Cain and Abel
Genesis chapter 4, in verses 1 to 16, gives us the episode of Cain and Abel. In verses 1 to 5, we have this famous incident of the two men and the two offerings.
“Adam knew his wife. She conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.’ And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep. Cain was a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 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, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell.”
All right, two men and two offerings. And the big question here that’s often discussed is: how are we to understand this? Why did God accept Abel’s offering and not Cain’s? And how did they know, for that matter? Was Abel’s offering consumed by fire or something? How do we know that God accepted the one and not—we’re just not told that; that’s a blank. All we’re told is that he accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. So we’re left to try to understand why the one and not the other, and there have been several different interpretations offered.
Calvin taught that, and many after him have taught, that Cain’s offering was not offered in faith, and that is the reason his was not accepted. The difference is not to be found in the offerings themselves, but in the offerer. His was not offered by faith, but Abel’s was. And Calvin draws from Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4 for that: “By faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” So for him and for that interpretation, the issue is faith, not the offering itself.
Another interpretation that’s given is that Cain’s offering was just mere religious tokenism—going along with the motions of religion, having some appearance of it, but no real deep sense of worship. This is very much in keeping with the first one (not in faith). But this one goes a little further, suggesting he was just going with the forms of worship. So Cain brought something from his produce. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. That was not just a token, but it was something that was costly, and that’s the difference in them.
And then, of course, the other interpretation—the one that I favor, although it has fallen out of vogue today—is that Cain’s offering was bloodless. It was not a sacrifice. Abel’s was, and that is the difference between them. I think that’s right. In other words, in this interpretation, Cain’s offering was mere homage to God, showing some form of worship and homage, but Abel’s offering was a sacrifice, offering a substitute in his place.
Now, that third interpretation that I hold to actually can embrace the first two. Why did Cain offer mere homage? Well, it was faithless, and you can deal with all of that. But again, I’ll tell you that this has fallen out of vogue today, but I think that that is the better interpretation: Cain’s offering was bloodless and Abel’s was a sacrifice.
And I think some factors to consider make me think that, and I’ll just point out some of them quickly. In verses 4 and 5 here, notice that it says, “the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” So there’s a focus on both the person and the offering. Both are in view—not just the person, but the offering that was offered.
In Hebrews 11, verse 4, the one I mentioned earlier, we read, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.” There was something about the sacrifice itself, it seems to me, that was more acceptable, through which he was commended as righteous to God, God commending him by accepting his gifts; and through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. So faith is certainly involved, but that faith is expressed, it seems to me, in the kind of offering that was brought. Again, the focus is on the offering itself, not just the person who is offering it. It’s a better sacrifice than Cain’s. And in fact, it’s not just an “offering,” but in Hebrews, it’s defined specifically as a “sacrifice.” The word “offering” that’s used in Genesis can be used of a non-sacrificial offering; we have that in the book of Leviticus. But it was, in fact, a sacrificial offering. Again, the idea in Hebrews 11 that it was offered by faith, I think, points to something in the nature of the sacrifice itself—that it was not just worship that he was offering, homage, but it was something offered in faith. Here’s a sacrifice with all that sacrifice signifies.
Now, the next thing that makes me consider that is: where did Cain and Abel learn to offer offerings to God? And the only answer we can come up with is Genesis 3, verse 21, where God made coverings for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals.
And here, particularly now—and here’s my last factor in considering all of this—is that when you look back, even if we can’t know this already in Genesis 3 and 4, when you look back on Genesis 3 and 4 from the rest of the Bible, we have to see that, it seems to me, as the beginnings of a major theme of sacrifice that culminates, of course, in the sacrifice of Christ. So reading Genesis 3, at least with hindsight, with the rest of the Bible in view, and then also with Genesis 3:21 in view—where God had to cover Adam and Eve’s shame, and he did it by means of a sacrifice—I think we have to see that the point here is that Abel’s offering was a sacrifice, and that is what made it more acceptable and more excellent, a better sacrifice than Cain’s.
So Cain’s offering was a mere act of homage; Abel’s offering reflected a sense of sin, a need for pardon. And for that reason, I think God looked with favor on Abel’s offering. I think it was Warfield where I’ve read it who put it this way: that Cain approached God as a creature, offering homage; Abel approached God as a sinner—not just a creature, but as a sinner—and so offered sacrifice. Cain offered himself. Abel, learning from Genesis 3:21, offered a substitute. And so Cain had religion, but it was a rejected religion, and Abel approached God by means of sacrifice. Again, that interpretation has fallen out of vogue today, but I think it makes best sense of all the details. Any questions on that before I move on?
Yes? “Do you think Adam then offered blood as a sacrifice so that his offspring saw that, or did he just tell them about the sacrifice that God had done?”
