In chapter three, we were introduced to the idea of two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the snake (3:15). In chapter 4, the two seeds become reality in the lives of Cain and Abel and subsequently Seth. The line of Cain is the line of the serpent. Seth’s line becomes the line of blessing.
In this story, the writer’s purpose is to give the people of God confidence that God’s purpose of blessing cannot be thwarted. Moses wrote these things immediately prior to the Israelites crossing the Jordan and conquest of the Promised Land. Their history as a people is rehearsed in the writings of Moses. Time after time in their history the promise of God seemed as if it would fail—the murder of Abel but the birth of Seth, the flood but Noah, the tower of Babel but Abraham, the barrenness of Sarah and Rebekah but Isaac and Jacob were born, Egyptian bondage but the exodus, the death of a generation in the wilderness but a new generation ready to cross the Jordon, and now the nations of the conquest are before them. God’s purpose of blessing would stand.
From Genesis 4, we want to see that God’s purpose of blessing cannot fail because God is sovereign and personal.
God does not count things the way men do; He is sovereign. He is not bound like we are by our limitations. We are limited by our knowledge, ability, and location. God has no such limitations.
God is sovereign in His choice. His ways are not our ways. We want God to think like a man, and we attribute man’s thoughts to God. In these verses, we are told of the birth of Cain and Abel. Eve reasoned Cain was the promised seed (c.f. v1 and 3:15). He is introduced to us with great fanfare. Not as much excitement surrounds the birth of Abel.
Cain was the firstborn. Culturally, he had the rights of the firstborn, but it does not follow that he was the son of promise. In redemptive history, the promise of God is not bound to the firstborn of men. In Genesis and elsewhere in Scripture, the blessing often goes to the younger brother. God is not bound to the younger brother either. The Scripture is showing us that the promise of God does not depend on the reproductive habits of men. It depends on the faithfulness of God. God can raise up children to Abraham out of rocks. He can incarnate the Son of God through a virgin.
The genealogical sections of Genesis move the story along and communicate theological truth. We have to guard against making the same error as the Jews regarding family lineage. They felt they were right with God simply because they were ethnically Jews. So when we talk about the line of Cain and the line of Seth, we are not assuming that absolutely every member of Cain’s lineage was an unbeliever and every member of Seth’s lineage was a believer. In fact in chapter 6, both lines come together in a common ungodliness and all but Noah and his immediate family are destroyed in the flood. We are speaking spiritually of the line of Cain and the line of Seth. The people of God are not determined biologically; they are determined sovereignly.
Eventually, both sons came to God with an offering (minha). Yet, Cain and his offering were rejected, while Abel and his offering were looked on with favor. If there is an economy of words to describe Abel’s birth, the offering he brought receives the greater attention. This description of his offering is one indication of the meaning of the text. However, were it not for the NT’s commentary on this text it still would be very difficult to interpret. Narrative texts are often difficult to interpret, but the NT clarifies this one. From Hebrews 11, we learn that By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. (Heb. 11:4).
God does not count things the way men do. Eve made much of Cain’s birth. God made much of Abel and his offering. The difference between Cain and Abel and their offerings is faith. Abel’s offering was made in faith. If Cain had had faith both he and his offering would have been accepted. The tendency is to read into the text to find some deficiency in Cain’s offering. We need look no further than his faith. The best offering without faith is tainted. Faith impacts your offering.
From outward appearances, both Cain and Abel were worshipping God. Cain approached God apparently out of duty to keep up appearances. The author of Hebrews wrote, Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him (11:6). Cain, obviously, believed that God existed. He seems to have had the same problem as Eve in the fall event, believing God was withholding good from him.
God warned Cain of his responsibility to repent of his sin. This gospel offer to Cain is sincere. If he had turned from his unbelief, believing that God is for him and willing to do good to him, he would have been accepted. God warned Cain that sin was ready to pounce on him but he must master it.
The snake tempted Eve, and she was deceived into sin. Here there is no snake, but sin is presented as an indwelling reality that desires to rule us and our passions. The guilt of Adam’s sin in imputed to us; we have inherited a sin nature; and sin is unavoidable. You must be aware of that and do everything you can to kill it, hold it in check, to keep it from mastering you. You do not have to be mastered by sin. You may sin; you will sin, but you don’t have to be mastered by sin.
Sin lies. It tells us we are powerless to resist. It justifies non-resistance. It convincingly argues for its own goodness, advantages, desirability and delightfulness. Sin is a cloak-and-dagger. After it convinces you to act on its urges, it stabs its dagger into your soul and shows you the ugly reality of its nature and putrid feast of its consequences.
I’ve noticed some people will seemingly mourn over their sin, yet never leave their sin. I’ve come to realize that the reason people don’t leave their sin is because they don’t want to leave their sin. They are angry at God that sin has unpleasant consequences. They are angry that they can’t live their lives how they want without reaping a harvest of misery.
This is the way of Cain (Jude 11). He is angry because he can’t approach God how he pleases and in any way he pleases. He is angry because God told him the truth about his heart and his responsibility to God.
