Genesis 4:1-16 | Life Under Sin
Today, we are still in our “In Between” series, and this seems like a good moment to pause and remember why we are doing this series. In fact, it isn’t really a series but more a theme we see repeatedly throughout Scripture. A theme that we wanted to draw our attention to over this year.
Many of us forget that our lives are lived in between two amazing moments! We live between God’s first moments of creation and his second recreation of all things. The first creation in Genesis is a moment where humanity walked perfectly with God. Adam and Eve were in his presence, in the place of Eden that he had prepared for them, and they were given a purpose: to guard and protect his words and ways, to spread his glory over the whole earth, and to have dominion over the earth. His recreation will happen at the end. This is going to be a moment where God is going to AGAIN take us to a place he made for us—the new heavens and the new earth—and he is going to let us dwell with him in his presence again. There, we will dwell forevermore as his kingdom people, and we will again have a job to rule over all things with him. How amazing is that!
Today, we live between those two moments. Hence, the theme “In Between.” And so much of what we read in Scripture—so much of what God has revealed to us—is meant to help us understand what is going on in this moment and how God is getting us back to that place with him. God is telling us how we are called to live and how we can still, even now, walk back into a relationship with God, even as sinners. This year, we have been trying to highlight how often Scripture is showing us glimpses of both the past perfect creation and the future perfect recreation, and how today we are being prepared in this in between moment for that future moment again with our God.
We started in Genesis and have been looking at God’s plan for us in this in between moment that began in the garden and moved out into the world we live in today. We have also looked at 1 John and how Jesus is true Love and Light for us in this in between moment, Jonah and how God provides us with grace in this in-between moment, and 2 John and how we are called to “walk,” or live, in this in between time. Again, “In Between” is more of a theme of Scripture than simply a short series where we will finally come to the end this summer. This theme won’t end; rather, we hope you walk away from this year and this series realizing how much God’s word has to say about our lives here and how none of this is an accident. That every time you come to Scripture, you will remember this image of living In Between God’s perfect beginning and ending, and how he is getting us back to a perfect relationship with Himself. We want to remember that God’s plan was never thwarted by Satan, it has never been thwarted by your and my sin, nor by the course of history. God has planned everything that you and I might perfectly see and know his good plan for us in Jesus Christ!
Mother’s Day
That plan even includes Mother’s Day! We are lucky that today just so happens to be a Mother’s Day passage here in Genesis 4. Now, you may not have thought of the story of Cain and Abel as a Mother’s Day sermon, but it is! Look at how it starts:
Now Adam 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.
Genesis 4:1-2
We start with the account of the first two Mother’s Days! And after the first, Eve literally says, “I’ve gotten a man!” That is a funny play on words because the word for Cain sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for “got.” And I imagine many of you mothers can appreciate that. I’ve got them! After the months of gestation and morning sickness and all sorts of discomfort that I can only imagine, they are finally there. I’ve got them! What a beautiful moment when you finally have the child you have been waiting for.
And I know for some of you that is also the pain of Mother’s Day. Perhaps it is the loss of a child through death or even just a relationship. Perhaps it is the longing for motherhood that never came. Perhaps it is the loss or separation from your own mother. Know that my wife and I, and many others here, feel many of those pains with you. It’s okay to admit that today may bring up some of those feelings for you. God is big enough to hear that from you.
After what seems like a long wait, there is Eve with two children. And Eve isn’t just joyful in the normal sense of being joyful to have a baby. Remember what God had told her and the serpent during their punishments in Genesis 3:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:15
Eve is acutely aware that God promised her a child. It was part of the grace she and Adam received in not dying immediately and part of God’s promise to stop Satan. Surely, Eve is looking at Cain and then looking at Abel, and literally means, “I’ve got him!” I’ve got the one that God has promised to me. Those first Mother’s Days for Eve were more than just the joy of receiving a child. They were packed full of the expectation that maybe, even in her lifetime, God would solve the problem of sin and Satan through her children. That would be a straightforward reading of the promise God made to them.
