From the Start - Part 11 | Cain Kills Abel (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 12)

Well, if you would turn to Genesis chapter 4, we're in

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 4 continuing the story of Cain and Abel.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

A few moments ago, we took special note of sanctity of Life

Sunday, right? And it's great that here on

Sanctity of Life Sunday, we would be addressing the first

death in human history. How appropriate for us to be

talking about these things. So as we look into this

particular death on this day given to promoting the sanctity

of human life, I'm reminded of a pro-life billboard I saw once

that said abortion. Deep down, you know what's

wrong. The militant push for abortions

in our nation is an example of people becoming desensitized to

death. Even outside of the abortion

conversation, many have become calloused to death.

Death is so much a part of life that it seldom grips and tears

us to shreds. Sure, we grieve when someone

close dies, but other than that, we know death is coming.

The statistics on death are impressive. 1 out of every one

person dies. We check the many forms of news

at our disposal and we're likely to see and read about to death.

Whether it's under natural circumstances, accidents or

murders. We're daily reminded that we

live in a fallen world under the presence and power of sin and

death is part of life. As followers of Christ, we

believe that our God is not a God of death, but of life.

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.

He wants to bring death wherever he goes.

But Jesus literally said I came that they may have life.

Jesus and Satan are at odds in this world, Satan working to

extinguish life and Jesus working to make life abundant.

If you're able, would you stand? As we read from Genesis chapter

Genesis 4:8–16

4, verses 8 through 16, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and

when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother

Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain,

Where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know.

Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, What have you

done? The voice of your brother's

blood is crying to me from the ground.

And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its

mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its

strength. You shall be a fugitive and a

wanderer on the earth, Cain said to the Lord.

My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from

your face. I shall be hidden.

I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and

whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, Not

so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance

shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain,

lest any who found him should attack him.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled

in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Let's pray. Father God is we approach this

passage this morning. There are some things that will

be difficult to address and my prayer this morning is that your

heart is what shines through in all the words that I share this

morning. May it be your heart of

compassion, your grace, your mercy that is on display this

morning even as we look at a topic like death in Jesus name,

Amen, You may be seated. So our study this morning begins

at the logical place. Cain kills his brother Abel.

Like we know this, right? We, we, we expected this.

We knew this was coming, this. But this wasn't just a crime of

passion, something done in in the heat of the moment of our

common Bible translations, about half of them say that Cain was

talking with Abel. And then, and then casually, the

setting moves to out in the field where Abel was killed.

The NIV, the NLT, New Revised Standard, and the Christian

Standard Bible all translate verse eight in a much different

manner. They each say something like 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.

These translations point to a nefarious purpose in Kane's

conversation with his brother. He wasn't just asking for his

brother's help with something out in the field.

His goal was to lure Abel to the field and there with no one

around murder him. Now not to state the obvious,

but Kane killed his brother like he killed his brother.

Yes, that is the point that I'm making here.

I know you know that, but it's important that we start there.

This short section on Cain and Abel refers to Abel's Abel's

brother 6 times. Actually, I should say Cain's

brother 6 times from verses 8 all the way all the when he's

introduced, all the way through the end of this section, it

mentions his brother. Now why does that matter?

Well, this this passage serves to tell us that Cain's treatment

of his brother is intrinsically related to his relationship with

Yahweh. I put that there on the note

sheet. Cain's treatment of his brother

is intrinsically related to his relationship with Yahweh.

If his relationship with Yahweh was close then then he would

have treated his brother with respect and dignity, right?

But his relationship with Yahweh was strained.

We know that from the very beginning.

He was literally at odds with Yahweh.

So destroying another image bearer, another human, wasn't

out of the question. When I think of this, my mind is

is immediately drawn to the New Testament.

In Luke 10, Jesus was confronted by a lawyer, I'm guessing

probably a Pharisee, somebody who knew the law really well.

He wanted to know, how do I inherit eternal life?

So Jesus asked him, well, you're a lawyer, you tell me, what does

the law say? And and we read in Luke 1027, he

says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your

mind, and your neighbor, neighbor as yourself.

Jesus told the man he'd answered correctly and to live in this

manner. But then verse 29 shows us his

real motive. It says he, desiring to justify

himself said to Jesus, who's my neighbor?

Like who do I really have to love?

