- Alright, now last lesson
we finished the section of Genesis that explained the fall of man. So very briefly, we saw last week, God sets forth his command. To obey the command is life. To disobey the command brings death, and all of the things of death. We said, of course, as we
reviewed what had taken place, that man disobeyed and suffered
the various consequences of death. Death isn't just like ugh, you know, all of a sudden you have a
heart attack or something and you die. Death has all kinds of
consequences while you're alive. It's like living death. A sorrow, and pain, and
alienation from the environment. That's why he had to work. Adam would now have to work to draw his life from the environment. And of course, the final
decomposition of his body, when his soul leaves his body. In essence, the word death,
that's what it means. It means separation actually. The soul from the body. The second death is the eternal separation of the soul from God. Okay? So those are the effects of death. And we also saw that God offers a glimpse of the salvation to come. And we see Adam and
Eve respond to the hope that God sets before them. They begin to have children. Isn't that strange? We talked about that. Their response of faith was
that they would have children, they would actually
multiply and fill the Earth, because God promised that the
salvation, the seed, the hope would come through their generations. And so they begin to have children, which is a sign that they
believe God's promise that salvation will come, as I mentioned, through a human form in the future. And they are removed from the garden to live out their lives, again, away from the presence of God. Now the next section
describes the beginning of the fall of the world,
now inhabited by sinful men. And so we begin by the murder of Abel. As we discussed earlier, the
fact that Eve had children despite the suffering that
would come with childbirth is a sign that she along with
Adam believed the promise of God to send a Savior through her seed. And her response is despite the pain, despite the difficulty she agreed, I don't know if the word agreed is good, but she and Adam began to obey
God's command to multiply. They didn't obey the first command. The first command was
don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the first command. Don't do that. And they went ahead and did that. And then the other command
was go ahead and multiply, fill the Earth, that's the other command. Well then they went ahead
and filled that command. And it seems throughout history,
man has never had trouble filling that particular commandment, as we have seen here in Genesis. Now we're gonna see however
that Satan's initial attempt to control the woman and to
dominate her seed will continue to the next generation and
result in the poisoning of one child and the death of another. The battle is still on between
Satan and the seed of woman. He hasn't given up. So the seed of Satan will
murder the seed of woman in an attempt to continue to dominate, but God will continue the
seed with other children. Okay? Yet another image of the
ultimate scenario of the death and the resurrection of Christ. One possible seed of the future is killed, and God raises up another one. Always the regenerating
power that God demonstrates, not only in the physical creation, but through humanity as well. We begin with chapter four verse one. It says, "Now the man had
relations with his wife Eve, "and she conceived and gave
birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a man child
with the help of the LORD." Now some of the versions in your Bibles have the word Adam knew Eve. Alright? Some of the older versions have that. And the word know there,
or to know, in the Hebrew is a euphemism for sexual intimacy, and the transparency in marital love. Interesting that the
name Cain means gotten in reference to the fact
that Eve was joyful that she was able to beget or to bear a child. Remember now, we're looking
at it from the future, and we're looking back. Hindsight's 20/20. So we're looking back at the events, but they had no idea of the future, so she obeys God. They have a child. She's rejoicing. Hey, I've got this child, Cain. God said the promise would
come through my seed, and now we have a child, Cain. So it would be understandable
to surmise that she may have thought this,
here it is right here, he's the one that's gonna
fulfill the promise. Just like in the New Testament, the apostles, the early disciples, they thought Jesus was
coming back like right away. It won't be long now. They didn't know that it could
be a century or a millennium or ten millenniums. They didn't know that. So in the same way, she didn't know. It's significant to note
that the first human created was a man. The first human conceived was a man. And the first human
resurrected to eternal life was also in a man's body. Eve's joy may have also
been based on the fact, as I mentioned, that she
thought that this person, Cain, might be the deliverer. He's the one, he's the
savior, he's the seed. Okay? So let's read verse two. It says, "Again, she gave