That is also how many moms and dads may feel—they assume their child will save the world! See, you aren’t alone, even Eve thought that while holding her sons...but she may have had a bit of a better reason than most of us to think that highly of her children. With that image in mind, we have to pause, and knowing the end of the story of Cain and Abel, we need to realize the pain Adam and Eve will feel in this moment. This is a tragic situation, not only because of what happens between Cain and Abel, but it is likely the beginning of the death of Adam’s and Eve’s hope that the solution from God would come quickly. They likely realize after THIS moment that sin, pain, and death are much more pervasive and widespread than they would have imagined, and God may not be as quick to solve the problem as they had hoped.
Outline
One of the things you and I are meant to wonder as we turn from Genesis three and the last scene in the garden to Genesis four is what will life look like outside of the garden? What will happen to God’s people as they are no longer in his place and now live outside his constant and direct presence and relationship with him? Will they keep living out their purpose? Will they even somewhat act like God’s people?
And what we find, sadly, is that life outside the garden is full of tragedy. That is not a very encouraging Mother’s Day sermon, but it lines up with our reality. Life has turns we don’t expect. It is harder than we imagined. And even the hope we think is there sometimes seems further off than we would like.
But the honesty of Scripture is also a grace from God. You and I are meant to see ourselves in every example or person that God shows us in Scripture. We are meant to see our challenges, many of our choices, and our struggles to live rightly now outside of God’s perfect place under sin. And we should see ourselves here in Cain, Abel, and even Adam and Eve.
God’s story doesn’t pull any punches, and God always acknowledges how hard it is to live outside his presence and his place, and instead to live under sin. But he also does something we don’t usually expect. God is always there, and he provides GRACE where we weren’t expecting it. This morning, what we are going to see even in this section of Genesis 4, which has a tragedy as big as the murder of Abel by Cain, is that:
God’s Plan is There (Still)
Our Hearts are the Problem (Still)
God’s Amazing Grace is There (Still)
I pray this will actually be an encouraging Mother’s Day sermon. God is there to meet all of us as HIS beloved sons and daughters, and he is meeting us always with more grace than we deserve and imagined. He is even the image of the best mother we could ever hope for.
God’s Plan Is There (Still)
Let’s start with God’s plan, and how we see his plan is still there, outside the garden of Eden. Look at what happens with Cain and Abel:
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:2-7
We saw at the end of Genesis chapter three how God had provided clothing for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals. In providing for them in this way, he had clearly killed—he had sacrificed—an animal that Adam and Eve might be covered. Adam and Eve saw from God’s own hand an image of what was to come, and what we all would need to be able to walk in relationship with God today as sinners. We would need to be covered by the blood of a righteous offering so we can be with God. We need our sins covered over that we might be “clothed rightly” as it were.
And we see here that Cain and Abel know about this pattern, and they come and offer a sacrifice, an offering, to God. Cain from his work (fruit), Abel from his work (livestock).
I’ll be honest—this section was often hard for me when I used to read it. It seems like God is being a little fickle. Why isn’t Cain’s offering good enough? We see in several places in Scripture where God asks for offerings from the harvest. Exodus 23 says:
The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.
Exodus 23:19
Clearly, God isn’t upset by offerings from the harvest. What is going on here?
Scholars are mixed on their approach. One approach says God wasn’t happy because this was meant to be a sin offering, and sin offerings are always from livestock and require blood. All of Leviticus chapter four is dedicated to talking about sin offerings that the people of Israel were to make. Again and again, this section says they are to bring an animal, the animal will be sacrificed, and:
And the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.
Leviticus 4:31
I think that could very well be the issue here. Perhaps this was a moment God expected a sin offering. But there is another option. Note what it says about Cain. It only says that he brought “fruit.” That is all it says. However, Abel brought the firstborn and the fat portions!
In the course of time, Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
It may be that Cain brought his offering flippantly. That this offering wasn’t his best, it wasn’t the “first fruits,” literally a phrase that we have because of this idea, and the kind of fruit of the harvest you were supposed to bring as a sacrifice. On the other hand, Abel did bring the best of his livestock. He brought the firstborn. And Abel offered up their fat portions, something again that Leviticus commands in sacrifices.