Well, there’s no indication that Adam offered a sacrifice. But Cain and Abel learned it from somewhere. So we’re left to surmise. And I don’t want to build too much on a surmising. But at least we have Genesis 3:21 where God made the sacrifice, sacrificed the animal to cover their shame.
Yes, Clark? “What would have been the right thing for Cain to have done? Take his vegetables and go buy a lamb and then sacrifice it?”
Somehow approach God by means of sacrifice, however that would have been attained. So the question was, what was Cain’s responsibility then, since he was working the ground and he didn’t have that? It’s a good question. In this view, you would have to surmise he was responsible to find a sacrifice, whether it was entering in with Abel or bartering with him to get a lamb, whatever.
All right. Now, in verses 5 to 16, we have this famous incident of Cain versus Abel. In verse 5, at the end of the verse, we have Cain’s response. His countenance has fallen because God has rejected his sacrifice. Cain was very angry. His face fell. By the way, that is typical of fallen man and the foolishness of sinful thinking. It’s just stunning hubris. “I offered God homage. He didn’t accept it. And now I’m mad at God.” And you wonder, who’s God here? Is God obligated to accept your act of worship because you’ve offered it? And who are you to determine these things? God determines these things. You have no right whatever to be upset with God because he doesn’t accept your offering.
But that’s what we find here with Cain, and it’s just, I think, typical of the way the sinful mind works. God is not obligated to Cain. He doesn’t have to accept because Cain has offered it. What Cain is doing here in essence is assuming a position above God and dictating to God how he ought to worship and how God ought to accept it. So anyway, he’s angry with God.
Verses 6 and 7 then, God confronts Cain now as he’s sulking and God counsels him. “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? 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.'” This idea of “you must rule over your sin or it will overwhelm you.” Sin there is portrayed as an animal ready to pounce on you, and if you don’t get over it, it will get over you.
But it seems, I think more importantly here—and I think Francis Schaeffer is right here when he suggests that—when God says, “Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” it seems that God is offering Cain an opportunity still to worship God aright. And if you will worship God rightly, then you will be accepted. If you come to me in the way that’s prescribed, you’ll be accepted. So it seems that God is still offering him a way.
Then we come to verse 8. Cain is still angry. And now in his anger against God, he becomes angry with his brother Abel. Verse 8: “Cain spoke to his brother.” That’s a pretty brief statement. You have to read between the lines there. He spoke to his brother Abel. It sounds like some harsh words were happening now. He’s jealous. God has accepted his offering, not Cain’s. “When they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” Premeditated murder.
So what we have here is Genesis 3:15 playing out. You remember there, God put enmity now between Satan and the woman, between his offspring and her offspring. And you have these conflicting lines. We read that through the book of Genesis and through the rest of the Bible, with these conflicting lines of Satan against God and Satan’s followers against God and against God’s people. The wicked against the righteous and the enmity between them being played out. It’s the world against God. This is Psalm 2—the nations raging, saying, “Let’s throw off his bands. We won’t have him. We won’t have his rules.”
This is John 15. Christ warned his disciples, “The world hates me; they’ll hate you too because you’re like me. They hate you because I chose you out of the world. And the more you’re like me, the more they’ll hate you because they hated me.” We find this everywhere through the scriptures. Matthew 10: Jesus sends out his disciples; he says, “Make no mistake about it, I send you out as sheep among wolves.” You find this in Ephesians chapter 6: Satan against Christians. The spiritual warfare that we have in 1 John 3. John picks it up in verse 12, says, “Why did Cain murder Abel?” Answer: “Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous.” The world looks on that righteousness and it sees it as offensive. It’s an insult to them because their deeds are evil, and hence the enmity and the conflict comes. This is the story of the rest of history until Christ will come to put it down as Psalm 2 tells us and as Revelation portrays.
So we have Cain against his brother and he murders him, setting up a paradigm that we find throughout the rest of scripture and the rest of history. Well, now in verse 9, God confronts and interrogates Cain and we have Cain’s very calloused response. “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel, your brother?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?'” Just a callous response about his brother. He denies any responsibility. And although the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” anticipates a negative answer, the answer is positive. Yes, you are your brother’s keeper and you have great responsibility toward him. And that’s kind of an interesting theme for the rest of the Bible as well. But that’s his stance that he’s taking.
So verses 10 to 12, God pronounces judgment. “The Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And 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. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.'”
Now, verse 10 here: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” It’s an interesting concept there, and it’s actually a theme we find elsewhere in Scripture, of God’s jealous watch over the righteous. He’s watching over his people, and when they are wronged, he takes notice. Now, he doesn’t always stop the harm from coming. He allows his people to suffer at the hands of Satan’s seed. But he’s always taking note of it. And when it says, “Your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground,” the idea is it’s crying out for justice. It’s crying out for vengeance. And that will come about eventually.
