Genesis Chapter 4 and 5 – John Karmelich

1. Chapter 4 is the story of Cain and Abel, the first two children of Adam & Eve.

a) In Chapter 3 we had the introduction of sin into the world.

b) In Chapter 4, one generation later we see the full effect of sin unto the world.

c) In Chapter 5, we see God beginning to work to remedy the world of the sin problem.

i) Much of Chapter 4 focuses on the “ungodly” offspring of Cain.

ii) Chapter 5 gives part of the genealogy of a separate offspring, that of his brother Seth. Through Seth, comes the promise of the Messiah.

iii) The genealogies of Chapters 4 and 5 are meant to be read in contrast to each other.

2. My emphasis in teaching Genesis is not on “how” or “when” but “why”?

a) So, with that in mind, why did God want us to know that Cain killed Abel?

i) To me, the key verse of this chapter is God speaking in Verse 7. It says, “But if you (Cain) do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:7b, NIV)

ii) The chapter itself is all about sin and its affects upon the world.

iii) It also lists some of Cain’s descendants. There is a “why” purpose to that as well and it has to do with the long-term affects of sin upon a person.

iv) Most of the chapter focuses on the sins of Cain. Cain chose to let sin “have him” as opposed to Cain conquering sin.

b) Chapter 5 is mostly a genealogy of Cain’s other brother Seth.

i) The main reason to combine Chapters 4 and 5 is to compare and contrast the lives of Cain and Seth.

3. There are several New Testament Verses that comment on the story of Cain & Abel.

a) We’ll discuss them in this lesson as they help to understand the stories.

b) There is a bible principal to remember here. The “Old” is revealed in the “New”. That means that the commentary in the New Testament usually reveals the purposes behind the word-pictures and stories as told in the Old Testament. This is a case we have here.

4. Before I begin, it is easy to get the names Cain & Abel mixed up. For those of us who have short-term memories, we occasionally ask ourselves, “Now which one killed which one again?

a) Here is a bad joke to help you not get the names mixed up: J

b) When did Cain kill Abel? As soon as he was “able”! J

c) Yes, that was terrible. But it will help you to remember which character is which.

5. Let’s get back to the sin issue. That is the key point here.

a) Peter said, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1^st Peter 5:8, NIV)

b) Compare that to: “sin is crouching at your (Cain’s) door; it desires to have you, but you (Cain) must master it.” (Genesis 4:7b, NIV).

c) The same thought is in view here. It is about the age-old battle against sin.

d) As I grow as a Christian, there are a few things I have learned about sin:

i) 1) Sin never dies of old age. No matter how much time you spend in prayer, no matter how much you go to church and bible conferences, etc., sin is always there.

a) That does not mean you give up and say, “well I can’t help it, it’s just the way you are!” It means that it is a life-long battle.

b) God designed us that way to keep us close to him.

ii) 2) Sin comes when we get our focus off of God. Life is a constant battle of “our” will for our lives versus “God’s” will at any one moment. We focus on our desire for the moment, or worry about something, or are angry about something, and we immediately forget all the biblical principals we ever learned and willfully turn away from God wants us at any one moment.

iii) 3) Ok, if we “can’t win” against sin and we “can’t get out of the game” (of sin), what is the use? What is the remedy?

a) I love how the Living Bible Paraphrases Paul’s response to this question:

b) “So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.” (Romans 7:24-25, The Living Bible).

c) What we do as Christians is “exhale” and say, “I am not condemned. Jesus paid the price for my sins, past, present and future and He has great plans for my eternal life. I don’t have to worry. Nothing this world can do to me can compare to the riches I will receive for eternity.”

d) With that in perspective, we as Christians begin to live a life of gratitude toward God. It is called the “attitude of gratitude”. I have found during those moments is when I “master” sin not due to my self-discipline, but due to my gratefulness that God is in charge of my life, and not me.

e) Ok, I’ve now way wandered off topic. I hate when I do that. J

6. Chapter 4, Verse 1: 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."

a) The word “lay” is better translated “knew” as in “Adam knew his wife” (NKJV).

b) The bible is not anti-sexual intercourse. God designed it for our joy.

c) We don’t even know if this is the first time they had sexual intercourse. The text just says that at this time, they became pregnant.

