In the Beginning - Cain & Abel
Exploring God’s timeless truth from “in the beginning” has shown us how amazing God our Creator is. His creativity, power, and love are worthy of our praise! But we’ve also seen that our sin separates us from Him and that’s a big problem-
Romans 6:23a | For the wages of sin is death…
Adam and Eve experienced this first hand as they were kicked out of the garden, but this isn’t the last time sin impacts their lives in a major way. This time though, the choice not to follow God is made by one of their children, rather than by Adam and Eve themselves.
Genesis 4 begins with the births of two of Adam and Eve’s sons: Cain and Abel. It says-
Genesis 4:2b | When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.
Abel raises sheep and Cain is a farmer. Harvest time comes and both men bring God an offering as part of their worship. But listen closely to the differences in how their offerings are described:
Genesis 4:3-4a | When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.
While Abel brings his best lamb to offer to God, Cain just brings some crops to Lord – He doesn’t give God his best.
Genesis 4:4b-5 | The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
Only Abel’s offering is acceptable to God and the New Testament explains why-
Hebrews 11:4 | It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
Much like James 2:18 explains, Abel’s outward actions (offering the best of what he has), shows his inward faith (belief in and love for God). Cain’s actions reveal a heart that doesn’t belong to God and because of this, his outward actions are just like ‘lip-service’ or are empty to the Lord.
While Cain’s unacceptable sacrifice might show that Cain doesn’t yet have faith in God, this isn’t Cain’s sin. As God speaks to Cain, we see the anger Cain was feeling in verse 5 isn’t his sin either (Ephesians 4:26). God gives Cain an important warning–
Genesis 4:6-7 | “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
God warns Cain not to let sin control Him. He knows that just like we saw in the Garden of Eden, Satan is looking to deceive and trip up mankind to keep them separated from their Creator. The same warning applies to us-
1st Peter 5:8-9a | Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.
Cain does not guard against the temptation to sin. We can assume that he actually let his desire to sin grow (James 1:15) because despite the passing of time, Cain’s anger boils over into the very first murder:
Genesis 4:8 | One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
That day, Abel loses his life and Adam and Eve lose their son. Cain is punished by God by being made a homeless wanderer who is no longer able to farm or grow crops well. His life is hard, but God protects him so that no one harms Cain, even though his brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews are probably very upset with him. Even after Cain sins, God loves and cares for Cain.
He does the same for Adam and Eve–
Genesis 5:3 | When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him—in his very image. He named his son Seth.
It is the great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of Seth that we will look at next week. For now, Cain’s story reminds us of this timeless truth: We must fight against temptation. Temptation is the desire to do something wrong or unwise and if we don’t fight against it, giving into temptation can result in terrible things:
James 1:14-15 | Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
The temptation to harm his brother Abel came to Cain at some point after his own feelings of inadequacy and disappointment when his sacrifice wasn’t accepted by God. God warned Cain about his anger and his need to choose to do right, but Cain’s anger and desire to hurt Abel was permitted to grow in his heart. Instead of choosing to think on other things, telling someone about his struggle, or obeying God, Cain makes a choice to disobey that changes many lives forever.
Instead, true at all times for all people – we must fight against temptation. Unguarded, temptation leads to sin and sin left to grow leads to spiritual death, or separation from God like we saw last week. Subdue temptation and be its master (Genesis 4:6), Stand alert, stand firm, be strong in faith (1st Peter 5:8-9), and look for the way of escape (1st Corinthians 10:13).
What did you learn or what stood out to you from Cain & Abel’s story?
What could Cain have done differently so that the desire to sin didn’t grow in his life?
When have you experienced a desire to sin grow stronger in your own life?
What did you do about it?
If you ended up giving into sin, what could you have done differently?
How did God treat Cain after he sinned? What do we learn about God from this?