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Genesis 4:1-16.
- Adam & Eve have three sons,
which the Bible mentions by name: Cain, Abel, & later Seth.
- Of course, they had many other
children (Genesis 5:4), but Cain is the firstborn & Abel likely the second.
- With the passing of time, the two
boys grew up.
- Cain farmed crops, while Abel
raised livestock.
- We must recall that this was before
the flood, so people were not yet permitted to eat meat. Plants were the food
of the first family.
- The crops Cain harvested would have
provided much needed food for the first family.
- The livestock Abel raised would
have clothed the family & provided animals for sacrifice, which was
practiced by faithful worshipers, over the many years before God gave the law
of Moses.
- In their growing up years Cain &
Abel would have experienced the worship of God with the rest of the family.
- They knew by many years of
experience that the blood of an animal without defect was expected & the
animal would be burned as a whole burnt offering.
- Knowing what God expected, however,
Cain chose to bring his own work the fruit of his own labors, a portion of his
crops, as a gift to the Lord.
- Perhaps he was tired of Abel
getting all the attention & credit because the family offerings always came
from Abel's flock. Jealousy can take many forms.
- Perhaps Cain's jealousy & pride
in his own work caused him to reject God's way & choose his own way to
worship God.
- Cain knew what God expected, but
Cain wanted to do what "Cain" wanted, so he chose to do something
other than what God said was acceptable.
- What was the result of Cain's disobedience?
- The Lord looked on Abel's sacrifice
favorably, accepting his offering, while he did not look favorably on Cain's
offering.
- God rejected Cain's offering for
two reasons: i) Cain's offering was given out of jealousy & selfish pride; &
ii) Cain's offering was not what God expected of him & therefore
unacceptable.
- Cain had no one to blame but
himself for his failure to worship God the way God expected.
- He also had no one to blame but
himself for his jealousy, selfishness & pride.
- Cain was humiliated & enraged.
He was seething with anger & ready to fly off the handle.
- God knew what was going on inside
Cain's heart, so he gently confronted Cain that he might win him back.
- "Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected? You will be
accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then
watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. You must subdue
it & be its master." (Genesis 4:6-7).
- "No matter how deliberate the
sin; no matter how intense our anger at God, the gracious & merciful
Creator seeks to restore the relationship" (Morris, Beginnings, vol. 1,
198).
- God called Cain back from doing his
own thing, his own way, by showing his patient, compassionate love, &
warning Cain before the anger in his heart could freeze into unrepentant sin &
result in devastating consequences.
- But did Cain listen? Did Cain
really even hear God? Or was God's word to him in one ear & out the other.
- No, Cain didn't listen. Cain
rejected what God had to say. He ignored God's word to him.
- He was too busy tending &
stoking the fire of his humiliation & jealous anger.
- As a good farmer, Cain did what
came naturally, only, instead of cultivating the ground, he cultivated his
heart to produce a powerful resentment.
- Unwilling to accept God's
correction, Cain turned his back on God & formed a plan.
- He lured Abel out into the field,
Cain's comfort zone among his crops, so they could have a little
"talk."
- There, while they were talking in
the field, Cain rose up & killed his brother in premeditated murder.
- Again, God seeks out Cain to
confront him in his sin. "Where is your brother? Where is Abel?"
- Again, we witness sin's power &
our unwillingness to take responsibility for our sin in Cain's reply, "How
should I know? I'm not his guardian!"
- Despite Cain's sin, God loved him
just as he loves us.
- Cain regretted what he had done, he
felt bad about it, but regret is not repentance.
- Repentance is more than a feeling;
it requires action.
- God gave Cain the opportunity to
confess & repent.
- Unlike his parents who merely
played the blame game (back in the Garden), Cain answered God's probing
question with an outright lie.
- Sin was no longer at the door lying
in wait. Sin had completely taken over Cain's heart.
- Cain tried to hide his sin with a
lie, but you can't hide anything from Almighty God.
- God saw through Cain's lie because
he already knew what happened.
- God knew Cain would murder Abel
before Cain did.
- Cain's false front was about to
shatter.
- "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me
from the ground! Now you are cursed & banished from the ground, which has
swallowed your brother's blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for
you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer
on the earth." (Genesis 4:10-12)
- Cain deserved death for the murder
of his brother, Abel, but God filled Cain's punishment with his grace.
- The ground Cain had so proudly
farmed would no longer give Cain the crops by which he could defy God or feed
his family.
- Since his efforts to earn God's
respect were by his own standards rather than God's standards, Cain would be
banished further from God's presence into a land of wandering, Nod.
- One who murdered his brother, now
feared to lose his own life at the hand of others.
- But God continued to be merciful to
Cain. Although filled with self-pity & regret rather than repentance, God
showed Cain undeserved mercy & unconditional love & grace.
- God always planned to take sin's
heavy punishment into his own hands.
- God protected Cain placing a mark
upon him to let others know not to lay a hand on him.
- The human tendency in responding to
murder is: "revenge", but God would not allow Abel's death at Cain's
hand to be avenged.
- As God said, "'I will give a
sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.' Then the Lord put a mark on Cain
to warn anyone who might try to kill him."
- God was fully prepared to let the
full weight of Cain's punishment fall on anyone who would kill Cain, rather
than on Cain himself.
- God always planned to take sin's
heavy punishment into his own hands.
- What about us?
- We need to learn to see Cain as a picture of God's grace.
- The Bible tells us that God's plan
was Christ crucified before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
- So, when God looked at Cain's sin,
He saw the future. He saw the cross.
- God chose not to punish the full
extent of what Cain's sin deserved because of His grace.
- We often think God doesn't give us
what we deserve, & you know something, we are right, He doesn't.
- If God gave us what we deserved,
we'd be dead.
- Instead, God deals with us by His
grace.
- God graciously chose to deal with
sin himself in the cross of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.
- If He had not, then no one could be
saved.
- God always planned to take sin's
punishment into his own hands.
- We also need to learn to see ourselves in Cain.
- Sure most of
us aren't guilty of murdering our brother, but Jesus pointed out that we are
equally guilty when we harbour anger toward a sister/brother, call others
names, or curse them & the Bible also says that gossip is equally harmful.
- How often do we use God's blessing
on others as an excuse to embrace jealousy or resentment as Cain did?
- Cain felt that it was not fair that
his crops were not an acceptable sacrifice. It wasn't fair that the fruit of
the abilities God gave him were not good enough for sacrifice.
- Sitting at the breakfast table a
young girl looked into her sister's bowl & exclaimed, "Hey! How come
Suzy got more than me? That's not fair!"
- Her father saw an opportunity.
"Jenny, not everything in life is fair. Life is not about what's fair. You
need to be thankful for what God has given you & make the best of it."
- "I put in your sister's bowl
what she needs & I put in your bowl what you need.
- "Being jealous of how much is
in your sister's bowl shows that you feel you know better than I what's best
for you."
- "The only time you should look
at your sister's bowl is to make sure she has what she needs."
- Cain was wrapped up in what wasn't
in his bowl rather than in what was in his bowl.
- That is also often true for us.
- God is gracious to fill our bowls (providing for our needs).
- I am cut to the heart to think of
how often I have wanted what was in my neighbour's bowl instead of being
thankful & content with the bowl God has put before me.
- If God gave us what we deserved,
we'd be dead.
- Instead, God deals with us by His
grace.
- God always planned to take sin's punishment into his own hands.
