Welcome to Volume 2 as we talk about the first murder and open a new chapter in our researching and learning about the world of Genesis 1-11. We are looking at Sin, Genealogies, and the Great Sin. In this first issue, we will discuss The First Murder.
We left off in Volume 1, Issue 8 with the curse, the first sacrifice, and the guards of the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve are now kicked out of the garden. It is time to fulfill God’s command to multiply and fill the earth.
But sin infects everything they touch. As we discover what happens in this saga we will meet Adam’s and Eve’s children and see how sin invades their family and lives. The first act of sinful behavior outside of their parents takes place between Cain and Abel.
Meeting the Players
Genesis 4:1-2: Now the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain was a worker of the ground.
I wonder how long it was between the marriage ceremony of Adam and Eve done by God and the rebellion that connected them out of the garden happened. One benefit of marriage is having children and we have no record of children until Eve bears Cain and Abel.
I have always wondered if Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel while they were still in the garden. But if you read this passage as the chronological order of the events you will find that Eve did not have their children until they were removed from the garden of Eden.
The Hebrew word “to know” can identify a number of human relationships. In this case, it speaks of how Adam and Eve had sexual relations and Eve became pregnant. The curse is in place. The pain of childbirth is real.
Still, Eve bears a healthy baby boy. Cain’s name means “possession.” She credits Yahweh for His help in bearing children. No matter how much we know about pregnancy and childbirth, we must recognize that God is intimately involved in the process from conception to birth. You can read more about this miracle in my Divine Discourse blog post.
The Hebrew phrase is strange and requires an Job rotation by most English versions. Literally, Eve says, “I have gotten a man with the Lord.” It needs interpretation. While the Lord is involved with the pregnancy, He was not the person to conceive Cain with Eve. That was Adam’s involvement.
The Lord opens the womb and closes it. He decides on the life that will happen and the intimate details of the development of the baby. Only in the case of Mary is the Holy Spirit involved in a way no one except God quite understands. Eve gives credit to the Lord for granting her pregnancy.
That’s why most Bible versions will add “with the help of the Lord.” Eve realizes that God is the giver of life. She and Adam know this full well survive his name because the Lord created them. Passages like Psalm 139:13-16 describe how God is intimately involved in the development of the baby in the womb.
Eve is blessed to have a second male child whom they name Abel. His name means “breath or vapor.” His name is quite fitting when we look at the rest of the story and what happens to him. Moses tells us that Abel is a shepherd and Cain is a farmer. When we see their offerings, some scholars will question if there was a specific offer the Lord expected.
Bringing an Offering
Genesis 4:3-4: Now it happened in the course of days that Cain brought from the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought from the firstborn of his sheep, and from their fat portions, and the Lord looked favorably on Abel, and on his offering.
Where did Cain and Abel learn to bring offerings to the Lord? I still point to God’s first sacrifice for Adam and Eve. They probably taught their children to bring an offering to the Lord. They must have understood the implications of it, that sin always costs the death of something.
The word here is not “sacrifice” but “offering.” We don’t know how old Cain and Abel are. They are old enough to tend sheep and work with the ground. Cain probably learned this from his father.
Cain brought to the Lord an offering from the fruit of the ground. “Fruit” does not mean he brought it from a fruit tree. The fruit of the ground refers to the produce of the ground. It could have been any kind of plant or fruit.
While Moses uses the word “offering” for Cain’s gift to the Lord, that word is absent from Abel’s gift to the Lord. Abel brought from the firstborn of his sheep, from the fat portions. The word for offering appears throughout the Pentateuch for the various offerings and sacrifices given to the Lord. This looks a lot like the sacrifices that would become part of the law of Moses to give to the Lord.
We cannot infer that the Lord looked favorably on Abel’s offering more than Cain’s just because it was a sheep’s fat portions. This would probably have resembled a burnt offering. The text does not tell us why the Lord looked favorably on Abel’s offering el instead of Cain.
It’s more about the quality or requirements than the type of offering. Abel’s offering met that requirements or quality God expected whereas Cain’s did not. The word for “look favorably, have regard” is only used twice in the Old Testament. The other place is in Psalm 119:117. It means to approve of Abel’s offering.
Both types of offerings will be standard in the Mosaic law later in Israel’s history. Different offerings are required for different feasts and ceremonies. Leviticus gives us the clearest picture of what each offering would be cut down. As I said, the same word for offering refers both to Cain’s and Abel’s offerings.