birth to his brother Abel. "And Abel was a keeper of flocks, "but Cain was a tiller of the ground." Again, interesting to
note that Abel's name means vapor, vainity. There could be several reasons for this. Perhaps Eve began to
experience the results of sin in her life and saw what
God meant by the curse. Remember, they're perfect,
they sin, God curses, tells them what's going to happen, but did it happen like right away? Remember I told you the
example of the branch? You cut yourself away from
God, like if it's a branch, does that branch turn
yellow and the leaves begin to turn brown? The fruit begin to rot immediately? No. At first, looks like everything's okay. It's with time that you see,
oh, the tree's still growing, and the branches connected
to the tree are still alive, and the branch cut away,
uh oh, now we begin to see. Well the same thing with Eve. Maybe right away the curse wasn't evident, but with time she begins to see the effect of sin in her life. Perhaps Cain began to
demonstrate sinful tendencies. And Eve recognizes the vanity
or the shortness of a life with death as its natural end, and gives a name to a child
that expresses that feeling. Or she could have been
predicting the shortness of Abel's life. Who knows? Those of us who are parents,
don't you kinda know your kids? Have you not said in your own mind, maybe you haven't said it to them, but as you're speaking with your spouse, you're talking about one of the children. You're saying, boy, I
don't know about that boy, or I don't know about that girl. If they keep doing what
they're doing here, it hasn't happened yet, but I
kinda see where this is going. Right? We've all had that experience, those of us who've raised children. Who says she didn't have that experience? Certainly she was insightful. In chapter five verse four,
it says that Adam and Eve had other sons and other daughters. After all, their role was
to populate the Earth. And so they continued to have children who themselves had
children, and intermarry. That brings up another question, always a question about this. Wow, that's against the law. That's even physically, you
know, genetically dangerous. Brothers marrying sisters, there are actually laws on the books. What is it, you can't
marry your first cousin or your third cousin? Is it different from state to state? - [Audience Member] Mm hmm. - Oh, there's a joke there, but [laughing] I'm not gonna make it. [laughs] But we have laws on the book, because we can prove that it's dangerous to have people related
too closely together to have children, they can
have children together, but it can be an unfortunate experience. The children themselves can be born with serious birth
defects, even to this day. But, at this time, this was not the case. This, not intermarrying,
this becomes forbidden later on in history, again, because of social and physical reasons. But in this situation, before the flood, it was neither dangerous nor
was it against God's will. It was the only way to populate the world. And in many closed societies, I'm not talking about like England or, I'm saying close societies,
tribal societies, there was a lot of
intermarrying, even to this day, a lot of intermarrying,
people marrying their cousins and so on and so forth. Now, this was how Cain
and others began families. Now the Bible mentions the
occupations of each one of them. Abel was a shepherd
since sheep were needed to provide two things at that time. Number one clothing. Clothing, they needed clothing. Skins. The very first animal killed by God to provide them clothing
to cover themselves. And they continued to need clothing, and continued to use animals for that. And also they needed
animals for sacrifice. Now we don't have direct
instructions in Genesis, but obviously, animal
sacrifice was being practiced at that time. And the example of sacrificial
death was established by God when he provided for
Adam and Eve's coverings when they left the garden. So they had an example of God doing it, and they continued animal sacrifice, a very very old ritual. And it was the primary form of worship from the very beginning. Some people wonder, where
did the Jews get that? Are they the ones that invented that? No. Jews didn't invent that, and they weren't the only
ones who practiced it. Many cultures practiced animal sacrifice. In the Jewish faith, however, the sacrifice had a certain
meaning that pointed to Christ that was not present in other religions, if you know what I mean. And Cain was a farmer like his father. His father was a farmer. And this was necessary
because until this time, the produce from the ground
was the only form of food that was authorized. I mean, it's only when
we get to Genesis 9:3, that God authorizes the
use of animals for food. But before the flood, animals
had not been authorized to be eaten. Before this, God authorizes only the use of fruits and vegetables
and so on and so forth. And we read this repeatedly
in Genesis 1:29, 2:16, 3:19 that He says all the
trees, and all the fruits, and all the vegetables, this is all. He says, I give this to
