Chapter 4
The way of Cain: religion versus regeneration. Cf. Jude 11—“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” The way of Cain is religion; the error of Balaam is the love of money and commercialism in spiritual things; the gainsaying of Korah is denying the authority of the Word of God.
The rise of religion in world history. We come to divine institution #4. History goes from personal to family life. We have as a point of introduction standard operating procedure to the approach of God in worship. The only way to approach God in worship is through the blood of Jesus Christ—Hebrews 9:22. The way of Cain is the way of religion—no blood, no regeneration, so salvation by faith in Christ. It was the way of works, the way of good deeds, the way of ritualism, the way of a lot of empty phrases, but no salvation, no reality, no relationship with God.
The first thing that Adam and his wife taught the children was how to approach God, how to have salvation. They taught the gospel. There were apparently three things that were taught the children. Genesis 4:3, 16, they were taught there was a place to worship. Since Cain and Abel both brought their offerings to a specified place we assume that there was an official place for worship and it had been carefully designated to them in their childhood. From Genesis 3:24 we assume that this place was at the entrance to the garden of Eden. Apparently at the entrance to the garden of Eden there was also a mercy seat to indicate the doctrine of propitiation. The doctrine of propitiation is the basic concept in approaching God for worship. The blood of an animal must be sprinkled over that mercy seat. We are going to notice that Cain did not sprinkle any blood on the mercy seat. Abel came by the blood of an animal. So one approached by blood because he was born again, he was saved. The other approached by good deeds.
Not only was there a place but there was a time—Genesis 4:3, “in the process of time” is literally, at the proper time, or at the end of certain specified days. We do not know what this time was, it could have been the Sabbath.
There is also a means of worship and this is specified by Genesis 11:4. God could only be approached and could only be worshipped by means of sacrifice—the shedding of blood again.
Verses 1-7, the attack of religion. In verses 1 & 2 we have the progeny of Adam who are involved.
Verse 1 – “And Adam knew his wife.” This is an old English way of trying to hide the facts. The word knew in the Hebrew means to have sexual relationship, the means of perpetuating the human race. Principle: Volition involves the choice of a partner for life and marriage is the basis for procreation. Note: Even procreation is not to be a blind impulse. It is an act of mutual response: the man initiates love and the woman responds to him. It is an act of moral self-determination and it is an act which is only meaningful when there is true love. Mental attitude must precede relationship. If there is no mental attitude love the sexual relationship becomes mechanical and animal. The relationship is for recreation, it is not necessary to have sexual relationship only for the purpose of having children. It is for the purpose of expression of love between partners in marriage and not just for the purpose of perpetuating the race. It is also for the purpose of perpetuating the human race.
“and she conceived, and bore Cain” – they had many children, Genesis 5:4.
Cain: His name means “acquired” – acquisition. Cain was actually religious and was the first of the seed of Satan. By the time that her second son was born she saw what Cain was really like and was discouraged, so she called her second son Abel.
Abel: His name means “nothingness.” And that is just what he turned out to be: grace. Nothingness turns out to be grace. Abel was the first in the line of grace, he was born again.
Cain was religious but not saved; Abel was regenerate but not religious. Cain was a farmer; Abel was a shepherd. In verses 3 and 4 the two brothers approach God.
Verse 3 – “And in the process of time.” There was always a time to worship. Cains approach: the fruit of the ground means produce. He brought of the best vegetables and fruit. First of all, it was bloodless. What he offered was a beautiful display but there was no shedding of blood. Hebrews 9:22.
The second thing about his offering. Note 3:19, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” On other words, how did Cain get all those vegetables and fruit, etc.? He cultivated, he worked he planted, he harvested—work, work, work, work. Cain’s approach was by human works, the product of his own sweat. The offering was produced by the effort and the energy and the planning of the flesh, and the energy of the flesh is not pleasing to God—Isaiah 64:6.
Third point: Cain’s offering was cursed. The ground had been cursed in Genesis 3:17.
Fourth: Cain’s offering was no acceptable to God. God will never accept human righteousness as a substitute for divine righteousness.
This is what religion does, it ignores the blood of Christ. Religion is characterised by good deeds, good works. Man’s works are cursed. The offering of the curse is not acceptable to God.
