence of God, he knew his wife, meaning he had sex with his wife, which resulted in a son named Enoch. That word Enoch means to dedicate, and then he built a city dedicated to his son. And so this continues Cain's pattern of selfish disregard for God. He does all of this away from the presence of God. He does this all for himself. He builds a city, he names it after his own son.

So Enoch has children, his children have children, his children have children, so on and so on until we get to Lamech. The name Lamech could mean conqueror, it's unclear what this word means, but it tells us how he saw himself. He boasted about murdering a man, and he boasted his vengeance is greater than God's vengeance. It says that "If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77 fold."

Meaning, if Cain is murdered and God takes vengeance on that person seven times over, then Lamech will take revenge on a person 77 times over. He's saying that he is greater than God. So Lamech is very, very arrogant, but his line comes to an end and is never heard from again.

Instead, Adam and Eve have a son named Seth, and his name means appointed. So in context of people devolving into wickedness, now another son is born who is appointed to bear the seed. Eve thought Cain was the one who would bear the seed. Cain ended up being the seed of the serpent, and so now another is born who's appointed to bear the seed.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus?

First, Abel sacrificed the firstborn of his flock of sheep. Jesus would become the sacrificial lamb for the world. He was the firstborn lamb sacrificed for the world.

And then also, as we just mentioned, Seth is appointed to carry forth the seed line. That line doesn't come through the one who Adam and Eve thought it would come which would be the firstborn line of Cain. Instead it came through the thirdborn line of Seth. So, in a sense, it's saying man's wisdom, because this has been conventional wisdom throughout history, and not so much these days, but in the past, it is often the firstborn that inherits the throne, in the context of a kingdom, right? Like the firstborn son just gets the throne because he's the firstborn. And for whatever reason, humans have decided that the firstborn is the one who receives the inheritance of ruling a nation, just because of when they were born.

So what this is showing us is that man's wisdom is foolishness compared to God's wisdom, because the thirdborn line is the line that man would reject, humans reject, the younger son as not being worthy of inheriting the throne. In 1 Peter 2:4 it says: As you come to him (speaking of Jesus) a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious.

Jesus was a living stone, a cornerstone, but the cornerstone was rejected by men, but God saw him as chosen and precious. And so this is what this points to. This idea of Jesus being rejected by men but chosen by God is what this chapter points to. Seth's line was rejected by men. Cain was the one who was chosen by Adam and Eve, but God chose Seth instead of Cain.

So some questions for reflection.

First, how has man's relationship with God changed from before the fall to what we see in chapter four?

Next, we talked about this a little bit earlier. Have you ever been rejected and didn't know why? How did you respond?

And what can we learn from God's warning to Cain? Again, we mentioned this a little bit earlier, but what does the author of Hebrews tell us about Abel's offering in Hebrews 11:4?

Did God reject Cain or did he only reject his sacrifice?

And what was God's solution for Cain's desire for acceptance? What did God present to Cain as a solution?

Have you ever been faced with a solution to a problem you didn't like and how did you respond?

How can we avoid Cain's response of flippant disrespect when God confronts us with our sin?

Here's an interesting question. Are we our brother's keepers? What responsibility do we have toward our families and our neighbors?

What is Cain's response to God's judgment? What would a true repentant response look like?

And then how does God show himself merciful to Cain even after his sin and disrespect? And what does this reveal about God?

Alright, that's all I have for you on this episode of Beyond the Basics. That was Genesis chapter 4. Thank you for joining me. I look forward to the next episode going through chapter five, which is going to be a list of names. I'm gonna try and make it interesting for you. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

Guzik, David. “Study Guide For Genesis 4.” Blue Letter Bible, 2018, https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/genesis/genesis-4.cfm. 

“1892. Hebel.” Strong's Hebrew: 1892. הָ֫בֶל (Hebel) -- Vapor, Breath, Bible Hub, 2004, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1892.htm. 

Armstrong, Stephen. “Genesis 2011 - Lesson 4B.” Verse By Verse Ministry International, 18 Apr. 2011, https://versebyverseministry.org/lessons/genesis_2011_lesson_4b. 

“2596. Chanak.” Strong's Hebrew: 2596. חָנַך (Chanak) -- to Train up, Dedicate, Bible Hub, 2004, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2596.htm. 

“5710b. Adah.” Strong's Hebrew: 5710B. Adah -- to Ornament or Deck Oneself, Bible Hub, 2004, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5710b.htm. 

“6751. Tsalal.” Strong's Hebrew: 6751. צָלַל (Tsalal) -- to Be or Grow Dark, Bible Hub, 2004, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6751.htm. 

“5276. Naem.” Strong's Hebrew: 5276. נָעֵם (NAEM) -- to Be Pleasant, Delightful, or Lovely, Bible Hub, 2004, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5276.htm. 

Armstrong, Stephen. “Genesis 2011 - Lesson 4C.” Verse By Verse Ministry International, 2 May 2011, https://versebyverseministry.org/lessons/genesis_2011_lesson_4c.