7. Genesis 4: 1-26 Kingdom Roots; The Descent of Man

The first blood transfusion to a human subject was performed by the Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Denis, who transfused blood several times into a Parisian madman named Antoine Mauroy in the winter of 1667. According to one account, “At precisely six in the evening on December 19, according to the doctor’s report, an associate opened a vein in Mauroy’s arm, inserted a silver tube, and drained off about ten ounces of blood. He then inserted the other end of the tube into the leg artery of a calf and allowed about a cupful of the calf’s blood to flow into the man. The doctor hoped that the calf’s blood ‘by its mildness and freshness might possibly allay the heat and ebullition of the patient’s blood.’”

After the procedure, Mauroy slept for several hours, then awoke to eat and spent the evening singing. A second transfusion was less successful: “we observed a plentiful sweat all over his face. . . He complained of great pains in his Kidneys, and that he was not well in his stomack, Whilst we were closing the wound, [Mauroy] vomited” the doctor recorded. Yet, “he showed a surprising calmness, and a great presence of mind . . . and a general lassitude in all his limbs.” Unknowingly, the calf’s blood contained proteins that might have been fatal to the patient.

 A few drops of contaminated calf’s blood introduced into his system and Mauroy was dead.  The contaminated blood once introduced ran throughout his body and brought death on its heels.

This evening we are going to resume the series we began several months ago, working through the book of Genesis. We looked then at Genesis 1-3 dealing with the issues of God’s sovereignty in creation, the covenant he made with Adam, original sin, the curses in chapter 3 because of Adam’s sin and their implications for us all.

And now we come to the next major section of the book running from Genesis 4-11 outlining the history of the race before and after the flood, up to the covenant God makes with Abraham in Genesis 12.  In these chapters we have some of the most famous narratives in all of scripture: the story of Cain and Abel, the flood and Noah’s ark, and the tower of Babel.

And tonight we look together at Genesis 4 where we’re taught that the guilt and pollution of the first sin of Adam, recorded in chapter 2, is infectious and every son and daughter of Adam has the disease. Like contaminated blood introduced into the body it infects the whole system. It proceeds from Adam to every member of the race. As the Apostle Paul puts it in Romans 5, “sin entered the world through the one man (Adam) and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”. The contaminated blood transfusion of Adam’s first transgression, once injected into humanity, kills the whole race as surely as the poisoned calf’s blood killed poor Mr. Mauroy in 1667.

 In other words we are being taught here, as we are throughout the early chapters of Genesis, about the further descent of man, after the initial  fall of man.

But as we will see the Lord is fighting the infection.

Now stylistically the chapter is an extended genealogy of the first son of Adam and Eve, the famous Cain. The passage is replete with traditional genealogy language, vs. 1-2 Adam lay with his wife Eve and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain….vs. 17 Cain lay with his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch…to Enoch was born Irad and Irad was the father of Mehujael”, and so on.

And notice that this typical genealogy language, begun in verses 1-2 is broken of to introduce a little vignette, giving us insight into the state of Cain’s soul, only to be resumed in verses 17-26, so that structurally the chapter is rather neatly divided into two sections.

Section one, verses 1-16, deals with Cain himself, and section two, verses17-26, deals with Cain’s descendants.

And this evening we’re going to tackle the first section, verse 1-16 and look at this one horrific episode that gives us a window into Cain’s heart.

The first thing we are confronted with in the story is the reality of worship in a fallen world. Before Adam sinned, Eden was the sanctuary of the Lord, it was a kind of natural tabernacle where God met with Adam, and within which Adam had a priestly function. Now they were forever expelled from Eden, shut out from God’s presence. But here they are, Adam and his household engaged in worship at an altar.

In chapter 3: 21 we read that the LORD clothed Adam and his wife. When we looked at that chapter we saw that the only other time the precise word used for God’s clothing Adam and Eve can be found is in Leviticus 8:13, when Moses ordains Aaron and his sons to the Priesthood, and clothes them, that they may not be exposed in the sight of God. When God clothed Adam he was reinstating him, ordaining him once more to the priesthood. Clothing him so that he would be fit to come before him and worship, now that sin is a reality in the world. He was opening the door of access to his presence again, but this time by a different route. Adam, priest of the fallen covenant people of God, built an altar. I picture him going as close as he dared to the cherubim and the flaming sword that marked the way back to Eden and the sanctuary of the Lord, and there placing stone upon stone until a simple altar was built, and then coming regularly with his family to bow before the Lord and offer sacrifice.

