The Sin of Cain
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2019 · 17 February 2019
Genesis is the book of origins. There are the origins of the material world here and there are the origins of the spiritual world as well. And in Genesis 4 is the famous story of Cain and Abel. Cain is presented here as the prototype of the doomed, lost sinner. When confronted by God, with the opportunity for forgiveness and deliverance, he refuses. He is the first unbeliever who ever lived.
Adam and Eve were believers and this passage indicates that Abel was also a believer. These are the only four people on the planet at that time. Here is the first unbeliever; the first man utterly without God, without hope and without blessing. Cain's history is a tragic story that is the beginning of all other religions without God. Let me remind you by reading Genesis 4:6-16.
“The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
“He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
“13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 You have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.”
“16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” That's the story of Cain. There are several points as we look through these 10 verses. Cain shows us that even the lost and the damned have hopeful beginnings. And in his case it was hopeful. Verse 1, "the man had relations with his wife." Eve gave birth to Cain and said, 'I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord."
Cain in Hebrew means, "a formed thing; a creature." And so Eve names her son, "that one that was made with the help of the Lord." And in verse 2, she gave birth to another son Abel. And Abel's name, Hebel, means, "A mere breath." And certainly his life was very brief. It's reasonable to assume he died somewhere in his teenage years, when everybody else lived for hundreds of years.
Soon Cain’s real spiritual condition was revealed in an act of worship. And that describes the doom of unacceptable worship. Everybody is a worshipper. Even the damned and those people who reject God are worshippers. You either worship the true God in the true way, or you worship the true God in a false way, or you worship some other gods, who are demons, or you worship yourself.
We read that, "Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground." No doubt there was a command of God to worship Him by bringing an offering. However, he brought the fruit of the ground, which as the text indicates, is unacceptable to God. It must have been that God revealed that what He wanted was a sacrifice of an animal that was the substitute for his own sin and death.
So here is the first example of false worship of the true God. Here is the first example of self-righteousness. Apparently, Cain doesn't feel he needs a substitute; he doesn't feel that death needs to occur on his behalf. He can bring God something of his own achievement. It doesn't tell us anything about the quality of what he brought; it just says he brought something of the fruit of the ground from his own labor.
Abel, on the other hand brought, verse 4 says, "the firstlings of his flock and their fat portions." He brought animals who were the best. That's what in the Hebrew language - "the firstlings of the flock and their fat portions" means. God required a sacrifice of the very best. And that, pictures the ultimate sacrifice for our sin, Jesus Christ - the perfect Lamb of God without blemish or sin.
In the case of Cain, God had no regard for Cain or his offering. The heart of Cain was self-righteous; and his offering therefore was not right either. It spoke nothing of his need for a sacrifice; it spoke nothing of his sin, nothing of his deserving death. So here is false, self-righteous, hypocritical worship. Cain did not please God. And he is placed, therefore, with those who are cursed by God.
And the doomed resent the true people of God and also God Himself. In verse 5 it says Cain became very angry, and his face fell. He hated the blessing that was bestowed upon his righteous brother. He hated the fact that Abel was righteous. And the righteous are always a stumbling block for the self-righteous. Those who are therefore blessed by God are always hated by the self-righteous.
Cain was angry and his face was in despair and fury. That is the way for people who hold on to their sin and their self-righteousness, who reject God, and love their sin, and love themselves. It is part of their attitude to be angry with the Bible; to be angry with the God of the Bible; and to be angry with those who believe the Bible. If you bring that attitude anywhere, they're going to throw you out.
Now let's continue where we left off last week. Unbelievers reject the Word of God. Verse 6, “The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?” This is the direct word of God, right from God's mouth to Cain. God gives him a clear invitation to be delivered from his sin. God still speaks pointedly. And He still speaks directly to us through the pages of Scripture.
God never seeks information. He knows all of that. God is prompting dialogue. He's trying to cause Cain to take an honest look at what motivates him - to get him to take a look at his sinful heart and his rage toward his brother and toward God. In the words of James 1, lust was at work in him. And lust, when it conceives, brings forth sin. And it was a deadly sin.
And then God says graciously, "This doesn't have to be the way it is." Verse 7, "'If you do well, will you bot be accepted?” What does He mean? God is saying, "You can repent and cleanse your heart. You can offer God the sacrifice that is acceptable from a right heart. And if you do that, your face is going to be lifted up. You don't have to be angry. Do what's right in your heart before Me.
