You can turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 4. We're going to do one more message from Genesis, the Lord willing, the Lord's Supper next Sunday night, and then we'll return to the book of Proverbs in our evening services. Genesis chapter 4, the first murder. We're going to read verses 1 to 16.
Beginning in chapter 4, verse 1, Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
Abel also brought of the firstborn, of his flock, and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?
And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
And the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.
And Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the ground. I shall be hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth.
And it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.' And the Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Amen.
Let us ask God's help as we look to his word. Father, thank you for the word of God, and thank you for not only the good bits, but as well the sinful things, the things that we need to learn, the lessons that we as your people need to understand. We pray tonight that you would guide us in our study of your word. Give us the grace, Father, to avoid the sorts of sins we see associated with Cain, this seed of the serpent.
Help us to be faithful to you, Lord God, to express love, brotherly love, toward one another. We ask for the ministry of your Holy Spirit. We ask for the help from on high that we need to internalize your word. and to put it into practice in our own lives, in our own hearts, in our own conduct. Grant us help in this, grant us grace in this, and we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, essentially what we have in Genesis chapter 4 is the genealogy of Cain, I'm sorry, Adam via Cain. We see that that will pick back up in verse 17 after this digression, after this teaching, this study in evil. And I think that this passage does show us the rapid escalation of sin. We see the fall of Adam.
We studied that in the last two Sunday evenings. Adam and Eve transgressed the law of God. They take from the tree that had been prohibited of them, and they sin. They rebelled.
They lacked conformity unto God's Word. We see already with Cain and Abel that continues on in Cain's murder of his brother Abel. So I want to look first at the first brothers in verses 1 to 5a, secondly the first murder in verses 5b to 8, and then thirdly the first trial and sentencing in verses 9 to 16. Now, technically, the first murder took place in Genesis 3.
It was the devil. Murder originates with the devil according to Jesus in John chapter 8. When I say the first murder, I mean between men. Cain murders Abel.
Well,
The First Brothers
let's look first at these brothers in verses 1 to 5a. Note their names. Cain means acquire or to acquire or to get. Now, Eve may have thought or likely had thought that this was the promise of Genesis 3.15 coming into play.
Remember that God had promised that a seed of the woman would rise up and be the skull-crushing seed that would devastate the works of the devil. So it means to acquire or to get. The second is able, which likely means vanity, breath, or nothing. And I don't think that they had a particularly low view of their second-born son, but rather it is prophetic.
It is something that is true with reference to this young man. He's ultimately going to come to nothing through the murderous rage of his brother. Now, this is the first instance of a familiar pattern in the Old Testament. The second is more favored than the first.
You have Jacob and Esau. You have Isaac and Ishmael. You have the second. born, oftentimes, getting the blessing of God and being the one that is righteous. And then, as I read, I hope you understood or rather heard the repeated emphasis on brother.
Brother, brother, brother. It comes up seven times in the passage. Now, I don't think Moses, under divine inspiration, thinks that he's writing to a bunch of adults that can't remember or can't keep track of who Cain and Abel are. but rather he is emphasizing the fraternal relationship that exists between these two men to show how heinous sin is, to show how wicked Cain was, to show how evil it is to do what Cain did to his brother. In fact, Kyle and Dalich say Moses intentionally repeats again and again the words of his brother to bring clearly out the horror of sin.
Cain was the first man who let sin reign in him. He was of the wicked one. And already here in Genesis chapter 4, we have an illustration or an application of what was stipulated in Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you and the woman.
And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." Now, I've tried to explain that that has an individual reference to the Lord Jesus, but there is a collective sense as well. This seed of the woman will be the godly. This seed of the woman will be the righteous. This seed of the woman will be the ones that are targeted by the seed of the serpent. excuse me, by the devil himself.
And we have that in this instance of Cain and Abel.
The Offerings of Cain and Abel
Now note their offerings in verses 2 to 4a. Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a tiller of the ground. And I think this goes along with what we saw last week in our studies in Genesis 3. Labor is good.
Labor is not a bad thing. Labor was present before the fall, and labor is present after the fall. All kinds of labor. Now, some suggest that God had respect for Abel because he didn't like farmers.
He'd rather have men engage in shepherding. But that's not the accurate way to see what's happening here in terms of God's acceptance of Abel and God's rejection of Cain. Adam was stationed in the garden, according to Genesis 2.15, to tend it and to keep it. Farming is a noble cause.
And so farming or shepherding or whatever it is that a man finds to do lawfully is glorifying to God. Labor is not an effect or a consequence of the curse, but rather it is a blessing. Certainly it has suffered repercussions as a result of the curse, but labor in and of itself is a good thing. Now notice what the text says concerning their sacrifice.
