Genesis 4:1-16
Cain and Abel

  1. Cain and Abel Distinguished
    1. The significance of Cain
      1. If you've heard me expound this before, listen carefully; I've got a different understanding now
        1. Luther: "I have begotten a man, the Lord"
          1. Certainly possible to translate it this way
          2. And we who live in the light of Christ know that a woman did indeed bear in her womb Jehovah himself, the Savior of his people. - Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit and bore Jesus, both God and man.
          3. But the words would have made no sense to Eve or to the original Hebrew audience in the time of Moses
          4. How can a woman beget Jehovah?
        2. Rather: "I have acquired a man with the Lord"
          1. Literal translation
          2. This is proof that the curse is not total - by God's help she has brought forth a son
          3. And clearly, by specifying the divine help in conception and bearing, she hopes that this child will be the Woman-seed spoken of in 3:15
          4. She hopes that Cain - her gift from God - will rise up and crush the serpent and put an end to this miserable curse.
          5. After all, one experience of bearing a child in pain and suffering is quite enough.
    2. The significance of Abel
      1. Abel's name means "futility"
      2. When the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, says...
      3. This Biblical word describes the grim fact of life under the curse
        1. We can't make things turn out the way we want
        2. And death looms ahead, waiting to engulf us and bring all our plans to nothing
    3. The difference between their offerings
      1. God is pleased with Abel's and not with Cain's
      2. This is not because Abel brought a sacrifice of meat
        1. The primary meaning of the word "offering" here is "grain offering"
        2. There were other words for a burnt offering
        3. So a grain offering in itself is perfectly acceptable to God
      3. But look at the contrast
        1. What did Cain bring?
          1. "an offering of the fruit of the ground"
          2. OK, fine
        2. But Abel brought "the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat."
          1. The contrast is even more marked in Hebrew
          2. Wooden Translation: "Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel brought something as well. Indeed, He [emphasis is in the Hebrew] brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat."
        3. Abel brought the best of the best
        4. Exodus 34.26 - The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God.
        5. Exodus 22:29,30 - You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. 30 You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
          1. Abel brought the firstborn of his sheep
          2. Ironically, Cain, the firstborn, did not bring the "fullness" of his harvest or its firstfruits but only what was at hand.
      4. So is Abel just buying God's favor by bringing him better gifts?
        1. Hardly. The gift demonstrates Abel's faith
          1. God deserves the best and he knows it.
          2. God can bless his flock as much as he chooses, so what harm will it do to bring God the best?
          3. He depends upon God for every good thing and he knows it.
            • Man does not live by bread (or meat) alone but by every word that proceeds out of God's mouth
            • The things of this world will not save him; they mean nothing to him if only he may have fellowship with God - the fellowship his father Adam forfeited
            • So the offering confesses that sheep and goats are not what he needs, but life from God which is eternal
          4. Abel is like his mother who knew that she bore a child only by God's grace.
          5. Abel is like his father who named his wife Eve, confessing his faith in the promise
        2. And in contrast, Cain has no faith
          1. He cannot bear to bring the firstfruits
            • He is like his mother, looking at the tree, and lusting after its fruit more than after pleasing God
            • He is like his father counting that fruit more precious than communion with his Maker
          2. Yet he knows that God must have an offering or God becomes angry
          3. Here is the man who thinks he can buy God off - and he has no clue how much that would cost. He doesn't even bring the best of what he's got.
      5. So God accepts Abel's sacrifice, offered in faith, and disdains Cain's, offered begrudgingly.
  2. Cain's Response to God
    1. Cain Becomes Angry with God
      1. Rather than take this mild rebuke to heart, Cain pouts
      2. Why can't God take what I offer him?
      3. Does he have to have the best?
      4. Look at how little I have and he wants some of it?
      5. He ought to be giving things to me
      6. And so the serpent's lie grows in his heart and teaches him to be jealous of God and think anything I give to God means that much less for me.
      7. Is this the seed of the Woman, as the woman herself hoped?
      8. No! This is the seed of that serpent, full of envy and discontent, responding to rebuke by hardening himself in sin.
    2. God Warns Cain
      1. Yet God does not immediately judge Cain, even though Cain has sinned in his heart.
      2. Rather, he warns him: this desire in your heart is about to conceive and give birth to sin - actual, outward, hideous-to-behold, sin
      3. God reasons with him,
        1. "If you offer a sacrifice in faith, like Abel, won't I accept your sacrifice as well?"
        2. If you trust in me, won't I take care of you?
      4. God warns him
        1. Sin is crouching at the door. It is ready to overtake you. Beware!
        2. You must put sin down that it should not rule over you.
        3. Be the serpent crusher rather than the serpent server!
        4. Be what your mother hoped you would be.
        5. Do not take after your father's sin but after his faith.
    3. Cain Murders God's Servant
      1. He invites or tricks Abel out into the field and kills him
        1. "in the field", the phrase in the Mosaic law that mean premeditation
        2. You might kill someone in the heat of passion, and that was bad enough
        3. But to kill him "in the field" meant your were lying in wait or deviously luring your victim to his doom