1. Cain failed to recognise sin and the penalty of sin. He failed to recognise his own need. He failed to recognise the righteousness and justice of God.
2. He denied the curse of man, the fact that man was under a curse. That is what religion is always doing.
3. Cain rejected God’s help and God’s provision. God provided help for both Cain and Abel. Abel accepted God’s help and Cain rejected it. The implication of Cain’s offering was that he wasn’t going to need any help from God, he would do it himself.
4. The implication of the offering is operation ego. Ego demands that he show what he has done.
5. Cain wanted a front, a cover, not a cure. This is always true of religion. Matthew 23:27,28—whitewashed tombstones, beautiful on the outside but on the inside full of dead men’s bones. Cain brings this beautiful production of the earth, but it is nothing.
6. Cain preferred human viewpoint to divine viewpoint. Cain refused indoctrination; he rejected the divine viewpoint. Both Cain and Abel heard the divine viewpoint but Cain rejected it.
So the way of Cain is the way of human opinion. Human opinion is perpetuated through rationalism or empiricism mentally, or human opinion is perpetuated
through emotionalism combined with rationalism. Often human opinion has high ideals, urging people to do good, looking for a better world, and it is a flop because its man’s plan and the plan is no stronger than man. Man isn’t strong enough and therefore the plan is no good. Only God’s plan can solve the situation.
Secondly, it is the way of self-righteousness.
Thirdly, it is the way of egocentricity.
Fourth, Cain’s way is the way of salvation by works.
Verse 4 – Abel’s approach. “And Abel also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof.” How can you bring fat? You have to kill the animal. In other words, he didn’t bring them alive, he brought them dead. He killed them first, sacrificed them.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Abel’s offering was acceptable.
Verse 5 – “But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect.” What was Abel’s approach—Hebrews 11:4; 1 John 3:12. It is the grace principle, approach through the blood of an innocent victim, the blood sacrifice approach. The fat indicates that the animals were slain.
Notice that one received approbation and one rejection. The difference was not in personality. The issue is never personality but divine truth. The difference between Cain and Abel was not a way of expression, vocabulary, and so on. One came through the blood and one did not. One came through human works and one came through divine work, and so the great issue of good versus good—man’s good works versus the work of God. One came trusting in another. Abel came by faith. Cain came in unbelief. Abel’s offering acknowledged the fall, the sin, the curse and man’s helplessness. There was no ego involved. Abel’s offering was accepted on the basis of the blood and the sacrifice but God rejected the offering of Cain.
“he had not respect” – divine rejection. Human rejection of the plan of salvation means divine rejection of that individual. Cain had the opportunity of exercising his own volition and it was wrong, negative. The result was his judgment in eternity and in time. Cain’s offering reflected tremendous human effort and expense but it was not acceptable to God. No one can approach God on the basis of human effort and self-righteousness.
“And Cain was very wrath [very angry]” – he was angry to the point of a tantrum; “and his face fell” – he showed how he felt. The Hebrew says Cain was “burned up” – inner anger. He had an inner mental anger, and he has angry with God, therefore he was guilty of the sin of judging God, maligning God. His anger suggested that God was unfair for not accepting what he had done.
Besides Cain’s anger there were three things in his mind that ruined him. His ruin was not in what he did but in what he thought. He did certain things because of what he thought. Cain’s downfall was in his thought pattern, as with every member of the human race. What you do depends on what you think. There were three areas in his though pattern: pride—he wanted to outdo Abel; jealousy—Abel had been accepted and he was not, therefore jealousy moved in; lust—his desire for precedence in the second generation. These three formed his great anger.
“his countenance fell” – his face demonstrated how he felt. It came out; he couldn’t hide it.
Verse 6 ,7 – “And if thou doest not well, a sin [offering] lieth at the door.” The Hebrew says a sin offering. The only way in which Cain could do well was to believe in Jesus Christ, to receive Him as saviour, to accept God’s solution. All he has to do is to bring a lamb slain as his parents had taught him. There is no doing well with God apart from the shedding of blood. “…if thou does not well” – in other words, if you do not do well you can still accept Christ, a sin offering lieth [or crouches] at the door. Cain can still be saved. The sin offering is Jesus Christ and the door is still open as long as Cain lives.
