Genesis 4:1-18
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (deed)
INTRO: Today, we will be answering the perennial question… Where did Cain get his wife…” But we’ll be doing that a little later.
We are in Genesis 4:1-18 and we’re going to be looking at two men. Cain and Abel.
Genesis 4:1–18 (NASB95) Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.”
2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;
5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
11 “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear!
14 “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 So the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael became the father of Methushael, and Methushael became the father of Lamech.
- Cain and Abel are not the only children of Adam and Eve.
- They may not even be the first two… they are just the first two that have a story we need to know.
- Cain at least, has a wife…
- She is one of Adam and Eve’s other children.
“Where did Cain get his wife?” This question is often asked as a “Gotcha” by people who don’t believe the truth of the Bible.
Cain & Abel are mentioned here, but we don’t know where they are in the birth order… other than Cain being born before Abel, and they are born before Seth.
Genesis 4:25 (NASB95) Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
Genesis 5:1–5 (NASB95) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.
3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters.
5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
Adam and Eve have “Other sons and daughters.”
There may have been children older than Cain and Abel, there were certainly children after Cain and Abel. We also know that Seth was born after Cain killed Abel.
People are living a LONG time! There may have been a dozen kids born before Cain, or there may be a dozen born after he leaves his parent’s home. So, when he meets and marries a woman, they probably haven’t grown up together.
Also, DNA has not been corrupted by inbreeding or radiation.
Science bears this out.
From The DNA Learning Center:
When we look at mitochondrial DNA variation and we trace it back to a single common ancestor that it traces back to a single woman. And this is the, for better or for worse, it's become known as mitochondrial Eve. And the source of confusion comes about because people then automatically start to think in terms of Eve in the biblical sense and that everyone is derived from a single woman. And it's not that everyone is derived from a single woman, it's that all of our mitochondrial DNAs are derived from a single woman. The reason they are derived from a single woman is because all of life on this planet has a single common origin and is related to that single common origin by a process of descent. And that's also true for our DNA sequence, so that's true for any DNA sequence that one looks at, it isn't, not just mitochondrial DNA. But the fact that mitochondrial DNA is strictly maternally inherited so you got it from your mother who got it from her mother from her mother from her mother and so forth, means that as we go back through this process of descent tracing back to a single common origin to a single common ancestor that has to be a single woman who was living at some point in the past somewhere. That doesn't mean that woman didn't have other, was not a member of a population, she most certainly was; she had contemporaries, they had mitochondrial DNAs, they left descendants. But it's just by chance, some point in their line of descent, no offspring or no daughters. But either way their mitochondrial DNA types went extinct. Until eventually all the mitochondrial DNA types we see today only trace back to a single individual in that ancestral population.
This guy sure does a lot of “explaining” to try to get around there actually being a first woman… Eve.
There is also “Y chromosome Adam”
Again, with much “explaining” about how he most certainly wasn’t the only guy around, but was the only one to have male descendants who survived, Science has had to admit that all men are descended from a single man… Why not just admit his name is Adam!?!?
So all men and women have common ancestors…. To bad they “couldn’t possibly be the Biblical Adam and Eve!”
- Cain and Abel led very different lives.
- Both lives are difficult, but in different ways.
- Either the work of the family has been divided, or some sort of bartering is taking place. Otherwise, we can’t just specialize and do one thing.
- Cain is a farmer.
- He is planting, watering, hoeing weeds, harvesting, and preserving food.
- This is almost year around work.
- You have to be ready start the process again next spring, so getting ready during the winter is essential.
- Abel is a rancher.
- This might seem to be less demanding work.
- But your animals need nearly constant attention.
- Sheep need a shepherd.
- There is also always a fence to fix, or a sick animal to care for. Besides, there’s manure to deal with!
- Maybe you give it to your brother to put on his fields as fertilizer!?!
- Plus, at certain times of the year, life gets really difficult.
- Spring is birthing season
- No babies of any kind come on YOUR schedule!
- Shearing time
- Then you have to do something with the wool.
- Someone has to make that wool into thread.
- Someone has to make that thread into cloth.
- Someone has to make that cloth into clothing, bags, towels, etc.
- These are all busy, hardworking folks!
- Cain and Abel both bring offerings to the Lord.
- Cain brings produce, Abel brings an animal from his flock.
- Firstling… one of his best of the new crop of animals.
- Something is wrong with Cain’s offering. What might that be?
- Perhaps it’s not his best?
- Dried up lettuce?
- Yellow cucumbers?
- Tiny onions?
- Raisins instead of Grapes?
- Maybe it’s not the “proper kind” of sacrifice?
- Perhaps it should have been an animal.
- It’s hard to see how awful sin is when you sacrifice an ear of corn.
