Genesis 4-The First Murder

       

                                            Genesis 4-The First Murder

      In last weeks study we learned that Satan came to Eve and planted 3 seeds with her.

1. The Seed of Doubt
2. The Seed of Desire
3. The Seed of Pride

      Eve receives the seeds and disobeys God to eat the fruit of the one tree God said not to eat from. Eve then hands it to her husband and without much convincing he rebels against God and eats it. Because of their disobedience and rebellion, 6 consequences happen.

1. Shame-seeing their nakedness
2. Hiding from God-trying to hide their sin
3. Fear-never before did they need to fear the Lord but now they find themselves in awe of Him.
4. Blame-The blame game begins and not accepting responsibility for their actions.
5. Punishment and curses-4 of God's creations will now face wither punishment or a curse.
   1. Satan- now cursed with enmity between him and his seed and the woman and her seed, her seed will crush his head and his seed will crush her seeds heal.
   2. The Woman- now in childbearing she will experience labor pain and have desire for her husband and he will rule over her.
   3. The Man-now when working the ground he will labor and sweat to eat from the ground herbs of the field and will return to dust when he dies.
   4. The Ground-now cursed because of Adam will now produce thorns and thistles. Does anyone else find it interesting that our Savior Jesus Christ was crowned with a crown of thorns? (Matt. 27:29)
6. Banished from Paradise-now they must leave God's beautiful garden and live east of Eden. The Garden of Eden is now closed by Cherubim and a flashing sword, so that no man can eat now from the Tree of Life.

      We also learned that in Gen. 3 there are 3 aspects of Grace.

1. Human race continues
2. Sustainable life
3. God clothed them

     This week in Chapter 4 we begin with Adam and Eve knowing each other which means they were sexually intimate and Eve conceived a child naming him Cain. In Hebrew Cain is Kahyin and it means possession. By her statement “I have gotten a man from the Lord” she is expresses that children are a gift from the Lord and only He can give this gift. She also just might be thinking in her mind that this man God has given her will be the one that will crush Satan. Then she gives birth to Abel which in Hebrew is Hehel meaning breath. So we have 2 boys with very different abilities.

                 Cain                                                 Abel

         Possession                                          Breath

         Farmer                                                Shepherd

         1^st Born                                              2^nd Born

     Cain brings fruit of the ground and offers it to the Lord while Abel brings his first fruit of his flock as an offering. So why did God not accept Cains but he did Abel's? Was it because meat and fat are better than grain? Let's take a look at some of the offerings acceptable to the Lord and see if it will help us understand why. In Leviticus chapters 1-7 we get a list of offering and how they were to be done and why. I'm going to give you the list and scripture references but part of your homework next week will be to study the different offerings and how they were to be done. There are 5 offerings listed in chapter 1-7.

1. Burnt offerings-
   Lev. 1,6:6-13, 8:18-21, 16:24
   Purpose-voluntary act of worship;atonement for unintentional sin in general;expression of devotion,commitment and complete surrender to God.
2. Meat (grain)offering-
   Lev. 2, 6:14-23
   Purpose-voluntary act of worship; recognition of God's goodness and provision;devotion to God.
3. Peace Offering-
   Lev. 3,7:11-34
   Purpose-voluntary act of worship;thanksgiving and fellowship (it included a communal meal).
4. Sin Offering-
   Lev. 4:1-5;5:13;6:24-30;8:14-17;16:3-22
   Purpose-mandatory atonement for specific unintentional sin;confession of sin;forgiveness of sin;cleaning from defilement.
5. Trespass or guilt offering-
   Lev.5:14,6:7,7:1-6
   Atonement for unintentional sin requiring restitution;cleansing from defilement;make restitution;pay 20%
   (Taken from KJV study notes)

      So does this mean that offering were only done after Moses came down from the mountain? No

In Gen. 8:20 we see Noah offering a sacrifice to the Lord when they got off the Ark. We also see Abraham building an altar out of obedience to sacrifice his son but God stops him and provides a ram in the thicket so it isn't just the Law given to Moses it was even before that. But do you notice that in each of these offerings 3 are voluntary and 2 are mandatory. Abel's offering was a burnt offering and Cain's offering was a grain offering. I think the reason it was unacceptable by God was Cain's heart and motive and it wasn't a first fruit. He did not really care about God to do it with a real devotion to God but more as a “because I have to” attitude. We don't have these 5 offerings today the same way they were done then but what can we bring to the altar as a sacrifice?