How do we fight sin? How do we defeat the crouching demon at the door? We are told in this text. If you do well, will you not be accepted? What is doing well in this text? It is faith. We don’t fight lust by trying not to lust or trying not to click on some link. We don’t fight anger by trying not to be angry? etc. We fight sin by running to Christ in repentance and faith. Christ alone, through the glory of the gospel, breaks the power of sin. The more Christ is exalted in your life, the less appeal sin has. Christ breaks the power of sin.
For me, the most striking feature of the Genesis material (indeed all of the Bible) is the personal involvement of God in the world of man. If you take away God’s person involvement in history, you destroy Christianity. This one thing separates Christian faith from all other belief systems. God not only exists; He is personally involved in the affairs of His creatures.
Humanly speaking, God’s personal involvement in our lives is both good and bad news for the unregenerate. It is good in that God blesses their labors, causes them to be productive, and fills their hearts with gladness. It is bad in that God holds them accountable for their sin. Judgment and wrath is not some impersonal, natural consequence of sin. It is the personal presence and unfavorable work of God in and toward sinners.
The parallels between Genesis 3 and 4 are instructive. God approached Cain just as He had approached Cain’s parents. Like He questioned Adam, the LORD asked Cain, Where is Abel your brother? Cain denied responsibility. Like the LORD God questioned Eve, He asked Cain, What have you done? This unmistakable parallel serves to tie Cain’s sin with the sin of Adam and Eve. The sin of Adam and Eve has infected their offspring. What began as seemingly so small a matter, eating from a forbidden tree, has resulted in one of Adam’s sons murdering the other.
Perhaps this is the background for Jesus’ teaching on anger. At the very moment of religious sacrifice when the worshipper is at the altar, he is to remember his brother. If he doesn’t come to terms quickly with his brother, he will face the judge who will require him to pay the last penny.
Cain did not turn from his anger; He nursed his anger and with premeditation murdered his brother (8). In verses 1-17, Cain’s name is mentioned 14 times, Abel 7 times, brother 7 times, and the LORD 7 times. The writer wants us to feel the shock of this narrative. He wants us to gasp at it and realize what you do to your brother you do in the presence of God, and he will call you to account.
The way Cain answers God is shockingly defiant. Where is your brother? I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? The word keep gets a lot of use in this second section of Genesis. Adam was to keep/guard the garden (2:15). He failed. God placed the cherubim to keep/guard the entrance to the garden (3:24). Now Cain denies the responsibility to guard/keep his brother! The answer to Cain’s question is, Yes! You are your brother’s keeper.
Why did Cain murder his brother? John answered that question: Cain was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. This is the irrationality of evil. Cain killed his brother because his brother was righteous. Cain hated God. And therefore he hated his brother. This is first conflict between the two seeds. First blood is drawn. The whole point of the evil one was to destroy the promised seed.
This attack on the line of promise is relentless. You see it all through the OT. Then at first opportunity the evil one incited the murder of the Son of God. God, however, raised Him from the dead and offers forgiveness of sins to all the sons of Cain who will repent and believe. Do you see the irrationality of evil? Now through the death and resurrection of the Seed of the Woman, God has brought a new people together from all the peoples of earth who through faith and repentance have received life. The more the evil one attacks and murders and destroys the greater and stronger and more far reaching the people of God become.
Cain was the first human to be cursed. The ground was curse when Adam sinned. Now Cain is cursed from the ground and sentenced to a life removed from the community of faith, even farther east of Eden than his parents. Adam and Eve were driven from the garden but not from the presence of the LORD. Cain is driven from the presence of the LORD. Nod (16) means wandering. This is another aspect of death, the result of sin. Cain has settled in the land of wandering banished from the saving presence of God.
Cain denied any responsibility for his sin, and now complains about the consequences of his sin. My punishment/iniquity/guilt is more than I can bear (13). Truer words have never been spoken. The consequences of your sin are indeed more that you can bear.
Cain’s main concern is that the blood avenger will kill him. Indeed, the penalty for murder is death. Yet, God did not kill Cain and by some mark of divine protection He prevented anyone else from killing Cain.
Can God be charged with injustice? I mean He told Adam and Eve they would die and they didn’t die at least immediately. To uphold justice, Cain should have been summarily executed. God reluctance to judge has given Him a bad rap. Some people despair of any justice and live with a seething anger that leads them to all kinds of destructive behaviors. Others scoff and presume there is no judgment and they like Cain can get away with sin. Paul said, Do you suppose, O man, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of you hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom 2:3-5).
God heard, Abel’s blood crying from the ground (10), but there is a blood that was spilt that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). Abel’s blood rightly called for vengeance, but Jesus’ blood resolves every wrong and every injustice. All sin was poured on Him on the cross. This assures me that sin will not go unpunished. Either Christ bore sin or God will judge the sinner. If I am sinned against, and the sinner repents, I know Christ bore that sin in His body on the cross. That injustice was born by him, so I am free to love those who have sinned against me. If I have sinned against others and myself, and God calls me to repentance and faith, I know the injustice I have done was born by Jesus on the cross, so I am free from condemnation. You see then the power of sin is broken by Christ.