Verse three, it says, and in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Now, if you have the New King James and in the process of time, literally is and at the end of days, I've tried to explain this before. It doesn't mean at the end of days in terms of the end of all days cannot be the future for us that's in view here. It's probably the end of the days of the week. when they had been trained to worship God, following God's pattern.
Sabbath predates Sinai. Sabbath is a creation ordinance. Sabbath is something that God Himself does and intends that His creatures follow. In fact, I think Matthew Poole has it right when he says, with reference to this phrase, more probably at the end of the days of the week or upon the seventh and the last day of the week.
Saturday, which then was the Sabbath day, which before this time was blessed and sanctified according to Genesis chapter 2 verse 3. And so when they come at the end of the days, when they come on this Sabbath day, it is to present sacrifice. It is to present an offering. Now we ought to infer from this that Adam taught this to them.
God taught Adam Sabbath and God taught Adam sacrifice. And so Adam in turn teaches his kids this very thing. And it is consistent with their vocations for them to bring the particular things that they bring. Notice verse 3 in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.
Yeah, that is consistent with their vocations Abel was a keeper of sheep. So he brings fat. He brings blood Cain is a tiller of the ground. So he brings fruit.
He brings vegetables He brings this as an offering to the Lord and then we see the divine response with reference to this sacrifice But up to this point notice We've got men observing Sabbath, and we've got men offering sacrifice. This is obviously going to be amplified and developed later on in the Pentateuch, but the seeds are there. Right at the very beginning, men created in the image of God were created to worship God. Men created in the image of God were created to rest on the day set apart by God, and they were created to attend public worship and present their offerings unto the Lord.
This is given to us without comment and without exhortation. It's just the way that it is. In other words, man comes from the hand of God as a religious creature. And we come from the hand of God as a religious creature because we are made in the image of God.
And as a result, those things written on our heart are put into practice. Now, no doubt, again, Adam instructed them in terms of Sabbath. Adam instructed them in terms of sacrifice. But nevertheless, we see this religious nature of man reflected from the very beginning.
We have cause to observe, or we have had cause to observe on many occasions in our studies in Genesis on Wednesday night, that the evolutionary theory of man is just patently false. This idea that man is created, or man, rather, evolves into some ape-like figure, and he drags his knuckles through the bogs of life until such time as he forms a grunt. And then later on, a million years later, he starts to speak. And then later on, he develops this sort of notion of religion, because he lives in a big world, and he's got to try to make heads or tails of this big world.
That is so absolutely, positively false. Adam comes from the hand of God as a communicating being. God is able to speak to Adam without grunts, without any sort of, you know, let me tell you what this is and show... No, he gives him a prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam comes from the hand of God, a rational being, image-bearing being, and a religious being. So the idea that evolution is a good sort of description of what man is, is absolutely positively ridiculous. I've often thought that evolution is the biggest fairy tale ever designed by man. It is an adult fairy tale with the attempt to evade the clear notion that man is created by God. and that man will ultimately be judged by God.
You see, scriptural history, it's not cyclical, it's not circular, it's not just this ever-winding-around cycle of events. With reference to the history of man, there's a beginning, there's a middle, and there's an end. And certainly, the engineers who put together this concept of evolution, no doubt in their thought, get rid of God in the beginning, and what happens? You get rid of God in the middle, and you get rid of God at the end.
You see, you get rid of him in the beginning, and the rest sort of takes care of itself. You don't want God in your life, so you adopt this fairy tale to try to explain the existence of man. Again, the idea is absolutely contrary to the biblical record, and to what man, I would argue, inherently knows.
Divine Acceptance and Rejection
Now notice, God has respect for Abel and his offering. Notice there in verse 4. Abel also brought to the firstborn of his flock and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. I think the order there is conspicuous.
He respected Abel and his offering. He respected Abel and his offering. Paul will tell Timothy, take heed to thyself and to thy doctrine. In other words, the man comes first and then the doctrine.
The man comes first and then the sacrifice. The man, then the offering. God had respect for Abel and his offering. And then note his disregard or his rejection of Cain.
Verse 5, it says, he did not respect Cain and his offering. Now, why? Why didn't God respect Cain and his offering? As I said earlier, some suggest that God prefers shepherds over farmers.
I don't think the text bears that sort of weight or interpretation. The fact that Cain failed to present blood, I think that gets a little bit closer. God showed by his own practice the slaying of animals to cover the sins of Adam and Eve in chapter 3, verse 21. But later redemptive history tells us specifically and exactly why God had respect for Abel and not for Cain.
It was by faith that Abel brought his offering. You can use the book of Hebrews to help you in your interpretation of the book of Genesis. That is a prevailing opinion out there among Bible interpreters that we can't let later redemption or later revelation help us understand previous revelation. That is absolutely false.
