Read Genesis Chapter Four (Scripture quotes from the World English Bible)
Have you ever did something or said something and later asked yourself, why did I do that? We have all did or said something that we later ask that why question. Have you ever tried to justify what you did or said by implying it was do to what someone else did or said? Have you ever witnessed someone doing something or saying something that you knew was not the right thing to do or say and they acted as if it was someone else’s fault? When Cain brought his offering and it was not accepted by Yahweh how did he react? In the account of Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord and the murdering of Abel by Cain there are two reactions by Cain.
In the account of Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord we are not told if this was the first time they brought offerings to the Lord. However, from the questions the Lord asked Cain it is clearly implied they knew what the proper offering was. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel the firstlings of his flock. Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s offering rejected. The rejection of his offering didn’t set well with Cain, and he became angry and all you needed to do is look at his face. You could tell he was filled with anger and rage.
Note the questions Yahweh asked Cain in verse six, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen?” Contrary to what man has claimed, Yahweh did not ask these questions because He did not know why Cain was angry. Yahweh was doing the same thing He did when He asked Adam where he was when he was hiding among the trees in the garden. Yahweh knew where Adam was and He knew why Adam was trying to hide from Him. Yahweh wanted Cain to take time and consider the reason why he was angry.
The purpose of Yahweh’s question was not to seek information from Cain, but to reveal to Cain he needed to admit what he did in offering the fruit of the ground was not, at that time, the proper thing to do. Knowing that Cain would not do what he was given the opportunity to do, Yahweh asked Cain (verse seven), “If you do well, will it not be lifted up?” Note Yahweh did not give Cain an opportunity to answer the questions and the reason He did not give Cain the opportunity is because he knew Cain would do the same thing Adam and Eve did when confronted with their disobedience. The same thing we often do when confronted with what we have done; make excuses; try to justify our acts of disobedience. The Lord does not want to hear excuses; He wants to hear confessions. The Lord will forgive only when we confess.
If you recall, Adam was told what would happen if he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In verse seven, Cain is told what will happen if he does not do what he knows he should do. Note in the warning sin is pictured as a wild animal waiting to pounce on its victim. The point is if Cain does not take control of his anger, his anger will take control of him. The same holds true today. If we do not take control of our emotions they will take control of us. Emotions are not easy to control and can be deceiving. How can we control our emotions? Within ourselves we can’t. It takes a power beyond what we have in our fallen nature. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit that comes into our heart when we believe in what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross and we accept Him as our Savior and Lord.
The first thing we note in the incident of Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord, Cain does not make any excuses or try to justify his reason for bring the fruit of the ground. The second thing we note he went out from the presence of the Lord knowing if he did not take control of his anger it would take control of him; Cain ignored the warning and what happened? In verse eight we are told Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let's go into the field.” It happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. We are not told how long after he received the warning that if he did not take control of his anger it would take control of him, Cain’s anger took control of him and for no justifiable reason he killed his brother Abel.
While we are not told why Cain murdered his brother it can be traced back to a failure on Cain’s part to take control of the anger in his heart. What we do see in the murdering of Abel by his brother is first a breakdown in family relationships that results from the failure to control emotions. Note what happens when Cain is asked, “Where is Abel your brother” Cain rejects the offer to confess he had murdered his brother with the answer “I do not know.” Cain was both a liar and a murderer and he tries to conceal what he has done. Cain’s answer “am I my brother's keeper?” reveals Cain’s attitude regarding his relationship with his brother. Cain’s answer to the question where is your brother also reveals Cain’s belief he is under no obligation to answer the question, it’s called self-incrimination today. It is a denial of responsibility. We all have the responsibility to be concerned about the welfare of our brothers and sisters, but it is generally neglected.
The evidence Cain has murdered his brother is indisputable, why argue the point. There’s no plea bargaining. Yahweh God told Cain, his brother's blood is crying out to Him from the ground. Cain probably buried the body of Abel thinking no one would find it. What is interesting is the word blood in the English text is singular, in the word Moses used in his account of this event, is plural, meaning bloods, implying that not only was Abel’s blood crying out for revenge, the blood of all those who would have been his descendant are crying out. What Cain did was bring to an end a generation. No man in the history of humanity can trace his genealogy back to Abel. Do we see something here, a shadow? No man can trace his genealogy back to Jesus.
God’s judgment is handed down (Genesis 4:11-12), “Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. From now on, when you till the ground, it won't yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”
Yahweh God could have taken Cain’s life as Cain took Abel’s life but once more we see the love and mercy of God. We also see Cain was punished for what he did. Cain was a farmer and from this day forward when Cain cultivates the ground his labors will no longer be productive and provide the necessities of life. From this day forward he will be a vagrant and wanderer, he will have no permanent residence. He will be the first of the nomadic people on this earth. He was given time to repent. Will he?
Cain’s response to the sentence is a complaint; his punishment is too great to bear. This is a reproach and affront to the mercy of God. Cain saw his murdering Abel as no big deal. Now he sees the punishment as unjust, not deserving. He considers himself a man that has been falsely sentenced when in reality mercy was extended to him. He considers himself, a man depraved of all the comforts of life and no place on earth he can call home, exposed to the hatred of all mankind. However, when Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh God he went out under the protection of Yahweh. When Yahweh God sentenced Cain He told him if any one would kill him their punishment would be seven times greater than his. Cain was never told it would be impossible for someone to kill him; he was told what would happen to the one who killed him.