And that is the scene before us in verses 3-5. Cain the firstborn and Abel come to the altar to worship the Lord together. The Hebrew of verse 3 begins literally at the end of days, and may refer perhaps to the end of a fixed period probably after a year, at the end of which they would come as appointed to offer this sacred worship, Matthew Henry even suggests that it was an annual fast in remembrance of the fall. But whatever the occasion Cain and Abel come to worship, and they each bring some of the fruits of their respective callings as sacrifices to the Lord. Cain brought some of his harvest and Abel brought animals from his flock.

And verse 4 tells us that the Lord ‘looked with favour’ that he accepted the sacrifice of Abel but rejected Cain’s offering. Now why? What were God’s reasons for accepting Abel’s worship and rejecting Cain’s?

Well the text does not tell us in so many words, but it does give us clues. But before we look at them lets hear the basic message of these verses. Not all worship is acceptable worship. You might come to worship this evening and your worship not be acceptable to the Lord. God decides how he should be praised. It is not for us to regulate our worship according to our own whim or taste. The sovereign God has sole prerogative to dictate how he is to be praised. Immediately this passage forces us to think carefully about how we worship. The vital matter we need to wrestle with in worship is not whether this fits my taste but whether this fits God’s taste. Not, ‘am I comfortable with this?’, but ‘is God honoured in this?’ Not, ‘does this give me the right feelings?’, but, ‘is the Triune God glorified?’ We need to ask ourselves who is the primary consumer towards whom our worship is pitched? Is it myself? Is it seekers? Or is it the Living God? The answer we give to that question will largely shape the acceptability or otherwise of our praise.

So, what light can the text shed on what acceptable worship looks like? Well, notice that when we read the report of God’s response to their devotions we are told that God was concerned first with the worshipper and then also with the worship. “The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering” The Lord did not look with favour on Cain and his offering.” The worshipper and the worship are important in praise that is acceptable to God.

To put it differently true worship, acceptable to God, is worship concerned with right attitudes and with right actions, with what we do and how we do it. 

Hebrews 11:4 tells us that it was “by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain, and by faith was commended as a righteous man”. Abel was righteous before the Lord by faith in the coming seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. Abel was not looking for self righteousness, self justification. He did not seek to be right with God because of any actions he performed. By grace he was saved through faith and that not of himself it was the gift of God.

1 John 3:12, however tells us all about Cain. He belonged, we read, to the evil one.

Fundamentally true worship springs from believing hearts. Faith in the Seed of the woman, the provision of God for sinners in Jesus Christ, is the sine qua non, the one thing needful of true worship. Whatever is not from faith is sin, even singing God’s praise!

The key to worship that honours God is saving faith. Are you a believer in Jesus tonight? Unless and until you are you cannot please God.

But the passage is concerned with more than the attitude and faith of the worshipper; it is concerned with the worship of the worshipper also. We get something of that in the way the passage describes the different offerings. Cain simply brought some of the fruits of the soil as his offering. Abel however brought fat portions, that is, the choice pieces, from the firstborn, the prize lambs of his flock.

Now it has become scholarly orthodoxy at this point to say that the differences between the two offerings is simply one of costliness not of type. The reason Abel’s sacrifice was accepted was that his was costly, whereas Cain’s was cheap and offhand.

And that is true. We need to bring to God our best in his praise. It is a poor over who reuses the engagement ring he had left over from a previous aborted relationship. No fiancée would ever accept such an insult. Cheap actions are a powerful commentary on the reality of our love. And so it is in God’s worship. Cheap devotions are a powerful commentary on the reality and vitality of our faith.

But there is more than that going on here. Abel’s offering, and the language used to describe it reflects later regulations for making atonement for sin at the tabernacle and temple. Abel’s sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice. Cain’s sacrifice was simply a thank offering without reference to sin or to his need for cleansing. .

And the effrontery of Cain’s actions becomes all the starker if we take Matthew Henry’s suggestion seriously  that this was a ceremony commemorating the Fall, the entry of sin into the world. Clearly Cain cared nothing for the sinfulness of sin dwelling even in his own heart. Abel recognised that the only fitting commemoration of the fall would be a sacrifice of atonement, seeking the forgiveness and grace of God.

So let me recap.