d) Remember in Chapter 3, God told Eve that she would have increased pain in bearing children. (Genesis 3:16) God gave Eve the ability to “forget about that for the moment” J in the passion of sexual relationship.

i) God also told Eve in that same verse that her desire will be for her husband.

ii) Sexual relationship is a way for husbands and wives to “connect” and is one way that women can fulfill that inherit need of a desire for their husband.

e) In Chapter 3, Adam named his wife “Eve” as she is the “mother of all living”. (Gen. 3:20).

i) With that Adam understood, that a redeemer would come through Eve that would lead Adam and Eve back to the “good tree”, which is the “tree of life”.

ii) In a direct-sense that statement is not true. No good deed would lead Adam & Eve back to the Garden of Eden.

iii) In an indirect (prophetic) sense, that statement is true. Through some descendant of Eve, the Messiah would come to pay the price for sins so that all who believe in that Messiah can life in paradise with God. Again, the “tree of life” is mentioned in the last chapter of the bible (Revelation 22) and reappears for us one day.

iv) So here is Eve thinking, “I’m having this baby named Cain. Cain means to “bring forth”. The idea here is that Eve thinks that “this baby” is the one who will be the redeemer. After all, I’ve just been through a lot of bad labor pains, and I don’t want to go through that again, so this better be it.” J

v) It is always considered the hope of every Jewish woman to be the Mother of the Messiah. For thousands of years, that is the greatest hope of every Jewish woman. That is why Mary made the statement “From now on all generations will call me blessed”. (Luke 1:48, NIV)

vi) Well, some years past, and Eve thought, well, maybe I was wrong about Cain.

a) Can you imagine how hard Adam and Eve probably tried to raise Cain?

b) Can you imagine how their heart was broken when he killed Abel?

c) Most Christian parents pray hard for their children. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the “free-will factor” is always part of everyone’s life.

7. Verse 2: Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

a) Let’s jump ahead to Genesis 5:4 for a second:

i) “After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.”

ii) The bible only mentions 3 children by name from Adam: Cain, Abel and Seth.

iii) Adam and Eve had lots of children. Genesis 5:5 says Adam lived a total of 930 years. You can get a lot of child-dependency-tax-deductions in 930 years. J

iv) The point here is that Cain and Abel were singled out for this story. They were not the only children of Adam and Eve.

b) Both Cain and Abel had occupations that were biblically acceptable.

c) There is nothing wrong with being either a farmer or a sheepherder.

d) God said in Chapter 3 that the ground is “cursed” due to the sin of Adam and that Adam (and his descendants) would have to “work the ground” to get produce (See Gen. 3:17).

e) Remember Adam & Eve received animal skins to cover their nakedness. (See Gen. 3:21).

i) Somehow, they understood the word-picture taught throughout the bible that the “shedding of blood is needed for the forgiveness of sins”. (Hebrews 9:22)

ii) Therefore, there is nothing wrong with being a sheepherder. At this point in time, God only ordained eating fruits and vegetables. Meat eating would not come until after the flood was over. Besides supplying wool, I believe Adam & Eve somehow understood that the purpose of raising sheep is to provide animal sacrifices for the remission of sin.

8. Verse 3: In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. ⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

a) To understand the difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering look at the description of the offerings by Abel and the lack of any description of Cain’s offerings.

i) Cain’s offering was “some” of the fruits of the soil.

ii) Abel’s offering was the “fat portions” and the “first born” of the flock.

iii) Let me put this in perspective. Abel was saying, “I trust God to provide for the future. Therefore, I’m going to give the first of what I earned (“firstborn”) as a reminder to me that God is going to provide for the future.”

a) Cain was saying in effect, “Do I really have to go to church again this Sunday? Didn’t I just go a few weeks ago? I’m going to miss the first half of the game if I go. OK, let me pick a random sample of some fruit that I grew just to show my family that I can do this religious stuff as well.” J

b) I may be reading too much into this, but I see Cain as not caring too much about God at this point. It is almost as if Cain is saying “What, what’s wrong with this offering? What do you want from me, blood? I came to your stupid offering and I brought some stuff.
So I didn’t pick the best like Abel. What, does that make him holier-than-thou now?

i) That is the way many people feel about church. They go now and then, to alleviate their guilt.

ii) “But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. (1^st Samuel 15:22, NIV)

iii) You can’t come to church on “your terms”. Christianity is all about obedience to what God wants for our lives.

