Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 194th episode. In this episode I’m going to rebroadcast a sermon I preached for the young adult ministry called United. I like to rebroadcast these sermons with word-for-word accuracy — so you’ll notice things like dated language or language targeted at a room full of people. This was a challenging sermon and there were more than a few people who finished the night upset because of it. Even so, I think the truth matters and so I present this content to you unaltered and unabbreviated.
Tonight we are starting a new series called What We Do in the Shadows. What we do when we are away from the light, when we are away from routine, when we are alone, is more formative than what we do when the spotlight is on us. What we do in the shadows, is who we are really becoming. Tonight we’re talking about Cain and Abel. The story of Cain and Abel is fascinating because it’s very short and yet it succeeds so well in describing two fundamental and distinct paths a human being might take in this life. This story strikes so deep that it may represent the only two paths a person can take. In some ultimate sense all of us are walking through life and finding out whether we are Cain or whether we are Abel. We find the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4. It’s the first documented event which occurs after the Fall and after man was driven out of the Garden of Eden. I think it’s noteworthy to mention that Cain and Abel are the very first human beings to be born of natural cause — Adam was created from the dust of the earth and Eve was created from Adam. We’re going to read the first 16 verses of Genesis 4 and then we’re going to work back through unpacking them in segments.
Gen 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.”
Gen 4:2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Gen 4:3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
Gen 4:4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;
Gen 4:5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Gen 4:8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Gen 4:9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Gen 4:10 He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.
Gen 4:11 “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Gen 4:12 “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
Gen 4:13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear!
Gen 4:14 “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Gen 4:15 So the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
Gen 4:16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
I want you to focus in on verses 1 & 2:
Gen 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.”
Gen 4:2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Cain and Abel appear to be the eldest of Adam and Eve’s children. It’s not certain but some people think they may have been twins like Esau and Jacob. And if that’s the case then the motif of the elder being hated and the younger being loved would hold here as well. It’s an undeserved grace of God that Adam and Eve retained the blessing of increase through reproduction after having been ousted from Eden. God, by His own mercy, had other blessings in store for them and so He didn’t leave them childless. So even in this situation where their sin revoked their paradise, Adam and Eve were not left without comfort. In the same way, even in the midst of the consequences of our sins we still maintain the hope of the promise of our Savior.
The meaning of Cain’s name signifies possession. When he was born, his mother Eve rejoiced with thankfulness and great expectation — she said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Children are a gift from God and it’s wise to acknowledge Him with each birth and with each building up of our families. God does not forsake the gifts and works of His own hand and so children have a way of sanctifying us and bringing us comfort. This doesn’t mean raising children is rainbows and butterflies — but it does mean the positive transcends the negative. Eve was not released from the pain of her sin when she gave birth to Cain, but even in the midst of this pain she sensed God’s mercy.
A good rule of thumb for a Christian is that your complaints should never drown out your thanksgiving. You won’t be able to walk this out perfectly because life is hard, but it’s critical to remember there is always something to be thankful for. The tragedy of Eve’s positivity in this moment is that she was wretchedly mistaken about Cain’s destiny. At minimum she believed he was a man from the Lord and she didn’t know he would grow up to be an enemy of God. You have to imagine the heartbreak of her disappointment when the plot of his life was revealed in the course of time.
The lesson to be learned here is that you should never expect too much from a creature — especially a human being. It’s dangerous to idolize a person because when this person falls short the disappointment will feel like a betrayal. At best this is a betrayal at the hand of the idolized person, and in the worst case it feels like a betrayal at the hands of God.
The meaning of Abel’s name signifies breath, vapor, or vanity. Despite such a substantive difference from the meaning of Cain’s name, there is wisdom built into Abel’s name as well. Christ says that whoever clings to his life will lose it, but whoever gives up his life for God’s sake will find it. You hear pastors say all the time that you should not love the world and that you should be in the world but not of the world. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to think through what Christians mean by the world. At first I thought the world meant this life, but it didn’t make sense to condemn this life as universally wrong since there is so much beauty in it. Souls are converted in this life. Love is expressed and grieved in this life. Jesus sacrificed Himself in this life to save humanity for eternity. There is great beauty in this life if you know where to look for it.