You can use the whole Bible to study the whole Bible. You can use Revelation itself to help you with the book of Genesis. You can certainly use the book of Hebrews to help you understand why in the world God accepted Abel and he didn't accept Cain. In Hebrews 11.4 we read, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.
And as well, I think the text would even indicate something this direction, the Genesis text. Notice that Abel's offering was the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. Doesn't faith want God to have the best? Doesn't faith want God to be glorified and honored?
Doesn't faith say, when it comes time to do the monthly budget, I'm not going to wait and whatever few pennies are left, I'm going to bring that to the house of God. I'm going to put God before the mortgage. I'm going to put God before the internet. I'm going to put God before Facebook.
I'm going to put God before, you know, Candy Crush. I'm going to put God first. Isn't that what faith does? Isn't faith jealous for the glory of God?
And I think that when we see Abel bring the firstborn of his flock, and he brings the fat, it evidences the reality of Hebrews 11. By faith he presented this. With reference to Cain, he brings an offering. Now, it's not that the offering is bad in and of itself, but it's that the offering is symptomatic of the lack of faith that is in Cain's heart.
It's not that he's a farmer. It's that he's faithless. That's why he is disrespected. That's why, rather, he is rejected and he is not received by Yahweh.
It's not that he farms. It's not that he tills the ground. It's not that he has chosen the lesser of the two professions. It's that he's a faithless wretch who's about the externals only.
And when we follow the narrative, that is precisely what is at stake. It's not the fact that he brought the heart, that he brought the offering, that he actually did this for the glory of God, and God said, no, I don't want anything to do with you because I favor your brother Abel. That's not it. Because he was a faithless wretch, he pulls an offering out.
But because Abel is a faithful man, he takes the first, he takes the fat, he takes the best, and he presents it unto God. You see, the way that a man gives, the way that a man sacrifices, the way that a man offers to God, the way that a man manages his budget, oftentimes says something concerning his faith. How do men spend time and money? And I don't just mean men, I'm speaking the way that people that were sane used to.
Men included, male and female. But the way that a man or a woman spends their time or money oftentimes indicates the location of their heart. If Facebook comes before Jehovah, you've got a problem. If Candy Crush comes before church, you've got a problem.
If anything comes before Jesus, you've got a problem. Now, I'm not suggesting you're going to die and go to hell. I am suggesting and encouraging you to reflect upon this reality, to consider the facts that where I spend my time and money more often than not, evidences the condition of my heart." So it's by faith that Abel offers up. It's by faith that Abel is accepted by God.
Notice the response of Cain in verses 5b and following. He was very angry and his countenance fell. I think this indicates that his offering was not offered in faith. He thought that if he just did it, it should be okay.
Isn't this symptomatic of the externalist or the formalist in religion? As long as I show up in the right spot at the right time, then God will accept me. As long as I do the right things, then God is obliged to accept me. If I go to Christian school, then God should bless me.
If I go to Sunday school, then God Brethren, that is to treat God as if He's Baal. It is to reduce Him to the status of a vending machine. It is to reduce Him to the status of a tool to get us what we want. And because Cain was angry, it evidences the lack of faith in his heart, because he thought that if I bring this offering, cheap as it may have been, I have at least engaged in my religious duty, and therefore God owes me.
It's externalism. It is perfunctory. It is an abomination before the Lord Most High. In fact, the Proverbs tell us that.
Proverbs 15, 8, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.
The First Murder
Now note, secondly, the first murder in verses 5b to 8. We see Cain's anger. Verse 5b, Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. Now, I would suggest that Cain's anger was directed in two ways.
He's angry at God, and he's angry at Abel. He's angry at God because God, at least in the mind of Cain, has shown favoritism to Abel. Why are you accepting my brother and you're not accepting me? Why have you disregarded my sacrifice?
Why have you left me hanging? So his anger is directed to God. But remember, sinners can't get to God. If sinners could get to God, they would take him off his throne and they would cast him down into the earth.
We see that with reference to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, in his state of incarnation, or rather the incarnation. He is cast down, he is ultimately crucified. So what does Cain do? He can't kill God, so he's going to kill his brother.
So his anger is directed to Yahweh, his anger is directed to his brother.
God's Warning to Cain
Now note in verses 6 and 7, the divine response. God asks a question in verse 6. Just like in chapter 3, God's not asking because he doesn't have the information. Not asking because he needs to be informed.
God's not looking down and saying, what's happening in my creation? I don't understand what's wrong with Cain. He's asking for Cain's benefit. And as we move through the narrative, we see that God, in his long suffering, God in the patience that Nahum ascribes to him, that God extends mercy to him, even in the midst of his rebellion and in his mayhem.
And here God asks him, again, for the purpose of bringing Cain to himself, to own his sin, to repent of it. So God says, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? And then notice, he extends grace, verse 7a. If you do well, will you not be accepted?