1. Burnt offering-we can bring an expression of devotion, commitment and complete surrender to God.
2. Grain offering-we can recognize God's goodness and provisions and have devotion to God-the one True God.
3. Peace offering-we can give thanks and fellowship by having communal meals together.
4. Sin offering-this is mandatory for atonement of our sins which Jesus did on the cross. How we participate is by accepting Jesus Christ and what he has done for us.
5. Trespass or guilt offering-this is mandatory atonement for unintentional sin. How we participate is by asking for forgiveness when we have unintentionally wronged or hurt someone. Make amends and make it right by paying the cost.

      I do want you to study these further this coming week but, having gone through this overview looking at the burnt offering and the grain offering, does this give you any insight as to why God did not accept Cain's grain offering? My opinion is that Cain did not do it with the right heart. Cain becomes angry and down cast in a word, he was jealous but God gave him a way out. He, Cain, could do well and pleasing to the Lord and he would be accepted but if not, sin is lying at his door, it desires to have him but Cain must overcome it. God always gives us a way out too. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
      Unfortunately Cain allows sin to overtake him and he becomes the first murderer. Now Abel's blood speaks out with judgment and justice but Christ's blood speaks a better word, a word of forgiveness and reconciliation (Heb. 12:24). After Cain kills Abel God asks another rhetorical question, again for the sake of verbal confession. Cain tries to hide his sin but God knows all and sees all. Our sins always find us out. (Numbers 32:23) We see here the same as with Adam and Eve. There are steps or seed into sin and consequences for succumbing to them.

1. Doubt-Cain doubted God and his word
   
2. Desire- Cain desired acceptance from God(without doing the work)
   
3. Pride-Cain was full of pride thinking he deserved to have God's blessing.
   

The Consequences are:

1. Shame- shame for being found out
   
2. Hiding from God- He tries to hid his sin from God
   
3. Fear- we don't see him having fear until his punishment but it isn't fear of God it is selfishness, fearing for his own life
   
4. Blame-He blames God for not accepting his offering
   
5. Punishment or curse- Cain is cursed by God from the earth. When he tills the ground the earth will not produce fruit. He will now be a fugitive in Hebrew that word is Nvah which means tossed about and vagabond means to wander to and fro.
   
6. Banned from the presence of God- He now lives a wanderers life never finding what he is lacking which is a right relationship with God.
   

     Cains response is very selfish and never taking responsibility for his actions. He has the opposite response to that of David in Ps. 51:11. Where David did not want to be cast from Gods presence and His Spirit removed from him, Cain doesn't seem to think about that or care, he only cares that someone will kill him and still God gives grace and marks him to keep people from killing him. This seems to be an actual physical mark. God says that if anyone does harm him vengeance will be taken on them seven fold. Cain leaves the presence of the Lord and dwells in Nod. Nod means wandering.
Now Cain has a wife which causes us to pause and ask the question, who is Cain's wife?
Adam and Eve had other children so it is possible that Cain's wife was his sister. (ESV study note for vs. 17 says No explanation is given as to the origin of Cain's wife. As is often the case in Genesis, the limited and selective nature of the account leaves the reader with unanswered questions. Presumably, Cain married his sister-a reasonable assumption, since the whole human race descends from Adam and Eve.*laws later forbidding this practice, such as in Lev. 18:9, would not have been relevant at this stage.*)
     So now begins the genealogy of Cain. We are only given so much information but one thing is for sure. Genealogy is important to God to led us to Christ from Adam. So let's begin from Adam and Eve.


                                                     Adam and Eve

           Cain (possession)                                 Seth(compensation)

                                                  Abel(breath)
Enoch(dedicated)                                 Enos(man) 
Cain built a city named after him

             Irad(Fleet)

          Mahujael(smitten by God)

              Methusael(who is of God)

        Adah(wife #1)      Lamech(powerful)      Zillah(wife #2)

          (ornament)                                                                 (shade)

  Jabal brothers     Jubal                Tubal Cain brother and sister Naamah

(stream of water) (stream)             (thou will be brought of Cain)      (loveliness)

     Lamech is the 7^th from Adam and shows how quickly sin multiplies. He takes it upon himself to have 2 wives but God's original plan was monogamy, he brings into history polygamy. Adding to the increase of sin he murders a young man just based on him being wounded. Now claiming that if Cain was avenged 7 fold he should be avenged 77 fold. His vicious announcement of personal revenge found its counterpart in Jesus' response to Peter's question about forgiveness in Matt. 18:21-22.