And it’s a big theme in the scriptures. Paul talks about it in a famous way in 2 Thessalonians 1, that those who trouble you, when the Lord returns in flaming fire, he will trouble them, and the troubles will reverse. Christ will exact vengeance on these who have persecuted his people. That’s the idea here of your brother’s voice crying, your brother’s blood crying to me from the ground. It’s crying for vengeance, crying for justice, and that’ll find its answer finally in the return of Christ.
Now, why don’t we look—I think we have time—let’s look at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, if you’ll turn there, we have a reference to this there. Hebrews 12, verses 22 to 24: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…” So all of this is what we have come to in the new covenant. As the church of God, we have been made to come to all of this—not to Mount Sinai, but to this heavenly Jerusalem, and to this company of angels, and to all of the saints enrolled there.
And then at the end: “…and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” So here he’s picking up on Genesis 4, verse 10: “Your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” Abel’s blood is speaking, as it were. And what it’s speaking is, “Avenge me, avenge me, avenge me, justice.” And now it says we in Christ have been brought to this heavenly Jerusalem, this festal gathering of angels in this wonderful city of the redeemed, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So Abel’s blood cries for vengeance. Jesus’ blood cries out for forgiveness; it speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So he’s looking here in terms of contrast: the blood of Abel, the blood of Jesus. The blood of Abel is the voice of the righteous calling for justice and vengeance. The blood of Jesus, by contrast, in which justice is satisfied fully, cries out for forgiveness.
All right, that’s just a little detour there to see how the New Testament picks it up. Back to Genesis 4, verses 11 and 12. The fertile soil soaked in Abel’s blood is said now to be resisting to Cain’s work. It’ll be difficult to produce vegetation. He’ll be banished from the land and from his family. That should ring a bell to you; that echoes Genesis 3, verses 17 to 19, where God’s judgment on Adam involves the resistance from the ground and his banishment from Eden. We have it again with Cain because of his sin.
Verses 13 and 14 then, we have Cain’s response to God. “Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. 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.'” Now what it seems like here—and I think you have the sense of it as well when you read these verses—is that we have here not an expression of repentance, but an expression of self-pity. “This judgment is too severe. I don’t deserve this”—kind of a tone, something like that. So Cain is still full of himself. He fears his physical and his social exposure; he doesn’t fear the Creator. He makes as though he deserves better. Again, this is typical of the lost and the way the lost mind thinks. We find this in the book of Revelation as well. When God’s judgments are poured out upon the world, the world complains and gripes as though it is not deserving of this kind of harsh treatment—”Mean God doing this to me.”
Verse 15, we have God’s response to Cain. “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.” It’s really a striking thing, after all that Cain had done, and without any hint of repentance at all, God offers this note of protection for Cain. And I think this is helpful to inform us of the question that always comes up when tragedies happen: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And I think we have to remember things like this, that God is just incredibly good and incredibly patient with incredibly bad people all the time. And we have become so used to mercy that we complain when we don’t get it.
Then we have the aftermath in verse 16: “Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” That’s the setup for us then for verses 17 to 24, where we have Cain’s family. Now one question that comes up here always, of course, is: who are the people he’s afraid of? Where did he get his wife? And the answer that traditionally is given, and that seems to be provided for us in the Bible, is chapter 5, where Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. And so there you have your answer for that. Some have conjectured, since he’s already saying this with reference to others, that Adam and Eve had already had other children. I’m open to that idea, but that doesn’t seem to be the way you read the passage. But at any rate, that leaves other children where we find the answers for those kinds of questions.
Cain’s Descendants
All right, then in verses 17 to 24, we have the line of Cain and the advance of humanity traced now just in the line of Cain in these verses.
Verse 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. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 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. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.'”
Here, by the way, is the first poetry that we have spoken in the Bible, and it’s a horrible little jingle that he makes up, aggrandizing himself and boasting of his strength and actually his sin.
All right, verse 17: “Cain knew his wife. She conceived and bore Enoch.” Again, where did he get his wife? Well, we’ve answered that, I think. Chapter 5, verse 4, says that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. It says he settled in the land of Nod. That is a word that means “wandering.” Remember, God had said, “You’ll be a wanderer.” That’s alienated from God. It’s to be understood, I think, metaphorically. He establishes a city, after all; he’s not a wanderer. But it’s to be understood metaphorically—that he’s alienated from God. He has no safe home in that sense.
