WHY IS THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS?
"MEN LOVE DARKNESS, NOT LIGHT"
GENESIS 4: 1-26
INTRODUCTION
Today, as we finish our series in Genesis we are looking at the 4th
chapter. As we begin I want to remind you that these stories in the early
chapters of Genesis are about real people. However, they are unique people
in that their actions have affected the entire human race. They stand
as our representatives in God’s world. These people are unique in another
way as well. Their behaviors are the paradigm, the picture of how all
humans live. We are Adam and Eve, we are Cain, we are Lamech.
I want to suggest a study for you that will help you understand what
Genesis 3& 4 have to say. It’ll take a half- hour to an hour. Divide
a piece of paper in half, label one side, Gen. 3, and the other, Gen.
4. Record all the ways that the sin of Adam and Eve and God’s response
to them is similar and is different from Cain’s sin and God’s response.
If you are taking notes, there are only three points to the sermon, not
4.
How many of you have ever watched the Roadrunner cartoon show? Each episode
is nothing more than Wiley E. Coyote plotting different ways to catch
Roadrunner. Who can tell me what happens each time he tries to implement
one of his plans? Every time, he ends up suffering what he intended for
the roadrunner or worse.
The story of humankind is a lot like Wiley E. Coyote’s pursuit of Roadrunner.
We spend huge amounts of time, energy and money trying to find life apart
from God and in direct contradiction to God’s instructions and end up
with lives full of suffering and we are surprised. The great preacher,
Vance Havner, once said, "People do not break God’s laws, they are broken
against them."
In Gen. 4 we see human sin exposed in all of its evil and ugly form.
But we also find out that no matter how wicked humans become, God’s plans
and purposes are not thwarted. He is in control at all times. This chapter
tells us…
MAIN POINT
Rebellion against God is futile because
I. He determines how people may approach him (vv. 1-5)
We are told at the outset of the chapter that God gives to Adam and Eve
two sons. One, named Cain, is a farmer and the other, called Abel, is
a shepherd. The first thing we observe these two sons of Adam and Eve
doing is making an offering to the Lord. Cain brings some of the produce
that he’s grown and Abel brings the choicest cuts of meat from some of
the firstborn sheep of his flocks. We are told that God likes what Abel
brought and does not like Cain’s offering.
Why is it that God is unhappy with Cain’s offering and happy with Abel’s?
The answer is in the way the two offerings are described. Notice, Cain
brought "some" of the fruit of the ground while Abel brought the best
part ("fat portions") from the firstborn of the flock. It isn’t that God
doesn’t want a grain offering but only wants animal sacrifices. The issue
is in what part of the produce and what part of the flock was brought
by each. Without exception, throughout the Old Testament, when an offering
from the produce of the ground is required by God it is the "firstfruits"
that he is looking for. Just as whenever he commands an animal sacrifice
he requires the best of the firstborn animals.
This basic principal was known to Cain and Abel. Abel believed God and
followed his instructions. Cain thought he knew better. He didn’t take
God’s word serious, he made his own decision as to how to best make an
offering to God. The author to the Hebrews, in chapter 11, verse 4 says,
"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith
he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings."
Abel believed the promise of God that all who come to Him by the means
he has appointed will be accepted, Cain did not.
When God made it clear that he disapproved, Cain became very angry. The
word used here is the same one used to describe God’s anger with the nation
Israel when they worshipped the golden calf. It’s the word describing
Moses anger when he saw what they were doing and threw down the tablets
containing the 10 commandments. It is a very strong word. Cain was furious
with God for accepting Abel and not him.
Think with me for a moment about how irrational this anger is. Pretend
your boss or a person you greatly admire was to invite you to their house
for dinner. They told you to come at 5pm, they would be serving barbecued
chicken, to dress informally and that after dinner you would be playing
some volleyball in their backyard. Suppose you were to show up at 4pm
and wearing a tuxedo. Upon arrival you told your host that you would only
eat baked swordfish and were wondering where the caviar was. You also
brought your favorite chess set and invited him to play you in a game,
explaining you thought volleyball was a mindless sport. Would it be unreasonable
to expect your host to be just a little disappointed and perhaps offended
by your behavior. It’s his house, his party and you accepted his invitation.
You come to his house on his terms or you don’t come at all. Would you
be justified in being angry with your host if he did not accommodate your
desires? Of course not.
There are a couple of things we all need to learn from this part of Cain’s
story. First, every person in here has a tendency to behave just like
Cain. All of us naturally try to approach God on our own terms, in ways
that are convenient for us, that correspond to our interests our background
our desires. None of us naturally approach God in the manner he prescribes.
Second, there are many ways to try to approach God that are wrong, there
is only one way to approach God correctly, his way. This kind of talk
often makes people angry, just like it made Cain angry. We live in a culture
that is committed to the proposition that there are many ways, many approaches
to God. If that is true, then nothing in this book is true. Because this
book and the Christian faith for 2000 years has insisted that there is
only one way to come to God, his way.