Do I have to love that person that that is not like me?

Do I have to love that person who hates God?

Do I have to love that that person that just cut me off?

Do I have to love illegals? Do I have to love ICE?

Do I have to love the protesters?

Do I have to love people I don't like?

The answer to all of it is yes. You see, the way of Jesus is

different than the world's ways. And Jesus went on to tell the

story of the Good Samaritan. I know you're familiar with it.

He would. He was robbed, beaten and left

for dead. A priest come, comes by, sees

him and passes by on the other side.

Then a Levite comes by, sees him, also passes by on the other

side, and the one who stops, Luke 1033 tells us the

Samaritan, somebody who shouldn't be stopping in this

situation. The Samaritan as he journeyed

came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion.

You see the Samaritans and Jews hated each other, like actually

hated each other. They were actually racist

towards each other. The Jews hated the Samaritans

because they were, they were half breeds.

These were people who had returned from the exile and in

the exile the Jews had had intermarried with the Assyrians

and Babylonians. And so then they return and they

are no longer purely Jewish descent, that now they are

mixed. And so the Jews hated the

Samaritans. And of course, when you're hated

as strongly as they were, you repay in kind, right?

They hated them back. Now that was the situation here.

But it's the Samaritan who stops and helps this person.

He was the Good Samaritan. As I relate this passage this

morning, thinking about Cain and Abel, the the Good Samaritan's

actions, and Jesus exhortation towards compassion, I can't help

but grieve over what's happening in our country.

Whether you agree or disagree with the president's attempt to

remove illegals from this country, it's clear that the

image bearers of God are being violated.

I'm stepping it this morning, but this is what God has given

me. I've agonized and agonized over

this this morning all week. I should say what to share.

That's something I see that I think grieves God's heart.

Some conservatives lack compassion and neglect to see

the human side of the immigration issue, an issue

which I might add, is important to me.

Without immigration, I don't have the wife and family that I

have now. Some neglect to see the human

side of this issue, casting all immigrants under under the

derogatory label of illegals, whom I might add, are also image

bearers of God. Before I continue, allow me to

share part of an e-mail that that I received from our

denomination this week. It recounts some of the

experiences that Pastor Joel Ramirez of Iglesia Centro

Cristiano in South Minneapolis has recently had.

Dear friends, several people have asked how I am doing and

how our congregation is navigating this difficult

season. The best way I can answer is by

sharing a glimpse into one ordinary day and the larger

reality surrounding it. Yesterday was meant to be my day

off. By mid morning that changed.

We received an urgent call asking us to rush to Anoka.

A church members brother and nephew had gone to handle a

simple car related matter and found themselves surrounded by a

ICE agents in the parking lot. When we arrived they were

already gone. Only the empty car remained.

Throughout the day, we encountered the quiet wait many

families are carrying. A young girl proudly recited

Bible verses she memorized in English and Spanish, while her

mother, seven months pregnant, shared that she rarely leaves

home out of fear, despite having her paperwork in process.

We delivered groceries to a family new to our church, living

cramped in a in a basement with three children, one with Down

syndrome. The parents now take turns

leaving the house so their children won't risk losing both

parents at the same time. That same day, their daughter

turned 14. No party, no guess, just a

cheesecake, prayer and tears. That evening we drove a woman

home because she was too afraid to take an Uber after hearing

stories of ICE detentions involving Latino writers.

We also visited a 16 year old whose mother has been suffering

severe stomach pain for weeks but is afraid to seek medical

care even though she has a valid work permit and a pending asylum

case. This is where I'm stopping with

the e-mail. But the e-mail goes on to talk

about how drastically attendance has been impacted in their

church, in their bodies, of course, as well as how how some

parents are are taking legal steps to assign custody for

their children in the events that one of them is removed so

that they their children aren't taken over by the States.

It's a sad time. Wherever you sit on the

situation, hopefully you can see the humanity in this.

And similar stories are told all over the Twin Cities and in many

other parts of our nation. People who are here legally

finding themselves living in fear because a portion of our

government has lost all compassion and neglected to

remember that we are all people bearing God's image.

So as Christ followers, we value life, all life, because our

relationship with Him dictates it.

Sanctity of life doesn't just mean before birth, it also means

from the cradle to the grave. Every person's life, no matter

their age or capabilities, their socio economic status, orphaned

or adopted, healthy or on life supports, all, all are precious

in God's sight and I know that will offend you.