you for food, go ahead eat. But He doesn't say animals. Animals for sacrifice, for worship, for clothing. When we get to Genesis
9, we'll see how and why that the eating of meat
then becomes necessary. Now we don't have a
timeframe here for the events that take place. Centuries could have gone
by as the population grew and society developed. We read in one chapter and we think this is all happening in a day, but people before the
flood lived long long time, they lived for centuries. Seven, eight, nine centuries long. And I remember watching
somebody in a video demonstrate the math once. Statisticians tell us that
if people were healthy and had normal amounts of
children for extended periods, which they did, we're
talking about centuries here. Then they population
would be approximately maybe 150 to 200,000
people in the time of Cain. A couple of years ago I
had hardly any grandkids, now I got nine. So imagine, in this fallen
world, and so on and so forth, if your family can multiply that fast, can you imagine in a
world just at that point before the flood? People had large families. The problem is that when we
talk about this in our context, we're talking about a
period of time and a world that is so foreign to ours it's like Mars. It's like another planet. Before the flood, things
were so different. It kind of stretches our imagination to imagine that someone
could live that long. But is it impossible for
God to create a being that could live a thousand years? Well no. I mean, if he can say let there be light and there's the sun, and then he puts the lights in the skies and there are millions
of planets and stars and so on and so forth, is it that more difficult
to create a human being that can live a thousand
years, two thousand years? No. Nothing's impossible with God. The difficult part is
for us to imagine that, because we only live for,
what, 80 years or so. Now we don't have a timeframe,
as I say, for these events. Centuries could have gone
by and society developed. The Bible only traces
the life of key persons at the beginning of time. Doesn't trace the life
of all other individuals or even societies. I'm sure that certain societies
and peoples and tribes raised up and were destroyed
that we don't even know about. The Bible takes one thread, and it just follows that
one thread through history, and that's the Jewish people. Alright? So in this section, it
describes key events and moments in the lives of Cain and
Abel, just these two. Without reference to time, without reference to social development. So let's read the passage here in 4:3-5. Says, "So it came about
in the course of time." See? In the course of time. A year, six months, two hundred years? In the course of time. "that Cain brought an offering to the Lord "of the fruit of the ground. "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; "but for Cain and for his
offering He had no regard. "So Cain became very angry
and his countenance fell." So there could be various ways
of interpreting these verses. For example, it could be the
first time that they actually offered a sacrifice, one did
with the fruit of the ground, and the other with animals. That could be the interpretation. Or it could be that originally
only animal sacrifices were offered by everyone, but one day Cain decided to
offer something different. He decided to offer fruit and vegetables, the produce of the ground. You could interpret it that way. Or it could be that
these kinds of sacrifices were always offered, animal sacrifices, sacrifices of the fruit
and vegetables, produce. Could be that these
sacrifices were normal, but there was something in
Cain's attitude that changed. It could be that as well. Either way that you look at
it, the end result is the same. God was pleased with one, and he was displeased with the other. I used to think that God was displeased with Cain's attitude only. I used to think that way back. And others thought that God
disliked the offering only, one or the other, didn't
like his attitude, or didn't like the way
he did the sacrifice. Like he didn't do it right,
the ritual was not okay. But if you look closely it
shows that God had no respect both for Cain and his sacrifice. He didn't like either. Now there are other places in the Bible that comment on this passage, and they shed light on why
God rejected Cain's offering and was pleased with Abel's offering. So let's look at these. Matthew 23:35 says, "so that upon you may fall the guilt "of all the righteous blood shed on earth, "from the blood of righteous
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, "the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered "between the temple and the altar." So one thing we find
out in the New Testament is that Abel was a righteous man, and his was innocent blood that was shed. In other words, he didn't deserve to die. You don't find that out in Genesis. You find that out in Matthew. There are many Bible teachers,
and I agree with them, that say the best commenter
on the Bible is the Bible. And here Jesus Himself is referring. That's another thing too,
when people say oh you know, Genesis, it's just a myth,