Now, I don't think that this is worth righteousness. Cain, be a good boy, do everything right, and then I will accept you. Rather, Cain, be like Abel, who expresses his sacrifice or his offering out of the context of faith. If you do well, Cain, in your approach to Yahweh, that's not external, that's not formal, but rather that is internal, and rather that is full of affection for God, will you not be accepted?
In other words, Cain, you're not blocked from the path to Yahweh because of anything that Yahweh has done. Rather, Cain, the problem is with you, and I think we ought to internalize that. Whenever there's a breach between us and heaven, the problem ain't with God. Whenever you go to church, or you pick up your Bible, you engage in prayer, and you feel let down, or you feel as if somehow God hasn't heard you, or God hasn't answered you, or He hasn't sent those kinds of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the issue is not God needs to change, The issue is, we need to change.
The issue is, we need to examine ourselves. The psalmist said it well, if I regard iniquity in my heart, Lord, you will not hear me. Now notice, God's grace. Again, the emphasis is not on works righteousness, but on coming to God in a manner similar to Abel, by faith, and you will be accepted.
The heartless sacrifice and subsequent anger of Cain, at this point, can be forgiven by God. You see, if Cain would have just said, yeah, I messed up. Yeah, I was wrong. See, I think this is one of the reasons why we should study Genesis 3 and 4.
We ought to understand their place or location in the biblical context. We ought to understand what, you know, some men call the redemptive historical sort of position of the text. But practically, we ought to see how we live. I think we see, at least in Adam and Eve, in the way they respond when God calls them and reckons with them.
We oftentimes do the same thing. We cover ourselves. We hide ourselves. We engage in subterfuge.
We shift the blame. We do all those sorts of things. Well, the same thing is true here. It's almost as if God takes Cain by the hand and says, Cain, it's not right for you to be angry.
Cain, you need to bury that anger. And you need to not get upset, and you need not to flip out, and you need not to have a pity party, but rather you need to be like your brother Abel. And not because Abel is intrinsically holy or pure or righteous, but because Abel knows that I don't bring a sacrifice to my God unless it's in the context of faith. That's what God is doing.
He's grabbing Cain by the hand, He's leading Cain by the hand, and He's saying to Cain, look, you can fix this. You can get this right. How many times does God do that with us? Texts come up into our minds, thoughts concerning sermons that we've heard.
It's as if God is speaking audibly to us through His Word, by His Spirit, and we continue to close our ears. We continue to resist Him. We continue to reject Him, and we go on in our pity parties, we go on in our whining sessions, we go on in our anger, and instead of repenting, instead of forsaking, and instead of coming to God the way that we ought to come to God, we continue down that spiral. And you might say, well, Butler, you've got big problems.
Well, I know I do. But I don't think I'm alone. I think I've seen other people that handle things this way as well. There's a time in all of our lives when we need to just shut our mouths, listen to God, and do what he says.
And if ever there was that time, it was with Cain, here, at the precipice of murder and mayhem. And then the next statement, verse 7, I think is a warning. So God not only takes him by the hand and says to him, Cain, Cain, there is acceptance with you if you come in faith. Cain, it's not right for you to be angry.
Cain, you need to bury this. You need to put this to death. You need to get things right and you need to come back. And now he's just going to warn him flat out in verse 7.
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, now here's the warning. Sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. the warning concerning the power of undealt with sin. Gil explains, if thou dost not do good works, nor offer an offering as it should be offered, sin lies at the door of conscience.
And as soon as that is awakened and opened, it will enter in and make sad work there as it afterwards did. So you see, everything that God says with reference to Cain in terms of this particular warning at the end of verse 7 actually comes to pass. Sin is lying there. Sin is crouching.
Sin is at the door of your heart. The decisions that you make now are going to affect everything. Again, we have those moments in our lives, don't we? We choose that B option when A was the clear one.
Well, Cain is at an A-B option choice, or A-B choice here, and he chooses the wrong option. He rejects the kindness of God, the overtures of God, there is acceptance with you if you come in faith, but as well he rejects the warning of God. Sin lies at the door of your heart. The desire, rather its desire, is for you, but you should rule over it.
Cain disregards God. Cain does not rule over it. Rather, its desire is for him, its desire grows, and its desire ultimately captivates his mind and his heart, such that Cain goes out and he bashes his brother's head in, or whichever way he chose to dispatch him. You see, God in His grace.
Again, we read these narratives and we don't think enough about God. We don't think enough about what God is doing. Taking Cain by the hand, there is acceptance with you. Taking Cain by the scruff of the neck and saying, be warned that sin's desire is for you.
If you don't rule over it, it will ultimately be victorious. The Lord God is merciful in his interactions or in his dealings with Cain. And again, I think that exacerbates the sinfulness of this particular man.