I take issue with it because I don't want to love everybody

sometimes, but this is God's word.

My challenge to us this morning is that we begin to see others

as our brothers and sisters, fellow image bearers who who

Christ died for, and allow yourself to be moved with

compassion for their plight. Now that the heavy stuff out of

the way, that was kind of introductory.

So we move on to God confronting Cain in verses 9 through 10.

The Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother?

He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

And the Lord said, what have you done?

The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the

ground. The first thing God asked was,

where is Abel? Of course, God already knows,

but but he's giving Cain the opportunity to come clean, to

confess his sin. Cain's response is purely flesh,

a snarky, I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?

Cain had abdicated his position. He was Adam and Eve's oldest,

the the third caretaker in the world.

He's just the third human in the world.

He he held a special place. But he had exchanged that

position for anger and instead opted for killing his brother.

This isn't the first time the word keep shows up in scripture

though. The word somer was also used

back in Genesis 215 where it said the Lord God took the man

and put him in the garden to work it and keep it.

So his job is to to look out for the land and to take care of it

and help it to be productive. He kept watch over it for it's

good. Adam had been keeper of the

garden, but here the object being guarded over should have

been another human being able. All of us humans have been given

the same task by God to be keepers of the world and and

help it both the earth and humanity to be as good and

profitable as it can be. Cain's obligation to the earth

and humanity means the answer to the question am I my brother's

keeper is a resounding yes, you are your brother's keeper.

Yes, Cain is his brother's keeper.

Cain wasn't off the hook with Abel.

There was an obligation on his part to look out for his family.

Now I'm not sure what kind of like existential threats there

that might have already existed at this point in time.

Of course there's threats from animals, but I don't know if

other people were pondering murdering people or something

like that where, where things had been at this point.

It's hard for us to understand that so early in humanity's

history. But taking the life of his

brother, this, this was completely unfathomable, hadn't

been done before, yet he somehow ventured into this uncharted

territory. He failed to uphold his

community responsibility. Moses contemporaries, hearing

this for the first time, would have immediately recognized this

to be particularly heinous. To kill his brother.

This this violated community solidarity which was highly

esteemed among the Hebrew people.

We are free to choose our actions, but we are not free to

choose the consequences of our actions.

Cain had free will and he abused it.

So now we turn our attention to the curse on Cain.

Verse 11 reads Now you are cursed from the ground which has

opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its

strength. You shall be a fugitive and a

wanderer on the earth. The first part of the curse

meant that he was cursed from the ground.

Cane is simply cursed from the ground.

In the garden there was lush provision for food.

Everything was perfect outside the garden.

There was arable land where humans could cultivate the land

to be what they needed. Cain worked the ground, it would

give him a great yield. It's it's strength is how God

referred to it. He got a great return on his

time invested into farming the land, but now the ground was no

longer going to to easily yield its crop in the same way that it

had. And so since the ground is no

longer going to be as as productive, he's now destined to

become a hunter gatherer as he's driven to a place that has no

hope of agriculture. And this brings us to the second

parts of the curse. He was exiled to wander.

He is exiled to wander. Genesis 46 told us where he

went. 46416 told us where he went.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled

in the land of Nod or Node, east of Eden.

Over the years there have been attempts to locate the land of

Node. You see Eden there and southern

Iraq. This is where the the Euphrates,

the Tigers, the Gihon and the Pichon rivers.

We don't know all of these rivers, couple of them are

harder to nail down, but we can presume that Eden was likely

somewhere there in southern Iraq.

And so if Cain goes to to the land of Node, he's going

somewhere east of it. So we don't know exactly where.

It could be that maybe he's still in Iraq, maybe he's

actually in Iran, another place. I hope you're paying attention

to what's going on there because certain portions of the media

are not talking about this. But God has been working around

the world, especially in Islamic regions in Iran.

He's working there as well as those people are fighting for

their freedom. So it could be that perhaps Cain

was exiled to somewhere in Iran. We, we, we don't know exactly

because it just says Adam and Eve went east of the garden and

all it says is Cain went east. We don't know if that means east

of the garden or if he went further E further into Iran.

We don't know exactly. You know, there's no sign that

says welcome to Node, the home of Cain.