Tell story of sharing gospel in the student union when the lady confronted
me and became very angry with my disagreeing with the student.
All of us need to ask ourselves two very hard questions. First, am I
sure that I am accepted by God? Second, on what basis am I sure? Do I
know with certainty that I am coming to God in the manner he prescribes?
I’m going to briefly summarize the way we come to God in my last point.
Let me encourage you to talk with me or someone else if you have doubt
in this area. We must constantly be on our guard as it is so easy, so
natural to presume upon the kindness of God, to assume he will accommodate
us, just like Cain assumed.
Rebellion against God is futile because
- He determines how people may approach him
- And because…
II. He knows all and calls all to account for their attitudes and
actions (vv. 6-16)
God knows exactly how Cain feels and why he feels that way. He knows
exactly what will happen if Cain does not repent and turn away from his
false ideas about God and away from his anger. He comes to Cain with a
promise, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" and with
a warning, "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your
door; it desires to have you…"
Cain, in his anger, ignores God’s warnings and calls his unsuspecting
brother out into the field and kills him. Then God confronts him. "Where
is your brother Able?" God asks. Cain responds, with insolence dripping
from his voice, "I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?" God responds
in shocked outrage, "What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out
to me from the ground."
There was a movie I remember watching a long time ago. I think it was
an Alfred Hitchcock movie. A group of teenagers were having a slumber
party and had the bright idea of calling people at random from the phone
book. They would say, "I know who you are and I saw what you did." The
movie then showed them calling people in all kinds of funny or compromising
situations. However, one of the calls wasn’t so funny. They called a guy
just after he finished murdering his wife. I don’t remember the rest of
the movie except that somehow the killer found out who the kids were and
came after them and they somehow escaped.
What we need to see in Cain’s story is that God says that to each one
of us and he isn’t playing games. He knows who you are and he saw what
you did. He not only sees your actions but he knows all your motives.
Your anger, your insolence, your excuses will not deter him or keep him
from exposing you.
The murder of Abel by Cain is shown here in all of its gruesome wickedness.
Abel is innocent. He has done nothing wrong. Cain is angry with God and
turns his anger on his brother, somehow believing that if his brother
hadn’t done what was right then God wouldn’t be displeased with him. His
hatred and hostility towards his brother makes no sense. It would be easy
for us to see this story and say, "It’s makes sense that God would be
angry with Cain. He murdered his brother. I’ve never murdered anyone,
so God won’t treat me the way he treats Cain." This is a very common and
human way of thinking. There is probably not a person in here that hasn’t
thought something like this. "I’ve never thrown a grenade in a nursing
home, so God likes me just fine."
This story is reported in this way because we all are Cain. Who hasn’t
felt the kind of rage that Cain felt, that motivated his murder? Which
of us hasn’t verbally and maybe even physically struck out at another
person because you’ve felt this kind of anger? Jesus makes clear in Matthew
5: 20 and following that the person who is angry enough to verbally insult
another person is guilty of murder. John, in the passage Cherie read from
his first letter says, ""Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil
one and murdered his brother…Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."
God knows how you feel and what you do because of what you feel. He pleads
with us just as he did Cain with promises and with warnings. He confronts
us in the heat of our temptation and reminds us that blessing awaits all
who respond to him with the obedience that comes from faith but that destruction
awaits all who refuse to fight against their sin using all the means he
has provided. He has provided in Christ all the resources we need to successfully
fight against sin. We can do, through Christ, what he commands Cain to
do, master his sin. We are either being mastered by sin or we are learning
to master our sin. How goes the war in your life?
Rebellion against God is futile because
- He determines how people may approach him
- He knows all and calls all to account for their attitudes and actions
- And because…
III. He has a plan that humans cannot thwart (vv. 17-26)
In verses 17-22 we see a terse description of the development of human
civilization. Cain builds the first city and his descendants are responsible
for the beginnings of herding as a way of life, the development of the
arts and the making of the first metallic tools and artifacts. What is
being described is the fulfillment of God’s command in chapter 1, "Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living
creature that moves on the ground." In spite of our rebellion towards
God, humanity has continued to do his will in filling the earth and subduing
it. His plan has not been thwarted by our sin. God’s wisdom and power
and mercy are displayed in technological advancement, in the development
of the arts, in progress in medicine, in the growth of agricultural output.
Indeed, all human advancement is merely a display of God’s sovereign rule
in the universe.
However, verses 23-24 show that all is not well with human "advancement".
