Genesis 04: Cain And Abel

Two offerings. Two brothers. One moment where anger could have been mastered, and instead it gets fed until it destroys everything. Genesis 4 is not just the first murder in the Bible, it’s a clear picture of what happens when jealousy replaces responsibility and when hidden sin starts calling the shots.

We walk through the Cain and Abel story step by step and slow down at the line God speaks to Cain: sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it. That warning is painfully modern. We talk about why God rejects Cain’s offering, what the phrase “if you do what is right” reveals, and how God’s questions are less about information and more about invitation. When God asks “Where is your brother?” He is giving Cain a chance to come clean, just like “Where are you?” in Genesis 3 calls Adam and Eve back into relationship.

We also trace the ripple effects through Cain’s family line, where violence and pride escalate in Lamech, and we contrast that with the hope that begins with Seth, when people start to worship the Lord by name. And yes, we answer the question people always ask: where did Cain get a wife, and why Genesis doesn’t pause to give every detail.

If you’ve ever wondered why it feels easier to hide than to confess, this chapter brings clarity and a way forward. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s reading Genesis, and leave a review to help more people find the podcast. What do you hear God asking when He says, “Where are you?”

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

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Reading Genesis For Original Audience

Cain And Abel Story Reading

Why Cain’s Gift Is Rejected

Murder Judgment And The Mark

Cain’s Line Descends Into Violence

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter four. And today's title is Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel. Do you know before my wife and I had kids, people would tell me that it was amazing that they could have multiple kids come from the same parents, raised with the same values, yet they act completely differently. And to be honest with you, I didn't believe it. I was like, nah, you know, they favored one over the other, just whatever. I just, I had no point of reference, right? And then I had kids of my own. And I was shocked and surprised. And to be honest with you, to this day, I am shocked and surprised that when my kids were little, they couldn't have been more different. I mean, they they both came from the same parents, same values, with everything we could to try to treat them both the same, only to realize they were so very different. And we can see that today. And so that is not the primary context of this chapter. But for all of you parents out there who scratch your head and go, How is it possible that we had both of these kids and they're so different? Don't worry. It happened to Adam and Eve. And if Adam and Eve had completely different kids, it's okay if we do too, right? Praise the Lord. All right, we're gonna get into all that in just a moment. So if you have your Bibles, open up with me to Genesis chapter four. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure to leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job, and you can find out all of that information by going to thebiblebreakdown.com. Well, if you've been with us over the past few days, we have started this journey toward really getting our minds around the book of Genesis. And the overall thought process behind the book of Genesis is there's so many different ways to read, to relate, to dissect the book of Genesis. And we are doing it by trying to get our minds around the original audience. So remember, the Bible wasn't written to us, but it was written for us. So when the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write down the narrative of creation, he wasn't writing it to people that were living in the 2000s in our part of the world. He was writing it to these Jewish people who have been liberated from Egyptian bondage, and for 400 plus years, they have been taught polytheistic culture and society, many different gods over many different things. And so what he's doing is he is correcting that narrative, and he is saying, no, it is not. That is not how all this was made. This is how it was made, and that's how we're reading it, is where God is kind of redefining everything. Genesis 1 was all about a 10,000-foot view of creation. Genesis 2 was about a 100-foot view, you know, of day six. Genesis 3, yesterday, was about how we got into all this mess. You know, how Adam and Eve chose sin in the Garden of Eden, and through that they fell into sin. And the Bible says that God, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, looked at each other and said, We cannot let them remain in the garden. They have got to go out now and make their way. And so they go out, and because of that, they start living and trying to make their way through the world. And God is still with them. That's one of the things I want you to notice as we jump into this is that the Bible is still saying that God is still helping them along the way. He's still very active in their life because he's having to teach them how to do these things. But at the same time, you start to see the divide among the people. So here we go. Cain and Abel, let's read chapter 4, verse 1. Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant. And she gave birth to Cain, because she said, With the Lord's help, I have produced a man. Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. Pause just for a moment. Can you imagine what that was like? What I mean by that is, can you imagine what it was like the first time she gave birth? That had never happened before. You know, she had to be like, okay, God, this is this is how it's supposed to happen, right? Like, um, uh, this is how it's supposed to happen. Here we go. You know, just imagine like experiencing for the very first time giving birth. That had to be crazy town. All right, here we go. Verse 2, let's just keep going. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. Why are you you so angry? The Lord asked Cain. Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, watch out. Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master. Now pause. So people have gone back and forth over why the Lord accepted Cain's offering, uh or Abel's offering, but did not accept Cain's offering. And there's probably a lot of really good reasons for that. But the Bible says straight away exactly why God did not accept his offering. It's because he said, If you do what is right, you will be accepted. So apparently, something that's not explained to us in this text is that God told them exactly how to go about doing it, but instead of presenting God what he wanted, he apparently presented to God what Cain wanted. And that's why it wasn't accepted. And so God actually tells him, Hey, listen, you'll be accepted if you do what is right. So he's saying, Hey, don't give up, just do what is right. But understand that you must guard against really letting sin into your life. So verse 8 says this one day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields. And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him. Afterward the Lord asked Cain, Where is your brother? Where is Abel? I don't know, Cain responded, Am I my brother's guardian? But the Lord said, What have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work. From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth. And