 1. True worship is prescribed by God alone, not invented by men at the dictate of personal preference.

2. True worship flows from faith in Jesus Christ. The spiritual condition of the worshipper is fundamental if their worship is to be accepted.

3. True worship requires the devotion of the best we can bring to the praise of God. Abel brought the fat of the first born of the flock, the best bits of the best animals.

4. True worship centres on the provision of God for atonement from sin. Abel offered an atoning sacrifice.

We need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask, is our worship scriptural, prescribed by God alone? Is our worship the fruit of faith inn Jesus Christ, overflowing with love and delight in him? Is our worship the best we can bring? Do we need to do more to pursue excellence in our singing, in our attention to the word preached, in our preparation for worship? Is our worship irreversibly locked into a regular confrontation with the cross of Christ and the atoning sacrifice he has made for sinners?

So this passage is concerned with true worship. But secondly notice that it charts the progress of sin.

And here we need to keep the fact of the fall in genesis 2 and 3 in mind, because much of the language and structure of this chapter deliberately echoes the narrative of Adam’s disobedience and God’s judgement on sin, only now in chapter 4 the fall has already happened, sin is already a reality, judgment has already fallen, things can only get worse.

Cain is angry with God’s rejection of his offering in verse 5 and the Lord intervenes and fundamentally sets the principle of the law before him. If you do what is right you will be accepted. Do this and live. Keep the law and righteousness, acceptance, heaven awaits.

As, in chapter 2 God give the law and expects obedience. You may not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God had said to sinless Adam. Now God says to sinful Cain do what is right and be accepted. The difference here is that there is no hope of Cain obeying now that sin has come.

Then there is the central report of Cain’s sinful rebellion, recorded for us in terse prose, in verse 8, once again echoing the central act of rebellion in chapter 3:6-7. Cain lures Abel to the fields and there her murders him.

And again like chapter 3 God comes looking. Where are you Adam? Where is your brother Cain? And in both instances Adam and Eve on one hand, and Cain on the other there is an attempt to shirk responsibility for the sin…the woman you put here with me, gave me some fruit and I ate….the serpent deceived me….am I my brother’s keeper?

What have you done says God to Eve in 3:13, what have you done says God to Cain in 4:10.

And the judgment that falls on Adam curses the ground because of his sin, he will work the crops and they will produce only thorns and thistles3:17-19, and the judgement that fall son Cain echoes the curse, “now you are under a curse and driven from the ground….when you work the ground it will no longer yield its crops for you.”

And the expulsion of Cain to the east of Eden with the mark of protection God placed on him in 4: 15-16 corresponds to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden to the east and the provision of garments of skin for them, 3:21, 24.

What is the point here? Isn’t it simply this: like father like son, and then some!! The same pattern that we saw in Adam we see in Cain, only now the sin is all the more aggravated. First there is false worship, anger against God, lying to Him in verse 9. The first table of the law is broken. Then there is lies, jealousy, and the murder of Abel, the second table of the law is broken.

Like a poisoned blood transfusion, sin having entered humanity in Adam has already renedered it in the famous phrase, totally depraved.

Behold the sinfulness of sin! And say with godly Robert Murray McCheyne as you study the anatomy of vice in Cain’s life, that truly the seeds of every conceivable sin lies in my own heart also.  

In Jude 11 we are told about the way of Cain. Cain’s actions are not just a curious record of one man’s folly. The story of Cain is a map that has been and is being followed by countless souls, perhaps even by some here tonight, and its final destination is hell. Are you on the way of Cain? Hve you set foot on the superhighway that Cain’s rebellion has built?

Listen as the Lord warns you, as he warned him in verse 7, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

And how can you master it? By faith in the one whose sprinkled blood, says Hebrews 12:24 speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood said the Lord cried to him from the ground demanding justice! Demanding condemnation! But the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of sprinkling, a reference to atoning sacrifice. The Blood of Christ is the reality to which Abels animal sacrifice pointed. The blood of Christ speaks a word demanding not condemnation but deliverance. Not expulsion but reconciliation.

Cain spurned the warning of the Lord. Cain rejected the need for sacrifice for sin. Cain turned aside to his own eternal condemnation. That is the way Cain has paved for all of us sons and daughters of Adam. But praise the Lord for the blood of Christ shed at the Cross. Christ crucified, our sacrificial lamb, speaks a word of salvation to all who would turn from Cain’s highway to the saving grace of God.

Amen