The story of Cain and Abel continues the parade of biblical imagery to be found in Demian. Further, it presents another traditional contrast between good (Abel) and evil (Cain). The alternative explanation of the story that Demian offers is significant for reasons far beyond the fact that it captures the attention of the young Sinclair. Cain & Abel (sometimes referred to as Cain and Abel) was added by l3x0r in Mar 2010 and the latest update was made in Jan 2020. The list of alternatives was updated Nov 2017. It's possible to update the information on Cain & Abel or report it as discontinued, duplicated or spam.
Everyone here is well aware of what happened ten years ago. The stories and images have filled the media all week and the feelings and thoughts many of us had a decade ago may have come back to some of us in one degree and one form or another in these days. It is something we will never be able to forget. Some of the feelings of that day are also present in the first stories in the Bible.
Cain And Abel Cracking Tool
September 11, 2011
Genesis 4:1-16, Cain and Abel: Non-Violence
Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
[print_link]
In the Book of Genesis it only takes two people, Adam and Eve, for there to be fear, anxiety, mistrust, and a failure to accept responsibility for one’s actions. It only takes four people, from the same family, to have the first murderer and the first murder victim. It goes to show how ancient is the human failure to properly handle conflict and disagreements and emotions like anger, jealousy, and envy.
I’m glad that one of the Sunday School classes for adults that begins today is on Relationship Conflicts, lead by Marilyn Raatz. Conflicts between people are as old as humanity the only difference from this ancient story to the present is our enhanced ability, because of advanced technology, to kill more people and from less personal distances. Listen to the sad story of two brothers from Genesis 4:
“Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produceda a man with the help of the Lord.”2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod,d east of Eden.”
In last week and this week’s scriptures from Genesis 3 and 4 we hear the first three questions in the Bible. The serpent asked the first question in the Bible in Genesis 3:1 asking Eve, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” His purpose was to cast doubt on God and God’s Word. The second recorded question is in Genesis 3:9 where God called to Adam asking, “Where are you?” God’s purpose was to seek out and be in relationship with Adam and Eve. God’s still seeking and calling for us today. The third question is found in Genesis 4:9 where a man asks God about our relationship to each other: Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Since Cain, every generation has questioned how we ought to relate to our brothers and sisters. Do we love them or hate them? What if they hate us, or they’re different from us? In Genesis 4, God continues to reach out to God’s rebellious children. Adam and Eve showed us that living in God’s world on God’s terms is difficult. Cain and Abel demonstrate that living with God’s other creatures, specifically other people, is even more difficult. Throughout the Bible the struggle of living with “the brother” is a troubled but crucial part of human history, especially in Genesis where we meet Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers. In Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 there are two prodigals brothers. There is an old Irish saying, “To live above with the saints we love, that would be purest glory. But to live below with the saints we know, ah, that’s a different story.”
The trouble begins when God has regard for Abel’s offering and not for Cain’s. We’re not sure exactly why, perhaps because Abel brought of the first of his flocks and offered the best parts while Cain only brought some of the fruit of the ground not necessarily the first or the best. However, that is just conjecture, we’re not told why. We don’t even know how Cain knew that God had no regard for his offering. If you listen carefully you can almost hear Cain complaining to his mother about God’s unfair treatment and Eve giving voice to the universal mantra of all mothers which has been passed down in every age and culture ever since.. ”Life isn’t fair.”
What is revealing is Cain’s response – his offering to God is unacceptable and God knows that Cain is on the verge of both Anger (Why are you angry?) and Depression (Why has your countenance fallen?). Clearly something is going on inside Cain. So the Lord tries to encourage him, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” And then the verse that is at the heart of this scripture, “And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
The desire of God is to accept Cain and the Lord tries to help him by teaching him and guiding him. Part of how we master sin is by hearing God’s voice and obeying God’s command. We do this through reading and meditating on the Scriptures, prayer, and spiritual direction. Cain hears God’s voice directly, but he doesn’t follow God’s invitation and warning. This is a statement of choice – we have the capacity to master sin. God is trying to help – the Lord is concerned: ”This is the way it is with sin, Cain, I’m telling you to help you cope with reality.” The giving of an offering is external. Our motive for giving is internal. The internal issue for Cain appears to be that he despises his brother enough to kill him. God warns Cain that sin is like a predatory animal ready to strike. 1 Peter 5:8 echoes God’s warning in Genesis 4:7, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour.” Sin is not just a breaking of rules; sin in the Bible is portrayed as an active, malevolent, oppressive force ready to ambush, Cain and Abel, you and me. Sin is lethal. We must be on guard and alert – there is danger to Cain in how he handles his Anger and Depression.
But the Lord gives Cain and us a key thing to remember regarding sin, “You must master it,” or in the King James Version, “Thou mayest rule over it.” Sin, desiring our downfall and death, need not have its own way. It can be ruled, it can be mastered. American author John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is built around this very theme, of “You may rule” (Hebrew, timsel). Steinbeck writes, “It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself onto the lap of the deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set.’ But think of the glory of THE CHOICE! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there. These sixteen verses are a history of mankind in any age or culture or race. This is a ladder to climb to the stars…You can never lose that. It cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness…I feel that I am a man. The soul is always attacked and never destroyed – because THOU MAYEST.’” Steinbeck understood how much hangs on this word to Cain. Its invitation, challenge, and promise.
