(Genesis 4:1-15)
�And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the L0RD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And 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 slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Able thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother�s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother�s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother�s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.�
History owes much more to the God of the Bible than it would seem at first glance. The ancient Babylonians had mythical stories of the flood. So did the American Indians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Chinese, Fiji Islanders, and most other cultures. Any impartial observer must note that these universal similarities, spread across nearly the entire world, show that man comes from a common background and did not just �spring up� by any evolutionary, or haphazard, process.
In the area of literature the Greek drama is one of our earliest examples. Even this seems to owe a debt to the Bible and the stories which God preserved from the experiences of the beginnings of the human race.
In the Greek Tragedy there are three things which are needed. First, there must be a hero. Second, there will be some sort of fatal flaw in this hero�s life. Finally, there will be seen a punishment meted out on the hero because of his fatal flaw.
We see all of these occurrences in our text portion. The hero is Cain. In this case the word �hero� refers to the main character of the narrative. We see a fatal law in the life of Cain; this is his sin nature which causes him to substitute the best of his own works rather than accepting the leading of God. Finally, we see the punishment as Cain was forced from his farmland and became a nomad.
Let us look first at the cast introduced in verses one and two.
The first thing see at a play is the introduction of the cast members on the program as we enter the theater. This happens here in verses one and two.
All cast members are important in a play. Even when they are not part of the story in an obvious way, they are part of the story or they would not have been included in the narrative. Here we see the persons of Adam and Eve mentioned briefly and then somewhat ignored for the rest of the play.
We see that the parents of the two main characters were Godly persons. Eve even takes the position that her children were gifts from God. She acknowledges that God gave her grace even in the act of child birth. Both of these men were given a family consciousness of the fact of God in their lives from a very early age.
This is an important fact. Many, especially in this day of �blame the environment and spare the personal accountability� popular psychology, we are often told that sin is not real. Sin, we are reminded, is simply an unhealthy reaction to stimuli caused by a flaw in our previous experience. We are assured that evil is not of sin; evil actions are caused by Skinnerian Behavioralism. We are told that there is no need to assume the existence of any �god;� neither is there any real �devil� to afflict our lives. Good, and evil, are simply the result of experiences we have undergone.
The Bible teaches, of course, a completely different scenario. So, too, does common sense. So, too, does our present narrative text. Two bothers, both with the same set of parents, both reared up to fear and understand the Glory of God, and then two completely different outcomes.
There is a God to Whom we need to submit our lives in righteous obedience. There is also a Devil who will seek to drag us down from our full potentiality as created human beings.
We see these two brothers, no doubt close playmates in their youth, grow to follow their singular paths into adulthood. One, Cain, works in the fields while his brother, Able is a shepherd. Neither occupation is one of a corrupt man. Both brothers live outwardly good lives.
But, sin and destruction lies at the door as we see the stage of conflict set.
The stage of conflict is set in verses three through seven as both brothers bring offerings to the Lord.
I am struck by these offerings. The popular culture, even religious culture, of the day will argue that the many different religions as simply paths in the same experience. They aren�t! A couple of days ago I went walking with a friend. We walked down the streets of the city, traversing sidewalks as we traveled to a local church. That was our turning around point where we began our walk back.
For several years when he was younger, my son and I walked a country pathway, not even a street as it was a former railroad bed with the tracks removed. We walked under a canopy of trees seeking to regain mastery over our little pathway. At the end of our trek was a lake at a former city park.
Both walks offered exercise. Both seemingly offered the same air and freedom. But one walk ended at a lake which was no longer used even for fishing. Although a beautiful walk, the end thereof was a seemingly beautiful but no longer useful area. It was a true �dead end� as the path ended there. We stopped because we had nowhere else to go.
The other walk took us to a church, the symbolic �House of God.� We could have gone in many different directions. We could have entered the church. We could have entered the homes in the area and spoken with the people. We could have traveled further down the road and seen even more scenery. We choose to go back the way from which we had come; this was a place of rest and sustenance as we partook of a light lunch.
Do you see the difference? One way, to the lake, was a way of endings. There was no real future at that place. A beautiful walk, to be sure. But, a walk without any chance to find purpose.
The other walk, to the church, offered a myriad of opportunities. Our choices were not limited by the destination. Our choices were actually enhanced by the destination.
Cain offered the works of his hands, the crops of his fields. This was a walk to the park. His offering was not that which would lead him into fellowship with the Creator. His offering was, in fact, one which would lead away from fellowship with God. This offering, as beautiful as it might have been, was not that which God had required.
Able, meanwhile, brought a blood offering from the flocks to place before God. I am sure that most of us would have recoiled at the sight. But, the fact is that Able was more interested in pleasing God than in pleasing his sensibilities. Able offered that which spoke of the horribleness of sin and necessity to turn away from evil. Able offered that which displayed his trust in, and love of, God.
