At present, there are estimated to be over 10 000 distinct religions in the world. However, 92% of the world follows one of four religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, or else claims to be non-religious. In other words, the remaining 8% of the world follows the 9996 other forms. To look at this landscape is to ask two questions. One, why is mankind so religious? Two, why are there so many religions?
The first question is the more interesting one. Why should mankind be so religious, so interested in the afterlife, in spirits, and gods and powers, in morality and truth and goodness. Man is irreducibly religious, homo liturgicus, one writer called us. It is as natural to us as eating and sleeping to seek to worship.
The second question is more historical. Why has man not settled on one single religion? Genesis, the book of beginnings as the answer for us.
Genesis 4 is there to give us a sample of what Adam and Eve’s offspring were like. If you think that man is born good, or neutral, Genesis 4 tells you what the firstborn son of Adam, Cain was like. Now we see how the Fall was the Fall of us all. It will not take three or five or seven or twenty generations for man to become evil. Here, in the very first human being born, we will meet jealousy, envy, hatred, bitterness, murder, fratricide, lying, insolence. Here is sinful conflict, war, and violence in the first brothers on earth. This should give any honest reader an idea of how things are going to go from here on out.
But Genesis 4 is a the genesis of true and false worship. Here we have the worship of God in the very dawn of the world, post-Eden. This is long before the Scriptures, long before priests, long before Israel, and the covenants, and the prophets. This is even before the nations came about at Babel, before the world was remade in the Flood. Here is man worshipping God mere decades after being cast out of Eden.
And what we will see in two brothers, is two ways. We will see true religion and the false. We will see the right way to approach God, and the wrong
I. The First Children of Adam
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.
Here the Bible uses the euphemism for marital relations which shows us how the Bible views it. It is the highest act of personal knowledge: not an act of using another person. This is a moment of true personal union, one person knowing another, mentally, emotionally, physically.
Their firstborn is called Cain, related to the Hebrew word that means to obtain, to gain. It seems Eve saw in Cain the promise of Genesis 3:15, because she specifically attributes this child as a gift from the Lord. God promises a Deliverer who would crush the serpent’s head, and defeat the curse. Perhaps Eve saw the very fact that she could bear a child as an immediate fulfilment of that promise. Abel’s name means breath, likely a fascination with the breath of life.
Cain and Abel are Adam and Eve’s first children. But they are not their only children. There is a substantial gap of time between the birth of the first two sons, and when they are now adult keepers of sheep and tillers of the ground. We do not know how old they were when this took place, but Genesis 5 tells us a few things. Seth is born to replace Abel, and Adam is 130 at that point, or 230 according to the Septuagint. We don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived before they fell, but it is not unlikely that Cain and Abel are themselves about 100 at this time, young men, by the standard of longevity then. By the way, I don’t think Seth’s birth is recorded because there are no others around; I think it is recorded because Cain was the firstborn, Cain forfeits his position, which would have been taken by Abel, but Abel is murdered. Seth replaces Abel to be the firstborn.
We also read in Genesis 5:4 that Adam and Eve had sons and daughters. At this time, there was no prohibition against marrying one’s sister, because the human gene pool was so small. So the daughters of Adam and Eve would have married the sons. If every family is having many children every twenty or so years, then by the time this incident takes place, there is likely a fairly sizeable human population, which explains why Cain is worried about people finding him and killing him.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Cain was a tiller of the ground, which is exactly what his father Adam was. Adam had no doubt explained to his boys the reason for work, the curse upon the ground, and the need to toil.
Now at this time, there is still a prohibition on eating meat. Eating meat is allowed after the Flood. So Abel’s profession would have provided wool for clothing or other uses, and sheep for sacrifice. We aren’t told when and where, but evidently God had taught Adam and Eve and their children the way of approaching him. Perhaps the very first moment of when God killed an animal or two in the Garden to clothe Adam and Eve became the moment of instruction. Some kind of sacrifice and offering was now a standard part of life after the Fall. Abel would have provided that for those wanting to present a sacrifice.
II. The First Worship
3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering.
The words translated “process of time” is literally “end of days” in the Hebrew, which might suggest a kind of early one day in seven principle, a kind of sabbath.
Now there is no mention here of altars, or even of a place. But perhaps people came to the entrance of Eden, as close as they could to original Eden, and there presented sacrifices. Whether God Himself appeared, we are not told, but the way He speaks directly to Cain in this chapter suggests that it was some kind of theophany, where God appeared in human form, as He had in the Garden with Adam and Eve.
Cain and Abel each bring some kind of sacrifice or offering to the Lord. Cain brings an offering from his vocation as a farmer, Abel brings an offering from his vocation as a shepherd. The result of the two offerings is binary: God respects, which means He received, accepted, looked on with pleasure on what Abel brought, but He did not do that with Cain’s offering.