Either way, I think we can make one fair observation about Cain:
Cain Wanted to do Things His Way
He wanted to do it his way. Whether it was choosing to bring an offering from the harvest instead of from the livestock for a sin offering, which wouldn’t work, or by simply bringing any of the fruit he wanted to bring, he seems to have chosen to do it his way. And because of that attitude, we read:
And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.
Genesis 4:4
Application
Now, it may seem easy to think about this and say, “Well, I guess Cain got what he deserved then. What was he thinking, trying to do things differently than God’s prescribed way?” That would be easy to say, but we might have to get our foot out of our mouth to say it. You and I do the same thing all the time.
How often do you and I want to do things our way and just hope it will work out? I’ve told you several stories of my exploits of building things in different house remodels, but you haven’t heard nearly all of them. A shed with a butterfly roof that leaks is not the only time I have thought I knew better how to do something, and it didn’t turn out so well for me. My wife has adopted a phrase that another pastor I know has earned:
Always confident, sometimes right.
Yep, that’s me! Maybe that is you, too. And even for you, rule-followers, I imagine there are moments when you want to do things your way and hope it works out. I think we all have moments when we want to believe our way of doing something is good enough. Or at least should be good enough, maybe even better. This is one of our patterns as sinful people, and our struggles with this desire to do our own thing range from inconvenient issues like dinner all the way up to important, life-altering decisions like medical treatments. We often think we know better than any expert, and more problematic, that we even know better than God.
I can do it my way.
How often have you thought that yourself?
I can make a lemon chicken pasta as good as Olive Garden's, and I can do it without a recipe! You can ask my wife how that went for one of our first-ever meals as a married couple. I know Google Maps is telling me to drive this route, but I know a much faster way if we just go another direction. I know there are many of you who have done that one! I am sure if I do my homework this project my way, it will turn out just as good, and I can get it done in half the time!
What else would we call our sin? Isn’t our sin a moment where we think, despite all that God has told us and all the stories he has shared with us about where sin leads, that we will be different? That our experience will not end the way he says it will through our sin and disobedience?
Because of what Cain does next (murder Abel), I think we often don’t stop to consider how much we are like Cain, really, how much all people are like him. We truly want to do things our way and assume it won’t be a problem for us.
Yet God shows us that isn’t true, and that we need the plan he has for us. In fact, God’s plan is and always will be the same. We are called to look to him to save us THROUGH a sacrifice. We know we won’t do things right, and we come to HIM to help make it right. God had a plan in Genesis chapter three, it is the same plan in Genesis chapter four, and it is the same plan that he has brought to fruition through Jesus Christ today! We need God’s sin-covering sacrifice so that we might be able to be in relationship with him. We need the same plan, and sadly, you and I are a lot like Cain. Our hearts are the problem (still)!
Our Hearts are the Problem (Still)
Look at what we see next about Cain:
So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:5-7
Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, [Let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Cain was angry that his way was not acceptable. Yet there is only one true path to God for all of us. There is only one way back to God, and it is a way that none of us will ever be able to do. A perfect, holy sacrifice is needed that we might be in relationship with God. These temporary sacrifices are meant to be given in faith and trust that God will provide the more perfect version. In being unwilling to do it God’s way, Cain showed that his heart was not rightly desirous to have God solve the problem for him. As John says in his first letter:
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who 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.
1 John 3:11–12
I think, sometimes, we are like Cain. Having to do things God’s way and not having our version accepted makes us angry. And specifically, we are angry at God and those who do it right. We can see that God notices Cain’s angry heart and calls him out. “If you will just do what is right, I will accept you,” God says.
How often do you and I need to hear that?! Just do what is right! But we need that reminder even more when we realize God isn’t talking about Cain never sinning and needing to be perfect. Rather, God is commending Cain to come to him rightly through a sacrifice. God isn’t asking for perfection—he knows Cain, and we can’t do that now under sin. Perfection IS what is required to be in a relationship with God, but God already knows and has already promised that he will provide that for us and for Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, and all that comes after them through faith. He has provided them with an image that is already pointing forward to the future, where a permanent and perfect sacrifice will be provided. Now, he wants Cain and all of humanity to come to him through a right sacrifice.
