Genesis 4
I. The conception of a manchild and his brother – 4:1, 2a.
A. Moses records the birth of both of these children that we might immediately see the two paths set before all humanity, a broad way and a narrow way.
Also, we will see the two ways in which God deals with fallen humanity, by the interposition of mercy and by the natural operation of justice. We see that the broad way is traveled by those who never come to grips with the seriousness of their sin or the way in which it must be treated. We see that the narrow way involves the application of a specific requirement to render a sinner acceptable before God.
B. Cain was the first born. Eve seems to believe that this birth fulfilled the promise of Genesis 3:15.
Her labor had demonstrated immediately the results described in 3:16—“In pain you will bring forth children.” Now the child born must be that of the previous statement issued to the serpent, “He shall bruise you on the head.” Her labor had resulted in a man, the Lord. The construction could mean a man from the Lord; it could mean a man who is the Lord; it could mean that this manchild fulfills the threat to Satan from the Lord and his power in the world is destroyed. This event, however, was not the fullness of time. Though the child came from the woman, it was not without the seed of the man—“The man had relations with his wife Eve” (4:1a).
C. The true seed of the woman would come in “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) and would indeed be from the Lord by a gift from the Father of His Beloved Son; from the Lord through the conception wrought by the Holy Spirit; from the Lord by the eternal consent of the Son to be the Promise.
He would be also the fulfillment of the Lord’s covenantal promise given before the ages began (2 Timothy 1:9). Finally, he would be the Lord himself, the second person of the Trinity, the Son, the eternally loved of the Father the one proclaimed by Thomas as “Lord” (John 20:28), preached by Peter as “Lord” (Acts 2:34–36), submitted to by Paul as “Lord” (Acts 9:5), and before whom all persons from all places and all times will confess as “Lord” (Philippians 2:11).
D. Both Adam and Eve soon would learn that the death to which they and their seed were subject by disobedience included a corruption of heart that only omnipotent power could reverse.
This corruption was so great that God would be justified in a total destruction of all, and except for his purpose of grace would do so. Noah was born 126 years after the death of Adam. When the full display of human corruption was ripe—“God looked on the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth”—1686 years after the creation of Adam and 726 years after death of Adam, God displayed with emphasis the way of justice and the way of grace.
E. Though Eve’s belief that God would keep his covenantal arrangement was right, her perception of its outworking in its person, its manner, and its time must await further revelation.
There would yet be further manifestation of the horror and deceitfulness of sin and the infinite cost of such a gracious redemption. Like Mary when her seed suffered, a sword would pierce the soul of Eve. Mary’s Son was killed by Jewish brothers and Eve’s son was killed by his older brother.
II. The occupations of these men were consistent with their position in creation – 2b.
Man was to manifest his superiority to all the other animate creation and to demonstrate his lordship and caretaking status over it. Man was to till the soil and even show the fertile productivity of the earth. Both professions would have manifestations of both the patience of God and the plague of sin.
A. Abel is mentioned first as a keeper of flocks, like Moses and David after him.
He would know that caretaking of the flock now would involve an awareness of the curse. Protection from predators was needed. The animal kingdom groaned with the earth’s subjection to futility (Romans 8:19–21). That animals had to be sacrificed as an emblem of how God would cover the guilt of fallen humanity was in the mind of Abel. Adam and Eve had without doubt told both sons of the action of God in covering them with the skin of animals when their nakedness became a shame to them.
B. Cain, the firstborn, is mentioned second as a “tiller of the ground.” In light of 3:17–19, Cain should have been aware of the impact of the fall on life.
He had never experienced the joy and immediate fruitfulness of Eden, but certainly had been informed—and warned—about the impact of sin on the ground. His daily toil of tilling should be evidence of the need for a redemptive remedy concerning the curse of sin. If the soil is so affected, how much more the moral constitution of man.