Now we don’t know how this was communicated. In other places in Scripture, fire came down and consumed a sacrifice when it was received, or a glory cloud covered and filled a place. Perhaps it was even more personal and obvious, if God appeared to them in human form. However it was done, the verdict was obvious to Cain and Abel: Abel’s was right and pleasing to God, and Cain’s was not.
Now the text does not tell us here why this was so. And so, all sorts of explanations have been offered as to why God received Abel’s and not Cain’s. The most popular suggestion for this is that Cain presented a bloodless sacrifice; that atonement is supposed to be by the shedding of blood, and so by presenting a bloodless sacrifice, Cain was knowingly disobeying the law of substitutionary sacrifice. But there are at least three reasons why that explanation feel improbable
One, the text doesn’t say that. In fact, the text leans in the opposite direction, suggesting that it was natural for Cain to bring what he farmed and natural for Abel to bring what he farmed.
Second, even under the Law, there was bloodless sacrifices. Leviticus. 2 and Deut. 26:1–11 describe the grain offering which Israelites could bring. Third, even though it’s true that atonement was always through blood, nowhere in the text do we read that what Cain and Abel were doing was seeking atonement. It simply says they brought an offering. The Law had many offerings: there was the sin offering and trespass offering, but there was also the thanksgiving offering, and the free-will offering, the vow offering, the peace offering. So we can’t really conclude that the problem with Cain’s offering was that it wasn’t an animal sacrifice.
The only clue in the text is that we read Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. This suggests the best of the flock. We don’t read that Cain brought the firstfruits, so there might be something here as to the quality, the cost of the sacrifice. But again, that’s almost arguing from silence.
The best explanation we have are the inspired words of the writer of Hebrews.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. (Hebrews 11:4)
The key difference we see here was faith. Abel offered by faith, Cain did not. Abel’s sacrifice was more excellent by virtue of the faith with which it was offered, and the faith that drove what was offered. So perhaps the sacrifice was more costly than Cain’s. But the point is that what God judged here was the inner condition of Abel versus that of Cain. And if Cain had offered his costliest possible grain offering, or if Cain had even purchased a lamb from Abel and sacrificed it, he still would not have been accepted if his offering was not done in faith.
Furthermore, the text in Hebrews explicitly says that Abel was righteous. God endorsed and vindicated Abel’s sacrifice, showing that he was right with God. Jesus also calls him righteous Abel in Matthew 23:35 and numbers him among the prophets in Luke 11.
So here is the key difference between Can and Abel. Cain acted in some kind of unbelief; Abel acted in faith. Now what is faith? Faith is a loyal trust in the character of God. God communicates to us in words: in promises, commands, warnings, sayings, poems. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing of the Word of God. When we receive God’s communication, we either believe it and place our trust in it, and show our faith with actions that express that trust, or we disbelieve it, place our trust elsewhere, and show that unbelief in our actions.
So that means Can and Abel had heard the word of God. It was not yet inscripturated. Not all revelation ended up as inspired Scripture. We can tell from this verses 6-7 that God is speaking quite directly, and even audibly to these men. If God speaks to Cain in this audible way, we have every reason to believe He had verbally instructed them on how they were to worship, how they were to approach, what they were to do. Both of them had enough information to know what to do.
Look at verse 7: If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door
Cain had enough knowledge to know how to do right, to do well, to please God. But what did he choose? Cain chose, in some way, to do his own thing. The details are not given to us, but Cain chose either in attitude, or in outward offering, or most likely both, to act independently. He did not trust, submit, and loyally do what God required. He most likely innovated, created something of his own, brought what he wanted to bring and presented it the way he wanted to present it.
Here is the fundamental difference between true and false religion. False religion does not want to submit to God’s revealed way of approach. False religion does not like the humility of faith: of having to receive instruction from God, submit yourself, trust, depend, and come. False religion likes independence. False religion likes to retain control. False religion likes looking outwardly impressive. False religion like to share the merit and the credit that belongs to God alone with the worshipper. False religion tells God what He must accept, and prescribes for God the way He will be worshipped.
And now, consider the fruit of false religion.
III. The Fruit of False Worship
And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
However God showed that Cain’s offering was rejected, it was obvious to him, and probably obvious to Abel as well. Cain’s response is not grief, conviction, and repentance. He is not sorry that he failed to please God. No, he is angry. His face is filled with contempt, fury, and scorn.
His pride is uppermost. His pride is wounded and he is humiliated that his glorious offering was not lauded, that God did not thank him for improving upon the prescribed worship.
His pride has turned worship into a competition, and now he is jealous and envious that Abe’s worship has been accepted. Why should my brother’s way be the only way? Why should his way be accepted, and my creative, new and improved worship be rejected. His jealousy is turning into rage, contempt and hatred.
False religion is proud, resentful and rebellious at the idea that it is false.
Now consider how gracious God is with Cain. A cold distant God would have accepted one, rejected the other, and said nothing more. But here God sees the anger and resentment in Cain, and seeks to counsel him out of it. The advice is simple: if you had followed my instructions, your worship would be accepted.
