The Impact of Sin
(Lessons from Cain and Abel)
Ge 4:1-16
Our Sunday School lesson today takes us all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis. It’s the name given to this first book because this first book speaks of the beginnings or origins of all things, which is what the name, Genesis, means. Many view this book with skepticism, claiming it’s an allegory or myth that’s been fabricated by the ancients to explain their existence and reason for being, but I believe this book to be a literal, historical record of not only the creation of heaven and earth, but also a record of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. We find that it traces the genealogy of man from Adam to Abraham to David and then to Christ, the Son of God.
I believe the creation story as it is written. I believe Adam and Eve were our first parents who really messed things up for all of us when they gave into the wiles of the serpent, the devil. I believe that if you deny Genesis chapter one, then you are standing on the oxygen hose of your understanding. Death and suffering won’t make sense. Evil and good won’t have a definition. You will have no idea of your origins, and you won’t know your Maker or bother to seek a Savior. (Ray Comfort)
I believe in the book of Genesis, just as I believe in every other book of the Bible. As we look at chapter 4 in the book of Genesis today, it’s easy for us to see the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s warning to Adam and Eve in the Garden when He said Gen 2:16-17 …"From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; [17] but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Over and over in chapters 3, 4, and 5, the reality of that curse is confirmed. From the moment God told Adam “You shall not eat” and the moment they disobeyed and ate, death is everywhere, and we see it expanding throughout the created order. The curses of God upon Adam’s disobedience have now come to rest upon his own family. Not only were they driven away from the Garden paradise, but today we see the first physical fulfillment of God’s warning that “you will surely die.”
Gen 4:1-16 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD." [2] Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. [3] So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. [4] Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; [5] but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. [6] Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? [7] "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." [8] Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. [9] Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" [10] He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground. [11] "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [12] "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth." [13] Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! [14] "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." [15] So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him. [16] Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
The chapter begins with Adam and Eve outside the Garden of Eden and continuing their lives. Eve gives birth to Cain and then Abel. Cain is a farmer, and Abel is shepherd. The fact that God has blessed this couple with children is a demonstration of His goodness and mercy despite their disobedience and removal from the Garden. Eve is immediately aware that she would not have these children if it weren’t for the Lord. She said, Gen 4:1 …"I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD."
Eve may have thought that her son, Cain, was the answer to the promise that had been given in Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." But if that was what she was thinking, then she couldn’t have been more wrong. However, in her excited cry, Gen 4:1 …"I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD" we can see her hope that the Lord will answer that promise to crush the serpent’s head by her seed.
The next thing we see in the text is the worship experience of Cain and Abel. At this point in time, there is no nation and no established priesthood. The family is the basic religious unit. Adam as the head of the household would have been the household priest just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all acted as the priests of their families. And you know that principle of family religion is never lost in the Scriptures. Family religion continues to be a core component of how we live as believers. It is true that the Lord has drawn us as a body into His Church and He has given us ministers and pastors within the Church, but the father still has those spiritual leadership responsibilities within his household.
Adam, as the spiritual leader of his household would have been responsible for instructing his family, and especially his sons in the proper forms of worship. He would have taught them to…
1. Offer What’s Right
At some point in time, both sons came together to worship and brought their offerings to the Lord. We’re told that Cain Gen 4:3 …brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. But his brother, Abel Gen 4:4 …brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And then we’re immediately told that Gen 4:4-5 …the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; [5] but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.
We’re not told why Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s wasn’t. So, any teaching on this is only conjecture. However, I’ve always thought that since God had already illustrated that the wages of sin is death when He killed the animal in the Garden to provide a covering, which literally means “an atonement” for Adam and Eve that God was also demonstrating that Heb 9:22 …without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It’s true that the laws of animal sacrifice wouldn’t exist for hundreds of years, but God Himself offered up the first sacrifice for sin in the Garden, and mankind has followed His lead in that ever since.
So, it could be that God’s disregard for Cain’s offering had something to do with the fact that it was a bloodless offering. Something else to consider is that Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and their fat portions, which are always looked upon as the best of the flock and the best portions of the sacrifice, while there is no mention at all about Cain’s offering being his first fruits.
But I think there’s another thing of importance that should be considered. Notice that when Cain’s offering is rejected, the Scripture tells us that Gen 4:5b …Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. What I’m getting from this is pride and arrogance. To me it’s evidence that his heart wasn’t right. He was angry and jealous of his brother, and he was angry with God for not accepting his offering and showing preference to his younger brother. And friends, whenever we bring an offering to the Lord, our heart attitude, our motives matter.
Are we seeking after God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength? Or are we simply fulfilling some religious duty, some ritual that really doesn’t mean anything to us? Are we giving the Lord our best, our first fruits, our fat portions? Or are we offering up half-hearted worship with insincere motives.