III. The offerings were consistent with their occupations, but only one was consistent with divine precedence.
Even if Cain’s offering had been given as a manner of showing gratitude to God for the richness of his providential provision, it had not been connected with a sacrifice. The brothers clearly knew that life had continued only in light of a sacrifice that involved shedding of blood. They knew that God himself had intervened and had given a promise of eventual defeat of the instigator of this curse. That sacrificial intervention in recognition of divine grace was a part of the knowledge of humanity is demonstrated in Noah’s offerings in 8:20.
IV. God accepted the offering of Abel, but rejected the offering of Cain (4, 5).
These offerings occurred “in the course of time,” that is, at a specified time. It could have been a specific Sabbath provision or the culmination of a natural process related to harvest and a birthing time of the flocks. However it came about, the time for approaching God had been set aside.
A. Abel’s offering is treated in Scripture as a manifestation of faith (Hebrews 11:4).
His offering was “more excellent” than that of Cain precisely on this account. Not only did he slay the animal for the sacrifice but made a particular point of offering their fat portions (4).
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- Faith, throughout Hebrews 11 is seen as a hearty consent to the revelation of God. Abel obeyed God’s requirement of the manner in which he must be approached. Also, his offering “obtained a witness that he was righteous.”
- John also looks at Abel’s sacrifice as an act of righteousness (1 John 3:12).
- Jesus referred to the scribes and Pharisees as of the same moral stature as those who killed the prophets including the “blood of the righteous Abel” (Matthew 23:35).
- Abel’s righteousness is the imputed righteousness of Christ to be received by faith. It is a part of the witness to this righteousness that Paul so ardently discusses in Romans 3:21–26. Like Abraham, it can be said that Abel believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:5–9).
B. Cain made an offering to the Lord of his own devising, ignoring both the example, and probably a requirement, of propitiating the Lord for sin by blood sacrifice.
God reminded him of this in the instruction, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” The fact that he had not taken sin seriously made him susceptible to its deceitfulness.
C. Abel’s sacrifice was a type of Christ and his sacrifice.
Christ’s sacrifice put an end to all other bloody sacrifices. Jesus is the Mediator of a new covenant and his sacrificial offering of blood “speaks better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). As Hebrews 12:2 interprets all these persons of faith, they were “looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith.” No saving faith can exist apart from the covenanted, promised, typified, and finished work of Christ. He authors faith. No saving faith can exist apart from Jesus’s having died as a sacrifice, satisfying the justice of God, and manifesting his personal perfection in this redemptive work by his session at the right hand of the Father. He is indeed the perfecter and finisher of faith.
V. The Lord mercifully engages Cain on the point of his rejection – 6, 7.
He reprimanded his anger and questioned his posture of resentment. Cain’s anger at God’s rejection of his sacrifice presents the reader with a dreadful picture of unmortified sin’s effect on the human soul.
A. Cain ignored the reality of the curse pronounced by God on humanity and, by extension, on the world. He had not entered into the reality that he was covered under that curse.
B. Cain ignored the initial response from God that sin demands a sacrifice of life. Either the sinner or an innocent substitute must suffer sin’s consequences. He felt no need of such sacrifice.
C. Cain ignored the example of God in providing such a sacrifice. Probably he ignored Adam’s instructions concerning this and thus disobeyed when the appointed time for sacrificial offering had come.
D. God’s words, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?”
Sin demands a sin-offering. God had provided the instruction and the time. Cain had ignored it. Now God gives mercy with the opportunity still to make the sin-offering to cover his sin. He issues a sober warning to Cain. Because you have refused the remedy for sin, your sin is yet unrecognized in your heart. Its posture of seeking to capture you and bring you into deeper disobedience has an advantage over you. “You just master it,” means not only his personal resistance to its power but submission to God’s verdict on it by honoring the opportunity for sacrifice.
E. Cain believed that the labor of his hands should be received by God.
His personal achievement as a horticulturist should be honored by God. He demonstrated a sense of entitlement and believed that God’s requirement was irrational and God’s rejection of his work was unjust.