9. Verse 6: Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ 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."

a) In a few verses, Cain is going to murder his brother Abel.

i) God is aware of this. He is aware of this at the time he spoke to Abel.

ii) So let’s ask why: Why did God give this speech? Why wasn’t God tougher on Abel here in this verse? If God could speak to Cain here and tell him to behave himself, why couldn’t God intervene later and prevent Abel’s murder?

iii) To answer those questions, you have to understand two key concepts:

a) 1) God allows free will and 2) Sin exists in the world.

b) Suppose that every time somebody was about to commit a murder, an angel steps in and grabs the gun (or whatever). Suppose every time we are about to lie to someone, an angel comes and covers our mouth.

c) If that were true, we would be complaining “God does not love us because he never gives us a chance to prove ourselves”. Further, we could never come to God by faith, because the evidence for God is so over-whelming that people would only obey God out of fear of retribution.

d) Therefore, the purpose of the speech is to teach Cain and us, the most important aspect about sin is either “you learn to master it, or it will master you.” Sin exists in you and around you, & “you can’t get out of the game”.

b) Remember at this point, all Cain was guilty of was bringing a “bad offering to church” and being jealous of his brother Abel as God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s.

i) God did not hate Cain. If anything, God shows his love for Cain and is in a sense pleading with Cain to “repent” and change his ways before it is too late.

10. Verse 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.

a) Some of the saddest tragedies in life come when we don’t listen to God. We know what is right from reading the bible and/or we know what is instinctively the right thing to do.

b) Guilt is a powerful force. Cain is the first of many murders in the world for the purpose of alleviating the guilt that is inside of them.

i) In modern American history, there is a hatred of “fundamental Christianity” by those who are not very religious.

ii) The argument goes, “well, who are they to say what is right and wrong? Who are they to say that the bible is right and our lifestyle is wrong? What makes them better than us? Don’t tell me my lifestyle is wrong. Who are you to judge anyway?” Thus, the hatred of those who try to live in obedience to God’s word.

a) I’m convinced the hatred stems from guilt. Deep down, God created all of us with a need to worship God. If you suppress that need, guilt comes in. Guilt manifests itself in sin. The non-believer can kill to alleviate seeing others live more righteously than themselves.

iii) If you think I’m “way off base” here, listen to what John says in 1^st John 3:12 (NIV):

a) “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.”

11. Verse 9: Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

a) Here is one of the most famous lines of the bible: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

b) You can almost feel the sarcasm dripping from Abel’s mouth as he spoke this.

c) One can get to a point in sin where it does not even bother you to talk back to God.

d) I suspect there is a deep guilt in Cain’s conscious over what he did.

i) Since he doesn’t want to admit wrong, that guilt comes out as anger or sarcasm.

12. Verse 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. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

a) Here is the first murder in the bible.

i) Some argue, that in a sense Adam and Eve was the first murder in that they committed “suicide” in their relationship to God, but that’s besides the point.

ii) Jesus said that Satan was a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) and many believe Jesus was talking about this passage right here.

iii) In that sense, one can understand that there are demonic forces behind this murder, even though there is no direct reference to Satan in this passage.

iv) Remember that Satan was part of the “Chapter 3 curse”. Satan knew that some descendant of Adam would “bruise his head”.

a) Here was Abel, who was the “good son” and made the proper offering.

b) I suspect, but can’t prove, that Satan was thinking, “this may be the guy”, therefore, Satan went used the ungodly Cain to do his dirty work.

b) As for Abel, he is in heaven.

i) Notice that God hears the cries of the murderer. God said, “your brother’s blood cries out to me” in Verse 10.” Human blood does not have vocal chords. God is referring to the fact that Abel’s soul lives and that God demands justice for all sins.

ii) Notice God did not say, “Oh, Cain, I forgive you. After all you were born this way and you couldn’t help yourself. I know that you came from an abusive family and have psychological problems to deal with.” J

iii) In fact, it was just the opposite. Cain was an adult, and God held him accountable.

c) Remember that Cain’s occupation was as a farmer.

i) He offered “of the ground” when he sacrificed to God.