I think this idea of the world denotes a perspective which crystalizes when a person commits to living this life without God. 1 John 2 says all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I think that’s your definition. The world is who you become when your guiding ethic is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Abel’s name contains wisdom because it reminds you that even at your best you are nothing more than a breath or a vapor. When you see yourself that way you take on a humility which inoculates you against the pride of life and allows you to see God.
It’s also noteworthy to consider the occupations of Cain and Abel. First is the fact that they even had occupations. These boys were heirs apparent to the entire planet and even that didn’t mean they were above working. Adam was given work to do in the Garden while the Garden was still a paradise. It’s part of your God-given design to do work and idleness is not a virtue. God’s will is that you have something to do in this world and that probably means you’ll be working in heaven as well.
Notice how their occupations involved two different kinds of commodities. Abel was a keeper of the flocks and Cain was a tiller of the ground. There’s great advantage in diversity of trade because mutual love is facilitated by mutual commerce. When you get married, unless you’re pathologically narcissistic, you won’t want to marry yourself. The ways in which your spouse is different from you are the things which are endearing to you. That’s because differences which are stewarded well become complimentary. Cain, being a tiller of the ground, could grow food for Abel’s flock and Abel, being a keeper of the flock, could supply Cain with animals which Cain could use to till the ground.
One of the best ways for you to improve your quality of life is to stop trying to make everyone else fit your own pattern and instead begin searching for reciprocity in patterns that are different yet complimentary to your own. I’m not a creative person. I work with Kendall who is a very creative person. I’m good at systems. When we work together we can combine these qualities and execute entire systems of creativity with consistency and ease. These systems of creativity would be very hard for one person to manage on his own. You need to recognize the value of surrounding yourself with people who are different yet complimentary to yourself. Cain wholesale rejected this value when he murdered Abel and then asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to that question, by the way, is, “You’re not. But you should have been.”
The occupations of Cain and Abel were what are commonly referred to as good, honest work. Our modern equivalents would be blue-collar jobs. Part of the problem in the western world is that we honor the wrong occupations. So many young people want to be influencers and youtubers while so few want to learn a trade. There is a vast array of possibilities when it comes to what you choose as a career so we’re not going to meditate on that right now — but two parameters you can use to guide your decision are these: which occupation least exposes me to sin, and which occupation gives me the most opportunity to serve and to enjoy God? Now let’s look at verses 3-5:
Gen 4:3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
Gen 4:4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;
Gen 4:5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
We don’t know exactly what time or season it was when Cain and Abel made this offering but it’s possible they did it at the end of the year, or in remembrance of the Fall, or at the end of the week on the Sabbath. We don’t know for sure but it’s possible they made the offering through Adam who might have been functioning as the priest of the family. If Adam really was in this role then we know God extended a token of favor towards him and his family despite his initial apostasy. Extending a priesthood to Adam would give him the opportunity to prove his faith and his obedience to God’s redemptive plan. It would also foreshadow the sacrificial system being the first means by which correspondence was settled between heaven and earth. In an ultimate sense it foreshadows our High Priest in Jesus Christ (who is called the second Adam) and His once-for-all mediation offered in the gospel.
Right away we can see the ritual worship of God is an ancient institution extending all the way back to the dawn of man. If you’re one of those people who’s on the fence about whether religious worship is necessary, you should think carefully about whether it is wise to attempt bucking a tradition which has survived literally for all of human history. We also see how it’s a good thing for children to be well-educated and trained in the function of religious service so that once they are capable of acting on their own they’ll be prepared to make offerings to God. Ephesians 6 instructs fathers not to provoke their children to anger, but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The part of religious worship highlighted in the Cain and Abel story is honoring God with what we have according to how He has prospered us. When it comes to your offering, it doesn’t matter so much what your job is as it does that your offering supports the Church and brings relief to the poor. It’s also critical that you bring your offering with an upright heart. God is not pleased with the sacrifices of hypocrites and evil doers. I don’t think it’s common but it is possible for those who are far from God to make what appear to be the best offerings. Cain’s offering is mentioned before Abel’s which may indicate Cain was quicker than Abel to step forward with his sacrifice. You may hear as many sermons, say as many prayers, and give as much to the Church as a genuine Christian but if your heart is not submitted to Jesus your offerings will not be accepted. Luke 18 details the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector both going to the temple to pray. We’ll start in verse 9.
