Cain and Abel: A Contrast

Genesis 4:1-15

GOLDEN TEXT: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.”—Hebrews 11:4

THE first tragedy of earth was disobedience to God—the eating of the forbidden fruit. The next generation saw the image of God so marred that murder resulted from a fit of jealousy. It is not necessary for us to suppose that Cain was degenerate in the present-day acceptance of that word. Undoubtedly, with so noble a parentage, he must have been a great man in many ways. But evidently he was birthmarked, as we all are, with selfishness.

It was after the tragedy of Eden, after their expulsion from Paradise to the unfit earth, after they were cut off from access to the life sustaining fruits of Eden, after they began to toil with sweat of face, battling with thorns and thistles on this earth—it was then that Cain was born.

This early period after their expulsion from Eden was surely one of much mental distress to his mother. Perhaps she murmured respecting the loss of her Eden home and selfishly coveted it, and doubtless, marked her child with discontent and selfishness. By the time Abel was born, probably our first parents had become more reconciled to their fate and more accustomed to their surroundings. Hence it is reasonable to suppose that Abel was born under more favorable conditions than Cain. We are not by this argument justifying the murder, but we are preparing our minds to take a sympathetic view of the murderer’s case, corresponding to the view God took of it, as expressed in today’s study. God reproved and condemned the sinner, and arranged for his special punishment; but none of His messages to the murderer indicate bitterness or hatred on the part of the Great Judge.

So parents, while correcting their children with necessary severity, at times, should allow no sentiment to have control of their hearts contrary to love and the best interests, the highest welfare of their children. So also the laws of men, in dealing with all forms of vice and crime, including murder, should be as swift as righteous judgment will permit and as severe as seems necessary in the interests of society; but those laws should never be vengeful. They should always recognize the fact that all mankind were born in sin, misshapen in iniquity—in sin did their mothers conceive them.

“There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:10) There is none in whom the original glory of the divine character likeness persists. The action of the law against the criminal should, therefore, be sympathetically enforced with a view to warning others against evildoing and so far as reasonably possible, for the reclamation of the wrong-doer.

Before the murder was committed, Cain was angry, jealous, soured, because God had manifested His favor toward his brother Abel’s offering of an animal sacrifice while rejecting his own vegetable offering. Cain should have rejoiced with Abel and should have brought a similar sacrifice himself and thus had divine acceptance. God warned him that his spirit of selfish jealousy was sin, and that it was like a wild beast crouched before the door of his heart, ready to spring upon him and overcome his better sentiments.

God forewarned him that he should conquer this beastly spirit of selfishness and jealousy that ruled over him. How much we all need to learn this lesson! Through the fall we all have baser sentiments which war against the nobler ones. As a beast of prey they would seek to devour us. The will must be exercised in overcoming these evil dispositions, and divine aid is needed. The Christian has this divine aid in his access to God through his great Advocate and Redeemer.

Cain heeded not God’s warning. He ruled not the beast. He was overcome by it. His brother’s blood cried, figuratively, to God. All injustice cries out to the God of justice, and sooner or later the divine penalty will be meted out. But as we have seen; “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (Psa. 19:9) His judgments are left for the Great Mediator of the New Covenant to execute in sympathy and in kindness during the Millennial age. That will be the world’s judgment day. (Acts 17:30,31) Only accepted believers in Christ, begotten of the Holy Spirit, are now on trial for life eternal or death eternal.

The Great Teacher, addressing not the world, but the church, declares that brother-haters are murderers in God’s sight. In other words, a spirit of hatred is a spirit of murder. Alas, how many of the human race have vicious, wicked, hateful dispositions, merely controlled by their fear of the law! Yet it is not the world, but only the church that is being especially dealt with thus far. But, overcome by their flesh, it would seem that even many of the professed followers of Jesus occasionally harbor a spirit of hatred and sometimes manifest it in anger, malice, envy, strife, works of the flesh and The devil!

Christians are counted as new creatures because begotten of the Holy Spirit. (II Cor. 5:17) These are to fight a good warfare against their own flesh and its imperfections. Sin crouches before the door of their hearts ready to devour them as new creatures. They must watch and pray and strive against the fallen nature. They must cultivate the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit—meekness, gentleness, patience, brotherly kindness, love, If they do not do so, if, on the contrary, they are brother-haters and manifest the murderous spirit, they have the warning that they will lose the great prize—joint-heirship in the Kingdom.

The Scriptural assurance is, “we know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (I John 3:15) Whatever elements of the spirit of murder may still lurk in our flesh must be determinedly warred against, and, on the contrary, we must become copies of our Heavenly Father and of our Lord Jesus, in order that we may have life and ultimately share with our Lord in His great Kingdom, which is shortly to be set up to bless the world with the light and knowledge of the glory of God.

QUESTIONS:

Why was Abel’s sacrifice more acceptable to God than that of Cain?

In what way did Abel’s blood cry out for vengeance?

In what manner did Jesus magnify the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”?

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