God promises something like what he said to Adam and Eve. He says to Cain if you don’t do this right, sin will come for you. Sin desires us, and sin is like a lion waiting to pounce on us. Instead, we are called to rule over our sin. This sounds a lot like God’s promise that sin will cause death and pain for Adam and Eve. This is what we saw in Genesis three:
God’s Discipline
Pain
Conflict
Death
We saw in God’s discipline of Adam and Eve that he promised sin would bring about pain, conflict, and death, and we see that here again with Cain. And here, we see just how far sin will wreck us. Sin will cause us to run all the way to death ourselves.
Cain kills Abel.
Again, imagine the tragedy of that moment for Adam and Eve and for God. Up to this moment, the only death humanity had experienced was through the sacrifices they brought to God. Now, it is through a human being who was killed.
Application
Friends, just like with Adam and Eve, just like Cain, our heart is the problem. We desire to do things our way EVEN WHEN we know it will bring pain, conflict, and death. And if we are not careful, all sin will eventually lead us to death. Perhaps death won’t be the physical sin we run towards, but surely our death will happen in our sin through being separated from God. This is what Cain realizes in his punishment:
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
Genesis 4:14
And I don’t want to wait until the end of this sermon to give you hope if you are despairing today about your sin and don't want to be separated from God! There is a great hope in the grand sacrifice of Jesus for me and you. As the book of Hebrews says:
[You have come] to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Hebrews 12:24
The innocent blood of Abel is pointing us forward again to the necessary perfect sacrifice of Jesus. And Jesus is better than Abel because his blood speaks a word of life to me and you. This hope in Jesus is available to you and me today through faith. Again, as the book of Hebrews says:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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.”
Hebrews 11:1–4
Abel still speaks to us today as one who trusted God by faith. His faith and his blood foreshadow the innocent blood of Christ spilled for me and you, his temporary sacrifice accepted by faith. We can come into relationship with God today through faith in Jesus. If you haven’t put your faith in Jesus yet, I would commend you to consider it. This is the only sacrifice we need. This is God’s plan and his only way back into relationship with himself for sinners with corrupted hearts!
God’s Amazing Grace is There (Still)
And that is the amazing thing we are to notice about God, even here in Genesis four. Our God is the same for you and me today, outside of Eden, as he was for Adam and Eve inside the garden! Our God’s amazing Grace is still there for Cain, and it is still there for you and me today.
Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying 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 shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
Genesis 4:9-12
Just like with Adam and Eve, our God responds with a kind of grace we could not have anticipated or imagined, even outside the garden. Just like with Adam and Eve:
God’s Heart in Discipline (Of Cain as well)
Seeks: His People & Understanding
Shows: Gentleness & Grace
Speaks: Clearly
Our God seeks his people, he shows his gentleness and grace, and he speaks clearly. And over all of it, we are to see larger and larger:
Grace
Notice what God is doing! He is repeating the pattern! He wants us to have no doubt that he will stay the same for us, for even you and me, outside the garden of Eden. He is the same for you and me in this In Between moment—he is the same for Adam, for Eve, and for Cain. He is a God who seeks out his people, he is the God who shows gentleness and grace, and he is the God who speaks clearly.
God comes and seeks out Cain. “Where is Abel?” he asks. And no different than Adam, we get a sassy answer: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Just like Adam blames God for his partner Eve, who sinned, Cain sasses God and acts like it is God’s problem if he doesn’t know where Abel is. And in doing so, he misses the point, just like Adam missed the point. He misses that God is seeking him out. He misses that God is working to help Cain understand what he has done and to see the God of grace that is coming to him.
And God speaks clearly. He tells Cain he will have much of the same punishment as his father. The ground will no longer yield to Cain, much like Adam was promised the ground would not produce well for him. He tells Cain that in his sin, he will be outside of God’s presence. That is more than Cain can bear:
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”
Genesis 4:13-16
God gives Cain more grace! God doesn’t immediately kill Cain (just like Adam and Eve), and God will not let anyone kill Cain.
