Genesis 4: Two Men Who Listened To Satan Part 2


In Chapter 3, of Genesis, we saw Adam not listening to God and the results of him not listening. In Chapter 4 we read of another man who listened to the devil-Cain. Eve gave birth to Cain and said, “I have gotten a man through God.” a human birth was considered a wonderful thing at that time, for Cain was the first person to be born into the world as a living soul. Later she would have another son by name of Abel. And they both grew up.

Cain and Abel came to present their offering to God, If you read 4:4 carefully, you will discover that it does not say there (as some imagine) that God accepted Abel's offering and therefore accepted Abel. No, It says, “the Lord had respect to Abel (first), and (then) to his offerings.”- not the other way around. Similarly, it was not because the Lord rejected Cain's offering that He rejected Cain. No He rejected Cain first and therefore He rejected his offering too. The Bible says, “The sacrifices of the wicked are abominable, because they are offered with a wicked mind?” Proverbs 21:27 no matter how good the sacrifice may be. All the masses we participate in, all the rosaries we pray all the novenas we pray will not be accepted by God if we have wickedness in our heart that has not been taken care of with God.

Cain was a wicked man, and that was why God rejected his offering, and that is why he rejects many of our offerings to Him as well.

When Cain was angry, God came to warn Cain that he was in danger. In Eden, God came seeking Adam and now He comes seeking Cain. God is always the One who comes seeking for fallen man. Jesus came into the world seeking for fallen man too. God is the One who comes seeking for us every time we backslide or go astray. That is a great encouragement to us. God came and warned Cain, but Cain did not take heed to that warning. He allowed the sin that was crouching at the door of his heart to come inside and destroy him.

Jealousy is the first sin mentioned in the scriptures, after man was put out of Eden-jealousy of a younger brother who was more blessed by God. Whenever you see someone younger than you more blessed and more anointed by God than you, be careful that you don't become jealous of him. Lest you go the way of Cain.

Notice what God said to Cain now: “And now thou art cursed upon the earth.” (4:11)

Why did God curse Cain but not Adam?

In Adam's case God cursed only the ground, but not Adam. The reason is that when Adam sinned, he hurt specifically himself. But when Cain sinned, he hurt somebody else as well. There are some sins that you commit that, although may effect others, they are mainly sins against yourself. For example. The sin of gluttony can ruin your health and kill you. Its a sin against yourself, even though because of your death you may leave a wife and or children behind who depended on you. But when you gossip, you sin against another person and that sin is therefore more serious. The sins that are against other people are much more serious in God's eyes than those sins that are only against only yourself. That is why Cain was cursed. So, take it seriously whenever you sin against another person.

God said to Cain in 4:10, “The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth.” that person's blood, that reputation you spoiled by gossiping, is crying out to God. It will never stop crying out until you confess your sin to God and ask Him to forgive you, and until you confess your sin to the person you gossiped against and ask him to forgive you too. Otherwise, your sin will keep on crying out to God until the day of judgment.

When Cain was punished he said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” this is the language of the people who go to hell. They don't say my “my sin is very great”. They only say, “My punishment is very great!”

Are you more disturbed by your sin or by your punishment?

Through the answer to that question, you can discover whether you are a godly man or an ungodly man. An ungodly man is worried about the punishment he is going to get, whereas a godly man is heartbroken by his sin.

Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and his children became like him. One of his sons became a murderer. They married many wives. They made musical instruments to entertain themselves. Is there anything wrong with musical instruments? Of course not, when used for God. But they made them just for entertainment purposes. I believe that this was the beginning of what we know of as the entertainment Industry. This is what happens to children, when fathers go away from the Lord. So in Cain and Abel we see the beginning of two streams-the religious stream and the spiritual stream. Cain was not an atheist. He was a deeply religious man. He was the forerunner of the Babylonian system of counterfeit religion. Abel was the fore runner of all godly men. Jesus referred to Able as, “Abel the just” man. Cain was religious, whereas Abel was spiritual.

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