“And unto thee shall be desire” – literally, “unto thee its desire,” i.e. you can still make the decision. It is God’s desire that Cain accept Christ as saviour. “Its” refers to God the Son specifically. Jesus Christ desires you to accept Him.
“and thou shalt rule over him [Abel]” – the issue: the eldest son is to be the ruler in the family. The eldest son has three privileges: rulership, priesthood, and double portion—all the family assets when father dies. Cain is about to lose this because he is not acceptable to God. He is about to be disinherited but he can still rule over Abel by accepting Christ as saviour. But Cain’s failure to find acceptance with God would eliminate this completely and therefore his brother will rule him, his brother will become the priest, and will retain all of the family heritage. Therefore he must eliminate his brother. So his jealousy leads to hatred and his hatred leads to murder. Cain intended to be first regardless of the cost, even if it meant killing his brother.
Principle: The desires of the old sin nature are much stronger than family ties. There are two things stronger than family ties: a) the old sin nature; b) the doctrine of the Word of God.
Verses 8-16, the result of religion.
Verse 8 – “and slew him.” We don’t know how he did it, according to this. But we know from 1 John 3:12 exactly how he did it. The Greek word for slew here means to cut a person’s throat with a sacrificial knife. This tells us something. Cain actually watched his brother at worship. Cain said to himself that if that knife will kill an animal by cutting its throat it will kill my brother by cutting his throat. The very means of expressing worship became the means of the first murder. This shows us something of the genius of Satanic distortion. In this passage Cain will be both a murderer and a liar. He killed his brother and then lied about it. Cain is an unbeliever. Principle: All maladjustment between man and man results from maladjustment between man and God. Because Cain was not related to God through regeneration he was maladjusted to members of the human race.
Verse 9 – there were no human observers of the murder. The Lord is omniscient and omnipresent, therefore He knew of the murder and was witness to it.
“I know not” – this is a lie. And then he added: “I my brothers keeper?” There is no verb here. This is much stronger, it is elliptical indicating that he is faking all the way. The question was developed to administer justice. The first purpose of questions is to learn. The second purpose is to examine. We ask questions to determine content of learning. The third purpose is to administer justice. Never make a judgment unless you have all the facts. God has all the facts because He is omniscient and omnipresent but He asks questions to give Cain the opportunity of defending himself. This, again, demonstrates the activity of religion. Religion tries to cover up.
Justice demands that the Lord seek out Cain, since he is the first criminal, and that justice be administered. So the divine questions seeks to awaken Cain to the reality of his sin and the first murderer in the human race followed it up with a lie. There is a principle here, for a religious person especially: Sins are used to cover up sins. Not only did Cain lie but he came up with an evasion of responsibility to others. He said, “I my brother’s keeper?” as if to say in effect that the human race does not have responsibility for the human race. This is contradictory to the principle of doctrine, divine institutions numbers 2, 3 & 4.
Verses 10-12, the judgment is administered.
Verse 10 – “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Nothing can be hidden from omniscience and there would have been a great advance for Cain if he had just admitted his sin. Murder is one of the seven greatest sins. So Cain must have been shocked to discover that he neither defend nor excuse with God. His judgment puts him under a double curse with regard to the earth. Even though he is a farmer the earth will no longer yield its strength to him or even respond to his severest efforts to plant, to sow, to reap. Because the earth has been made to drink innocent blood Cain himself will no longer be successful as a farmer. He has to live by killing and therefore has to become a hunter. In addition to that he is also sentenced to be separated from the rest of the human race. Capital punishment has not been instituted yet or he would have been executed. Capital punishment will not be instituted until we come to divine institution #4, nationalism, in Genesis chapter 9. So in one day Adam and Eve lose two sons.
Verse 12 – a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.”
Verse 13 – Cain appeals his case. In this verse and the next Cain is more occupied with the consequences of the sin than the sin itself. This is typical of religious people. He is more concerned about what is going to happen to him than the fact that he is a sinner. Religion has blinded him because it has a distorted sense of values.
