Bible Study On: Book of Genesis, Chapters 4
by Russell J. Schmidt
Genesis Chapter Four ~ NKJV
Cain Murders Abel
1) Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”
2) Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3) And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.
4) Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,
5) but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
6) So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7) If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
8) Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9) Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10) And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11) So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12) When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
13) And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!
14) Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.
15) And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
The Family of Cain
16) Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
17) And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son—Enoch.
18) To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methushael, and Methushael begot Lamech.
19) Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.
20) And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
21) His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute.
22) And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.
23) Then Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.
24) If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”
A New Son
25) And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
26) And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.
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Bible Study: Book of Genesis, Chapter Four
Verses 1-15: Cain Murders Abel
In the first five verses of chapter four, we have the birth of Cain, and the birth of Abel, to Adam and Eve. We are also told that Abel is a keeper of sheep (a shepherd), and Cain is a tiller of the ground (a farmer). In verse three we are told that Cain brings an offering to God of the fruit of the ground that he tilled.
In verse four we learn that Abel also brought an offering to the Lord of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. In verse five we find that God did not respect Cain’s offering, but He did respect Abel’s offering.
Now, this use to perplex me, because I could not understand why God chose Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. We get a little hint of why in Hebrew’s 11:4, where the apostle Paul says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.”
After reading this verse it made me look more closely at verses three, four, and five. Because Paul saw something that led him to see that Abel’s offering was “more excellent,” so I figured there has got to be an indication in these verses that I was missing.
It finally dawned on me that when describing Cain’s offering in verse 3, it reads that, “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground.” Cain’s offering is not described as the “first-fruits” of his offering. Yet Abel’s offering was described as follows, “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.” (Bold mine.)
Notice I highlighted “firstborn” in Abel’s offering description. Not only did Abel provide God with the firstborn of his flock or first-fruits, he also provided God with the first-fruit of their fat as offering as well. Although it is not made absolutely clear in Scripture why God chose Abel’s offering over Cain’s, when we take all the evidence provided in Scripture in these three verses, as well as Hebrews 11:4, we can come to a fairly accurate conclusion as to why God chose this way. But, we can even take it one step further.
Now, as we continue in verses six and seven, we hear from God with some advice to Cain that is also directed to all mankind throughout history. That is why it is in the Bible, for our edification. We read in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” So, if it is in the Bible, it is not only for who God is speaking with in Scripture, but we can be sure that God intended it for our ears as well.
Now, with that said, let’s take a look at verses six and seven, “6) So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7) If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’”
Now, there’s a lot of good information here about living a godly life. First, God says to Cain in the beginning of verse 7, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” Upon really delving into this and trying to determine why God didn’t accept Cain’s offering, this word from God becomes a hint. If Cain gave God an offering, we would assume that that was good! So there must have been something wrong with the offering. When we see how Abel’s offering was described as the “firstborn” or “first-fruit”, and also considering Hebrew’s 11:4, we get our conclusion that Cain’s offering was not good enough because it was not the first-fruit of his labor.
In Exodus 23:19, God tells the Israelites, “Bring the best of the first-fruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God." God asks of us to bring Him the first-fruits of our labor, not because He needs it, but to see if our faith is in Him or in worldly things. In the time of the Israelites here in Exodus, the Israelites lived off the land. Today our society is different; for the most part, we do not farm, today we have jobs where we make money.
Now, money is hard to come by. We have to work long hard hours for money to pay our bills, mortgages, to put food on the table, put close on our backs, put our children through school, pay taxes, medical insurance, life insurance, by transportation, insure that transportation, secure our retirement, the list goes on-and-on.
Yet, with all that said, God tells us in Malachi 3 to test him with our tithes and offerings. What’s a tithe? A tithe is a biblical principle or commandment by God of giving back to Him a 10 percent of all that we make. It’s not because God needs our money, He wants us to trust that if we give tithes and offerings (an offering is any amount above the tithe or ten percent) He will bless us.
Let’s see what God actually says to us in Malachi 3:10, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”
God promises that if we put faith in His promise, by giving God, at the very least, 10 percent of all we earn, He will be sure that you never are in need. Now this 10 percent is not 10 percent of what we have left after we pay our bills. No, God wants the first-fruits of what you earn. What that means is God gets the first ten percent, before you even consider paying a bill.
Now, if you receive a paycheck from employment, chances are that your government is taking taxes out of that check before you even see it. When you figure your ten percent, you must figure it on the total of you income before taxes. This would be a true first-fruit of 10 percent. God does not want to be your creditor, He wants to be your supplier. When we get to Malachi, I will delve much deeper into this principle of tithing.