Sadly, this passage has been horrifically abused throughout history. Most notably, in our country, many used this passage to say that the sign of Cain was to be black. It was used as a justification of slavery and a horrific misreading of Scripture.
God gives no sense of what this mark will be. In fact, the word for mark here is the same as the word translated as signs in Genesis 1:
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,”
Genesis 1:14
It is probably better to understand this phrase as meaning that Cain himself will serve AS A sign. God will protect him, even though he has killed Abel, that others might see and know THROUGH Cain that God can and does provide grace. Cain lives. And through Cain’s line, we get many of the beautiful things of art and human culture that we appreciate today: Enoch builds cities, Jubal makes music, Tubal-cain makes metalwork. All because of God’s grace! Yes, Cain’s line becomes a foil and a counterpoint to God’s line brought about through Seth (which we will see next in Genesis), but it is also a lineage of grace in many ways.
Application
Main Street, that is amazing! God’s grace is bigger than we usually want to give him credit for. The story of Cain and Abel is the story of both their and OUR sin and desire to do everything ourselves and our way. It is a story of the consequences of sin, even to death. It is a story about our separation from God in our sin. BUT it is also a story of God’s grace! Again, this is not a thwarting of God’s plan, but it is a chance for God to show us that he is for us, that he will pursue us, and that his grace is greater than we could ever imagine. It is a grace large enough to protect Cain for years that all might see and know God more. That is the God we see not only in Eden but the God who is still for his people outside the garden, in the in-between moments, even today! Friends, this is our gracious God who meets me and you when we don’t want to live out his plan, and this is the God who meets us when our hearts are still pulled wayward by sin.
Conclusion/Response
Mother’s Day: Mothers are thinking and desiring to care for their children. Children are thinking about their mother and her provision for them. Love. Joy. And even some thoughts about loss and sadness at times. That is a great metaphor for our lives. As we have seen this morning, our God shows us a consistent pattern in Genesis, both inside and outside the garden of Eden, because it is how he deals with all his people:
God’s Plan is There (Still)
Our Hearts are the Problem (Still)
God’s Amazing Grace is There (Still)
God’s plan to solve our sin problem through his sacrifice has been the only plan. It is still the plan. Our hearts, even on the best of days, are still the problem. And amazingly, God’s grace is still there! Our God is so loving and so gracious, and he continues to show us how much that is true throughout Scripture. I pray that even in this first story of God’s people outside the garden, we can see and love his consistent and gracious plan and pursuit of us!
I also want you to walk away this morning seeing how one of the images God uses to convey this steadfast, caring plan is through mothers. Jesus says this about himself:
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
Matthew 23:37
Jesus is quoting Psalm 91, where it says of God:
For he [God] will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.”
Psalm 91:3–6
What better way to image God’s steadfast plan and love for us than to picture a mother hen, in the midst of the storm of life, spreading her wings out and over her chicks and gathering them close. Pursuing and protecting them from the tempest that rages outside and all around.
In God, we find not only the perfect image of our Father, but the perfect image of our Mother. The motherly love of care, compassion, and refuge for those who are in need. That is the God we see here, even in the story of Cain and Abel. This is the God who is pursuing us. A God of loving provision and care. A God of perpetual grace!
This morning, as we think of Cain and Abel, and as we think of the tragedy of the first mother and the loss of Eve’s son, also think of God and his modeling of motherly love and care for us through his grace that keeps coming.
God’s Plan is There (Still)
Our Hearts are the Problem (Still)
God’s Amazing Grace is There (Still)
God is showing us his plan repeatedly throughout Scripture, and it is still his plan for us today—a perfect sacrifice for us in Jesus Christ. Our hearts, sadly, are still the problem. We still desire sin and to do things our way. Yet God’s amazing grace is still there for us, and he is still pursuing us, speaking to us, and caring for us.
Take a minute this morning to reflect on the God who has extended his wings over all of us in Jesus Christ, that he might gather us to himself like a mother hen and show us grace. See him as the mother that Eve was, who was so excited to have her sons. That is the God who is looking on you in Jesus this morning. He is seeking us like Eve that he might say, “I’ve got them!”