Cain’s sin destroyed him and his line of descendants. His anger and hatred not only led him to kill his brother, it killed him. God is personally involved with sinners in their sin. He will call them to repentance or He will judge them.
In this last section of Genesis 4, the line of the serpent and the seed of the woman are contrasted.
Verse 17 resumes the genealogy of Adam through the line of Cain. From Adam to Lamech, 7 generations are listed. While we see remarkable advancement in the line of Cain, we have an example of the outcome of sin. We are shown subtly the spread of sin.
Cain built a city and named it after his son. He want to make a name for himself, to assert his self-sufficiency, and preserve his fame. This is a prototype of another city that men build to make a name for themselves (11:4).
Lamech decided to add an innovation to marriage. He took two wives. Notice, Moses introduced this alteration to marriage in a genealogical section that’s theological purpose is to show the downward spiral of sin and how sin impacts good things. Far from signing off on polygamy, Moses is showing that it is in direct rebellion to creative order. This is a practice that took root in the OT and caused problem after problem.
Lamech’s three sons and daughter were innovators as well. With city life started by Cain, discoveries were made to enhance living conditions. Jabal advanced the art of animal husbandry. Jubal provided the entertainment. Tubal-cain was a hammerer/sharpener of bronze and iron. Naamah was pleasant and delightful, a prototype of the beautiful daughters of men (6:2).
Through the Song of Lamech, traditionally called “The Song of the Sword,” the writer brings home the theological truth he desires to communicate through this genealogy. Technology and the arts are not in and of themselves evil things. In fact, much good has come from advancements in these areas. Technology and art in the hands of wicked men has also been the source of great evil, exploitation, and death. Lamech boasted to his wives of murder and his own invincibility. It is not farfetched to see in his hand a piece of sharpened iron that his son, Tubal-cain, had invented with the blood of his victim dripping off of it as he made his boast. God protected Cain with the warning of 7 fold or complete vengeance on anyone killing Cain. Lamech boasts of killing a young man and of the ability to avenge himself 77fold. Lamech is an angry, boastful man, living in an advanced society. No doubt this is the background of Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness (77 fold).
Cain family is a microcosm of the resourcefulness and depravity of human society. In some sense, the more advanced society becomes the more creative we become in killing each other. Through our technological advances, the 20th century was bloodier than all other centuries combined. Sin take every opportunity to kill. Sin has made us less than human. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God so they could be all they could be (3:5). The problem is this development was negative not positive. To sin is not human. It is to be fallen, somewhat less than human. To be human is to be living without sin perfectly imaging the glory of God. To sin is inhuman, and it leads to dehumanizing endeavors.
We could ask at this point is there any hope for God’s promise of blessing. God seems to be the best player the other team has. He multiplies their family lines; He blesses them with all kinds of advancement and success, which gets used attack His people. Abel is dead, and Cain is prospering.
When things look bleak, a second line from Adam emerges, a son of blessing. Eve responded in faith, seeing what God was doing. She recognized Seth as a son of promise in the place of Abel. She tied his birth to Genesis 3:15 (another offspring/seed). God’s purpose of blessing cannot fail. He is sovereign and present working out His purpose in detail.
If through the line of Cain we see the spread of sin impacts every advance man makes, in the line of Seth, we see the progress of the worship of God. At that time men began to call upon the Name of the Lord (26). The word call has a wide range of meaning: call out to, preach, proclaim, and publish. “Calling on the Name of the Lord” became the characteristic of patriarchal religion. Wherever they went, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would build an altar and call on the name of the LORD.
These men lived in a hostile, pagan, increasingly technological world and engaged it with the true worship of God.
Like them our calling is to be characterized by vital faith in Christ in a secular, pluralistic, advanced society. We stick out like a sore thumb, but we are to engage the culture with truth. We are not to be intimidated by world we live in, paralyzed by the ideologies of our day, and fearful of opposition.
The saga of the two lines is being played out in history. What we are a part of is much larger than any one of us. We are part of an ancient conflict. We must fight for the souls of men. In the battle, there will be casualties. The people of God will be hated just because they are the people of God. Yet God’s purpose of blessing cannot fail. The godly line was threatened by death, barrenness, conflict, flood and exile. Yet, God preserved a seed and secured blessing for his people.
This line of Seth ultimately led to Christ. Luke’s gospel says of the genealogy of Jesus, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God (3:38). He was crucified on a Roman cross, but God raised Him for the dean and has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through Him.
Issuing from Christ is the church, the repository of blessing for the nations. Again and again, she has been in jeopardy from the seed of the snake. The dark ages gave way to reformation. In the wake of the reformation, the gospel rang out with renewed vigor among the nations. Then theologically decimated by the rise of liberalism and the spread of revivalism, the very existence of the church has been threatened, yet she is alive and well and spreading like wildfire across the world. Excess abounds and heresies are arising, but God is mobilizing an army of churchmen who are grounded in the faith and focused on planting the church in the great cities of the world, taking the gospel to the epicenter of modern technology and art that will result in millions coming to faith and hundreds of thousands of churches planted.