But if you refuse and rebel, you are on a path for sin to master you. It is like a predator waiting for you at the door. You can either walk right into its trap, and allow it to master you, or you can rule over it by saying no.
Here is the earliest and first teaching on dealing with sin in your life. Sin is not passive or neutral. Sin is aggressive and longs to conquer more and more of your soul. If you do not actively wage war against it, ruling over it, bringing it into subjection, then it will master you. Paul will tell us in Romans 6 that life is about choosing a master. You either submit to sin and become its employee and servant, or you submit to God and become His employee and servant. But no one, in the spiritual life is unemployed. Everyone is working for someone.
At this point, Cain could have received the gracious counsel of God, seeking to counsel him out of his sin. Cain could have repented of offering false worship. After all, God had not judged him on the spot, struck him down, like He did later to the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, when they offered strange fire, or like Uzzah the priest when he touched the Ark while it was being transported. God was gracious to Cain in sparing him, and now in counseling him, teaching him how to remedy his false worship.
How did Cain respond?
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. (Genesis 4:1–8)
Cain’s anger, jealousy and rage has not abated. Instead, as Jesus said, whoever hates his brother is a murderer in his heart. Cain’s jealous hatred for his brother’s true worship, his contempt for Abel being accepted now rose into planned, premeditated murder. Cain talked with Abel, drew him in, and got him into a secluded, isolated place. And there, undoubtedly to Abel’s shock and horror, Cain rose up in murderous violence, and killed him.
12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. (1 John 3:12)
John says that Cain murdered Abel because his own deed were of an evil nature, so murder was what came naturally to him. It may also mean that Cain was maliciously jealous and contemptuous of Abel’s life and works and wanted to erase it.
Here is the marker of false religion. Once it is in any way shown up to be false, it turns to a murderous persecution of the true. False religion may look very pious, very impressive, very holy on the outside. Perhaps Cain’s offering was better looking than Abel’s. But call it out for being man-made worship, self-created worship, self-righteousness, and suddenly that sweet, serene religious face morphs into the most vicious, violent, and cruel approach imaginable. No violence matches the violence of religious wars. No cruelty matches the cruelty exacted upon Israel over the ages, and upon the true church.
Those who are living by faith have no motive, no desire, and no reason to try to destroy unbelievers and false religionists. The true faith may choose fight or flight, but it never chooses murder, revenge or genocide.
I even wonder if Cain felt some self-righteousness in killing Abel. Perhaps Cain had some perverse reasoning that saw Abel as an evildoer and himself as the righteous one.
Jesus put Abel among all the righteous prophets that have been martyred and killed by those claiming to be fighting for the right religion. Speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus said:” 50 that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. (Luke 11:50–51)
The Pharisees joined a long line of people destroying the righteous, persecuting the faithful out of jealousy, envy, pride, and power. The book of Jude places Cain in the company of false prophets and rebels: 1Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. (Jude 11)
The text doesn’t tell us, but he almost certainly hid the body. God then comes and asks one of the questions He already knows the answer to, like “Adam where are you?
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
Cain responds with a lie and with defiant sarcasm.
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
Cain’s attempt at lying makes no difference. God knows what has happened, and the murder of his brother cries out for justice and vengeance. But instead of taking Cain’s life, which would further reduce the already small human population, God curses Cain with exile, and with a curse on his work as a tiller of the field. His life will be one of harshness and loneliness.
Amazingly, Cain still argues with this judgement, claiming it is unfair.
13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
No sign of repentance, grief or sorrow. Cain cares only that he must strike out for a new existence away from mainstream life, and that other people finding him might act out vigilante justice on him.
God chose to extend further grace to Cain with a protective mark.
15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. (Genesis 4:9–15)
We don’t know what this mark was, or what it looked like. But apparently, it passed into common knowledge so that those who did see Cain understood that killing him would exact a terrible price on themselves. We find a man named Lamech, five generations later, boasting that “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:24)
I find the grace with which God treated Cain throughout this episode just amazing. Such grace should show us how God treats false religion. He does not accept it, that much the text tells us. God is not going to become false to His own nature. But the lengths He goes to reason with false religion, seeks to show it is wrong, seeks to quell the growing anger and jealousy is truly a grand sight of mercy. That God still labours to explain to Cain, to give him second chances, to call him and his future children back to himself is evidence of love: a God who pleads and persuades.
False worship innovates, creates and insists God accept its own works. When God doesn’t, or when it is confronted by the rebuke of the righteous, it responds with anger, jealousy, hatred, violence, wars and murder.
Abel, on the other hand, the first man to enter Heaven, had found the way of true religion. Respond obediently to what God has revealed. What God says, accept and do. Trust that God is no liar, that His promises hold fast, and that what He has provided in Jesus Christ is sufficient.