Luk 18:9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:
Luk 18:10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Luk 18:11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luk 18:12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
Luk 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’
Luk 18:14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The aim of our worship and our devotion should always be God’s acceptance. We should be seeking to honor God and to please God and the moment our ambitions stray elsewhere the entire exercise becomes pointless. It’s possible that to a bystander the offerings of Cain and Abel appeared equally acceptable. I tend not to think that’s the case because I believe a wicked heart reveals itself in the quality of a person’s actions. I think the quality of Cain’s offering was insufficient in addition to his heart being wicked.
He offered the fruit of the ground which makes sense since he was a tiller of the earth but there is no atoning blood in the fruit of the ground. Abel offered the firstlings of his flock which indicates Abel understood his need to assuage the wrath of God for his own sins. Abel’s offering is recognizing his own need for a Savior and a Mediator because Abel is humble enough to see himself as a broken sinner. It’s possible, and I think likely, that Cain was so self-righteous he thought he could get away with sacrificing only the surplus of his crops. Cain was pretending to give his best to God and his own self-righteousness deceived him into believing the lie was true.
The scripture is not explicit but the context in Genesis, Hebrews, and 1 John indicates that because Cain did not approach God from a posture of faith, humility, and righteousness, his offer was rejected while Abel’s was accepted. God does not issue judgements arbitrarily and so if your sacrifices are being rejected the first step is not to judge the system and claim you’re oppressed but instead to look at yourself and address your own shortcomings. Before you go to sleep at night you should ask God to reveal to you what things you’re doing that you shouldn’t be doing and what things you’re not doing that you should be doing.
All throughout the scripture it is clear that the offerings of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. Cain was a wicked man who lived in submission to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Abel, on the other hand, was upright and he lived a life of piety. Scripture says the prayers of the upright are a delight to the Lord and that the upright will behold His face. The idea here is that God cares more about the condition of your heart than he does about the quality of your offering — and that’s because a person with a wicked heart actually cannot supply an acceptable offering. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Notice what happens to Cain when his offering is rejected. It says he became very wroth and his countenance fell. This is a facial expression of malice and rage. How dare God reject my offering? What kind of unfair system is this? You see how this is the opposite condition of the tax collector in Luke 18. The tax collector’s countenance has fallen as well but it has fallen in a state of repentance and holy shame. The tax collector will not lift his eyes to God because he feels unworthy of such a thing. But Cain, instead of spending a fraction of a second asking himself whether he’s at fault or whether he could do better, immediately condemns God as his oppressor and Abel as favored with privilege.
Does that sound familiar to you in our own cultural landscape? You are not a victim of oppression. You live in the most prosperous, most free, least bigoted society that human history has ever known. When you analyze the data along those three dimensions, Western civilization is incontestably superior to anything else we’ve tried — and America is the leader of Western civilization. You have inherited the prize that thousands of years of humanity has shed blood and tears to build.
If your own failures and rejections cause you to reflex to a narrative of victimhood or oppression, you are Cain but with cowardice and stupidity that is orders of magnitude worse. I say it’s worse because Cain had the disadvantage of living in a world which had not yet known the benefits of the industrial revolution or the information age — and even with these disadvantages Cain’s excuses were unjustified. The Bible itself says the foolishness of man ruins his own way and then he rages against the Lord. That’s what happened to Cain but it doesn’t have to happen to you.
You can stop this entire process of needless, cyclical misery simply by asking yourself: What did I do wrong? How am I not good enough? What can I do better? When we talk about what you do in the shadows we aren’t implying you should avoid darkness. Darkness is coming for you whether you like it or not. When you’re in the dark and you’re hidden from everyone except God, that’s you’re best opportunity to either boil with resentment until you become murderous like Cain — or to ask yourself these questions and transform your entire life.
If Cain would have asked himself these questions the answer would have looked something like Abel. And that made Cain murderous. Abel was a picture of the ideal Cain didn’t have the faith to become — and Abel was also living evidence that Cain was lying about giving his best. It’s common for those who have rendered themselves unworthy of God’s favor by their presumptuous sins to have indignation against those who are dignified by it. That’s why Cain and those like him attack faithfulness, righteousness, and competence as being bastions of some kind of unearned privilege. You see similarity in the gospels with the Pharisees who failed to enter the kingdom of God and hindered those who were entering it. Let’s go back to our text and look at God’s response to Cain’s anger in verses 6 & 7:
Gen 4:6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
God’s asking Cain questions which are meant to turn Cain’s attention back onto himself. He wants him to open his eyes and see so that he can be healed. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Even in this situation where God is dealing with a man as backwards and wicked as Cain, He is displaying patience and mercy in His desire for Cain to repent. This is why the father of the prodigal in Luke 15 argues the case for compassion and love with the elder son who doesn’t think the wayward prodigal should be so readily embraced again.
