Banished from the garden and cursed by God, Adam and Eve began their new lives of sorrow and labor, sweat and pain, futility and broken fellowship with their Creator. Beginning in Genesis 4 we read of the consequences of the Fall lived out.

Genesis is not a history of how the world was populated. It is a history of redemption. The writer does not attempt exhaustive detail, but the detail that is given is sufficient for us to see mankind’s ceaseless sinfulness and God’s unstoppable love as He works within human free will and time-bound history to save His beloved creation.

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4:1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.” 2a Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel.

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The chapter opens with Eve experiencing painful childbirth, a consequence of her sin.

Childbirth is certainly not all bad. We find great joy in parenting. There is not a role or responsibility in all my life that I consider as rewarding, nor as significant, as being a father to four children (who are all adults now).

But the joy of childbirth and parenting could be much greater if I did not help reproduce fallen creatures like myself who, on their own, have nothing to look forward to but eternal damnation and everlasting death.

Remember that before the Fall, every human was produced directly by God in God’s image. Now every human would be reproduced by man in in man’s image. This will be stated more explicitly when we get to 5:3. The point is simply, but importantly, that humans would no longer have the option to choose between eternal life or knowing good and evil as did the ones God Himself created without sin. From here forward Adam’s offspring would, in his own image, be sinful and die.

The story begins with the first man and woman who lived giving birth to the first man to be born and the first man to die.


It’s fitting that the first human births would produce one who pleases God and another who does not. All men fall into one of those two camps. But it seems like Eve named her sons backward. Cain’s name in Hebrew indicates a “prized achievement” and Abel’s means “futility.” Eve may have thought Cain would be the offspring to bruise the serpent’s head. She did give the Lord credit for his birth. But later scripture paints the picture differently. 1 John 3:12 says “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.”

It is appropriate that the firstborn in this world was exceedingly sinful, too. The italics are now underscored. Cain was part of Eve’s curse.

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4:2b And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

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Just a few verses after we encounter the consequences of Eve’s sin (painful childbirth), we encounter the consequence of Adam’s sin (human death). And not natural death; it is death by murder - sin.

While Eve was reproducing the human race, her firstborn was undoing it.

It strikes me that at this time in history there were no unbelievers. Everyone on the planet believed in God, talked directly to God, and heard directly from God. Intuitively it seems like that would make things very different from how the world is today, but it didn’t.

V.2, Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a horticultural farmer.


Naturally, when they took offerings to the Lord, Abel brought an animal and Cain brought produce. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these. Even much later, the Jewish Law prescribed both animal and grain offerings (Leviticus 6:14-23, Malachi 3:9-10). So Cain’s problem wasn’t that no blood was spilled in his sacrifice as some contend.

The problem wasn’t with the sacrifice. Vv. 4-5 say God had regard for “Abel and his offering” but God didn’t have regard for “Cain and his offering.”

The problem was within the sacrifice, not the sacrifice. We aren’t told much more, but we know from the rest of scripture that God looks upon the heart of a man. For example, God rejected Eliab “for the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1Sam 16:7).

Hebrews 11:4 may also provide a little insight: “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.” This passage seems to suggest, though not strongly, that is was Abel’s faith that caused his sacrifice to be acceptable. Perhaps Cain offered his sacrifice mechanically, out of duty, or even begrudgingly.

I think we’re safe in believing that God was pleased with Abel’s heart and not with Cain’s.

V.7, If Cain did not do well, sin would sit in waiting at his door like a slave sitting in waiting for his master’s call. Sin is the slave here, Cain is the Master.

V.8, Consider what John wrote. “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 3:12).

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4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. 11 Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! 14 Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.

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V.9 – Cain’s response to the Lord was shockingly arrogant and sarcastic. I would think that the direct communication to and from God which Cain experienced would surely instill enough awe to not speak offensively to Him. Evidently not.

Perhaps buried in Cain’s reply was an implied “If You don’t know where he is, how am I supposed to know?” But of course God did know. He was testing Cain’s heart in order to bring his obstinacy to the surface so it could be dealt with.