We are given a detailed look at the life of the sixth generation after
Cain. What we discover is the growth of evil in exponential ways. We see
this first in the fact that Lamech has taken two wives. God’s will, as
expressed in chapter 2:24 is for marriage to be between one man and one
woman for life. The destruction of God’s pattern for families is one of
the outcomes of sin in human society. Second, we see an enormous increase
in the violence of human sin. Lamech boasts to his wives about killing
a young man for merely injuring him. He boasts that if Cain is to be avenged
7 times, then Lamech is to be avenged 77 times. In other words excessive
retaliation for actual or perceived injury has become the rule of human
culture. Grudge holding and revenge characterize human society, after
Cain. In our own day we need only mention Northern Ireland or Bosnia or
Rwanda or the Middle East or Washington D.C. to see how the principle
of excessive retaliation is played out on a grand scale. Whole societies
remember past offenses and carry out programs of terrorism and genocide
to avenge past wrongs.
We have only to look in our own homes and neighborhoods to see it played
out in our daily relationships. Making people pay for the wrong they do
to us is the most common relational skill we all possess. Several years
ago, when we lived in Illinois, a young man and his wife moved into the
house next to ours. His hobby was to design and install car stereos—the
really big ones that shake your house when they are played. All of his
friends had monster stereos in their cars. He would work on these stereos
every evening and on weekends. After a week or so I went over one evening
and explained I had young children sleeping and that I’d appreciate it
if he would keep it down. We had a polite conversation but little changed.
I went over several more times but he continued. The last time I went
to see him he screamed at me and cursed me. So one night I called the
police. After they left he stood in his backyard and screamed at our house,
cursing us and threatening us. His friends began driving by in the early
morning hours and turning their stereos on while sitting outside our house.
One day as Jane and I were in our yard he got in his car and turned his
stereo on and drove slowly around the block and back into his driveway
and then went into his house. He did a number of other things like this.
In other words, he avenged himself.
Tell story of Juel Arnevik’s neighbor. (?)
God’s plan has always been to create a holy place where his holy people
might dwell forever. How is he doing this in the face of the increase
in human evil? Vv. 25-26 give us the answer. It comes in two parts, as
a promise for the future and as a present reality.
First, you can see the promise in Eve’s statement about the birth of
Seth. She says God has given her another "child" in place of Abel. The
Hebrew word for child is the same word used in Genesis 3:15 for offspring
and different from the word she used to describe the birth of Cain in
v. 2. Please look at 3:15. In 3:15, God promises that a male descendent
of Eve will come and whom Satan will wound but who will deal a fatal blow
to him and all evil. This is the first reference in the Bible to our Lord
Jesus Christ. Here in 4: 25, Eve is reflecting that promise and seeing
in the gift of Seth a prototype of that one who is to come. As far as
she knew, Seth might actually be the one promised in 3:15. What her use
of the term "offspring" instead of "son" shows is that she was living
with the hope of a coming Savior to deliver the world from the ravages
of evil.
In spite of the growing wickedness of humanity, nothing could or can
stop God’s plan to bring a Savior into the world to rescue all his people
from sin and his just judgement on sin. We see here in Eve a confidence
in God’s ability to save his people. This is the only way you can approach
God. Only by faith in Jesus, who suffered death for your sin and who purchased
all the promises of God for those who trust him, can you know that you
are accepted by God. You can only know that you have a genuine faith in
Christ if you find in yourself a growing love for him, a growing hatred
for your own sin and progress in mastering sin, in growing to be like
him.
The second way you see the plan of God overcoming the sinfulness of men
is in the last phrase of the chapter, "At that time men began to call
on the name of the Lord". What men? Well Adam and Eve and Seth and Enosh,
all those who were living in the hope of a coming Savior. All those men
began to call on the name of the Lord. We have here a picture of the growth
of God’s kingdom in the midst of human sin. While the majority of humanity
persists in the life of Cain and his descendants, God is saving a people
for himself, through the person of Jesus Christ, who are characterized
by their continual calling on the name of the Lord. God’s plan is not
thwarted, he is making a holy people to dwell in the holy place that Jesus
has gone to prepare for all those who belong to him.
The violence and brutality of humanity is not new. Wicked and evil leaders
have always been with us, since Adam and Eve’s fateful choice. Genesis
4 tells us that human rebellion and hardness of heart is pervasive and
a permanent fixture of everything human beings do. Yet, in the midst of
this evil world God is saving a people for himself. Jesus came preaching
the good news that the kingdom of God is near. So, repent and believe
the good news.
Rebellion against God is futile because
- He determines how people may approach him
- He knows all and calls all to account for their attitudes and actions
- He has a plan that cannot be thwarted by human sin
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material
in any format provided that:
(1) you credit the author,
(2) any modifications are clearly marked,
(3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and
(4) you do not make more than 1,000 copies.
If you would like to post this material to the web, or if your intended
use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
Church, 2843 West Court Street, Janesville, WI 53545. (608) 758-0943.
mail@riverhillsonline.org
|