then Cain replied to the Lord, My punishment is too great for me to bear. You have banished me from the land and from your presence. You have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me. And the Lord replied, No, for I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. And Cain had sexual relations with his wife, get to that in a moment, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. And Cain founded a city, which he named Enoch after his son. Enoch had a son named Erod. Erod became the father of Majul. Majul became the father of Methusiael. Methushel became the father of Lamk. Lammock married two women. The first he named Ada, the second was Zilah. Eda gave birth to Jubal, and the first of those who raised livestock and lived in tents. His brother's name was Jubal, and the first of all who would play the harp and flute. Lamech, uh Lamk's other wife, Zila, gave birth to a son named Tubal Cain. He became an expert in foraging tools of bronze and iron. Tubal Cain had a sister named Nehem, a Nehemah. One day Lamech said to his wives, Ada, Zilah, hear my voice, listen to me, you wives of Lamech. I have killed a man who attacked me, a young man for wounding me. If someone kills Cain, someone who kills Cain is punished seven times, then the one who kills me is punished seventy-seven times. Adam had sexual relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son, and she named him Seth. For she said, God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed. And when Seth grew up, he had a son named Enosh, and at that time people first began to worship the Lord by name. So there's a lot of stuff that's happening right here. So let's break this down a little bit and just understand that there are so many layers to this. First of all, what happened was is Cain and Abel were both presenting something to God, and they didn't God didn't accept Cain's. And he said, if you do right, you will be accepted. So something he did was wrong that he would have been aware of. And instead of taking personal responsibility, he became jealous of Abel. And so he goes and he kills Abel. And God is like, What have you done? What what what where is Abel? And notice it's the same question God asked Adam and Eve at the last chapter yesterday, where are you? And so he said, Where is Abel? So it once again it's the it's it's the proximity. Why are you not coming back to me with this? Why are you not coming back to me? But he he tried to lie about it, and he said, No, you have done this. And he said, Okay, I want you to go. You can't you can't be around your mom and your dad anymore. Go go be by yourself and start over again. And I I'm not gonna let anybody kill you, but you can't you can't be part of this anymore. And so then what you have is you have how he starts to have a family and you start to see their family descend into chaos. That that's what that is trying to say, that by the time he has they have Lamak, which would have been like three generations later, he kills someone, and he's saying that that I am greater than Cain, that I killed someone, and you're gonna be punished even more if you do something for me. So they're they're descending downward because they're doing it without God in their life. And then it says, but Adam and Eve had a son named Seth, and Seth and his uh his children from there, they start worshiping God. So you start to see these two different lines start to diverge. Now I want to answer one question that people have all the time, and then we're going to pray. Where in the world did this Joker get a wife? So here's the thing. There are there are a lot of different random theories out there, but the the most accepted view of this, because once again, remember, the goal of the book of Genesis is to not give us a blow-by-blow account of every single thing that happened. How would you fit all of that into one book? The goal of the book is to re-establish God's supremacy and authority and to begin to understand the plan of redemption. Those two things. God, he is re-establishing his supremacy and his authority over a Jewish nation who have been taught a polytheistic worldview. So he's saying, No, I am in charge, I am king. That is the first thing. Second thing is he is beginning to weave the picture of his redemption. Therefore, we don't know what else happened. And so what most likely is going on here is the Bible doesn't tell us all the children that Adam and Eve had. They would have had a bunch of different kids. And so, yes, that would have been his sister. Now I know that's gross, but the reason why that's also gross is because when you have people come as far down the line as we have, that would be considered incest and it would be bad. This is this is pure because this was necessary, and this was at the very beginning of creation, so a lot of that that the deficiencies in the blood wouldn't have been there yet, and so it wouldn't have been outside of what would have been acceptable at the time. Now, later is considered unacceptable and not good now. I'm not in any way promoting that, but I'm just saying at the time it would have been another birth from Adam and Eve, most likely. I mean, there's no other way around it. That's what it had to have been, and it would have been necessary. But let's get to the main idea today, and that is this. Once again, God is asking the question, where? Where are you? Where's where's Abel? God knew what had happened, but he gave Cain the opportunity to bring it back to him. And it wasn't in the confessing of sins he didn't do it, it was in the hiding of sin that created the judgment. And so one of the things we have to always remember is that the longer we hide our sin, the more it corrupts us. Notice what happened to Cain. Cain and his children are heading down a very bad path that's going to end with a flood. It's going to end with a whole lot of bad stuff going on. And it was because of the hiding of sin. And so my question for you is this if you knew that God would forgive you, would you hold anything back from him? Answer is of course not. The problem is that the enemy wants to try to convince you that God will not forgive you of your sin. When the reality is, is God already knows. But he loves you so much that he gives us the honor and the dignity of bringing it to him and saying, God, I am so sorry. I messed up. And then he goes, It's okay. Bring it all to me. Bring everything to me, and I'll wash it away. Can I tell you? Today, God is asking you, where are you? Our answer should not be somebody else's fault or whatever's going on. The answer should be, I'm right here. I'm not okay, God, but I'm coming to you. And God, a big smile on his face, he says, Bring it all. I want everything you've got. That's the answer to the question. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you're for us. Thank you, Lord, for that question. Where are that we though you've asked it twice now in the past two chapters of these people, and so far they've answered incorrectly. And can I tell you how many times, God, we have answered it incorrectly. We've blamed it on other people. We've we've been afraid, we've been ashamed. I pray that today we'll run to you and realize that that's all you want to come to you so you can wash us clean. And we celebrate that today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And what God's Word says in Genesis 1 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And if that verse is true, and it is, anything else is possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 5.