Cain's Nonverbal Answer
Now note, verse 8, very brief, very terse, very quick explanation of how Cain deals with his anger. Now, there is the absence of a verbal response. God speaks to Cain in verses 6 and 7. Cain doesn't answer.
In other words, God says, why are you angry? Cain doesn't say, well, you know, because you're unfair. Well, you know, because Abel, he's got problems. You know, because I try.
He doesn't even answer God. There's an obvious absence of a verbal response, but there is the obvious answer of a nonverbal response. In other words, Cain's actions evidence what he made of God's taking him by the hand and what he made of God's warning in verses 6 and 7. He rejected them.
He disregarded them. He rebelled against them. Notice, verse 8, now Cain talked with Abel, his brother. It came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
He talked with Abel, the Septuagint has let us go out to the field. Cain rose up against Abel, and Cain murdered Abel. Again, it doesn't get into the grisly details, but it is intriguing, and we noted this in our Bible study on a Wednesday night. Even when there aren't guns, there can be murder.
You see, the big argument about guns is not guns. It's people. People are the problem. People are the issue.
People are the sinners. Sticks, stones, bare hands. If there's a person that has hatred in their heart, there's a person that has murder in their heart, they're going to display it. No matter what the tool is they use, no matter how it has to come to pass, they will vent out that murder one way or the other.
Again, we ought to be mindful of that. It isn't stuff. It isn't items. It isn't things.
It's the human heart. And we just don't want to pay attention to that. Well, let's throw more money at this. Let's throw more money at that.
Let's do this. Let's do that. You can't fix hearts. The state will always come up short when it comes to heart fixing.
The state's job isn't to fix hearts. It's to punish evildoers. They embrace that, the better for all of us. There's one agent that fixes hearts, and his name is God Most High.
There is one agency that proclaims that, and that's the church. See, the state is to be about the repression or suppression of evildoers. It's the church's job to preach the gospel so that those evildoers will come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When we ask the state to be the healer, we are irrigating to them something that belongs to God.
That's why we've got the mess that we're in. But that's for another sermon. Someday when we get to Deuteronomy, we'll deal with all that sort of stuff. But
The First Trial and Sentencing
let's look now at the first trial and sentencing in verses 9 to 16.
The Arraignment of Cain
You see the arraignment of Cain. Verse 9, then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? I'd like to think at this point I wouldn't have to say it, but again, God is not asking because he doesn't have the information. He's again telling Cain, come clean.
I've got you. I know what's happened. He says in the next verse, the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. All of these overtures, all of these questions, all of this time shows, demonstrates, highlights, and parades before us the patience of God.
Let no one ever tell you that God is impatient. Let no one ever tell you that God is not long-suffering. Let no one ever tell you that God lacks compassion, because the biblical narrative tells us directly opposite. He does possess long-suffering.
He does exercise compassion. Now, note the plea. The arraignment, where is Abel your brother? Now the plea in verse 9.
I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? Now, the attempt to evade through a blatant lie. He's showing escalation of sin. See, when Adam is called to account, he doesn't just deny, oh no, we didn't eat the fruit.
You're wrong. What do you mean? We didn't eat the fruit. No, he doesn't evade it like that.
He evades it in different ways, but he doesn't deny that it actually took place. This is what Cain is doing. I do not know. Where is Abel your brother?
I do not know. I mean, maybe he was fastidious, like, you know, the later Talmudic practices would be. Well, I threw him in a field, but I don't really actually know the exact coordinates. I mean, maybe he could try to sort of weasel his way out in a courtroom like that, but he is denying. the knowledge of having murdered his brother.
And then notice what else he does. He tries to evade through a blatant lie, and then he tries to evade through arrogant rhetoric. Verse 9b, am I my brother's keeper? Am I my brother's keeper?
Well, the Bible never tells us to be our brother's keeper in the sense that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year, we are right next to them and making sure everything is good. So, no, we're not called to be our brother's keeper, but the Bible everywhere does command us not to be our brother's murderer. And this is where N. Cain has fallen.
Cain is trying to get arrogant with God. Wenham says he overstates his responsibility toward his brother in order to deny it completely.
The Indictment: Blood Cries Out
And then the indictment comes in verse 10. The indictment in verse 10, what have you done? What have you done? 10a, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
Now, we have seen this in Adam and Eve. We see this in Cain. We see this all throughout scripture. The attempt to cover our own sin never ends well.
We saw this in Proverbs 28. Whoever covers his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes it will find mercy. When we attempt to sort of evade our sin or our responsibility for it, it never ends well. God doesn't say, oh, I guess you don't know where he is.
And I guess, yeah, I never made that clear that you are supposed to be. No, he doesn't do that. He says, what have you done? He knows our sin, brethren.
He knows and understands our hearts. And he calls him to account. The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. The Lord knows the deeds of men.