Cain had an opportunity to confess his sin to God. He could have answered “I killed him.” But even though he knew that God already knew the truth, he hid.

Like parents like son, huh (3:8-10)?

Like you and me, for that matter. When my heart is not ready for God to confront me with my sin, my prayer becomes infrequent and empty, my Bible study trails off, and my worship becomes mechanical. In those ways, like Adam, Eve, and Cain, I hide from God even though I know that He already knows.

V.10, Abel’s blood cried out to God. The writer of Hebrews wrote that in coming to salvation 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).

Abel’s shed blood cried out about Cain’s guilt. Jesus’ shed blood cries out about our forgiveness.

Vv.11-12, Cain was a crop farmer. As a consequence of murdering his brother, Cain was now “cursed from the ground.”

His livelihood was taken away. God took away Cain’s green thumb. “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."

Scary stuff. If you’re Cain, you feel pretty hopeless! Your professional talents which earn your livelihood are gone forever. I remember once hearing of a gifted professional orator – way up the ranks in Toastmasters – who, upon learning he had inoperable throat cancer, killed himself.

Vv. 13-14, Instead of thanking God for keeping him alive, Cain complained, “My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

When God is displeased with us, how do we react? God’s displeasure can cause us to repent, but in too many cases it causes us to be displeased with Him. Now, we know better than to consciously feel this way. But when we complain at the circumstances God has allowed because of our sin, are we not displeased with His displeasure?

V.15, Despite the tantrum, God promised His continued protection of Cain. In His mercy, God placed a “sign” (some translations say a “mark”) on Cain "so that no one finding him would slay him." He would not tolerate even the murder of a murderer. If anyone did kill Cain, God would avenge that person seven times worse than what he did to Cain.


All kinds of whacky suggestions have been made about what this sign, or mark, was. The Talmud, an ancient collection of Jewish laws, says that Cain’s mark was the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, "taw," as a sign of Cain’s repentance. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel suggested that Cain’s sign was something related to the name YHWH, maybe one of the letters in that name (a “Targum” is an ancient text that’s similar to modern Bible commentaries). One rabbi taught that Cain’s mark was a horn that grew out of his forehead. Some modern interpretations claim Cain’s mark was a change in his skin color – and maybe that’s where white people came from. Others believe his mark was the number 666, etc.

There’s also a difference of opinion as to why God give the sin to Cain. Some teach that it was a warning to other people not to hurt him. Others teach that it was a sign for Cain’s benefit as a promise that God would protect him.

The bottom line is that we don’t really know. The Bible doesn’t explain it here or anywhere else, and nothing else in the Bible even comes close to making a parallel. The Hebrew word for “sign” here is 'owth (אוֹת) and it can mean either a sign of warning or a sign of promise. Here are some occurrences of the same Hebrew word:

• God used it in Genesis 1:14 when He said the lights He placed in the heavens were “for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.”
• God used it in Genesis 9:13ff when He said He put the rainbow in the sky as a “sign” of the covenant to never destroy humanity by a flood again. 
• God used it in Genesis 17:11 when He told Abraham circumcision would be “the sign of the covenant between Me and you” and told him to pass this practice on through all generations. 
• In Exodus 4:30 the same Hebrew word is used to describe the miracles Moses performed.
• In Exodus 12:13 this word is used for telling God’s people that the blood on their doorposts would be a sign for the angel of God to pass over them.
  

Here in Genesis 4:15, it can mean either one: A warning God gave to anyone who wanted to harm Cain or a sign God gave Cain to promise His protection.

Clearly, God didn’t enforce a death penalty on Cain for murdering Abel. But the Bible does not say when or how Cain died. Some believe Genesis 4:23-24 imply that Lamech eventually murdered Cain. If so, God would have had to remove His protection unless, as still others believe, God didn’t promise to protect Cain from being murdered but only from being murdered in retaliation for Abel’s murder.