Verse 15 – there is a principle: The citizens of the human race are not authorised to take judgment into their own hands, there are to be administrative procedures for handling crime. Here in verse 15 is God’s grace to the unbeliever. His grace is manifested in several places, first of all the cross. God is gracious to all unbelievers because when Christ died on the cross He bore the sins of all unbelievers, all members of the human race. This doesn’t mean that all unbelievers are saved, it means that sin is no longer the issue. Christ is the issue and they must believe in Him. Secondly, Christ preserves the unbelievers alive on the earth so that they will have every opportunity to be saved forever.
He does this in several ways. First of all He does this through the divine institutions which are organised to preserve the human race and to give the human race maximum freedom within the law. Divine institution #1 is the basis of human freedom. Divine institution #2 is marriage—the use of volition in selecting a life-time partner. Divine institution #3 is family, whereby members of the human race are trained to use their freedom to make good decisions, to have good judgment, and to learn to respect the freedom of others and the rights of others and the property of others. This is the basis of discipline in the home. Divine institution #4 is nationalism. The human race would be destroyed without nationalism. If internationalism ever succeeds in controlling the greater portion of the earth it means the destruction of the human race. Any system of internationalism causes millions of people to die. When Romanism became a system of internationalism in a period of 500 years millions of people died because of it. The reason we are here today is because there are still nations all over the earth. And within these nations we survive as members of the human race because of the existence of, for example, capital punishment, and because we have court-rooms and the judge sitting on the bench.
God’s grace to the unbeliever comes in another way—nature. If this earth should stop spinning right now what would happen to all of us? We would fall off! If the earth was all level we would drown. If we were all at high altitude there wouldn’t be any water and we would die of thirst. There are so many factors in life that keep us alive. This is the grace of God.
The mark of Cain has two purposes. It is to avoid warfare in the world and further killing. It permits Cain to remain alive so that he can still be saved. The principle is, God’s grace permits the unbeliever to live on the earth even in direct defiance of God. Cain always defied God. But as long as he lives he can always be saved by believing in Jesus Christ, and it is his own volition that keeps him from having eternal salvation—John 3:18. So God in righteousness gives the unbeliever every chance to be saved. Another principle is that God took punishment into His own hands and protected the human race from further violence at this time. By God administering the punishment the punishment is correct because God is perfect. A perfect God can only administer perfect punishment, and His punishment comes through His justice, which is perfect. By doing the punishment Himself He keeps the human race from entering into a warfare over whether the justice is correct or not.
What is the mark of Cain? Whatever the mark of Cain was it is the principle that is important here, not the actual mark. Whatever it was it indicated to people that he was a murderer.
Verse 16 – Cain goes to jail! “…the land of Nod on the east of Eden.” Nod in the Hebrew means flight or banishment—the land of banishment. The principle is that the murderer, the criminal, is isolated from society. The results of living in the land of Nod are many to the human race. We are going to find restlessness, unhappiness, instability, trying to find pleasure in many different things but never finding pleasure because of the absence of fellowship with God.
Beginning in verse 17 and going through the 5th chapter we go from the Cain and Abel situation to the seventh generation. We take a quick study of the first generation after Adam. Then we go from the first to the seventh, and by the seventh generation the traits of the two lines (there will be someone to replace Abel) will be taken down to where all of the characteristics will be developed. We will notice the contrast in the way these two lines develop and this is the history of the human race for 2000 years after the creation of man. In this particular part we will skip over 1700 years of history because the trends are noted rather than a detailed history.
Verse 17 – from Genesis 5:4 we understand that Adam had many more children for a period of 800 years, but for the moment we will follow the line of Cain. We see first of all that he builds a city, and the building of the city is an attempt on the part of Cain to neutralise the effects of his banishment. In other words, he is isolated from society so he tries to build a society. The problem is that he builds a society on human viewpoint. He tries to build it as a compensation for having fellowship with God and as a compensation for the tremendous punishment he faces. Many people follow in the line of Cain today. They try to build a life on this earth by finding happiness in something they can do or build.
Principle: You cannot as a member of the human race have happiness apart from relationship and fellowship with God. Human relationship does not provide happiness. When there is no relationship with the Lord all of the pleasant things in life are out of perspective and they do not provide happiness. But if one is related to the Lord then all of these things can become wonderful.