God’s questions for Cain are pointed and rhetorical. We make two observations. The first — and I would say rather uncomfortable — observation is that God takes notice of all our sinful passions. This means every look of envy, lust, and unrighteous anger is subject to His scrutiny. The second observation is that the source of most of our sinful passions can be readily discovered by strict and impartial questions. Again it’s: What did I do wrong? How am I not good enough? What can I do better?
Another idea which is very difficult to accept sometimes is that Cain had no reason to be angry at God. Some of you might be angry at God now, and that’s often because of the very real pain and tragedy you’ve endured. But you have to ask yourself whether your anger against God has been helpful for you. You have to ask yourself whether your anger against God might be more accurately identified as grief caused by a fallen world. You have to ask yourself whether your pain has become a convenient justification for you to surrender to the demons of your fallen nature. Cain was subject to the same world and the same God as Abel. So the reason he failed wasn’t the system and it wasn’t God. It was himself.
Even in Cain’s unrepentant state God set before him life and a blessing. He just came right out and told him, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” God’s pointing out to Cain that not only will he be blessed if he does well, but that Cain knows he will be blessed if he does well. God is reminding Cain that He is no respecter of persons and Abel was not successful because of some kind of unearned privilege.
I think it’s important to point out that God’s encouragement is not limited to positive reinforcement. He’s clear and upfront with Cain when telling him about the tragic outcome which awaits should he persist in his sin. What is that tragic outcome? It’s a hardening of the heart against God and a commission of further and more depraved sins. God knew once anger was in Cain’s heart, murder was at the door. What’s so fascinating about the Cain and Abel story is the implication that not committing sins is tied to the positive motion of proper sacrifice. So if you don’t properly serve, sacrifice, and worship God, then you set yourself up for the commission of sins. So preventing sins is less about not doing the sin and more about doing the sacrifice, service, and worship from a posture of faith and humility.
The theme for this series is What You do in the Shadows. Cain was a man who tried to hide from God in the darkness of his own heart. His insistence to blame God and others for his own shortcomings was instrumental in his tragic outcome. You have a choice to make every single day of your life. Will you embrace sanctification? Will you ask God to point out the areas of your life where you could be doing better? When you’re in the midst of grief will you turn to God and depend on Him to help you walk through it well? Or will you allow sin to walk through the doorway to your soul and possess you? I want to close by reading you the words of Jesus which encapsulate this daily choice rather well:
Mat 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Mat 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
Mat 7:14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
In many ways it’s much more tempting to be like Cain — especially when you think you’re hidden in the shadows. But in the final analysis it’s not easier. Cain said his punishment is more than he can bear. You should heed his warning on this. I’ve never met a person possessed by victimhood who wasn’t also completely miserable and full of resentment — with every passing day bringing them into a darker and more painful place. That’s no way to go through life. You don’t have to incur that punishment yourself if you accept the forgiveness of Christ and make a commitment to live by the Spirit of God. Take up as much responsibility as you possibly can. Be encouraged that if you approach God daily from a humble posture of faith, hope, and love — there is nothing which can separate you from Him. In Romans chapter 8 the apostle Paul said:
Rom 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let’s pray. Lord God heavenly Father I thank you for your word and for your love of humanity. I thank you for your grace and your patience as we stumble through life in search of you. I ask that you illuminate our lives and our hearts. Remove all shadows from us God so that we may see all the things which please and displease you. And when the inevitable darkness shrouds us, give us the courage to ask the right questions which lead us back into Your light. Extend grace to us God and empower us to make the necessary changes so that we can be more like Jesus. Whatever else you have in store for us God I ask with desperate conviction that you do not remove your Holy Spirit from us. Give us the wisdom to forgive those who have sinned against us and allow us to make contact with the forgiveness of our own sins. Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. We love you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.
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