Genesis 4:6-16

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” ² Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. ⁴But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

¹⁰ The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹²When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod east of Eden.

I have a couple of frightening statistics for you. The leading cause of death for pregnant women is not influenza or complications from pregnancy—it is murder. Yes, murder. Second only to auto accidents, murder is the leading cause of death in the work place. There are a lot of “firsts” in the book of Genesis and unfortunately, the first murder is among them. Cain’s murder of Abel would have been particularly brutal. There were no guns or bows and arrow or spears, so he probably used a stone knife or more likely some form of club, much like the club that four teens used to kill an honor student in Chicago this past week. Murder is always brutal but the first murder would have been especially vicious.

What would have led the first sibling rivalry to such a violent end? They were no longer living in Paradise, but they could see it from where they were. What was Cain’s motive? Some say it was jealousy. Jealousy may have been a part of it, but I don’t think it was the chief motive. Was it anger? I do believe that anger was the chief motive, but who was Cain angry with? Cain may have been upset with and even jealous of his brother, but I believe his primary anger was directed at God. I think the text is quite clear on this point. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Cain was angry because the Lord rejected his offering. Cain was fully aware of something that most people are not—he was fully accountable to God. In Cain’s mind there was no doubt that the Lord was the sovereign Creator. There was no doubt that the Lord had created Paradise. There was no doubt that the first family owed their worship and lives to the Lord. Cain was accountable to God and it was absolutely essential that he receive God’s favor. So when God did not look with favor upon Cain’s offering, he became angry at whom? At God. I believe that Cain wanted to kill God. But how do you kill God? Cain knew that he was vastly outmatched. Cain had as much chance of winning that battle as the Vikings have of winning tomorrow night. Actually, that is not a fair comparison—the Vikings have even less chance of winning! I am poking a little fun here, but Cain knew that his anger was essentially wasted on God, so he took out his anger on his brother. This is the classic case of a man coming home and kicking the dog when he is really mad at his boss. It’s so much easier to vent your anger on a poor, defenseless animal than it is on your boss and in the same way, it was much easier for Cain to kill Abel than to kill God.

I believe that anger at God is one of the most common sins among all people. Most people do not want to be accountable to God, they do not want anyone else telling them what they can or cannot do. Many of them do take out their anger on other people, but the vast majority simply eliminate the problem by killing God. How do they kill God? “The fool has said in his heart, (what?) ‘There is no God.’” The easiest way to kill God is to claim that he does not exist. Atheism is fundamentally murder of God. One of the most honest atheists was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who boldly said, “God is dead…And we killed him.” If homicide is killing Homo sapiens and pesticide kills pests, what do you call the killing of God? Godicide. You see, Cain could not have done this. He could not have claimed that God was dead or did not exist because he was all too painfully aware of his existence. The Lord was ever present to Cain and He had clearly communicated his disfavor.

But the average person does not have the guts to say that God is dead, so they kill him in less brutal fashion. Here’s one way. “Did God really say?” And the most common answer to this question is, “No, he didn’t.” We don’t have to kill God completely, we just have to selectively kill his right to tell us what to do. If we don’t like something he said, we can use the ancient lie of the serpent, “Did God really say?” I talked with a man this past week whose wife divorced by using this method of Godicide. Her question was, “Did God really say that I have to stay married to my husband?” Her answer was, “No, he didn’t.” And the amazing thing was that she was claiming to be looking to the Bible for the answer to her question. This is the height of hypocrisy to say, “I have consulted God and his Word and I am innocent” when you are as guilty as a kid with his hand in the cookie jar.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who worked at Arby’s. After the food had been sitting under the warming lights for about an hour, their policy was to throw away the food and replace it with fresh food. Employees were not allowed to eat this old food, but my friend thought it was a waste of good food. So before his break, he reached down into the garbage can of food to grab a sandwich. But just when he had his arm into the garbage can, his manager walked around the corner and saw him. Being a fast thinker, he pretended that he was pushing the food down to make more room in the garbage can. That’s like a kind caught with his hand in the cookie jar and claiming, “But mom, I was putting cookies back into the jar!” Most of us don’t have the guts to kill God or hopefully we have too much faith to outright kill him. We may genuinely love God and most of his commands—except that one. We don’t like it so we selectively kill God’s authority over us. Have you killed any of God’s commands lately? If so, which ones?

How did God respond to Adam and Eve when they sinned? He asked them questions. He tried to gently lead them out of hiding. He asked, “Where are you” and “Who told you that you were naked.” The Lord used the same gentle technique on Cain by asking three questions.

God: If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

That’s a good question. Why are you angry? There are two reasons for asking such question. The first reason is to get at the cause of your anger. Anger does not just appear for no reason. Anger always has a cause. What was the cause of Cain’s anger? If you had asked Cain he would have said, “I’m mad at God because he rejected me” but if you had asked God, he would have said, “Cain is angry because he does not have faith.”

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. (1 John 3:11-12)

Why did Cain murder his brother? Because his own actions were evil. The “actions” mentioned here was not the murder itself, but Cain’s offering. And why was Cain’s offering judged as an evil action? Because it was not offered in faith. If you need more explanation that this, please refer to last Sunday’s message. Cain’s anger was caused by a lack of faith in God.

