"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?"
- CAIN AND ABEL
4:1 Eve is about to give birth to two sons. One son will represent the product of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (that is: relying on one's own will and succumbing to one's one desire) and the other will represent the product of eating from the tree of life (that is: relying on God's will and submitting to His plan).
- AN OFFERING UNTO THE LORD
4:2-7 Genesis describes Abel as a keeper of sheep; it is notable that that is the sole characteristic chosen to identify him. It is important that Abel was a shepherd because it is what God loved most about him. A shepherd embodies all of the qualities God finds most valuable. Shepherds gather, they foster, they nurture and lead. Shepherd's offer protection to the gentle and direction to the lost.
Abel was not simply a shepherd in life, he was a shepherd in heart; and because of that, his presentation to God was spiritually valuable and selflessly produced. Abel's life's work as a shepherd represented his dedication to the way of the Spirit. Abel dedicated to God the best of what his life had produced and thus God respected Abel.
Jesus is described as a shepherd too, one who knows His sheep intimately and they Him (John 10:27). Before He ascended, Jesus pressed Peter to feed His sheep, to lead and nurture His flock. Abel's description as a shepherd in the opening chapters of the Bible is an early declaration of the manner God wants us to live. Conversely, Cain's description as a tiller of the ground is a declaration of how God does not want us to live.
Genesis describes Cain as a tiller of the ground; that is the most important characteristic chosen to identify him. Abel was of the Spirit but Cain was of the world. Abel presented what his life's work had produced; Cain presented what his life's desire had procured. Cain's values represented his behavior. He lived for himself, he culled and acquired from the world things that were irrelevant to God. Abel dedicated the best of what his life had produced, Cain dedicated an insignificant portion. It was not Cain's life's motivation to produce well for God; Cain's sole motivation was to procure well for himself.
God rejected Cain's offering and it angered Cain not to receive respect from God. But we cannot live contrary to God and expect to receive his respect. God explained that Cain needed only to do well to receive His respect. Cain did not need to do better than Abel or different from Abel, he just needed to do well. To be good. And the way to do well is to produce not procure.
Cain's offering was not respected because God does not value things of the ground, worldly possessions. Wealth and fame, property and possession are meaningless to God. Therefore if that is all that one's life's work is able to present to God, it is a meaningless offer. God will not respect it. God's rejection of such things is not based on principle alone; God explained to Cain that within desire is sin. To dedicate oneself to worldly possessions is to yield to sin. God will never respect a child's submission to something that will harm them.
- THE VOICE OF THY BROTHER'S BLOOD
4:8-10 Cain murdered Abel. Yet in killing Abel, Cain displayed more than just one sin. He displayed the myriad of sins that crop up in a life dedicated solely to the world instead of Spirit. Cain's worldly lifestyle resulted not just in murder but in lies, jealousy, anger, injustice, and mercilessness. If he had had any compassion, any empathy, his lifestyle muted it, expelled it from him.
God gave Cain the opportunity to be accountable for his actions but instead he lied, he disassociated himself from his own brother: Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, in fact. We are our brother's keeper. We are our sister's keeper, our mother's keeper, our father's keeper, our friend's keeper, and our neighbor's keeper. Like Abel, we should be keepers of God's sheep, shepherd's to His people.
If you live for the world, you live for the self. And if you live for the self, you neglect your purpose for being here. You take and do not give. You receive and do not share. You disrespect the people your life could have nurtured. God will not respect anyone who struts instead of leads. He will not respect anyone who uses their power to control rather than protect, the position to procure instead of produce.
- CURSED FROM THE EARTH
4:11-15 For the act of killing his brother, Cain placed himself in opposition with God. And to live in opposition with God is to go against the very nature of life. For all life was created by a righteous hand; life's own character and process is styled after its maker. Cain's act caused him to become a vagabond; the earth would no longer willingly sustain him. He would have to wander to support himself, he no longer had a home within the presence of God.
Even Cain was afraid of the prospect of being hid from the face of God. That punishment was too much for him to bear. And yet God was lenient with Cain, protected him enough that he would not be killed for his action, perhaps because He had not yet specifically prohibited murder, or given the instruction to humanity was was to come (that is to come in later chapters and books of the Bible).
Even Cain was afraid of the prospect of being hid from the face of God. That punishment was too much for him to bear. And yet God was lenient with Cain, protected him enough that he would not be killed for his action, perhaps because He had not yet specifically prohibited murder, or given the instruction to humanity was was to come (that is to come in later chapters and books of the Bible).
- IN THE LAND OF NOD
4:16-24 "And Cain went out from the presence of God..." Cain pioneered the lifestyle that is lived absent from God. He went to Nod, east of Eden, (more evidence that the world was populated beyond Adam and Eve's family).
Cain married, had a son, built a city: Enoch, named after his son. He had many descendants but they were like him, murderous, even to the point of pride, as his descendant Lamech exemplified.
Cain married, had a son, built a city: Enoch, named after his son. He had many descendants but they were like him, murderous, even to the point of pride, as his descendant Lamech exemplified.
- THE THIRD SON
4:25-26 Meanwhile, Adam and Eve were blessed with a third son: Seth, meaning compensation. Therefore the lineage of Jesus continued, though Abel was killed and Cain was lost to the cause.