- The Hebrew word translated “offerings” is used in Scripture to describe both animal sacrifices, and gifts to God of grain or other produce.
- So, the wrong kind of offering seems to be ruled out.
- So what WAS wrong with Cain’s offering?
- We learn a bit more about this from Hebrews.
Hebrews 11:4 (NASB95) 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.
- If Abel’s offering is described as being “Offered in Faith,” and that is a good thing, I think we can conclude that Cain’s offering was NOT offered in Faith!
- Abel is described as righteous. Cain is not described as righteous. Maybe this is part of the problem?
- Abel gives an offering because he wants to please God, Cain gives an offering because it is expected.
- Abel gives an offering that is his best, Cain gives what he feels he must give.
- God “has regard” for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, not so much!
- Cain is NOT a happy man!
- Cain gets some divine counsel… which he which he chooses to ignore.
- God explains to him that if he does the right things, his feelings will follow!
“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Georgekao.com Oftentimes, we let relatively minor circumstances, like being a little tired or feeling like watching videos, get in the way of keeping our commitments to ourselves, i.e. doing the right thing.
This is how people become victims of life: doing the right things only when we feel good or when conditions are perfect…
Feel Good ➜ Do Right
To act purposefully, to live more into our potential, we must flip the above equation, and understand that if we act rightly, we end up feeling good.
This is about exercising your free will, practicing an internal locus of motivation, thus becoming stronger in your ability to do rightly. The better equation is:
Do Right ➜ Feel Good
That good feeling — the healthy pride or sense of achievement — is evidence that you are living purposefully, that you are growing.
So, instead of: “Do what feels good in the moment!”… I encourage you to “Do the right thing in every moment.”
- God reminds Cain that in his current state of mind, “Sin is crouching at the door.”
- But Cain has a choice about what to do with his anger and disappointment.
- Instead of doing things God’s way, Cain let’s his anger get the better of him and kills his brother.
- Cain actually tells his brother how he’s feeling.
- But apparently, Abel trusts him.
- Cain violates that trust and kills him!
- God deals with Cain.
- First, God gives Cain a chance to confess.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
- Perhaps his “Sentence” would have been less if he had pled guilty and “thrown himself on the mercy of the court.”
- Instead, Cain tries to lie to God.
- That never works very well.
- Is this premeditated murder?
- Maybe not… Everywhere else in Scripture, the punishment for premeditated murder is Death!
- In this case, Cain is given a dual punishment, but not death.
- Cain is told that no matter how hard he tries, his farming days are over.
- He is banished from the group that are living together.
- Cain complains that he “won’t be able to bear his punishment.”
- He further complains that anyone who runs across him will kill him.
- God “Marks” him in some way and promises that whoever kills him will be punished 7 times worse.
15 So the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
- Cain and his wife leave the life they have known. They go to another area, and establish a city.
- Did he and his wife populate it?
- Did others come and join them?
- Cain is not mentioned in any Genealogy.
- The narrative switches away from him, to Seth, the younger “replacement” brother.
Conclusion: This was quite a mess. But what can we learn from this?
- Even in the beginning, murder was wrong!
- This seems obvious, but our culture would tell us that the first humans were brutes, who couldn’t reason, who couldn’t talk, who walked around dragging their knuckles and bashing each other with clubs.
- This couldn’t be further from the truth.
- These people were incredibly smart. They knew right from wrong, they used language from the very beginning. They had long lives in which they could be inventive and learn. These are not “Simple cavemen, or “ape men.” These are humans at the highest level.
- These “first people” are farming, they are taking care of domestic animals, they are living in a cooperative society.
- Cain and Abel were responsible to God.
- Abel made the right choice.
- He was faithful and willingly served God with his heart!
- Cain made the wrong choice.
- Cain doesn’t seem to care about being faithful. He is simply trying to “get by” and do what he feels he must in order to be acceptable to his society.
- We are also given the opportunity to be faithful. To choose to serve God from our heart, or not.
- Doing what was right would have changed Cain’s whole perspective.
- Choosing Faith, and to Worship God from a genuine point of view would have changed everything.
- Instead, Cain winds up a murderer and an outcast who can’t even do his job anymore.
- We all have a choice to make.
- “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
- Even though he was murdered, Abel’s behavior gives us someone to learn from.
- Abel was a man of FAITH!
- Hebrews 11 is called “the roll call of the faithful.”
- Abel did what God expected him to do.
- We can follow Abel’s path and be faithful to our God and Father!
- God gave Cain a chance to repent.
- Undoubtedly, there still would have been consequences.
- But All Cain wanted to do was complain!
- God wants “All men to come to repentance!”
- Finally, Don’t lie to God! It’s really DUMB!