On the other hand, verse 7 continues, “If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.” And sin is depicted like a roaring lion. “And its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” God says, "You got a choice. You can do what's right, and acknowledge your sin, and obey Me and bring a proper sacrifice to Me. But if you rebel, sin will destroy you, and you will spend your life trying to control it."
It's the same with us, we are born sinners. Sin is in us; but it's not inevitable that we be always mastered by sin. If we come to God, repentant for our sin, embracing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then we are triumphant over sin. Those are the wonderful promises of the Bible. Romans 6:12 says, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.”
God is the first evangelist. And God was giving to sinners two choices: do what's right from the heart and in your behavior. But if you continue the way you're going, you are getting a life of conflict, and you will lose. And Cain rejected the Word of God because of verse 8, “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.”
Romans 3:10-15 describes the sinner, "None is righteous, no not one; 11 no one understands, no one seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; no one does good, not even one. 13 Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive, the poison of asps is under their lips. 14 their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood.”
They don't fear God, and if it needs be, they will kill. That's why we have to have governments. If we lived in an anarchy without government and without police, murder would be going on all the time. And Cain was the seed of the serpent. Eve thought he might be her seed, who would bruise the serpent's head. But it turned out that Cain was actually the seed of the serpent himself.
I'm not surprised that through the history of the world, God's people have been persecuted and slaughtered, and that is going on even today. We know that all over the world there are more Christians today being martyred that at any time in history. But we know that death is not the end but the beginning of life forever together with Jesus Christ who has prepared a place for all of us.
Verse 9, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” The doomed try to hide from their sin, even when confronted with the truth. They might come to church, but they refuse to admit their sin. God never needs information because He is all-knowing. In verse 10 God said, “The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.”
Cain was no longer near the body. When God confronts Cain, he had run. This is typical of the sinner. And he said, "'I do not know.'" He not only flees the scene, but he lies to cover up his sin. And then he says, "'Am I my brother's keeper?'" This is that pattern in the sinner, who will not acknowledge his sin. This was a murderer who hated his brother and loved his sin.
Sin has gotten worse since the Fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, there was a timid hiding in the Garden. And now there's this blatant lie. And sin has turned Cain into a murderer. We may not see it; but God sees it and knows it. Today people just don't classify it as sin; they say it is freedom. It's the "new morality”. Man is now the noble savage, who acts in freedom to do whatever he feels he wants to do.
All doomed people are eventually indicted by God. Now God pulls him into the court; God is the investigator who brings in the evidence; and the evidence is the blood of Abel crying to God out of the ground, metaphorically. God moves now to being the prosecutor. Verse 11, “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.”
God says, "You did it. You are the killer. Every crime committed, every sin committed cries out to God. All sin offends Him and is known to Him. And God responds as the divine avenger. That same ground from which he had drawn his offerings; that very ground received his brother's blood. So now God pronounces a curse on Cain that will also influence the rest of humanity.
Verse 12, “When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” You are never going to be able to farm. If you try, you will get absolutely nothing. In your pride, and your cherished profession, you will not succeed. And even though God had pronounced a curse on Cain, He graciously allowed him to live.
Cain married his sister, which was in the early plan and purpose of God. This was not a problem like today in the decline of the gene pool and intermarriage in a family. And out of his loins came the population that follows. Adam and Eve had other children and they intermarried and they produced more and more children. The sad reality is, by the time that first generation passed, things became very bad.
Cain said to the Lord in verse 13-14, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” He just said, "You're not fair." There's no repentance, and no contrition, no desire to overcome sin, and no longing for forgiveness.
Cain said whoever finds me will kill me." Why? Because they were all related to Abel. The population has been growing. And Cain was going to live a long time. And people would be born; they would grow and they would have children. And they would all know about Cain, the killer of Abel, because they were all relatives. And revenge was all they knew.
Verse 15, “Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.” People always ask, "What is that sign?" and the answer is, "No one knows." But God did not want to establish personal vengeance as a means of punishing criminals.
The Lord says in Romans 12:19, "'Vengeance is mine; I will repay.'" In fact, He becomes the protector of Cain. This is God being gracious to a wicked man. Why? The answer in Romans 2:4-5, "The patience and forbearance of God is intended to lead you to repentance." However Cain had absolutely no appreciation for that whatsoever.
Verse 16, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” That's the saddest comment yet - no repentance. He chooses to live apart from God. He settled in the world. He loved the world, so the love of God was not in him (I John 2). Nod is an unknown place, but it symbolizes the place where God is not considered. Let us pray.