        4. In modern terms, this is Murder in the First Degree... special circumstances.
      2. What tragedy! What violence! What hatred!
        1. Adam and Eve's sin was horrific and hateful, yet Cain seems out to break all records
        2. He is a murderer - even another man's life is not too much to take if that man has angered him
        3. In all his universe, only Cain matters
        4. If Cain cannot have what he wants - approval from God - no one else shall have it either.
        5. What stupidity! If only he offered his sacrifice in faith, would not God approve of him too?
        6. Yet he is so stupidly enraged that nothing matters more than lashing out at God
          1. and if he cannot hurt God, at leas he can hurt the one whom God approves
          2. He cannot kill God, so he kills the one God loves.
          3. It becomes more important to him to tear another down than to gain anything for himself
          4. He has truly become the Devil's own son
        7. What evil has Abel done that he should be thus attacked?
          1. He has served God with his whole heart in love and faith
          2. And God has approved of his faith and accepted him
        8. rev 12
      3. Have the servants of the Devil ever done differently?
        1. Joseph's brothers seek his life because their father favors him
        2. Saul seeks to kill David because God favors David
        3. And on down to Jesus
          1. The pharisees, jealous of Christ's favor with God and men, sought to kill him
          2. They had no other reason
          3. And in that way they did kill God himself, and how the Devil laughed!
          4. Yet only his heel was bruised. He rose again bound that Serpent and will come again to crush the serpent's head.
        4. And now the Devil attacks the church -
          1. You are a part of this historic battle between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent
          2. The Devil cannot touch Christ, but he crouches at the door, hoping to devour you
          3. But Christ has prayed for you and you will not be overcome
          4. Only trust in Christ even until death, as Abel did, and you shall rise again.
      4. These, then, are the opening shots in a battle that will last until Christ returns
        1. But Seth will come...
        2. And now is Christ risen
  3. God's Response to Cain
    1. God Questions and Curses Cain
      1. "Where is Abel, your brother?"
        1. Sound familiar? (Adam, where are you?)
        2. Emphasizes, your brother?
      2. Cain lies - "I don't know"
      3. Cain sasses God
        1. sarcastic - "Am I my brother's keeper?"
          1. Is my brother like a sheep that I follow him around all day?
          2. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself
        2. Maybe even implicates God
          1. Aren't you his guardian?
          2. You're the one who's supposed to be protecting him, not me
        3. The impudent little wretch! He has just killed his brother and now he swaggers with bravado before God, the only one who has the right to give life and take it away.
      4. The sins of the parents have become horrifyingly worse in a single generation
      5. What have you done!
        1. Did he really think God didn't know?
        2. Does he even now not know how hideous is his crime?
      6. So God curses Cain
        1. Before, God cursed childbirth, marriage, and labor
        2. Now, for the first time, he curses a man
          1. No longer, "Cursed is the ground because of you"
          2. But "you are cursed from the earth."
        3. Cain is cursed to wander
          1. he is cursed (away) from the earth, the earth is now his enemy
          2. Because it swallowed up Abel's blood, and Abel was God's friend, the earth has now set itself against Cain
          3. The ground, under Adam, would yield its fruit through much labor
          4. To Cain, it will not yield its fruit at all; he will wander from place to place in search of food.
    2. Cain Complains against God
      1. Even now, he does not fall on his face and repent
      2. Instead, he whines.
      3. His punishment, which is less than death, he counts too much
        1. What system of values is he using?
        2. Oh the deceitfulness of sin! He gets off light and still he moans and grumbles rather than thanking God for not slaying him where he stands.
      4. Ironically, he claims that others will want to kill him
        1. Who? His brothers and sisters, to avenge Abel's death.
        2. He killed his brother and now he is complaining to God that his brothers will want to kill him.
        3. What does he think God is, some liberal judge who doesn't care about the rights of the victim but does care about the rights of the guilty?
    3. God Responds to Cain's Complaint
      1. Yet God does respond.
        1. Cain has pointed out, that if this brother slaying is allowed to continue, anarchy will ensue
        2. So God takes measures to stop the anarchy
      2. He swears an oath to Cain (or sets a mark on him) that the fear of God's full vengeance (sevenfold) will prevent others from pursuing this anarchy.
      3. And Cain is driven out to Nod
        1. (lit. Wandering - i.e. not so much a place as a status)
        2. But it is "East of Eden"
          1. The judgment on Adam and Eve drives them out of the garden to the East
          2. Cain's judgment drives him even farther east, out of the land of Eden
          3. There, the seed of the serpent will dwell
          4. There men will construct a tower in Babel, rising up against God
          5. There, the city of Babylon will be built and Israel will be exiled to it.
          6. Major themes are being established here.

Now this whole story is about Abel. His blood still cries out. His faith told him it was better to serve God, yet what did he get? A short life and a grisly death. Wasn't Cain's lot better? Abel still cries out - It's all futility unless he is raised again from the dead. How long, O Lord!

So the seed of the serpent will appear to triumph over the seed of the Woman. But Abel's faith testifies of something far different. God will care for his people and set everything right at the last.

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