Verses 18-24, we have the statement of the genealogy which brings us down to the seventh generation from Adam through Cain. Here is the line: Adam, Cain, Enoch, Irad. Enoch means consecration, dedication. This sounds like a spiritual word. It can be, but it can’t be here because Cain was an unbeliever. This line of Cain is a religious line and they are dedicated to what they can do for themselves. So Enoch in Cain’s line refers to dedicating one’s self to self-gratification. We are going to see that there is an Enoch in the other line, too, and his is a spiritual dedication. Irad means townsman. He was so named because his father Enoch thought that living in a nice, wonderful town brought happiness. So Irad stands for human viewpoint.
Mahujael means smitten of God. This brings out the characteristic of legalism in religion. Religion is dedicated; religion has human viewpoint; religion has legalism. Legalism receives the wrath of God.
Then we have Methusael, which means man of God. And this brings out religion.
Lamech means powerful or energetic, and it stands for energy of the flesh. Lamech is the case history. He is number seven from Adam through Cain. He will demonstrate the characteristics of Cain’s line.
Verse 19 – “two wives.” First of all we see that he was polygamous and violated divine institution #2 which says that you can have one wife. He took two. The concept here is that man in his attempt to find happiness apart from God always comes into conflict with or violation of divine laws. These wives of Lamech’s have interesting names. First is Adah, which in the Hebrew means beautiful. The second one is Zillah. Her name means tinkling, ornament, shadow, and some times even means flighty. We will see that Lamech substitutes for divine relationship (fellowship with God) art, sciences, intellectual persuit, amusement, and so on. He is a very cultured person and this comes out in his children—vv. 20-23.
Verse 20 – “Adah bore Jabal.” Jabal means production. He made a fortune in cattle, so Jabal stands for wealth. Principle: wealth as a substitute for fellowship with God does not work.
Four children are mentioned. The second one is Jubal which means sound. He is the inventor of stringed and wind instruments, the inventor of music; there is culture involved here. Culture can be a wonderful thing provided the Lord is first and one has the doctrinal perspective but it is no substitute for fellowship with God.
Verse 22 – “Tubal-cain” means metal-smith. He invented weapons; he was a scientist. But science is no substitute for fellowship with God. The daughter’s name is Na’amah which means graceful, graceful beauty. Sometimes the word means pleasure. There again we have the principle that pleasure is no substitute for fellowship with God. These names give us the principle in the Cainite line: they were always looking for a substitute for fellowship with God, they were always looking for some way of happiness. Often these things are fine in themselves but they are dead ends when it comes to fellowship with God.
Verses 23 & 24, Lamech sings his favourite song. Apparently he wrote a poem which contained six lines. He sang unto his wives:
Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say;
And give attention to my word; (idiomatic for an expression of ego)
A man I slew because he wounded me,
A young powerful man because he attacked me.
And then to show that he was a chip off of the old block of Cain:
If indeed Cain be avenged seven times,
Then Lamech seventy times seven.
About this poem. First it demands human attention and praise from others. In the first two lines of the poem he demanded that his wives give him attention. In the third line he expressed his ego. But in the last two lines he expressed jealousy. He was jealous of Cain and was trying to out-do Cain. The whole poem expresses the principle of dog-eat-dog or the principle of solving one’s problems by violence.
A quick summary: First of all, human power and violence as a substitute for justice and grace. We have religion. We have attempts to find happiness apart from God. We have the manifestations of these attempts in polygamy, murder, pride, violence, boasting, jealousy, and so on. We have an emphasis on science, learning and culture. But no emphasis on God at all.
Now by way of contrast in verse 25 and going through chapter five we have the line of Seth. “Seth” means seedling or little seed, or appointed one. Eve knew that this wasn’t the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, but she knew that this was the line of the seed of the woman, so she called him “little seed.”
“for God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew.” So we have substitution, replacement.
Verse 26, the second in the line is Enosh “…there then began to be men to call upon the name of the Lord.” So this is the line of regeneration, people were born again in this family because the gospel was passed down from family to family. Enosh means weak. The reason that Seth called his son Enosh is because of the grace of God. He recognised that all blessing comes through grace. Man in himself is weak and helpless and needs God.