Could it be that Cain did not bring of the firstfruits of his crop? We know that is the requirement later that either you give a firstfruits or from the firstborn. Moses specifically mentions Abel bringing from the firstborn while it does not say this about Cain’s offering. We can only speculate if this was the issue.
Cain’s Reaction
Genesis 4:5-7: But on Cain and on his offering He did not look favorably, so Cain became very angry and his face fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry and why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lurking at the door and its desire is to be over you, but you must rule over it.”
Here is where we see the first murder play out. Whatever the issue with Cain’s offering was, the Lord did not look favorably on it or him. My first inclination when I do not bring what is expected is to learn why it was not accepted and to do better the next time. This was not how Cain approached the rejection of the Lord.
Cain does not want to fix the problem but is one who lashes out in anger. He must have known God’s requirements for the offering he brought. He either willfully brought second-best to God or did not listen to God’s requirements probably taught by Adam and Eve.
Either of these cases would not give him a reason to be angry. If anything, he should be angry at himself. His face fell not because he realized he did not bring the best that he could have but because he was angry. Perhaps he thought these requirements and the quality of the offering were too high to worry about.
Much of what I am inferring could be wrong. Nobody knows the answer to why God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s. I offer my observations as a possible scenario for what happened. Maybe Cain felt he could never bring the offering God desired. Perhaps his face fell so the Lord did not notice the anger on it.
The Lord is not unreasonable. He addressed the issue with Cain. If we are willing to listen, the Lord will always speak with us. Even if we do not do something that He approves of He wants to show us the error of our ways and help us correct it. Just because God does not approve of one thing does not mean it cannot be rectified.
The Lord asks Cain why he is angry. Why has his face fallen? He shouldn’t be angry but be wanting to fix the offering and give his best. He should not react the way he did. Especially if he knew better. He did not do well. If he did, the Lord would have accepted him.
I submit to you that Cain had a character flaw that caused the flaw in his offering. Whether he knew what to bring and didn’t, was lazy in his offering, or purposefully did not bring what the Lord expected, Cain decided what he would do and did it. Now he is unhappy with the results and consequences.
Cain did not do well in his offering. The other shoe is about to drop. Sadly, he does not take the right path. The Lord tells him the awful consequence of his parents’ rebellion and sin was about to become his if he did not change.
If Cain did not do well, sin was lurking, or crouching, at the door. When we entertain temptation, the same is true for us. Sin is crouching at the door, lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to take the bait. That’s what was happening to Cain. He could’ve chosen a different path. We all can.
The Lord told Cain what to expect from sin. This is the other Hebrew construction I mentioned in my previous issue. Just as Eve desired to rule over Adam, but Adam would rule over her (Genesis 3:16), the same construction occurs here. Since desire wants to have Cain, to rule over him. It was up to Cain if he would rule over it.
The New Testament tells us that we are dead to sin and slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:15-23). When we sin as Christians, we choose to put ourselves back under the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). We choose the lock ourselves up and let it torturous. We have the mind of Christ and we do not have to submit to sin. When we do, we allow it to rule over us instead of ruling over it.
Sin is always lurking in the shadows and crouching at the opening door. If we open to it, it will pounce. We must resist it. Jesus has given us all the tools to resist, and we must. He has freed us from its grasp. We must stand in His freedom and rule over it. We must always put it and our fleshly desires in their place.
Much of why Christians struggle with sin today is because we have not fully understood what it means to be new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t understand what it means to have our mind continually renewed by the Word of God. We don’t take the steps and the discipline to keep our minds pure and free in Christ. We struggle because we think the way we did before we met Jesus even though He has renewed our minds and continues to do so.
Cain Called to Account
Genesis 4:8-12: Then Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it happened when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” And he said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. And now, you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground it will not give its increase to you, a fugitive and wanderer you will be on the earth.”
As we look at the first murder, Cain is not the hero of his story. After listening to the Lord, he decides to continue down the same destructive path he started on when he became angry. We now find out who he directed his anger toward. You would think he would be angry with himself for not doing what was required in his offering.
That’s how he should have reacted. Instead, he turns his gaze toward his brother. Maybe he thought Abel was the Lord’s pet, always going above and beyond and doing just what was right. Perhaps he felt it was unfair and his younger brother was showing him up. This is where true sibling rivalry began.