ii) It is almost as if God is saying, “I’m not going to kill you. In a sense, your punishment is going to be worse, in that I’m not going to allow you to farm anymore and enjoy the results of your work. From now on, you’ll be a “street-person” and carry a cardboard sign that says, “Please help, God bless”. J

d) Which leads to the next question: Why didn’t God just kill Cain?

i) Later, God tells Moses right after the 10 commandments that capital punishment is the correct decree if someone is found guilty of murder. (See Exodus 21:23)

ii) So why not instill capital punishment at the first recorded murder here?

iii) The answer, in a sense, is the rest of the chapter.

a) The rest of the chapter focuses on the descendants of Cain.

b) We don’t read of any of Cain’s descendants being “godly people”.

c) Further, all of Cain’s descendants are going to die in the flood.

d) I believe the reason God made an exception here is to show the long-term consequences of allowing murder to continue.

e) The main point of all the descendants of Cain (in the rest of the chapter) is to show the lack of any relationship with God.

13. Verse 13: Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today 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."

a) Notice what Cain did not say: “I’m sorry”, or “Lord, forgive me”.

b) Instead he focuses on the pain of his punishment, not the pain of his sin.

c) Cain said, “I will be hidden from your presence”.

i) God never said that. God is always wherever you are.

ii) David said, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” (Psalm 139:8 NKJV)

iii) One only chooses to run away from God’s presence and ignore him.

d) In the last part of Verse 14, Cain was worried about someone taking revenge upon him.

i) Again, notice the lack of repentance. He is only worried about his own life.

ii) Cain is typical of those who lack repentance when they are caught in their sin.

14. Verse 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.
¹⁶ So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

a) The word “Nod” means, “wandering”. This is a “pun” or an allegory. Cain is leaving the presence of God, and is now “wandering” in the world.

i) Even out in the world, God is still with Him and preserving him.

b) God placed some sort of “mark” on Cain. What that “mark” is, is not stated.

i) It was placed on Cain for his protection, so no one would seek revenge on Cain.

ii) It shows God’s love for the murder. It doesn’t excuse the crime.

15. Verse 17: Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

a) Now, all of a sudden, Cain has got a wife:

i) Was he married prior to the murder, or did she agree to marry a murderer? J

ii) If Cain is a man who didn’t make God a priority in his life, how did that affect his wife and her behavior?

iii) Remember I stated a page or two back that Adam and Eve had lots of sons and daughters (Genesis 5:5). Cain married a sister or some other close relative. The gene pool was not corrupt at this point in history. It was about 2,000 years later when the laws came in against marrying one’s sister.

b) The next thing we read of is Enoch building a city and naming it after his son.

i) God’s curse on Cain was he’ll be a “You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

a) Is Cain building a city in defiance of that command?

b) Is Cain thinking, “Well, I can’t farm anymore. Maybe I can set up a shop in town for people to trade produce and sheep.” J

c) Maybe Cain was thinking, “Well, if I’m going to be vagabond, I need a place where people will gather and give me handouts.”

ii) Let’s go to the next couple of verses and I’ll tie them together.

16. Verse 19: Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. ²¹ His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. ²² Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

a) The whole emphasis is on Cain’s family.

i) Verses 17-22 list Cain’s descendants.

ii) Verses 19-22 mention some of their occupations.

iii) Some of the kid’s names have “Cain” as part of their name (e.g., “Tubal-Cain”).

iv) For example, Jabal “was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock”

a) This does not mean those who are tentmakers today have genes from Jabal.

b) Remember that everyone in this genealogy dies in the flood.

c) Noah comes a brother of Cain (Seth); not anyone in this group.

d) Therefore, when you read of these occupations, don’t think that line goes on today. It just means for example, if Jabal “made tents”, so did his kids.

b) I want you to see what is missing from this whole section: Any mention of God.

i) Cain built a city and named it after his son. He had a love for his family.

ii) His kids lived in tents, were farmers, others were musicians, and others made tools out of bronze and iron. There is nothing wrong with any of these things.

iii) The problem is the lack of emphasis on a God-centered life.

a) If your life is centered around your occupation or your God-given talents or even your children, it will still be empty without God in the center.

b) That is the point of reading this section about Cain’s famil