The Lord prizes human life even after death. I think this passage underscores this. God prizes human life even after death. In other words, there's value for human life, isn't there?
Even in its death. How we treat the body even after death is something we ought to be consistent with in terms of the creator and creature sort of distinction. God is concerned. There's a whole passage in scripture, in Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses one to nine, there is the law of the unsolved homicide.
I mean, this whole law was developed such that if somebody found a dead body, They didn't just say, well, we can't explain it, let's throw it into the ditch. Or we can't explain it, let's just bury it in the potter's field. We can't explain it, so that's just the way it goes. No, there was an elaborate ritual set up with a heifer, with water, with confession, and with asking God to atone for the sin that had occurred in that instance.
What do we make of that? We make of that this. God is concerned with the sanctity of life. God is concerned with the voice of, what, how many millions and millions of babies that cry out to Him from the ground, or the judicially innocent elderly people, or the judicially innocent terminally ill people that have been dispatched by the modern state.
We may think it's no big deal, and hopefully we don't, but God Almighty hears their voice crying out from the ground, the voice of their blood crying out from the ground. And the Lord hears the blood of innocent Abel. Calvin said Abel was speechless when his throat was being cut or in whatever other manner he was losing his life. But after death, the voice of his blood was more vehement than any eloquence of the orator.
That's very powerful. Very powerful. After death, the voice of his blood was more vehement than any eloquence of the orator. The significance of blood will be seen as we move through Genesis.
Life is in the blood. Capital punishment due for the murderer. The reality that God uses, or God rather calls for, blood and atonement in order to approach the Holy God, we do so through the blood of atonement. And then
The Punishment of Cain
note the punishment of Cain, finally, in verses 11 to 16. We see escalation here as well. That means a heightening. You not only see rapid escalation of sin and how bad it gets so quickly, but you also see the rapid escalation of curse upon sin.
And there are several lines of evidence for this. First, the escalation of curse upon Cain. In Genesis 3.14 and 17, the curses were upon the serpent and the ground. Adam and Eve themselves were not cursed.
Now, in their vocation, in their lives, with reference to Eve in terms of marriage and in terms of procreation, there were going to be certain consequences affecting her subsequent to the fall. With reference to Adam, there's going to be, you know, consequences subsequent to the fall. But Adam and Eve are not cursed. It's the serpent in the ground.
Here, Cain is cursed as a result of what he has done. As well, Adam would have difficulty with the land in 317 to 319. Cain would have nothing from the land. I don't think that means everybody in Cain's family forever, but it's a specific indictment, a specific curse upon Cain for this act of murder.
And then note that Adam was exiled from the garden, Cain would ultimately be exiled from any stability on the earth. He'd be a fugitive, he'd be a vagabond, he'd be a wanderer. Isn't men, isn't the desire and design of men and women to find stability, to find security, to find a place to hang our hats at the end of the day? I mean, every one of us desires a bit of a haven.
Every one of us desires a bit of rest. Every one of us desires, after a long, hard day, to be able to go somewhere. It doesn't have to be the Taj Mahal. It doesn't have to be the White House.
It just has to be a place where we can put our feet up and praise God Almighty from whom all blessings flow. Cain's not going to have that. Cain has sacrificed that. Cain has thrown that all away.
Cain, according to Calvin, was not only condemned to personal exile, but was also subjected to still more severe punishment, namely that he should find no region of the earth where he would not be of a restless and a fearful mind. Now note Cain's response to his punishment. He cries out concerning his punishment, not the sin that he's being punished for. You sometimes see this, don't you?
You follow the news, and you see a court case, and somebody's sentenced, and instead of, you know, owning what they've done and confessing what they've done, they say, well, that judge is harsh. That jury was unfair. This system is rigged. It's bad.
Well, that's what Cain does. Cain doesn't cry out, oh, my iniquity has been great. There's a marginal reading that suggests that based on other text types, but the preferred reading is, my punishment, it's too great for me to bear. In other words, God's been harsh.
This is too much. This isn't cool. This isn't legit. This isn't right.
This isn't normal. Instead of crying out over the sin that got him into the mess, he rather cries out over the punishment. that he cannot bear. He implies that God is too harsh. Matthew Henry said, impenitent, unhumbled hearts are therefore not reclaimed by God's rebukes because they think themselves wronged by them.
And it is an evidence of great hardness to be more concerned about our sufferings than for our sins. That is indicative of a hardened heart, to be more concerned about our sufferings than about our sins. He knows within himself the legitimacy of Genesis 9.6. Even prior to Genesis 9.6, Cain knows the legitimacy of it.
Could it be? What Genesis 9-6 stipulates in terms of capital punishment for murderers is part of the law of God written on our hearts. It's not only the prohibition concerning murder, but it's the penalty associated with the murderer. Cain knows that wherever he goes, there are persons that are going to want to take him out.