We must understand that the first murder is premeditated. Cain has plenty of time to think about what the Lord has said to him. Instead of dwelling on the Lord’s words and choosing the better path, Cain decides to commit the first murder of his brother. This is the result of Adam’s and Eve’s rebellion and sin.
They wanted to be like God and decide for themselves what was good and what was evil. Now their son, Cain, has decided how to respond. Even if he knows that it is evil to kill his brother he will do it anyway. He decided that it was better to kill his brother than to do what the Lord said was right.
His emotions are wrong because his mind and heart are wrong. He has grown up in the environment of learning from his parents right and wrong. He may have decided right and wrong on his own. He certainly did here.
He talks with his brother. I wonder what that conversation was like. Did he blame Abel for being a goody two shoes? Did he ask Abel how he knew what to bring the Lord? Or did he let his anger lash out and confront his brother? That’s probably what happened. When we are angry, there’s nothing that can stop anger from spilling out into our actions and speech.
It mentions that Cain and Abel are in the field. This is Cain’s turf. It is where he is the farmer, tilling the soil and growing his crops. That is where he makes his move. Did Abel come out to talk to him or come to get him for dinner? We don’t know why Abel is in the field. Perhaps his flock was out for grazing.
Cain rises up against his brother Abel. He killed Abel. We do not know how he did this. It’s possible he had some farming tools he could have used. Maybe he found a big rock and used it. Murder is always unjust and unforgiving. It takes a lot to snuff out a life.
Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount relates that anger is the internal process we go through to commit the outer process of murdering (Matthew 5:?). We do not have to perform the actual act of murdering someone. We can destroy their reputation. We can assassinate their character.
Murder is still around today, and it is Mark numerous than you think. Just because it is not physically on the books does not mean our heart and mind cannot turn to murderous thoughts. This is just as bad as committing the physical act. This is why we need renewed minds.
I wonder how long after the first murder God spoke to Cain. It had to have been long enough to either bury the body or get far enough away from it that he could feign ignorance. Remember that God’s questions are not about gaining information He does not know. They are more for us than for H the dates im.
The Lord asks Cain where his brother is. Cain says he does not know. Both he and God know exactly what has happened. I wonder if Cain had come clean about what he did if things would be different. But he continues to go down the wrong path.
He lies to God after he commits the first murder of his brother. The sins compile upon one another. That happens with us today? When we sin, we often must sin more to “cover-up” our previous sins? Keynes already gone down the path and he might as well keep going.
You cannot lie to God. He knows all things. I think God asked Cain about his brother to redeem Cain and his situation. If Cain would have answered what he had done, God would have forgiven him. But Cain continues to embrace sin and darkness instead of stepping into the light.
Cain probably asked the next question out of guilt or he might still be angry. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” If you are a Christian, the answer to that question is yes. We are brother’s and sister’s keeper. The New Testament tells us that we can play a redemptive rule in restoring those who have fallen into sin (Galatians 6:1-2; James 5:19-20).
The Lord has no reason to beat around the bush now. He sees Cain’s refusal to change. Maybe the Lord is angry now because Cain has destroyed His beautiful creation in Abel. Perhaps it was despair that Cain was unrepentant. We don’t know what His tone was when he asked, “What have you done?”
Perhaps this is mother one of God’s questions that should have caused Cain to reflect on his actions more than it was God not knowing what had been done. Cain probably had not thought about his actions. He had allowed his emotions to rule him and give him what he thought of as a just cause to act.
Sin might have better control of your emotions than you do. It is not too late. Jesus is renewing your mind so you do not allow your emotions to rule over you. There is so much our minds can help us with if we would make it our discipline to keep renewing it in the Word and the Lord.
The Lord says something interesting here, that Abel’s blood is crying out from the ground. His spilt blood has a voice that only the Lord can hear. The Hebrew word for voice can also mean sound. Either way, murdered blood cries out to God. The injustice will only go for so long before God judges it.
Perhaps the sound of Abel’s blood crying out from the ground is what draws God to talk to Cain. There is some personification of things that do not have personhood like sin and blood. These are great literary devices Moses uses to tell a story we have all been part of with sin.
God must render a judgment against Cain. He cannot let sin go. It must be dealt with. While Cain’s father received the curse for sin in that the ground would make him sweat and toil more for less produce, Cain experiences worse. The ground will not give its increase to him when he works it.