The second reason to ask the question, “Why are you angry,” is because our anger always leads somewhere. Just as anger does not suddenly appear out of nowhere, neither does it float away like a mist in the wind. Anger always leads somewhere. Cain’s anger led him to murder his younger brother. Anger always leads somewhere. Where is your anger leading you? What lies at the end of the path? If you stay on this path, where will it lead you? The primary destination of anger is broken relationships. Our anger may not literally take the life of another person, but it will drain the life out of another person. Anger wounds the heart. Anger breaks the spirit. Anger shuts down communication. We think that anger will bring us power but it only betrays our weakness. James 1:20 says, “For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Anger does not lead to the righteous life that God desires, but anger always leads somewhere. Where is your anger leading you?

We all know where it led Cain. God knew it also and after the ugly deed was done, God entered back into the scene like a Crime Scene Investigator. But unlike the CSI detectives on TV, God didn’t need fancy DNA tests or fingerprint detection or PhD in biochemistry.

Where is your brother Abel? I think that God was being gentle with Cain, but nevertheless, his questions were a kind of trap. Cain knew that God knew that Abel was buried in the ground. It is possible that God approached Cain while he was walking very near the shallow grave. “Where is your brother Abel?” I think that God was giving him a chance to confess. In the movies and in real life, it always goes better for you if you confess from the start. Cain knew that he was trapped. It’s like a bank robber who flees into an abandoned building is now surrounded by 200 policeman and SWAT snipers hunkered down on the rooftops. God says to Cain, “We’ve got the place surrounded. Come out with your hands up. If you surrender now it will go easier for you.” I really think Cain would have liked to run out with guns blazing and take his last stand before God, but again, he knew that resistance was futile, so he offered up a weak alibi.“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain may not have been a very good older brother, but he was exceptionally good at one thing—making up his own rules. He didn’t like God’s rules, so he made up his own. “Am I my brother’s keeper? Do I have to answer to you?” Where did Cain learn that he could make up his own rules? I think his mom and dad did a pretty good job of teaching him that, don’t you think?

When Cain refused to confess and surrender, God changed from detective to prosecuting attorney. The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. The word for “cries out” is a word “associated with the groans of an innocent victim who is brutalized and harassed.”[i] Just as God heard the groans of his people in Egypt and just as he heard the cries of his captive people in Babylon, so he heard the cry of Abel’s innocent blood from the ground. I am guessing that Cain heard it too.

This reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Tell-Tale Heart. A man had killed someone and buried the body beneath the floorboards. Three policeman

It grew louder -- louder -- louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no? They heard! -- they suspected! -- they KNEW! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! --

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!"[ii]

Cain watered the land with his brother’s blood. Cain fertilized the ground with the decomposing body of his little brother. This is a tragic story on all levels, but within the multiple layers of sin we can find a way to overcome our own sin. After asking Cain three questions, God made the statement, But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” At this point in time, Cain had committed evil by his lack of faith and he had committed evil by his angry, murderous thoughts, but there was still an opportunity to overcome his sin. This was a very real choice that Cain faced. The story could have turned out differently if Cain could have made the right choices. Cain was not merely a pawn in God’s sovereign chess game. Cain was a real person with real choices before him.

God warned Cain that sin was “crouching at your door.” Sin is personified as a wild beast. You may have heard of the movie, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” This scene is “Crouching Sin, Hidden Demon.” And this is true for each of us. Sin lies crouching at our door like a wild beast, a demonic force that desires and will stop at nothing to have us. Think about it. Is there anything Satan will not do to conquer us? Is there any trick, any deception, any evil deed that is off limits for him in his attempt to conquer and destroy us—picking us off one at a time like shooting tin ducks at the county fair? He has no principles. He plays by no rules but his own. He lies in wait outside the door and desires to have us.

But the Lord’s message to Cain is the same one for us—you must master it. But how do we master this crouching enemy? Isn’t this the great struggle in the Christian life? The way to master this beast is found by the one who succeeded—Abel. Abel defeated this beast because his offering was given in faith, and his faith led to obedience. Cain’s lack of faith led to his disobedience. Remember what we said last week—faith always precedes obedience. I can think of no more relevant Scripture that Romans 6:11. Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

If you are a believer, then the Bible promises you that you are dead to sin. If you are not yet a believer, unfortunately, you are still a slave to sin. I was sharing this verse to encourage someone, but he kept saying, “But how can that be true? I don’t feel like I am dead to sin, just the opposite, in fact.” I kept pointing him back to this promise but he struggled to believe it. This went on for at least ten minutes. I don’t know why it didn’t hit me then, but it’s as plain as day now—this man did not believe that he was dead to sin. He wanted to believe it and intellectually he probably did, but he didn’t really believe it. Do you believe that without Christ you are a slave to sin? Do you believe that Jesus was our substitutionary atonement on the cross, literally taking our place of suffering and death? Do you believe that you were united with Christ in his death and that Jesus destroyed our body of death, passed down to us through Adam? If you believe all of these things—the essence of the gospel—then count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. That is faith, and the next step is simple obedience. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life.

Abel’s offering to the Lord teaches us about faith and faithfulness, about how to achieve victory over sin.

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. (Hebrews 11:4)

[ii] Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart, c. 1843.