you know, so on and so forth. I don't think Jesus Himself
would be commenting on a myth. I don't think Jesus Himself
would be basing an argument of something important based
on a character or a person in Genesis, if Genesis was not historical. Okay? And in these passages Matthew 23, Jesus is not kinda talking
about a parable here where a parable is a story
and so on and so forth. Here He is like condemning the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you vipers,
and so on and so forth. And then He goes back to
people who were killed, real people, Zechariah, a
real person who was murdered. Abel, a real person who was murdered. A righteous person who was murdered. Alright, another
reference to this activity is in Luke chapter 11. Here Luke writes, "For
this reason also the wisdom "of God said, "I will send to
them prophets and apostles, "and some of them they will kill "and some they will persecute, "so that they blood of all the prophets, "shed since the foundation of the world, "may be charged against this generation, "from the blood of Abel
to the blood of Zechariah, "who was killed between the
altar and the house of God; "yes, I tell you, it shall be "charged against this generation." Well here it says Abel was a prophet. He spoke God's word. He says I will send to
them prophets and apostles, and then he mentions
Abel in that category. So Abel spoke God's word. Then if you go to Hebrews 11:4 it says, "By faith Abel offered to God
a better sacrifice than Cain, "through which he obtained the testimony "that he was righteous, God
testifying about his gifts, "and through faith, though
he is dead, he still speaks." And so in Hebrews we find
out that Abel's sacrifice was better than Cain's because
it was offered in faith. So the fact that he was
righteous and faithful suggests what and how he
was offering sacrifice, and that he was doing so in accordance with the will and direction of God. In other words, if your sacrifice
is faithful and acceptable to God, it means you've
done it the way God wants you to do it, with the attitude that
God wants you to have. This also may indicate the
reason why Cain's offering was rejected. If this is what's acceptable to God, I guess the opposite is
not acceptable to God. In other words, maybe the
reason that Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable is because he himself was not a righteous man, and his sacrifice was not in
accordance with God's will. Again, we're combing through
passages that refer back to this incident to try to
kinda put a picture together of what the motivation and what took place and so on and so forth. So, God informs Cain and Abel about their respective sacrifices. Maybe Abel as a prophet was
charged to tell his brother about his sacrifice and his attitude. Did you ever think about that? I mean, there's no description
of Abel's reaction, but Cain becomes angry. Well, why does he become angry? How does he know that
his attitude is not good? How does he know that his
sacrifice, how does he know? Well God has always
used people, his people, to talk to other people. Maybe through Abel he's speaking to Cain, and warning him. Now it says here his countenance,
or his glance, his look, it said, had been high
or proud, now it falls. His countenance fell. What does that mean? It means he was puffed up, he was up here, and then [breath]. His countenance fell, he shrank. Okay? And with it comes anger and resentment. Let's face it, who likes
to be told they're wrong? Nobody likes that. So this anger and resentment
becomes directed at Abel, because he represents all the things lacking in his own life. Righteousness, faith,
peace and joy with God, Abel's got this, he hasn't got it. And imagine the guy whose
got it tells you why you don't have it. Oh my. Now I'm mad. So we read verse 6 and 7. "Then the Lord said to
Cain, "Why are you angry?" Notice it's only here
that God speaks to Cain. "And why has your countenance fallen? "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." So Abel has tried to warn
him, and now God warns Cain about the danger ahead. And what does He say to him? Number 1 He says face the problem. You're angry, you're depressed. There's a reason for this. Don't just dwell on it. Don't just simmer in the emotion. Find out why you feel this way. I ask people in counseling, they come in, blah blah
blah, and I ask them. Why do you think you're depressed? And they come in and say, well I'm angry, and I don't
know what's wrong with me. And I ask them, well why? If you had to take a guess, why would, because people know themselves the best. How am I supposed to figure
out why they do stuff? Usually people just are
afraid to ask themselves the right questions, 'cause they know the right
answer will come out. And so God says face the problem. The problem is you're
angry, you're depressed. Face it, acknowledge it. Number two, as I say,
acknowledge the fault. In first John 3:12 it says, "not as Cain, who was of the
evil one and slew his brother. "And for what reason did he slay him? "Because his deeds were evil, "and his brother's were righteous." whoa. Now you know what's goin' on. So the reason he was