You know, as as we would put up now these days.

Oh, this is the home of President Ronald Reagan's

birthplace I saw the other day. You know, there's no sign like

that. We have no idea really where

node is, even the city he built called Enoch.

We don't know where it's located either.

But let me let you in on a little secret.

There might be a reason why we don't know.

I and many scholars don't think it's an actual place.

The word node actually means exile or wandering.

The last verse of this section, verse 16, could then be

translated. Cain went away from the presence

of the Lord and settled in the land of wandering, the land of

exile east of Eden. Part of the curse involved his

exile, so it makes perfect sense for Moses to write that Cain

settled in the land of wandering.

Now being a wanderer is one thing, but there's something

else that's going along with this wandering that he that he

is going to experience. It is since he is removed to the

east, he's removed farther from God's presence.

He would experience a loss of God's presence.

In verse 14 Cain said from your face I shall be hidden.

And then in verse 16 we're told Cain went away from the presence

of the Lord. These verses don't explicitly

tell us God was going to remove His presence from Cain, but they

do make it clear that his relationship with Yahweh was

about to significantly change any sort of face to face

relationship he might have had. Whether he went there to the

garden and would would meet there at the entrance to the

garden in commune with Yahweh, any relationship he had would be

gone. The passage continues with

verses 13 and 14. Cain said to the Lord, My

punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from

your face. I shall be hidden.

I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and

whoever finds me will kill me. Cain is airing all his

complaints to Yahweh, and so he is complaining of an unbearable

loss. This is an unbearable loss for

Cain as he's experiencing the repercussions of his actions.

Now. Sin can be a complex thing.

We first violate God's ways and standards, thinking that we know

better than He does right. I can do it my way, forget what

what God has to say on it. Then when discipline comes, we

we, we can either repent or dig our heels in.

And here Cain is, digging his heels in and complaining.

When we're caught in sin, like, like we're really stuck in it,

this is what we become. We start to blame shift.

We start to point the finger. We bite at anyone.

We lash out anyone within reach, especially those closest to us.

No, the problem isn't me, it's you.

That's what sin does when we don't want to address it.

All Cain could see was himself, and in a moment when he should

have shown remorse, he demonstrated self pity and

entitlement. The loss of land and loss of

God's presence was just too much for him to bear.

And part of why Cain felt it was too much was because he feared

for his life. He feared death.

He feared death. He he wasn't being delusional

here. He was justified in fearing for

his life. He'd broken loyalty to his

kinship, and it was it was reasonable to think that someone

may come along seeking vengeance for Abel.

Now Cain's fearing for his life presupposes the the expansion of

civilization. By now, it's easy for us, if

we're not careful to, to just look back on the situation, this

moment and think, oh, there were only now three people on the on

the face of the earth, Adam, Eve, and Cain, because Abel had

been killed. Well, no, that is not the case.

Civilization had already begun there.

There was there were many people on the earth by this time

already. So, so Cain is fearful that that

somebody is going to come and kill him seeking retribution for

the ACT that he committed against his brother Abel.

Genesis 54 tells us that the days of Adam after he fathered

Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters.

Adam lived 930 years and Cain's younger brother Seth lived 912

years. So it's reasonable for us to

arrive at the conclusion Cain probably lived 900 plus years

himself, and over the course of his long life there could be

many opportunities for Blood Avengers to exact retribution.

In spite of Cain deserving expulsion, God didn't leave him

helpless. So lastly we look at God's

response to Cain in verse 15. The Lord said to him, not so if

anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should

attack him. Now, of course, later capital

punishment becomes God's recommended response to murder

cases, but that's not always the way he chooses.

In Yahweh's response, we see a God who holds justice in his

right hand and mercy in his left.

God's mercy was was already on display in the simple fact that

that he had chosen to let Cain live.

This is God's mercy to Cain. He let Cain live.

Allowing him to live was important.

God said no one was going to kill Cain, and if they did, God

would take vengeance on them in His mercy.

God didn't give Cain what he deserved and let him continue

living. But not only was God merciful,

but he was also gracious and gave Cain something that Cain

didn't deserve. In fact, God has been gracious

with Cain all along. He was patient towards Cain as

he grew angry over the offering not being accepted.

God was encouraging in the context of failure.

