Genesis - Chapter 4

In Genesis Chapter 4, Cain and Abel are born to Adam and Eve. Abel offers a respectful sacrifice to God, but Cain's offering is not respected. Cain becomes angry and kills Abel. God confronts Cain and curses him, but also shows him grace. Cain goes on to build a city and has descendants, including Lamech who boasts about killing two men. The chapter ends with the birth of Seth, who Eve sees as a replacement for Abel. The people begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Jesus is later described as the mediator between God and humanity. I am Julie Caleo, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If, by chance, you want to contact me, you can do that at vab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we're looking at Chapter 4 of Genesis, which covers Cain and Abel, and then Adam and Eve's third-born son, Seth. Chapter 3 ended with the sin of Adam and Eve, and the Lord God drove them out of the Garden of Eden so they could not eat of the Tree of Life. Chapter 4 begins, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Here is the record of the first human birth. Eve is declaring praise that the Lord has given her a man, and now that God has promised one to come from Eve, being a mother became a big deal throughout the Old Testament. We also see that the first-born son, Cain, did his father's business of tending to the ground, and the second son, Abel, took care of the sheep. Verses 3-5 explain that as time went by, as they had become men, the time for offering to the Lord had come, and Abel brought the best of his flock, yet Cain just brought some fruit of the ground, not the best he had. God respected the offering given out of respect by Abel, but he did not respect the offering that was not given in respect to the Lord God from Cain. This made Cain very angry. Then verses 6 and 7 read, And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, should you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto you shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him. This may be in reference to Satan. Here Cain did not respect the Lord with his offering, and yet the Lord gave him grace and an opportunity to repent and obey. God gave him a choice, but he refused to listen. Verses 8 and 9 read, 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 killed him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? It seems that this murder is premeditated. First, Cain went to a place where his brother could not escape, and no one would hear them. Second, Cain lied to God. And third, he was also saying that his brother is God's responsibility, not his, similar to what his dad said to the Lord God when he said, The woman that you gave to be with me. The Lord again asked Cain a question, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground, and now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Kenneth A. Matthew said in his commentary on Genesis, The one who does not utter a word, at least in this narrative, when he is alive, cries out when he is dead. This is the first time that a person is cursed in scripture. In Genesis chapter 3, the serpent was cursed in verse 14, and the ground was cursed in verse 17, but Adam and Eve were not. Also with Adam and Eve, they confessed their sin to the Lord. Cain did not. His punishment was that the ground will no longer produce for him, and he will be a wanderer on this earth. Cain complained about the outcome of his sin. He declared in verses 13b and 14, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from your face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone that finds me shall kill me. The Lord again showed him grace. He placed a mark of some sort upon Cain so that no one would kill him, and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. In verses 17 and 18, we find that Cain built a city and had a son, and he called them both Enoch. Then we have the descendants of Cain down four generations to Lamech, who married two wives, the first record of polygamy. His two wives were named Adah and Zillah. From them Lamech had three sons and one daughter. Jabal began dwelling in tents with herds of cattle, Jubal was a musician with a harp and organ, Tubal-Cain is the worker of brass and iron, and their daughter was named Nema. Lamech said to his two wives, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech, seventy and sevenfold. What we see from this is that the descendant of Cain has killed two men, one for wounding him and one just for hurting him, and he is not only bragging about it, but he is also threatening his two wives to remember what he is capable of doing. This shows us how bad things had become. Not only two murders of other humans, but how bad marriage had become. Now it is no longer with one man and one woman, and now they stay together with threats and lording over the wives. This is not what God had in mind for marriage. Chapter 4 ends with verses 25 and 26, And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son and called his name Seth, for God, she said, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. When Adam and his wife ate from the tree of good and evil, I am sure they never had a clue of the evil they would endure. Eve did not know of the sorrow that would come, not only from bearing children and delivering children, but raising her children. In Abraham Kuruvilla's commentary on Genesis, he compared what Eve said after her first child, and then after her pain of losing her sons, and then what she said now that her third son is born. With the birth of Cain the subject of her sentence was I, with Seth the subject is God. With Cain the verses have gotten or created, with Seth it's appointed. With Cain the object is a man, but with Seth it is another seed. Then the indirect object with Cain is with Yahweh, and with Seth it is to me. Do you see how her view has changed after her suffering? Her children and grandchildren have brought her pain and sorrow. She recognized now that only God can bring forth the promised one. As Kuruvilla said, with her third child she yields to God the creator, the only one who can give and sustain life, from whom comes and to whom belongs all things living and non-living. When Eve said, for God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew, Bridget Cowell said, with this one statement about Abel and Cain and God, Eve turns the whole history of ideology of victory upside down and just shows what is there, Abel murdered, and Cain a murderer, and a God who out of mercy beyond understanding grants another son. She also called Eve the first theologian, teacher, prophetess, and critical thinker of human history. This is found in Abraham Kuruvilla's commentary on page 88. After this child had been born, people are now calling upon the name of the Lord. We have a glimmer of hope. In the New Testament book of Hebrews chapter 12 verses 24 and 25 it reads, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven. Jesus was the promised seed of Eve that came through the Virgin Mary. He was struck on the heel when he died on the cross for our sin, but when he arose and conquered death and sin, Jesus struck Satan's head. Abel's blood cried out for justice, and Jesus' blood paid that justice, and Jesus now is our mediator to God. The Lord God Almighty speaks today. The question is will you refuse to listen like Cain and Lamech, or will you hear, call upon his name, and obey? Until next time and thanks so much for listening.