The Lord requires that we offer Him what is right, but also that we give it to Him with heartfelt devotion and sincerity. We are to…
2. Guard Our Heart
Gen 4:6-7 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Let me ask you something—if the Lord God of heaven and earth came to you and said, “That sacrifice is unacceptable,” how would you react? I think I can confidently say that all of us here today would probably respond with fear and trembling and repentance and seeking a do over. Cain however, responded with anger and jealousy toward Abel and arrogance toward God. His anger was such that it could be called a “murderous rage” because that is exactly what happened.
He really had no reason to be angry. It’s not like God was going to kill him for using “strange fire” like He did with Aaron’s sons. He could have easily repented and then did what was right, but instead his unchecked negative emotions would lead him to a devastating outcome.
Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What this tells me is that Abel’s faith was the determining factor of his better sacrifice, so, the implication is that Cain didn’t come to the Lord in faith while Abel did. Further proof of this is found in 1Jn 3:11-12 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; [12] not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.
So, in the NT we’re told that Abel came in faith offering his sacrifice and that he was a righteous man, but Cain’s heart wasn’t right with the Lord. Now there’s something here I want you to see. I want you to see what it is that brings division between Cain and Abel. The division is brought by the presence of God—it’s brought about by Cain’s exposure to the truth of God in worship. That is what brings disruption between the two seeds. And do you remember what God said about the seed? Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
God promised to establish enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And here we have two brothers who, as far as we know, have gotten along just fine in the past, but the seed of the serpent, recognizing God’s rejection of his sacrifice, hates the seed of the woman and strikes out against him. What we’re seeing here for the first time, the great divide between carnal religion and spiritual religion. The carnal man can’t abide with the spiritual man because the presence of the spiritual man is convicting.
Do you remember in school when a teacher would grade on a curve? Well, when the brainiac took the test and blew the curve, everyone got angry with him or her. This is similar. Abel blew the curve and Cain failed to guard his heart which led to disaster.
So, we need to offer what’s right, and we should put a guard on our heart, but we also should…
3. Listen to Warnings
Gen 4:7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."
God places people and circumstances in our path as warnings, and we should pay attention. Later on in the Bible we’ll see the rise of prophets who were frequently used by God to warn people away from sin or to draw them to repentance. When the smoke detector in your home goes off, it’s a warning that everyone pays attention to because fire is dangerous and deadly.
What we see in our text is that God Himself gave warning to Cain. He is genuinely concerned with Cain. His face has exposed the status of his heart. He is angry because he thinks that God has been unjust with him. The Lord pleads with him and tells him that if he would do well, if he would repent and change directions, then everything would be just fine. But if he doesn’t repent, then sin is waiting right outside the door. It desires to control you, but you must control it. The picture here is like Peter’s illustration in 1Pe 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Sin will entrap us, then it will intertwine with us, and then it will expand to greater and greater seriousness. James gives us an example of how sin takes hold of us when he wrote, Jas 1:14-15 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. [15] Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Oh friend, the wages of sin is death, so, we must listen to God’s warning and master it. That means we are to repent and turn to Him and…
4. Seek God’s Grace
Cain murdered his own brother, and God had every right to take Cain’s life at that very moment, but He didn’t. He did however curse Cain. Notice that when Adam and Eve sinned, God didn’t say, “Adam, you are cursed” or “Eve, you are cursed.” His word to Adam was that the ground was cursed. But with Cain, God said, Gen 4:11-12 "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [12] "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."
The very thing that Cain loved was taken away from him. He was a farmer, but now the ground wouldn’t yield anything to him ever again. He would live the life of a vagabond, a nomad, wandering around, scrounging and scratching out an existence.
Gen 4:13-14 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! [14] "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Oh beloved, no matter how far we fall, God’s grace is a lifeline offered to us. Despite Cain’s sin, God’s judgment was mingled with mercy. He would face the consequences of his sin, but God would protect him by placing a mark upon him so that everyone would know that he was under God’s protection, it was a mark of safe passage to protect him from suffering the same fate that fell upon his brother.
Friends, we need to remember that God’s discipline is an act of love. In times of correction, we should look for God’s grace, and friends, repentance is a grace. Cain didn’t lack for opportunities to repent. Twice, God came to Cain and offered him every opportunity to show contrition, but there was only hardness of heart. He lacked the capacity to change.
But there is a word of hope for us in this passage because even in this picture of sin we just looked at, we should be reminded that even in our complete ruin, our only hope is to look away from ourselves and look to God for redemption because only He is able to save us from our sin and misery by His own right arm.