VI. Cain rejects God’s counsel. – 8
A. Cain’s evil heart so overwhelmed him that he blamed his brother for God’s refusal to accept his attempt at “will-worship “ (Colossians 2:23).
When John answers the question as to why Cain killed Abel, he answered, “Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous” (1 John 3:12).
B. He plotted and carried out the death of Abel, who had offered the sacrifice in accord with the example and word of God in full recognition that for his sin a blood atonement must be offered (Hebrews 11:4, 13; `1 John 1:6-10).
VII. – God now engages Cain about his murder of Abel. 9–12
A. As in the case of Adam’s sin, God begins his confrontation with a question (3:9, 11, 13).
They shifted blame but told the truth. Cain lied and even denied any responsibility for his brother’s safety. God countered with his knowledge of the murder and gives voice to Abel’s blood. God said that his blood is “crying to Me” (10). God’s holy omniscience covers all the actions of all men, knows the hearts of all men, and perfectly discerns all motivations and degrees of guilt in every thought and deed.
B. The ground itself, into which Abel’s blood was spilled, will refuse the labor of Cain.
It will yield no fruit for him (12). Instead, it will be the site of Cain’s wandering and vagrancy. He finally will settle in a place away from the presence of Eden and the tree of life. That location was to call to mind the sin that drove them away and hope that yet remained. Cain went to a place where he could deny the reality of the fall for himself and his posterity. He also rejected the only source of hope for fallen men. He went out “from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod east of Eden. “Nod” shows the reader, that though Cain settled, he still was a mere wanderer having no true knowledge of himself nor of any hope in God.
VIII. Cain responds to the Lord’s punishment. 13, 14.
A. He engaged God in a haughty and arrogant spirit and also lied to God in the process (see reflection on this event in 1 John 1: 8, 10; 3:11–15).
When Jude wrote of those who speak evil of dignitaries and of those who speak evil of “whatever they do not know,” he says that they have “gone the way of Cain” (Jude 11). Cain’s sultry attitude toward God established the standard for those who disrespect authority. None can surpass his arrogant posturing against legitimate authority for his insolence was manifested toward God.
B. He called God’s justice into question, resented the sentence, and did not seek restitution through repentance but preferred to seek to escape even from any knowledge of the presence of God (Genesis 4:13–16).
C. The New Testament sees Cain as the premier example of unmortified corruption and captivity to the will of Satan.
Cain was “of the wicked one and murdered his brother” (1 John 3:12). He serves as a paradigm of the “course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2).
D. He showed the unabashed propensity to despise both tables of the law of the Decalogue and thus, the law written on the heart.
His anger with God (5) and his bold-faced lie (9) showed that he had no honor for his Creator. Instead of the required sacrifice, he made one of his own, thus establishing an unauthorized likeness to God, substituting his own idea for God’s revealed standard. Not only did he murder his brother—the first commandment of the second table—but he lied about his knowledge of him and eschewed any responsibility for his well-being.
IX. The Lord reserves Cain for divine Judgment, not human revenge (15). As yet there were not civil governments to carry out justice. God forbad any personal revenge in the case of Cain.
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” (Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35).
See one sinner under favor,
See another under wrath.
One will grace and mercy savor,
One will seek a darkened path.
One will see his sin forgiven
By a bleeding sacrifice.
One will find his soul is driven
To resent redemption’s price.
“How can God not be receptive
Of the labor I have done?”
Satan’s lies have proved deceptive;
None is righteous; no, not one.
Swift to shed the blood of brothers,
Then to lie and impugn God;
“Ask me not to care for others!”
From the ground, the voice of blood.
Now the ground holds only curses,
Now all kindness swept away;
Eden gone, its life reverses
Into death and cold decay.
Ah! The fall! Behold its outcome,
Sons conceived in deadly sin,
Slaves dependent on a ransom,
Born condemned, corrupt within.
By eternal lovingkindness
Tortured souls may be set free
From the dark of moral blindness,
Cursed, then lifted, by a tree.
