Ep. 4. Genesis 4 | Cain and Abel

EPISODE 4

CAIN AND ABEL

If you grew up in church, the story of Cain and Abel was one of the first ones you were taught, but I think the depth of this story was left off our coloring pages and felt board Sunday school lessons.

The first question we must ask is, "Why did the Lord have no regard for Cain's offering?" I was always told it was because Cain did not give his best or offered the wrong type of sacrifice. At this point, we are more than 2500 years away from God's law on the type and method of sacrifices pleasing to him.

From the creation of Adam to the flood in Genesis 7, we have at least 1656 years. From the flood to Abram, another 292 years passed. From Abram to Isaac 100 years. From Isaac to Jacob, 60 years. Jacob enters Egypt when he is 130 years old, and the Israelites will live in Egypt for 430 years before they leave and receive the law. So it could not be that Cain violated the rules of sacrifice, for there weren't any.

The rest of the Bible gives us clues as to why God may hate a sacrifice. We see in Isaiah 1 and Amos 5 that God's chief concern was the giver's heart. In fact, in each of these texts, the Israelites offered the correct type of sacrifice and were still rejected by God since the heart of the one offering the sacrifice was far from God. This seems to ring true when John condemns Cain's deeds as evil in 1 John 3.

It is also important to note how the Bible holds Cain up as an example of wickedness and lumps false teachers in with the shameful ways of Cain.

Abel, on the other hand, is recognized as a person of faith in Hebrews 11. Furthermore, we see that the blood of Abel, his or that of his offering we don't know, speaks a great word, but the blood of Christ is better by far. So, as beautiful testimony as the blood of Abel bore on Abel's behalf, we find the blood of Jesus speaking a better testimony on our behalf.

One final thought: Cain was to be avenged by God sevenfold if someone raised their hands against him. Lamech insisted he should be avenged seventy times seven times. These numbers in this form both deal with vengeance for wrongs done but occur in another conversation between Jesus and Peter where forgiveness is the topic of discussion. I don't think these numbers and their juxtaposition are by chance. God, in his mercy, was willing to avenge Cain seven times. Lamech, in his pride, wanted to be avenged 490 times over. Peter, in his ego, was sure that seven times of forgiveness would be sufficient to show grace, and Jesus raised the bar to 490 times. I have many more thoughts on this topic but now is not the time. So, I leave you with this: whatever degree you consider forgiveness to be sufficient, it should probably go beyond that.

Additional Reading: Isaiah 1; Amos 5; 1 John 3:12; Jude 1:11; Hebrews 11:4; Hebrews 12:24; Matthew 18:21-22