God, Abel, and Cain
Genesis 4:1- 16
Key Verse: 4:7
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
1. Read 4:1-5a. Who were Cain and Abel and what sacrifices did each offer to God? How did God regard each man and his offering? Why? What does this show about them? About God? (Heb 11:4)
2. Read 4:5b-7. How did Cain react to God’s rejection of his offering? What does this show about his attitude toward God? How does this word of God show God’s love for Cain? What can we learn here about how to deal with our sinful desires?
3. Read verse 8. How did Cain receive God’s word? What was his motive for murder? Read V9-10.Why did God ask the question? What does Cain’s response show about him? What did the Lord say?
4. Read 4:11-16. How did God punish Cain? How did he protect him? What does it mean to be a restless wanderer? How did Cain react to his punishment? Why?
God, Abel, and Cain
Genesis 4
Good morning, everyone. In today’s passage, we will look at the story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both brought their offerings to God. But he favored Abel and his offering, and not with Cain and his offering. In Old Testament history, this was first offering humans made to God. He could have appreciated both gifts. Yet, he looked favor with Abel and his offering, but not with Cain and his offering. Why? What does this reveal about God’s nature? Through this message let’s learn about what it is that God wants from us, as well as why it is he wants from us.
1. Abel and his offering
Who is Abel? He is the second son of Adam and Eve who grew up to take care of the flocks. In verse 3, he brought a fat portion from some of the firstborn among his animals. How did God look at his offering?
Verse 4 says The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
Why was God pleased with his Abel as well as his offering? Some Bible scholars said that Abel’s offering was acceptable because he offered an animal sacrifice (related to the animal sacrifice in the law of Moses). But that is not true because the law concerning animal sacrifices was a law made known to people thousands and thousands of years later. At that time there was no law. So why did God favor Abel?
Because Abel gave with his heart, he brought fat portions from some of the first born to God. Speaking from a sociological perspective, many cultures in many time periods (even now) emphasize the value of the “first born”. In a family, the first born is generally considered the most precious due to sentimental and nostalgic reasons. More generally speaking, the “first” of anything just stands out more.
First job, first place, first love. First things are important to many people.
We normally want to keep our first things to ourselves. Yet, Abel offered some of the firstborn flocks to God. This shows his attitude toward God, the one who is the embodiment of goodness and love. This shows how Abel treated God. Though this was a fresh world after the Fall of mankind, we see that the reason Abel gave this kind of offering is because he honored God. He did not forget that God blessed his hands to be successful with his flocks. He was thankful. He put God first. If he did not put God first, he would have offered something of significantly less personal value. God saw his heart. He saw his attitude.
He loved Abel’s attitude.
Hebrews 11:4 says, “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.”
2. Cain and his offering
Who is Cain? He was the first-born son of Adam and Eve. When Cain grew up, he worked the ground. One day, he offered to God some fruits from the ground. How did God look at it? Verse 4 says “God did not look favor with Cain and his offering”.
Why? Why was God displeased with Cain and his offering? God was displeased with him because Cain did not give with his heart.
So we’ve already established that because of God’s love and selfless giving towards us, he is worthy to receive our most valuable offerings. Yet despite this, Verse 3 says that Cain only gave some of the fruits to God as opposed to Abel’s offering. The issue wasn’t the quantity nor the type of offering. The issue is his heart, which consequentially leads to the quality of the offering, and the quality of the offering is dependent on what you are able to give to God.
Bible scholars said Cain’s offering was rejected because he offered fruits to God instead of animals. On top of the fact that animal sacrifices come later in the biblical timeline, we also see that God couldn’t have rejected Cain’s offering due to it being fruit because in Moses’ law, if people could not afford to offer animals, God allows them to bring a grain offering or a flour or even bird offering as a sin offering. So, again offering fruits does not matter.
Instead, verse 5 says that God did not look in favor towards CAIN and his offering. Notice how Cain himself was mentioned as the object of disfavor, and then his offering. Compared to Abel who had a more determined heart, and brought some of the firstborn as offering. Cain, having an unmotivated heart, just brought some of the mid quality fruits. This offering shows his attitude toward God, which shows he doesn’t understand God.