      Adam and Eve have another son and they name him Seth which means compensation. Rightly named because Eve says that God has appointed her another seed instead of Abel whom Cain killed. Out of the lineage of Seth comes the Messiah that crushes the head of Satan.

      Seth has a son and names him Enos which means man. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Some scholars believe this to mean that now they worship God but when you look at the Hebrew for “then men began” it means, to profane, defile or pollute. From my understanding, this is speaking more of the depravity that is now on the earth and they begin to profane the name of the Lord by calling themselves by the name of the Lord and to defile and pollute themselves (1Ki.18:24).

      Sin is progressing over the earth but wait-God's judgment and salvation are coming soon.

Your homework for next week is to study the offerings and chapter 5 of Genesis.

Our family Creation Museum experience

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

     Last week my family and I went to the Creation Museum. I am not quite sure what I expected but what I got was so much better. 

     It was a fun and exciting trip to take my children on. I love to drive through Indiana. It looks like no one lives there because there is so much land and very little civilization and it goes on what seems like forever. I enjoy seeing all the land and the animals on the farms as we drive by. One of my favorite things to see in Indiana is this. They seem to go on for miles,as far as you can see there they are.  We made stops along the way and we sang songs together, but all of us could not wait until we arrived. We stayed at the hotel the first night fellowshipping with our friends that we came with. We laughed and laughed while swimming in the freezing cold pool(actually it was too cold for me so I just stood in the very shallow part, :P) and then we were like the frogs in a bowling pot of water sitting in the hot tub. That water was so hot seriously, you could have cooked us. 


     The next morning was the big day. The day to go to the wonderful museum that we had all been waiting for. I know we went on a weekday but I was shocked to see the parking lot not very full. They have guards there that look like real police. We walked toward the front door and right away we see our first dinosaur. Of course it is the perfect photo op. I should take a minute right here and confess something to you. When I was growing up, I was raised in a church, complete with the typical Sunday School. I knew all the bible stories. But, when I was getting older in school, more like High School, I couldn't settle the fact that we were being taught that the earth was millions of years old and the dinosaurs lived way back then. At the same time, no one in church took the time to explain how dinosaurs fit in the Bible so, I just took the stand that since I believed the Bible to be true and there was no way the earth was that old then therefore, dinosaurs must not have existed. Because of the teaching of Answers in Genesis, I have since changed my beliefs. Here is a link to one of their teachings http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/1999/11/05/dinosaurs-and-the-bible.  When we walked into the actual museum we were greeted with the beginning. Right there for us to touch and see were what looked like real people, Adam and Eve in the garden with a river running through it and real fish in the water. Plants and vegetation were all over with a huge dinosaur eating the leaves. It only gets better from there. Everything that is in Genesis from chapter 1 all the way to chapter 11 was right there for us to see, touch and read about. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Ark, the Tower of Babel. It was all there in such a real way.


    We even took the time to sit through a speaker that was about an hour long. His name was Tim Chaffey and his talk was "Is Genesis Relevant in Today's World?". The talk was amazing and I wish they had a copy of it on cd or at least available on their website. He clearly explains why we, as professing Christians, should be firm on our belief that God created this world in just 6 days. His argument is that if evolution were correct or even believing that, to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day, then that would mean that sin, disease, disasters and things such as that would have been here before Adam and Eve but the word clearly says that after God was done with all His creating and He looked at it all and said "it is very good" Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." See Christians who believe in millions of years base it on this scripture:

2 Peter 3:7-9 (ESV)

⁸But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

But when you look at it in context it is talking about something more eternal.

2 Peter 3:7-9

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁷But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
 ⁸But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,^[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

     I can not say that I learned anything profoundly new but what I did get from this trip was confirmation and a lot of being built up in my faith. Yes, that is right, my faith is even stronger now because of this trip. To be honest, when Tim Chaffey was speaking it was as if the Lord was speaking through him directly to me saying in His loving voice, "Keep up the good work my daughter, you are on the right path. Stand firm on My Word and keep proclaiming My truth. Well done My good and faithful servant, well done." If I had to sum it up into one word it would be "affirmed". 

     I would encourage anyone of you to go and see the Creation Museum. No matter where you are in your walk with God, whether it be away from Him, new to Him, or with Him for years, I promise you will not walk out of there the same as when you walked in. Here is a link for you to check it out for yourselves. http://creationmuseum.org/

John 1

The Word Became Flesh

 ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 
AMEN!