angry was because God had rejected his sacrifice. But the reason for that was
because he had not done well. He had disobeyed. He had done it the wrong way. He had the wrong attitude, whatever. And so he had to face the real issue. Not the one you've made up. The made up issue was oh God
likes Abel better than me. That's the made up issue. He's the favorite one,
that's the made up issue. The parents loved him more,
that's the made up issue. I never get a break,
that's the made up issue. Life is really tough for me,
that's the made up issue. But that's not the real issue. Again, in counseling, the hardest thing is to get people to face the real issue. Sometimes you have to say to the guy, you know what the issue is? The issue is you're a bully, or you're dishonest, that's the issue. That's what's driving
everybody crazy in your house. You never tell the truth. So God is saying, come
on, acknowledge the truth, face the real issue, not
the one you've made up. As I say, in first John 3:12 here, we get more insight into
what the real issue, his deeds were evil,
he was not a good man. And so here's this evil
man disobeying God, thinking he can offer a
sacrifice and get God's approval. Boy. How many people do that, huh? And then of course, deal with the sin. Not only had he messed up, but he was about to make a
larger mistake because of it. If he didn't rule over sin, you know what? Sin would rule over him. You can't eliminate sin
from your life experience. You can't. You're always gonna be tempted. You're always gonna be affected by, and you will always be falling
into sin one way or another. Get used to it. It's just a fact of life. But you can contain it,
and you can mitigate it. If you don't, it will contain you. So how do you deal with that? Well God is telling him, face
the sin issues in your life. My problem is that I am easily
tempted to consume whatever. Too much food, too much
alcohol, pornography. I'm a consumer, and I'm
consuming bad things for me. That's the real issue. Face it. You don't have to tell the whole world, but at least tell yourself, me and God. And deal with it. Ask for forgiveness. Say to God, yes God, I'm a angry person, and I use anger to get my way. And I manipulate others with
the threat of my anger, yes. That's it, that's the problem. Help me God. I don't even know how to deal with this. Just help me please. Let me ask you this. Do you think God refuses
a prayer like that? You think from heaven, God's gonna say, no, sorry, you're on your own. But you can't just ignore sin. Alright, let me finish up, last verse. Last verse, come on, alright. It says, "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." what do you think they spoke
about that day in the field? Accusations by Cain perhaps? Abel saying look my brother, you can make this right. There are some ancient
texts that add a sentence here in this passage
that suggest that Cain drew Abel out into the field
where no one would see him in order to kill him. In other words, premeditation. It wasn't just his anger boiled over, it was I'm gonna get rid of this guy. In any event, the sequence of
disobedience, unfaithfulness, jealously, anger, resentment
finally leads to murder. Just like Jesus says it
does in Matthew 5:22. If you're angry with your
brother in your heart, you've already killed
him, you're on the road. So we see the pollution of
the created world and society begin with the murder of Abel. Innocent blood is spilled into the ground. So Satan's attack begun
with the woman continues as the first seed to have
the promise of salvation is killed. Abel killed. Now when we read further, we'll find out that Cain's descendants will
not call upon the name of God. His descendants will multiply sin. And we'll see that later on. God, however, will furnish
another son to Eve, and this line will begin calling upon God, and eventually produce a savior. So a couple of really quick last lessons. Number one, sin is in the world, and we have to deal with it
or it will just overtake us. Don't think that avoidance
is the way to deal with sin. You have to deal with it. Number two, God provides us with resources and
opportunities to deal with sin. He offered to take Cain back
if he did what was right. We fight him off many times because we're mad, we're
afraid, or we're ashamed. If we have anger, fear,
and shame, ask yourself, who is producing that in your heart? Is that the Lord doing that? The Lord does not produce
shame in you, or fear in you, or anger in you. The Lord produces the fruit of the Spirit, joy, peace, patience, so on and so forth. So ask yourself, who's
manipulating me here? And then finally, Satan cannot
destroy the plan of God. Yes, he killed Abel, but
God raised up another seed to take his place. And he'll kill our bodies
one day, Satan will through illness or death,
I mean, through illness or accident or whatever. But the promise is that
God will raise us up, so that we will understand and know and experience the final victory. Okay. Cain and Abel. We will move on at our next meeting. Thank you very much.