I’m sure Cain worked hard to get fruits from the freshly cursed ground. He probably got up early in the morning, took out all the weeds and thorns in the heat. Then, He reaped the crops. He knew he had to give a thanks offering to God. But he wanted to keep the first fruits, the best fruits for himself. He did not understand God’s nature, which is why he didn’t understand why he couldn’t give God his mid quality fruits. Regardless of this, he gave his offering to God. Because of this, God, knowing his heart, did not look in favor of him and his offering.
Today, in the 21st century the way that we offer to God should still be the same way Abel has offered to God.
Romans 12:1 says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship”.
The kind of offering which God accepts today is to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is considered holy and therefore pleasing to God. Saying the words “living sacrifice” may scare some people, but bear with me because this concept really is beautiful. The idea is that God wants us ourselves: our bodies, our minds, our time, and our money to him. That is the true offering. This is considered holy and pleasing to God. This is also the reason why we should desire God to accept us and our offering, because he is worthy to receive our true and proper worship.
So you are all here today to worship God. But who knows? God may look with favor on someone but not you, and vice versa. Perhaps he favors that person’s living offering more than yours.
I want you guys to know that writing this message was incredibly difficult for me. I didn’t understand the point of the offering, and I also had trouble expressing why we should want to be accepted by God. To me these are deeply philosophical questions and it ended up me basically attempting to prove God, which is very confusing and not practical for a church-going audience. On top of that, I had a very messy past 2 weeks in my personal life. I was sloppily working on my message as I was rehearsing with my band for a show that we did yesterday, and because we did so much in our rehearsal days, I wanted to be lazy and not think about anything or do anything. So even when I should have been working on my message on my days not rehearsing, I wasn’t. I’m sure that God didn’t look with favor towards me and my previous drafts for my message. However, unlike Cain, I want to desire to want more of God. I also want to give the right offering to God out of gratitude too.
3. God’s help to Cain
Look at verse 5b. It says, “Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.”
We see how stubborn human nature can be. When Cain saw God did not look favor with his offering, he should have examined himself, he should’ve asked himself “If God is good, what is wrong with my offering”. He should’ve analyzed and concluded the nature of God through his interaction with God. He would’ve reached the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with his offering, rather there was something wrong with where his heart was.
However, instead, he was very angry with God and his brother Abel.
Notice how God’s intent wasn’t to shame Cain for the offering he gave God. Rather, He tried to nudge Cain towards the right direction. How did God seek to help him? Shall we read it together?
Genesis 4:6-7
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
God asked him why he was angry so that He and Cain could establish a bond with each other. God wanted Cain to just talk to Him so that they could be reconciled. The warning God gave to Cain regarding the nature of sin wasn’t a threat, it was Him genuinely being concerned for Cain, God even told Cain that he had the ability to rule over this terrifying creature that we call sin. God didn’t do anything wrong. Why is He wrong in favoring Abel’s offering over Cain’s if the point of the offering is to be like God and to develop a graceful heart? I understand that Cain might have been hurt by God’s response, but he shouldn’t have meditated in his own jealousy.
Regardless, he helped Cain. He said “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” Notice how God left the door open for Cain to be accepted? Cain should have asked God what it was that he was lacking. He should have gone to Him for counseling.
This is the same warning to us as well. If we do what is right, sin cannot enter us. But when we do not do what is right, our minds become stubborn and it tries to justify itself. This is how we open the door for sin to enter us. If we aren’t careful, our desires and actions shift away from what is actually right, to whatever satisfies my desires in that moment.
Here, we can learn how to rule over sin. We must do what is right. When God corrects us, view it as mercy rather than suffering. Thank God for telling me that I would be accepted if I do what is right in the eyes of God. This is how sin must be combatted. We can rule over sin if we latch on to God in this way.
Did Cain listen to God? Sadly no. In verse 8, he called out his brother Abel in the field, and killed Abel. Cain then spiraled into sin: the first murder in human history. One can easily see God punishing Cain, but surprisingly, what did God do? Let’s look at verse 9.
It says “Then, the Lord said to Cain, where is your brother Abel? I do not know. He replied, am I my brother’s keeper?”