Who wants a man who's engaged in fratricide, the murder of a brother living in their community? In fact, when we drop down in the narrative and we find that Cain has a wife, most of the commentators suggest he probably had the wife before he murdered Abel. Now, just because the text gives us Cain and Abel doesn't mean there aren't other people on the earth. Adam and Eve had a multitude of sons and daughters.
So the commentators rightly, and I would say correctly, say that he probably had his wife before he murdered Abel. Why in the world would any woman want to saddle up to a guy who had murdered his own brother? I mean, this is not the sort of guy you want to bring home for turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. He's a wretch.
And he understands this. The others in the world around him, they're going to want to exact vengeance upon him. They're going to want to destroy him. And then note God's command in verse 15.
The Lord said to him, therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. The sevenfold vengeance is probably a poetic form of speech, meaning full divine retribution. It's borne out or rather used that way in other places in the Old Testament.
And then why does God preserve Cain's life? Cain deserves to die. God should have had him executed, but God doesn't do that. Why?
I don't know. I don't know. I think Gil's probably close, as Gil most often is either right or close. It was the will of God, though Cain deserved to die, yet that he should not die immediately, but live a long and miserable life, that it might be a terror to others not to commit the like crime.
I probably said when considering this in our Wednesday night Bible study, if given the option, I would prefer the gas chamber over the modern penal system. If I was convicted of a capital offense, I would prefer the death penalty than life in prison. I'm not suggesting that you imitate that, but the modern penal system is far scarier than anything that lie beyond the grave for a believer. I don't want to be victimized.
I don't want to be sodomized. I don't want to have a life of torment in a prison. So I could understand why some would opt for the chair versus the cell. And I suggest that that's what's at play here.
Death for Cain would have been a blessing as opposed to what he was destined to now in this life that he had chosen by rejecting the kind hand of God, the firm warning of God, the repeated questioning of God, and when he went out, he murdered his brother. It was better for him to die, actually. But he got what he wanted. And Bishop Hall makes this observation, not the Roman Catholic, but rather the Anglican Bishop, Joseph Hall.
He said, he that would not keep his brother is cast out from the protection of God. He that feared not to kill his brother fears now that whosoever meets him will kill him. The troubled conscience projects fearful things, and sin makes even cruel men cowardly. Sin makes even cruel men cowardly.
The righteous are as bold as a lion, aren't they? According to Proverbs 28. But the wicked flee when no one pursues. They're afraid of everything.
Why? Because they've got a guilty conscience. That's Cain. He's got a guilty conscience.
He's a vagabond. He's a fugitive. He's going to bounce from place to place. He's fearful of the blood avenger.
He's fearful of a family member coming and exacting vengeance upon him for his having dispatched Abel. He goes on, Paul goes on, God saw it was too much favor for him to die. He therefore wills that which Cain wills. Cain would live.
It has yielded him, but for a curse. He shall live, banished from God, carrying his hell in his bosom and the brand of God's vengeance in his forehead. God rejects him, the earth repines at him, men abhor him. Himself now wishes the death which he feared, and no man dare pleasure him with a murder.
How bitter is the end of sin! Yea, without end! Still, Cain finds that he killed himself more than his brother. We should never sin if our foresight were but as good as our sense.
The issue of sin would appear a thousand times more horrible than the act is pleasant. Now, I often say, if you ever want a quote or notes, email me, and I will send this to you. You all really need that one, because I think that's one of the best commentaries on what's happening here with reference to Cain that I've read. And it's hard to digest it in the span of 20 seconds in an audible reading.
Perhaps you can look at it on your computer screen and ponder the implications of what our brother said so many years ago concerning the wretched end of Cain. And then notice finally with reference to the banishment from God. Verse 16, then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. It's intriguing because how does the chapter begin?
The chapter begins with Sabbath day worship. The chapter begins with two brothers taking sacrifices or offerings to approach God, to come nigh unto God, to draw close to God. And yet, at the end of the chapter, Cain is driven even further from God. This is the divine commentary on man's sin.
Application: The Escalation of Sin
Well, brethren, as I said, in the course of this sermon, we ought to appreciate or notice or observe the rapid escalation of sin. Wenham says Cain is portrayed as a much more hardened sinner than his father. Adam merely ate a fruit given him by his wife. Cain murdered his brother.
Cain rejects the divine entreaty and then grumbles about his sentence. Everything Cain does is wrong in this chapter. And then Waltke makes the observation, the sundering of the familial bond begun in chapter three here escalates to fratricide in one mere generation. What's Waltke saying?
He's saying that family bond that begins to be disrupted in Genesis 3. Remember, the woman whom you gave me? The woman that you put in my life, what's Adam doing? He's throwing the woman under the bus.