Cain displayed the true attitude of his heart when he saw that his offering was rejected. His attitude was not that he had done wrong by rejecting the way of God. The attitude of Cain was that God had done wrong by not changing His ways to accept the unholy offering of Cain.
Cain was not just disappointed. Cain was mad at God and the righteous judgment of God.
You may well notice that God did not strike Cain down in a fit of pique. Instead, God displayed His love toward Cain as He gently explained the error of the way of humanity without the leading of the Creator of humanity.
God warned Cain that this act of disobedience would lead to his enslavement by sin. God warned Cain that what Cain saw as his freedom was actually the bands of the chains of sin being wound about him.
God offered Cain the way to break those bonds. Cain not only refused, he repudiated God for not accepting what he had offered. This was the fatal flaw in Cain�s life. He would be master even if this meant that he would cause himself to actually be bound by sin and forced to depart from the safe harbor of God�s love.
The inevitability of sin was certain to follow. See verse six.
The inevitable consequence of sin is death. It happened in this instance. It will happen in every instance as God told Adam and Eve before the ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It will happen in eternal death to every soul that refuses to accept Christ as Savior.
The conflict here was between righteousness and unrighteousness. The unrighteous attempted to remove the righteous by doing away with that righteous. This is an attempt to become righteous by default; if the righteous is removed the unrighteous can assume the mantle. We see this quite often in this day of vitriolic hatred expressed against those who attempt to spread even the love of God into a world cursed with an allegiance to sin.
In verses nine and ten we see that God does, indeed, know all.
As in the Garden, God calls the sinner to repentance. As in the Garden the sinner attempts to mask his sin. In the garden Adam and Eve tried to hide behind cloaks of leaves. In this instance Cain attempts to mask his sin by asking questions.
Have you ever noticed that all people will become very religiously knowledgeable when we begin to share the Gospel? Suddenly everyone becomes a theologian. But, as in the case of Cain here, the theology of a person without the illumination of the Holy Sprit through the Word of God is a theology which is center in the wants and desires of man.
This did not work in the case of Cain because God knew his heart and his actions. This will not work in our case either. Sin is sin. We might try to cover the sin with a rationalization. �I�m only trying to express how much I love you,� the man will say to the woman, when the truth is that he is acting as a brute beast with only love of himself as a purpose in his dalliance. Even our tender care for another is often clouded by our own base desires because we are a sinful people.
Be assured, God knows the truth. The old radio program, �The Shadow,� began with an assurance that �Who knows what evil lurks within the heart of man? The Shadow does.� Well, so do God. God knows even when we sometimes will not even admit the fact to ourselves.
And yet, knowing our evil, God still calls us to repentance.
The great, unfathomable love of God displayed toward us, His unworthy and rebellious creation!!!
The fact is, as we see in verses ten and eleven, God does punish sin. God must punish sin. Not only is God a Being of Justice. He also knows what evil will be perpetrated upon humankind by that sin. God must punish sin to warn men of sin and its consequence.
The sin here began from Cain�s misplaced faith in his own ability as a farmer rather than his faith in God so God takes from Cain his ability as a farmer. Sometimes the best thing that God can do for us is to remove us from that which causes us to sin. This can cause us pain and despair. If we are but faithful to Him this pain and despair will drive us closer to Him Who loves us and cares for us.
God tells Cain that he must leave the land where he has labored. Cain must become a nomad.
God calls us today to separate ourselves from sin, and the temptations to sin, and become a nomad in the sense that we will simply follow the Lord wherever He leads.
This is the grace of God. We see this in verses thirteen through fifteen.
Cain complains that the punishment is greater than he can bear. Notice, however, that he does not refuse. This is an act of faith and obedience toward God. Cain was a sinner, to be sure. But, even he was convinced that God had the best way for him to travel through his life.
Notice that this small amount of obedience drew the favor of God. God placed a mark of some sort upon Cain so that his physical life might be spared. Notice, also, that this mark did not eradicate the effects of sin in his life. He still had to suffer the punishment of beginning his life as a nomad.
God will often grant grace even in the hour of punishment.
This way of escape applies even to the sinner of today. Man is a sinner. As such he is incapable of any real �good� towards God. As Cain�s offering of the fruit of the ground was rejected, so will our �offering� of any sort of good works. The only good work which God will accept is that Good Work which Jesus performed on the Cross of Calvary.
The fatal flaw of mankind lies in that sin nature within. This sin nature means that there is no way of escape from the righteous judgment of God.
The only escape lies in a person giving up his present home, in sin, and traveling as a nomad to a Heavenly home. This is done only through a blood sacrifice. Actually, it is effected only through The Blood Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Are you still offering decaying vegetation rather than the shed blood of the living Savior?
Why not accept Jesus as your Savior? Do it right now while God is speaking with you!
It is the only wise decision.