Of course, God knew what had happened to Abel. He said what he said because God wanted Cain to have another chance to really rethink his actions. This is what’s fascinating about Yahweh, sometimes when you think God is about to completely physically and emotionally annihilate someone for transgressing Him, he will always give them another chance to reflect on their wrongdoings so they can repent. Instead of shaming or killing Cain, God was still humbly asking him questions in order to guide him towards the correct conclusion. This is how God helped Adam when he sinned. In Genesis 3, when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, God asked him “Where are you?” God knew where Adam was hiding, yet, he gave him a second chance to repent of his sin.
Now let’s look at Cain’s response. In spite of God’s mercy, he said “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper? What a disturbing and sinister response. He did not feel remorse in any way. Instead, he became rebellious. Totally drunk with justifying himself. He also tried to cover his sin by challenging God’s mercy. What should God do?
Look at verse 10-15. Instead of killing him, he cursed Cain. Verse 11 says “you are under a curse and driven from the ground. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth”.
What was God’s curse to Cain? Even if he worked hard on the ground, the ground will no longer yield its crops for him. This is the consequence of rejecting God’s mercy. If God blesses you when you are in his presence, then of course if you are out of his presence you will be cursed. It’s the same logic as asking what would happen if you took the light away? Darkness takes over.
God cursed Cain not necessarily as a punishment, but mainly to urge Cain to come back to His presence. I’m sure God would have removed the curse if Cain repented from his transgressions. It must have been painful for Cain. He was a restless wanderer on the earth. Though God drove him out of Eden, the reason He drove Cain out was because God had no longer accepted Cain; and God did not accept Cain because he refused the second chance God had given him. Cain had rejected God’s mercy, his mercy being God’s direction for Cain to come back to Him. Because of this, he had totally spiraled downwards, descending into sin. This is the true reason Cain will find no rest. In fact, we see that anyone who is severed from God is considered a restless wanderer. God created man in his image so that God and mankind can have fellowship. Through this fellowship, we find true rest for ourselves. However, if you are cut off from this kind of fellowship, where else can one find true rest?
In verse 13, Cain said to God, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Again, God could have said “yeah, you deserve it. That is your penalty”. But instead what did God do?
Shall we read verse 15? “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
God acknowledged Cain’s greatest fear and protected his life. It can be a little bit difficult to understand God in this context. Cain is a murderer. He murdered his biological brother in cold blood for something incredibly pretty. He deserved to be punished. Yet, why did God continue to be patient with him? Why did he show him mercy? This is who God is in the Bible. He shows his great kindness and patience to people you’d think don’t deserve it. He gives them a second chance to repent.
However, verse 16 says, “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden”.
Now look at verse 17-24. Even though God showed his mercy to Cain, he did not repent. He lived his own life away from God’s presence. Actually, in verse 17 – 29, without God, he lived pretty well.
He married and had a son named Enoch. He built a city named after his son. His life seemed to be good. His descendants developed all kinds of technology for civilization.
It seems that people do not need God, and can actually thrive without God. However, we must remember 2 Corinthians 5:10.
It says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”.
God is not patient with us forever. In his time, he will judge each of us. Our judgment will be in accordance with how we live our lives. Our lives will be judged based on doing what is right before mankind and God: this means giving the right offering to God, doing what is right in the eyes of God, fearing him and honoring him.
At that point, it seems God failed. But he did not fail. Look at verse 25. Seth was born.
At that time, during the time of Seth, people began to call on the name of the Lord. They were God’s people.
Though they looked small, they were the hopes of God’s work. In the same way, the Delaware UBF church is small, but we are here to call on the name of God together. We are the hope of God. We are the hope of University of Delaware. We are a spiritual remnants of God’s people.
God looked favor with Abel and his offering but not with Cain and his offering. Abel put God first. He offered some of the firstborn animals. But Cain did not put God first. God is worthy to receive our best, our first thing. I pray we may give right offering to God: offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Also, do what is right so that we can overcome sin. Also, do not take advantage of God’s mercy as Cain has. Repent and find true fellowship with one another, but most importantly, with God.