What could be a worse penalty for a farmer? He won’t have time to have a garden. He must wander the earth and be a fugitive. He is now a man on the run. He will be covering his tracks for the rest of his life. That’s what sin does. It makes you always looking behind your back, covering your tracks.
The ground gave it increased to Cain every time he worked in it. He gave his brother’s innocent blood to it. Now it would not give him anything. The word for wanderer occurs six times in the Old Testament (Genesis 4:12, 14; Isaiah 14:20; 24:20; Jeremiah 18:16; Job 42:11). Only one of those times is positive. It means to “shake, sway.” It is translated “wanderer” only in this chapter.
God’s Judgment Carried Out
Genesis 4:13-16: Then Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Behold, you have cast me away from the ground and from Your face. I shall hide myself and I shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth, and it shall happen that whoever finds me will kill me.” So the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” The Lord put on Cain a mark lest anyone should strike him, all who came upon him. Then Cain went out from before the Lord and settled in the land of Nod east of Eden.
Cain reacts to God’s judgment for the first murder. Cain is realizing what he has done. But it is too late. He calls the Lord’s judgment punishment. He now sees what this crime of passion will get him for the rest of his life. How many times do the short seconds of sin last much longer?
His whole life has been changed in the blink of an eye. He cannot bear the punishment for committing the first murder. He is almost repeating everything God has declared. This is why I think he is just not processing what he has done and what he must pay.
It’s not as if God had a written law, or even a spoken one, for Cain to know what would happen as his punishment and consequence. But he had to know murder would be high on God’s list. He says, “Behold” or “look, see” to God as if God was not there. He mentions being cast away from the ground before being cast away from the Lord.
I wonder if this is purposeful here. Perhaps that is part of the problem. He valued and prioritized his relationship with working the ground more than a relationship with God. To no longer be before God’s face, or in His presence, was a secondary thought to Cain.
Many translations have “shall be hidden” but this verb is active. Cain is the one hiding himself. This is only one of the consequences of sin. It makes us want to hide when we feel guilty. Cain will hide to keep from being murdered.
God could have said, “You murdered someone else. My justice would be so poetic.” But even now the Lord does not do that. Aren’t you grateful that the Lord is much better and faithful to us than we are to Him?
Cain repeats what the Lord has already told him, except realizing it in the first person as he speaks that same judgment over himself. “I will be a fugitive and a wanderer.” He must be thinking what his life will now be like.
Cain’s biggest concern is that someone will murder him just like the first murder against Abel. He imagines that anyone finding him will kill him. Though he was unconcerned about killing his brother, he is still concerned about his own life. This shows that degraded character I referred to earlier. Life meant little to Cain until is could hang in the balance everywhere he goes.
God is so gracious! He tells Cain this will not be the case for him. God promises to take vengeance sevenfold on the person who kills Cain. God offers him the protection he doesn’t deserve. Now that’s grace! It’s always good when God takes vengeance instead of us. That is the teaching of the Old and New Testaments. We should leave vengeance up to God (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30).
The Lord puts a mark on Cain after the first murder so everyone will know who he is and not risk striking him or killing him. The word for “mark” is most often translated as “sign.” It is used in the creation account to Mark days and seasons. It could also be used of the sign for a predictive prophecy to be true.
Here it reminds me of the seal of God upon the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14. It is God’s protection over Cain so you will not simply be struck dead by someone else. Cain will live out his years though able will not do the same. Like everyone else, I wonder what this mark from Yahweh looks like. Whatever it was, it had to be recognized by everyone who saw Cain.
You can’t read Genesis 416 as confirmation of the curse on Cain. We must leave “from before the Lord,” or best understood as “from the presence of the Lord.” He will not be in the Lord’s presence ever again. Instead of running all his life, Cain settles in Nod east of Eden.
Perhaps because of the mark of Yahweh on him, Cain does not have to worry about running for the rest of his life. Instead, he can live out his days in relative safety. We know this because he has a genealogy of descendants we will observe in the next issue.
The Saga Continues…
We’re just getting started in Volume 2 as we talk about Sin, Genealogies, and the Great Sin. The first murder happens shortly after Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden of Eden. Is there really much to talk about during the genealogies you probably skip during your devotional reading? I think you will be pleasantly surprised beginning with the next Issue.
