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Chapter 8

The Descendants of Cain

1. Cain gotten one, received

Adam and Eve had relations and gave birth to their first son, Cain, by the grace of God (Gen 4:1). He brought great joy to them because he was the first son born to them after they received the promise of the woman’s seed in Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 4:1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”

Eve expressed her joy after giving birth to Cain, saying, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.” The name Cain was Eve’s confession of faith after receiving the first fruit of mankind. She believed that she had received this son with “the help of the Lord,” by His absolute grace and guidance. It is evident that Adam and Eve had great expectations for their first son. They named him with the hope that the lost paradise would be reconstructed through him.

In connection with the birth of her first son, Eve called God by a new name, Jehovah (or Yahweh), meaning the “Lord of redemption.” This was an expression of her faith in the promise of the woman’s seed written in Genesis 3:15 and her hope for salvation.

Eve’s gratefulness and praises to God are also apparent in the name Cain. The name itself is her prayer of thanksgiving for the grace that saved her from pain and danger during her first childbirth after the curse had fallen on them (Gen 3:16). Her confession indicates that she had repented and lived by faith in God’s promise after being banished from the Garden of Eden. Furthermore, the fact that Cain and Abel made offerings to God even after many years had passed demonstrates that their parents must have nurtured their faith in God. Then, if Cain was born to Adam and Eve by the grace of God, and if he had been raised in faith, what caused him to kill his brother?

(1) Why Cain became a murderer

The problem began when Cain and Abel made offerings to God. God had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. What was the difference between the two men?

First, Cain had lost his faith.

Hebrews 11:4 states, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.” The superiority of Abel’s offering made in faith was manifested in his offering of the “firstlings” of the flock. Because Abel possessed faith in God, he willingly presented the best of what he had. God has always consecrated the first of the fruits and the first son (firstborn) as His own. However, there is no mention of “first” with regard to Cain’s offering (Gen 4:3–5).

Exodus 23:19 You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God. You are not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother.

Proverbs 3:9 Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce.

Ezekiel 48:14 Moreover, they shall not sell or exchange any of it, or alienate this choice portion of land; for it is holy to the Lord.

Thus, God had no regard for faithless Cain or his offering; though Cain had believed in God at one point, he lost his faith by the time he made his offering to God.

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Second, Cain missed the opportunity to repent.

After God rejected his offering, Cain should have realized that it happened because he had lost his faith. He should have asked Abel to mediate on his behalf in giving another offering to God. Cain’s response, however, was an unexpected one. He became very angry before the Lord, and his countenance fell. Becoming angry before God is nothing less than the manifestation of darkness.

Genesis 4:5–6 But for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?”

God saw that sin had its desire in Cain and warned him to overcome it (Gen 4:7). Cain, however, did not heed this divine warning and missed the opportunity to turn back and repent. Thus, sin had its way with Cain so that he ultimately struck and killed Abel, becoming the first murderer and committing the first fratricide. Nonetheless, in His mercy, God sought out Cain once again and offered him a final chance to repent. He asked Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” (Gen 4:9). This is similar to how God questioned Adam by asking, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9) after he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and hid from God. God asked in this manner although He already knew everything. Just as He had known exactly where Adam was hiding when He questioned him, He also knew what had happened to Abel.

God was waiting for repentance as He asked Cain with the underlying meaning, “Shouldn’t you have protected your little brother instead of killing him?” God expected Cain to confess, “God, I killed Abel. I have sinned. Please forgive me.” God wanted to continue to look after and give His love to Cain. Instead of repenting, however, Cain boldly and impudently opposed God, saying, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9). In the end, Cain not only killed Abel, but also challenged God’s Word and missed all the opportunities to repent.

Third, Cain belonged to the wrong side.

What was the primary reason for Cain’s failure to guard his faith? The Bible points out that he belonged to the wrong side. 1 John 3:8–9 states that Cain was “of the devil” and that he was not born of God. Cain did not have “His seed.” 1 John 3:12 reiterates that Cain slew his brother because Cain was “of the evil one.”

By killing his brother, Cain became the first person to violate blatantly the commandment of loving one’s brother. This is why the apostle John explained that Cain was of the devil’s seed (offspring) which belongs to the evil one, and Cain committed murder essentially because he did not have God’s seed (1 John 3:8–9).7

Cain ended up belonging to the evil one because he accepted the thoughts of the devil (John 13:2). Cain was born by the grace of God after Adam had relations with Eve. Initially, Cain had faith in God because of his parents’ influence, evident by his offering to God. However, Satan secretly sowed into Cain the thoughts of the devil and the thoughts of darkness (Matt 13:25–30).

Matthew 13:25–28 But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. 26But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” 28And he said to them, “An enemy has done this!” And the slaves said to him, “Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?”

This is similar to how Satan sowed disbelief into the hearts of the Israelites with the first coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus exposed the true identity of those who claimed to be children of Abraham, saying, “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). Although they called themselves children of Abraham, they did not perform the deeds of their father Abraham (John 8:39).

The same people who were born in the land of Israel and boasted of their pure lineage rejected Jesus and crucified him. This shows that their father was not Abraham, but the devil. They were not sons of God’s kingdom, but sons of the evil one (Matt 13:38). Hence, John the Baptist vehemently rebuked, “You brood of vipers, . . . do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’” (Matt 3:7–9; Luke 3:7–8). This was a sharp rebuke against people who boasted of their “elect” status. They pretended to be holy, but their hearts were filled with evil intentions. The unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees asserted that they were children of Abraham, but in truth, they were children of the serpent through whom Satan had deceived and corrupted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.8

Jesus called the apostle Peter “Satan” when he stood against the will of God, even though Peter had been one of His foremost disciples (Matt 16:23). During the age of the early church, Ananias made an offering, perhaps a large one, but his heart was full of lies and deception. Peter, being full of the Holy Spirit, said of him, “Satan filled [his] heart,” (Acts 5:3). False prophets in sheep’s clothing may appear righteous and holy, but they are ravenous wolves, full of deceit and lies (Matt 7:15). Today, we must consider whether our lives have such characteristics. We must reflect ourselves upon the mirror of God’s Word to see if we are habitually deceitful or have the deceptive characteristics of Satan.

(2) Cain, a model of the evil one