Now, back in Genesis 4:7, God makes the statement to Cain in question form; not necessarily looking for a response from Cain, but to get Cain to look at the example of Abel. Abel did well by God, by giving the first-fruits of his flock as well as an offering of the first-fruits of their fat.
Cain must have given God a tithe of what was left after he supplied himself.
Now, an important point I would like to bring out here. Right up to this point in Scripture, from Genesis chapter one to Genesis chapter four, we have no record of God giving any instruction or law in reference to this tithe. But, God continued to commune with man even after He led them out of the Garden of Eden.
Somewhere along the line He must have mentioned this principle to Cain and Abel, because He would not have judged them based on their offering, because neither Abel nor Cain would have known any better. In fact, to solidify this, in the end of verse 7, God says, “And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.”
Scripture tells us that if there is no law, there is no sin. Paul tells us in Romans 5:13, “for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law" (bold mine). How can Cain’s offering lead to sin, if God did not give them the principles of this law on tithing?
If God didn’t discuss this principle with them, even though Abel’s offering was better than Cain’s, God would have been just as happy with Cain’s offering.
Let’s look at it from a different standpoint, if you are a parent of two young children, and for your birthday each child gives you an unexpected gift of something that was theirs that they are parting with to give you. The gift itself would not matter to you. You would probably not even compare the two gifts. You would just be touched by the fact that they each showed their love for you with their expression of giving. We have an expression in our culture, “It’s not the gift, but the thought that counts.”
In order for God to look at each of these gifts and judge them, there must have been some kind of guideline for giving. When you look at this scenario from that perspective, it sheds a whole new light on what is going on here. It takes the confusion out of the question why God chose Abel’s offering over Cain’s
With that said, based on Genesis 4:7, God is giving Cain an opportunity to change his way from focusing on his needs to focusing on God.
Unfortunately for Cain, as we move on to the next verse, we see that Cain did not get what God was telling him. It did not sink in because in verse 8, his anger and jealousy toward his brother Abel, leads him to kill him. Cain’s problem of focusing on self, is a very common problem that people have had since the beginning of time.
It may not lead them to kill someone, but it is a problem that keeps them from God’s best for their lives. There are many Christian’s who profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior, yet they are so focused on themselves that they inhibit the Holy Spirit from working effectively in their lives.
This is one of the main reasons why the average Christian does not display the attributes that Jesus said his followers would display. What am I referring to? John 14:12-14, which reads, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Most Christian’s are so focused on worldly matters, they are ineffective in their walk with Christ. I know, because I’ve been there. For ten years after being baptized and born again, I struggled mightily in my walk with Christ. All my prayer requests went unanswered. I was living in complete mediocrity, both spiritually and financially.
Although Jesus told us the poor would always be with us, because of this imperfect world we’ve created through sin, Christian’s for the most part, if they were living God focused lives, would not have financial problems, would be in good health, and would be seeing the gifts of the Spirit that were promised to us by Jesus, working in our lives. Especially those Christian’s in developed nations.
If this were the case, statistically in our societies, negative societal issues would not effect Christians the same as non-Christians in our societies.
To exemplify this point, there is a true story of Mahatma Gandhi, who at one point of his life seriously considered converting to Christianity. The story has it that, while visiting South Africa, he went to a South African all white Church to look further into Christianity, because he did respect the teachings of Christ. Unfortunately, the so-called Christians of that particular Church did not take to kindly to Mr. Gandhi attending. Their racist attitudes toward Mr. Gandhi turned him away from the Christian Church.
He later stated, “that if it were not for meeting a Christian, I would be one today.” This isn’t to be taken lightly. Think about the implications. If Mr. Gandhi were to have converted to Christianity, just think of how different India would be today? Instead of Christians being the minority, they probably would be the majority, because Mahatma Gandhi was so revered by the Indian people, if he would have converted, so would have a large portion of the population of India.
Are you living a life of mediocrity? A life that not only keeps you from God’s best, but also keeps others who need God from seeing Christ through you?
In verse 9, God comes to Cain and asks where his brother Abel was. Now, Cain answers God with a sarcastic question, saying, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Now, as I mentioned in Genesis chapter one’s Bible study, Scripture doesn’t necessarily tell us, but I believe its pretty clear that God was in constant communication with people.
I believe that this is another example of that, even after man was put out of the Garden of Eden. Think about it, if Cain wasn’t use to hearing God speak to him, would he have responded to God the way he did here. I don’t believe he would have. It was a very sarcastic, don’t bother me attitude, he responded with.
The one thing Cain, and even Adam and Eve for that matter, obviously didn’t realize, is that even when God wasn’t with them, He knew exactly what was going on and what they were doing, whether it was right or wrong. Just as when God came looking for Adam in the Garden after he and Eve had sinned, God knew everything that had gone on. He will just always leave that choice of being honest or dishonest, up to us, and see how we respond. Not so He can learn us, but that we can learn and see ourselves and how short we fall of the goodness of God.