Chapter 2, 18 to 25, shows us that marriage is a blessed and a wonderful thing. There is this one-fleshment about it, and yet when it comes to sin, Adam is ready to throw Eve right under the bus in order to try and evade the very judgment and wrath of God. So we see that. We see that disruption.
When God comes to deal with the woman, what does he say? Your desire will be for him, but he will rule over you. In other words, the marriage is going to continue, the marriage is going to persist, but there's going to be some distortion as a result of sin. So we see that at that level, and then we get into chapter 4, and what do we see?
Fratricide, the actual murder of one brother by another brother. You see, this concept that we can do a little bit of sin and keep it under control is absolutely positively false. You cannot do one little sin and keep it under control. You know, back in the day when I was a little kid, I remember a an advertising campaign for one of the potato chip companies, and they said, you can't eat just one.
They're right. Have you ever reached into a bag of chips and eaten just one? Is that possible? Are you the winner?
Have you done that? Probably not. You can't eat just one. Sins like that.
You can't just do one. You can't just reach your hand and take out one little chip, eat that, and then be done with it. Sin is monstrous. Sin always goes for the throat.
Owen, somewhere in Volume 6 says, every doubt would end in absolute atheism if given then. Every, you know, unguarded look upon the opposite sex would end in abject sexual immorality, if not stopped at the very source. You cannot play with sin. Solomon asks his sons, can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned?
Can you engage in adultery in that context and not end up with wounds and dishonor and the wrath and fury of God? You see, brethren, we have way too small view of sin, thinking that we can domesticate it, that we can tame it, and that we can somehow control it. We cannot! That's what James says with reference to the tongue.
Remember that in James chapter 3? It is an unruly evil. No man can tame it. What does James mean there?
James means what James means. No man can tame the tongue. Now, there's one of two ways to read that. We could read that and say, oh, then I'm not even going to bother.
I'm just going to engage in the sorts of lawlessness that tongues engage in. No, that's not James' purpose. No man can tame the tongue, but God the Lord can tame the tongue. And as believers, you ought to ask Him to set a restraint over your tongue.
Brethren, we cannot play games with sin. Let Cain teach you that. as well with reference to the first murder. It demonstrates the antithesis announced in 315. There is this collective warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
We see that the first murder was religious in nature. That's how Jesus interprets it in Matthew 23 35. Abel was a martyr. Meredith Klein says, not mere social disorder was involved, but radical religious discord.
The enmity of the serpent seed against the seed of the woman. Jesus interpreted Cain's murder of Abel as the first shedding of martyr's blood. The first murderer did not heed the warning of God. The first murderer did not listen to the voice of God.
The first murderer engaged in rebellion against God. And in 1 John chapter 3, we as the people of God are told to avoid the sin of Cain. And then with reference to the glory of the God of justice, he knows the deeds of men, both of the good and the evil, and the Lord is indeed the champion of the sanctity of life. There's a commentary on the book of Deuteronomy, and this fellow says with reference to the law of unsolved murder.
Again, Deuteronomy 21, 1 to 9, read it same time. And it might seem odd, it might seem strange. You've got to measure, you've got to find the priest, you've got to kill a heifer, you've got to get water, you've got to pray to God to get atonement for this one unsolved murder, this one unsolved homicide. Wright says, it is often when the Old Testament seems most culturally remote from us that we need to pay closest attention to its challenge.
What ought to strike us from this law is not the oddity of a cow with a broken neck, in an uninhabited brook, but the expected response of a whole community through its civic, judicial, and religious leaders to a single human death. That's what ought to strike us. God is indeed the champion of the sanctity of life. And then God as well hears the voice of the cry of Abel's blood.
And the verb that's used here is used elsewhere in the Bible. In fact, Wenham, I think, accurately summarizes. Here, Abel's blood is pictured crying to God for vengeance. The verb cry is the desperate cry of men without food, expecting to die, and there's texts here, or oppressed by their enemies.
It is the scream for help of a woman being raped. It is the plea to God of the victims of injustice. The law, the prophets, and the Psalms unite with narratives like this to assert that God does hear his people's desperate cries for help. And I think that's a good place for us to end, and the best help that God gives is the help of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can be assured that if we cry out to Him in faith, He hears us, and that He answers us, and that He gives us life. Because God not only hears the blood of Abel, but He hears the blood of Jesus. And it speaks better things, according to Hebrews chapter 12. The blood of Abel cries out, condemn, the blood of Jesus cries out, forgive.
Well, let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your word, and thank you for these accounts in the book of Genesis and the early history of man. May we learn the lessons that you would have for us. May you help us to see sin in all of its ugly detail and description, and may you grant us grace to heed the voice of God Almighty. We ask that you would go with us now, and we pray that you would cause your face to shine upon us, that you would keep us, that you would protect us, that you would flood our hearts and minds with that peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
And we pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. I'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.