Note in verse fifteen we are told the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that anyone finding Cain would kill him. There have been hundreds of debates as to what this sin was. Satan gets enjoyment out of the foolishness of debating something that the Lord did not find important in His account of the history of the world and humanity. Whatever the sign was it was not meant to identify Cain as the killer of his brother but a sign he was under the protection of Yahweh God and anyone who harmed him would answer to Yahweh God. In his wanderings in the land of Nod this should have been a comfort to Cain.
The question has been asked, why didn’t Yahweh God take Cain’s life? Yahweh has a reason for everything He does or permits to happen, even the prolonging of the lives of wicked men. Cain will be a lasting sign of God’s justice and mercy. Abel will be a lasting sign of true faith. Abel went into the presence of Yahweh God when Cain murdered him, Cain went out from the presence of Yahweh God to the land of Nod, east of Eden, where he built a city and named it after his son, Enoch.
What is revealed in Cain building a city? Was Cain told to go into the land of Nod and build a city? What we see in Cain building a city is an attempt by man to provide a place of protection for himself. When Cain builds the city he is making a statement that will extends down to the present generation and beyond. In the building of the city Cain is making a show of rejecting the protection provided by the Lord.
When mankind rejects the protection of the Lord he brings upon himself destruction. Look at our nation; what is happening? Our nation is suffering the results of a nation that has rejected the protection of the Lord just as Cain did and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will do, did, and are doing. From Cain to Noah mankind will continue to fall farther and farther away from the Lord; they will continue to reject the warnings that come from the Lord of future judgment just as the warnings are ignored in this present generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah the wrath of Yahweh is coming upon this nation and the world.
What is the lesson taught in this account of Cain and Abel bringing offerings to the Lord and Cain murdering his brother Abel because he refused to take control of his anger? Abel was the first man to suffer the effects of the disobedience of his parents. However, there is more in this event in history than meets the eye. Cain is the first man to be used by Satan in his attempt to prevent the prediction of the bruising of the head of the serpent. However, since he only knows his head will be bruised by the Seed of the woman, he does not know who the Seed will be and when it will happen. Satan knows the kingdom he obtained when Adam, through the eating of the forbidden fruit, an act of disobedience, forfeited, the day is coming when he will be totally defeated, however his ego will not permit him to admit he is a defeated ruler, he will do whatever it takes and use whoever will join his cause in an attempt to overcome the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Was this part of a predetermined plan for Abel? Was it determined in eternity, before the creation of the heavens and earth, Abel would be murdered by his brother Cain? Is the murder of Abel by his brother Cain an act of man, just as Adam and Eve’s disobedience, was an act of man, acting contrary to the predetermined plan for the course of the history of humanity?
Adam and Eve were given an opportunity to confess their act of disobedience and ask for forgiveness. We are not told they confessed and asked for forgiveness, although it is implied in the making of loin coverings from the skins of animals. Although confession and asking for forgiveness by Adam and Eve would not have changed the course of the history of humanity under the reign of the prince of the world, Satan, it will take the final destruction of the kingdom of Satan, to bring the history of humanity to a conclusion.
Cain was given the opportunity to be more than a vagrant and a wanderer. He chose to go his own way and do his own thing and he paid the penalty. He had no one to blame but himself. When we choose to disobey God’s law and the law of nature we will pay the penalty, as the saying goes, “do the crime, and do the time.” Cain did the crime and now he must do the time.
“Cain went out from Yahweh’s presence, and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.” Here is the beginning of civilization.
Adam is the father of humanity. Cain is the father of civilization. Adam, the father of humanity introduced into the world rebellion against the Creator of the heavens and earth. Through the disobedience of Adam all good that exists in the heavens and earth was tainted. Adam opened the door and permitted Satan to come into the world, bringing evil, wickedness, pain, suffering, disunity, disharmony, and death. Instead of Abel, Adam’s son Cain, a murderer and liar became the father of civilization.
The central figure in beginning of civilization is Lamech. The history of Lamech is contained in verses nineteen through twenty-four of Genesis chapter four.
“Lamech took two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe. Zillah also gave birth to Tubal Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. Tubal Cain’s sister was Naamah. Lamech said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me. If Cain will be avenged seven times, truly Lamech seventy-seven times.’”
Note in verse nineteen we have the first record of bigamy, a violation of God’s pattern of monogamy. Here we have the beginning of a trend in societies to this day. If Yahweh meant for a man to have more than one wife He would have taken two ribs from the man and formed two women from the ribs.
Note in verse twenty-three we have the first account of revenge. Lamech killed a man for wounding him and a boy for striking him. We do not know why the man wounded him or why the boy hit him. The question is was it necessary for Lamech to kill the man and the boy? When Cain murdered his brother Abel he tried to deny he had anything to do with the death of his brother. Lamech does the opposite; he brags about the killing of this man and boy. Note what Lamech told his wives, if Cain, who had no justifiable reason for killing his brother Abel and whoever would kill Cain, sevenfold vengeance would be taken upon that individual, Yahweh would be required to take vengeance upon any one who would kill Lamech, therefore he was stating he was under the protection of Yahweh because according to Lamech he was justified in killing the man and the boy.
“Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, ‘for God has appointed me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.’ There was also born a son to Seth, and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on Yahweh's name’”
Today we are engaged in the final stage of the battle that began in the dawn of history for dominion over the earth and humanity. We are all part of that battle. Are you fighting under the banner of the kingdom of heaven or are you fighting under the banner of the kingdom of Satan? Is your Commander-in-Chief the Lord Jesus Christ or is he Satan. You say you are neutral. You may say that but the truth is you are either in the King’s army or the enemies, Satan’s army. It is not too late to desert and join the King’s army and if you are among those who are deserting the King’s army you need to return to where you have fallen from.
Author Resource:-
Retired pastor Church of the Nazarene
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