If you have been following along with these Bible studies, I know we are still at the very beginning of God’s creation, but I want you to see that a pattern is already developing in what God is trying to accomplish through the trials of man even this early in the Bible. God plays the naïve party, so future generations, such as ourselves, can see where man had gone wrong and we don’t make the same mistakes that they did. Unfortunately, man has continued to make the same mistakes, over and over, for thousands of years since.
We continue with God telling Cain, starting in verse 11, that he will be cursed because of what he has done, and no matter how hard he works on the ground it will no longer yield crops for him. God also tells him that he will wander from place to place and not find rest.
In verse 13, we receive another indication that Cain regularly communed with God, because he knows now that God has exposed his sin, he will be hidden from God’s face. In other words, he will no longer commune with God, and that is an obvious concern for Cain. He knows that God has been his protector, because he completes his statement with, “anyone who finds me, will kill me.”
What Cain is referring to here, is that someone will now find him out from under the protection of God and will be able to kill him, whereas Cain knew that God preserved his life in times past. Cain was well aware of his reliance on God, yet his selfishness got the best of him, as it does with us even today at times.
But, God assures Cain that as far as being killed, God will be sure that that does not happen; He will protect Cain’s life. I often wondered if this was a blessing or a curse, because Cain’s life as a vagabond, fugitive does not appear very promising. I would believe that his life was going to be filled will a lot of pain and suffering, both physically and emotionally.
Verses 16-24: The Family of Cain
We begin verse 16 with Cain, symbolically, going out from the presence of the Lord. Cain became aware that his sin would separate him from God. This separation or void that sin caused between God and man would take some four thousand years to correct. Now, of course, God could have corrected it instantly, but for God’s overall plan to work, it would have to be man to implement the plan, which would take time for God to lead man in the right direction.
What do I mean by that? Well, I’ll use myself as an example. I truly believe God had a plan for my life right from the beginning, to use me for His glory. To be a teacher of the Gospel of Christ.
But, it took time for me to make the right decisions that would lead me to where I am. I was born again at the age of 29, but because of poor decision making, I wandered around for 10 years and being very unproductive for God, before I made the right decision. That was to not make anymore decisions on my own. As so many Christians do, I got to the point where I had enough; I was at the end of my rope with no where to turn but toward God and say, I can’t take it anymore, I am all yours!”
It is then, when you get to the point when you are at your weakest, which I can honestly say, I was! It is then, that God can now use you for His glory. I was so tired, physically and emotionally, from struggling through a life where every decision I made seemed to be the wrong decision. I truly had no strength to go on. But, God is faithful! When He sees your heart’s focus turn toward Him and away from focusing on yourself, He knows that you are now ready to serve Him.
The one trait that every person that God used in the Bible and throughout history has in common, is selflessness! Not selfishness, but selflessness. Willing to take the focus off of your own life and to focus it out toward God, which in turn is toward people. You begin to feel for people that you never would have felt for before. You want to see people turn toward God and experience the joy that you experienced.
For me, I want to be able to help people that are good people, but just can’t seemed to make the right decisions, it just seems like something always goes wrong. They feel inadequate to support their families. They start to feel as though they are a complete failure.
And this is Satan’s game! Satan is well aware of the people that God may be working on to one day serve him, and Satan will do everything he can to thwart that. His game is deception, and he wants to deceive you into believing that you are a failure, that you are inadequate.
But, it is just what it is, and that’s a deception! No matter how deep you go into the pit of life, with God, all things are possible. Jesus, Himself, tells us this in Matthew 19:26. Don’t ever believe the lie of Satan!
We also have biblical references to it possibly even being God. Yes, I said God. Why would He do that? To lead you where He wants you to be. Look at Jonah; God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them they were living in wickedness.
Jonah was afraid and tried to run from God. What happened? He wound up in the belly of a whale! Aggh! I myself, felt like I’ve been there a few times. Moses also could not run from God; God wanted Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to release the Israelites from captivity, but Moses tried to talk God out of it. He had no choice but to do as God said.
The remainder of chapter 4, we read about the lineage of Cain. We end chapter 4 with the birth of Enosh to Cain’s son Seth. We also read right after this and the last verse of chapter 4, that man began to call on the name of the Lord. The Bible does not give clarification on exactly what this means because chapter five is just a listing of all the generations from Adam.
Then we jump over to chapter six where it starts out with the wickedness of man, with Noah being the only one who walked with God. But, I don’t want to jump ahead of myself.
This concludes our study of Genesis chapter 4.
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