We also have a number of cultural advancements. It’s really pretty remarkable. At the very beginning of history, verse 17, Cain builds a city. Someone suggested that that’s in defiance of the curse that he’ll be a wanderer; it’s possible. Verse 20, we have Jabal, who’s dealing with livestock, husbandry. Verse 21, Jubal, who’s involved in the arts—the musical instruments, the lyre and the pipe. Included with that, I suppose, would be poetry as well; usually is. Verse 22, Tubal-cain—he’s involved in metallurgy already, craftsmanship; he’s making instruments of bronze and iron.
You remember we’ve talked about polemic theology, where Moses will write certain things with the background in view. There are the false gods of the neighboring religions. In Moses’ time, Moses might be involving a little bit of polemic theology here because in all of the pagan myths, these kinds of advancements that we read of here are always attributed to the gods. And here, Moses is making the point: No, this happened early on, at the very outset of humanity. There were remarkable advancements already.
Verse 19 and following, now we have some landmark events with regard to Lamech. He had two wives, we’re told. I assume that is mentioned here because it is not the norm. And it’s mentioned because it’s an unusual, exceptional case. But we do have in these verses, nonetheless, the advance of the cultural mandate: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and then subdue the earth. We have it with husbandry, the arts, the sciences, metallurgy—these technological advances that are happening already. Verses 23 and 24, we’ve got some poetry involved, as I mentioned. It’s overly violent, vindictiveness that he has. He’s flagrantly boastful of his vengeful activity against others.
So we have here not only culture advancing and the advance of the creation mandate, but we also have very pronounced here the advance of sin in humanity—a pronounced theme in the early chapters of Genesis. We’ll see it further, like when we get to chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel. We’ll see it throughout the book of Genesis. The advance of sin is a notable theme. So verses 16 to 24 are just that. It’s the advance of culture, and the advance of culture is unable to check the advance of sin that goes along with it.
There’s no mention in these verses, verses 16 to 24, of the Lord, either by the people involved here or by the narrator, Moses himself. The Lord is not mentioned at all. What we do have is things like boastful violence; Cain is a wanderer from the presence of the Lord. And you have to see, if you are reading the narrative carefully beginning with chapter 1, you have to see some great contrast with what we have here and what we read at the end of chapter 1, where God looked at all that he had made and said, “It is very good.” And now we’ve had significant digression from that, because in chapter 3, we had the turn with the fall of man and the rebellion against God. So that’s the scene we have at almost the end of Genesis chapter 4.
Seth’s Family
In the last two verses of Genesis 4, though, Seth is introduced and with him there’s a note of hope. This is very distinct from the line of Cain.
Verse 25: “Adam knew his wife again. She bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, ‘God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel.'” Notice—I mentioned this last time, I think—in Genesis 4:1: “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” We’re speaking of the birth of Cain, and some have conjectured she thought this was the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. And if she did think that, she was wrong; this was Cain, after all. But she says, “I’ve gotten a man from the Lord.” Here, it seems to be a little bit different. She says, “God has appointed me another offspring.” There’s the “seed” language that’s picked up from Genesis 3:15. It seems like she thinks that here the seed promise is being fulfilled.
So Seth is born. His name means “granted” or “set” or “placed.” In other words, he’s given by God. It’s an expression then of Eve’s faith—can we say it that way?—that God is fulfilling his promise. Of course, Seth then becomes the ancestor of Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites, David, and ultimately the Lord Jesus. To him is born Enosh. Enosh is a word that’s used often for humanity; it means “weakness.” Out of their weakness, we’re told in verse 26, they look to God and begin to call on him. Worshipful dependence on God is being noted here then at the end of the chapter.
All right then, looking at the big picture in Genesis 3:15—back to that—we have two very different progenies being described. We have the seed of the serpent (the seed of Satan) and the seed of the woman. Satan against God, Satan against humanity; the people of Satan, the followers of Satan, against the people of God. That plays out for us here in the early verses of chapter 4. We have the line of Cain representing the seed of the serpent attacking Abel because his deeds were righteous. And now at the end of the chapter, after noting all of these advancements in culture, but yet the advancement of sin as well, at the end of the chapter, we have the godly line that is mentioned now: the line of Seth.
And with that, there’s a note of hope. They’re calling on the name of the Lord. God is keeping his promise. This other line will prosper as well. We have these two lines running then through scripture, running through the rest of history as well. The one line: self-indulgent, sinful, vengeful, evil, following Satan, opposing the righteous. The godly line: worshiping God, preserved in the midst of an evil world. And within that godly line, we’ll have the promised seed who will come. As I mentioned, this is the ancestor of Abraham, ancestor then of first Noah, then Shem, then Abraham, and on through to the Lord Jesus. And that’ll be noted for us when we get to chapter 5.
All right, so chapter 4 then is something of a transition chapter that brings us then to some important points. Much time then is going to be covered in this chapter and the next, but just to set up for the rest of the story. All right, any questions before we go?