Now here in their second conversation after Cain's crime

has been committed, God showed his concern for Cain and

demonstrated more grace by giving him a mark.

This is the mark of Cain. The mark of Cain.

This was some sort of sign identifying him so he wouldn't

be killed by those seeking vengeance on his life.

The mark of Cain has been the subject of of much debate over

the years, with one of the most egregious interpretations

arriving at the conclusion that God turned Cain's skin black so

he could be easily identified. This repulsive teaching was

perpetuated in order to justify chattel slavery and and the

oppression of people of color. The mark of Cain was not black

skin. This interpretation is straight

from hell and has no place in Christianity.

Furthermore, it reminds me. I've heard a story from my dad.

He he had spent some time in Texas back in the 70s.

I think he's on his third moment in Texas now, living there.

He went to school there, later went back to pastoral church,

and now he's back living in El Paso.

But one of his deacons, I believe, maybe it was somebody

with money, said something quite racist.

My dad hadn't been there long and I believe it sounds like the

story is something like maybe he puts his hand through the

dashboard of the car and says that is not how we are going to

be in this church. He soon he was one of those hot

preachers back in the day, one of those fire and brimstone type

preachers. He didn't really preach or or

teach. It was more of a yelling type

thing. I think you probably heard it.

He's changed a lot over the years, but he quickly made an

exit from that church. Because racism has no part in

Christianity. That is not God's heart.

Little secrets in heaven. I think the white people are

going to be the minority, just so you know.

It's going to be wonderful, so I digress.

So this is not what the mark of Cain is.

We don't truly know what the mark of Cain is.

People speculate, what is it? A tattoo?

Was it a scar? Somebody I read even said maybe

he even looked really good. So nobody even had any idea that

this person, attractive guy, was a murderer.

I don't know. So we don't know what it is.

What we do know is that the mark of Cain is an extension of God's

grace, a physical symbol of his protection.

But why would God be so concerned with protecting this,

this murderer, this Sinner? This past summer I spent a bit

of time in a passage that I often come back to, Exodus 34,

Exodus 34:6–7

verses 6 through 7, where God introduces himself.

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord.

The Lord. A God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity

and transgression and sin. This is God's character.

Is he just? Of course he's just, but that is

not his only character trait. When God introduces himself as

merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast

love and faithfulness, we can trust that to be the case.

And this reorients our our hearts posture towards God.

It enables us to sing those words that we sang this morning.

All my life you have been faithful, God.

All my life you have been so, so good.

Regardless of what life throws at me, I know God is gracious.

Grace isn't an afterthought for him.

It isn't something he just decided to add to his character

traits, it is the core of who he is.

So what do we do with a message like this?

Well obviously don't kill your brother, right?

That's a bad idea. First of all, have compassion

for others. Have compassion for others.

When we have compassion, we're being like God.

When Jesus saw the hurting, the broken repeatedly says he was

moved with compassion for them. This means that we not only feel

and and sympathize with them, but it means we take steps to

help them out. Next, value all life.

Value all life, even the people you hate.

We value all life. Not just lives in the womb, not

just lives that are outside the womb.

Value all of it. Value the people you disagree

with and simply don't like. Look at them through God's eyes

and see what you can see and support vulnerable people is our

last point. Support vulnerable people

whether in person could be a neighbor, a friend, Co worker,

church member, homeless person that you might come across

asking you for food or. Could be by reaching out to an

organization like World Relief or or Habitat for Humanity,

these organizations that that work to just give people a a

hand up, a helping hand to get on their feet supports the

vulnerable. This has been a challenging

message. Everything that's I receive,

that I feel convicted, I need to share.

Obviously it's already worked his way through here, worked his

way through here, and I still don't like some of it.

This is a challenge to me. It is hard to love people that

we don't like, but by God's grace, may we love the

unlovable. So let's bow our heads and close

our eyes. God, as we close our time this

morning, I pray that each person in this room would take these

words that I've shared. Weigh them, weigh them against

your word, weigh them against their own hearts.

And God, may we be shaped and further transformed to your

image so that we love people that we don't want to love, that

we have compassion for people who are hurting, that we have

compassion for the vulnerable. May we value each person as an

image bearer. They were created in your image,

so may we value them for that. Thank you for meeting here with

us this morning. It's in Jesus name we pray,

Amen.