First Murder

Questions for Thought

1. Why do people hurt others?
2. Who was the oldest man of whom we have a record?
3. Does God allow us to add to His commands?

In the last post, Adam and Eve had been expelled from the beautiful Garden of Eden because they sinned against God. He had told them they could eat of all of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent whom we know as the devil, told Eve it would be ok to eat of the tree. When Eve saw the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she chose to eat of it and she gave some to Adam who also ate. God was not pleased with their choice, so He drove them away from the garden and told them they would now have to eat their bread in the sweat of their face.

Adam and Eve began to have children. First they had Cain and then Abel as recorded in Genesis 4. Cain chose to work in the fields while Abel was a herdsman. Both of the men brought an offering to God. Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the ground. Today we would most likely say he brought some produce. Abel, on the other hand, brought an offering from the first born of his flock. God approved of Abel’s offering but He did not approve of Cain’s offering.

Now, we are not told here in Genesis why God respected or approved of one of the offerings but not the other one. In order to find the reason, we have to go to the New Testament to the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 11:4 we find out Abel’s offering was by faith. So what does it mean his offering was by faith? Where did he get his faith and upon what was it based? Again, the answer is not in Genesis, but if you go to Romans 10:17, you will see faith comes by hearing the word of God. So we can infer from combining these passages at some point, God had made clear what was an acceptable sacrifice and Abel chose to offer that sacrifice. Cain apparently chose to ignore what God wanted and offer what he wanted.

When Cain realized God was not going to accept his offering, he became very angry. God talked to him about it in Genesis 4:6-7, but Cain did not pay any attention to what God said. Instead, he took out his wrath on Abel. They were out in the field together and according to verse 8, Cain killed his brother. One wonders what Cain was thinking. Was he jealous because God accepted Abel’s offering? According to 1 John 3:12, Cain was of the wicked one and he slew his brother because Cain’s own works were evil and his brother’s works were righteous.

Here again we find God punishing sin. In Genesis 4:9-15 you can read how God cursed Can. He was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. When Cain told God his punishment was too much for him, God showed him mercy and put a sign upon him so no one would kill him.

The rest of Chapters 4-5 of Genesis are concerned with genealogies. In reading through all of these names and ages, we can see in the beginning, men lived very long lives. The first man Adam lived to be 930 years old. In Genesis 5:24 is the mention of Enoch who lived to be 365 years old and God took him or he walked with God. His son Methuselah is the oldest man for whom we have a record. He lived to be 969 years old and died either right before the flood or in the flood. His son Lamech had a son named Noah who will be the topic of the next post. It would be good to read Genesis 6-11 before the next topic is posted.

Do people ever do something similar to what Cain did with his offering to God? I can think of many examples of religious people adding to, taking from, or even ignoring what God said and instead doing their own thing. We will see how God’s chosen people of the Old Testament, the Israelites, often chose to ignore God. In the New Testament, we will see how Christians did the same. And in the world today, we will be able to compare what we are seeing to what we find in the Bible.

Do people today also do as Cain did when he was caught up in his sin? How many times have you seen the guilty party get mad at the innocent one and try to make life miserable for him or her? How many times have you seen jealousy in a family cause fussing and fighting? Can you use this account of Cain and Abel to teach several different concepts to your children and others?