The power of sin is so great that after a direct word of challenge and promise from God about the threat of sin and Cain’s ability to rule over it; Cain still goes out and gets ambushed by sin and then ambushes his brother Abel and kills him. Cain has not ruled over sin, but has been ruled by it. The power of sin is frightening. We saw that ten years ago.
The rest of Genesis four sounds like a court case. When Cain asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he knows the answer and he is haunted by the fact that he refused responsibility as a brother, he let sin get the best of him, and he has taken a human life which is traumatic and can haunt people for the rest of their lives. God answers Cain’s question with a question, “What have you done?” The killer fears being killed and casts himself on the mercy of God. The mercy he receives is a mark asserting both Guilt and Grace. We don’t know what the mark was, however, it announces to all both the guilt of Cain and that Cain is safely under God’s protection. This is the two-sidedness of human life- we place our selves in jeopardy because of our disobedience and failure to master sin, yet God’s grace and love are so great that the Lord still keeps us safe. The acknowledgement of guilt and the reality of God’s grace come together for Cain in the mark. For us they come together in the blood of Jesus which was shed because of our failure, but which, at the same time, is the mark of God’s love and mercy for us.
So the story of Cain and Abel moves from God’s invitation to responsibility and the power we have of choosing to master sin – to Cain’s refusal to choose to his banishment. How do we master sin so that we don’t have to face a similar destiny? First, by realizing that sin is an active malevolent force that seeks to harm us. Secondly, by discovering that life with our “brother” is not lived in a void but in relation to God. Mastering sin is tied to our relationships with others. The Lord says to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” Turn to your brother and be reconciled, but Cain chose not to do well. He chose to kill. And his life and relationship with God were never the same. And his brother was gone.
The love of God is such that God doesn’t let go of the unreconciled one. God marks him with a mark signifying both shame and security. Would we be more willing to take the risk of working for reconciliation if we have had a big unmistakable mark on our forehead, (like a flashing, neon, “U”) for all to see every time we needed to be reconciled to a brother or sister? I wonder how many of us would have one this morning. Imagine if we had a scoreboard with the Top Ten Unreconciled List.
How do we master sin? How do we master anything? Through practice. What do we have to practice to master sin? As Christians, first we recognize that we need the help of Jesus to practice reconciliation and love. If you don’t practice to master the piano your life won’t be destroyed. But sin is an active force, lurking and looking for us which means we better learn to practice love and reconciliation, otherwise, like Cain, we too may be overcome by anger and depression. We face choices every day to be ruled by sin and to give in to anger, fear, and aggression or to rule over sin and to seek to live in love and unity with our brothers and sisters. Have we been more like Cain or more like Christ?
When people tell me that Paul’s words in Romans 12 or Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount are not practical or realistic in the so-called real world, my response is to simply ask, “How well has the alternative been working for most of human history right up to the present?” Shall we be more like Cain or more like Christ? That is a choice we have to make. While the Old Testament has many stories of fighting and warfare, there is no mistaking in the New Testament that Jesus and his followers pursue a different path; a path of non-violence. It is still the road less traveled by.
One of the things about an event like the attacks of 9/11 is that it reveals both the very worst and the very best of humanity. While the terrorists followed the path of Cain murdering the innocent, there are far more people who followed the path of Christ that day, not only the firefighters who went into the towers, but many, many others who weren’t professional first responders, some of whose stories we know, like the passengers on United Flight 93 that went down in a field in Shanksville, PA, and Welles Crowther a 1999 Boston College graduate who was in the World Trade Center south tower when it was attacked. Before passing away when the south tower collapsed, he guided reportedly a dozen people to safety from high floors in the building. He was known for wearing a red bandana while he played for the BC lacrosse team and was identified by victims that he helped to save by the bandana. ESPN did an Outside The Lines report on Welles Crowther this week that was very moving. I have no doubt that there were far more instances of people behaving like Christ, in a self-sacrificing, self giving way, even to the point of laying down their lives whose stories and deeds are known only to God. They are ones who responded to Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” with a decisive, “Yes.” May we do the same in our lives each day so that when the story of our life is told it may reflect more of Christ than Cain.
Prayer
Merciful God, thank you for loving me even when I am angry. I realize that cultivated anger damages my relationship with you and others and even myself. Enable me to cope with situations that stimulate anger in me through your calm, Spirit dwelling within me. Help me to master and rule over the sin that would seek to defeat me. I am a new creation in Christ and I am not a slave to sin or anger. May Christ have greater control of me as I yield my life to him. Refresh me with your love and help me to walk by the Spirit each day so that I always will strive to be more like Christ than Cain. In Jesus’name. Amen.
Blessing
1 John 3:11-12, 14-18
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
d That is Wandering
.jpg "Cain And Abel Alternative")
Cain And Abel Software Alternative
Abel . . . brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. – Genesis 4:4-5
As consumers, we have little interest in leftovers. We don’t like to spend our money on flawed products. When we pay for an item or a service, we feel that it should be the best that the company has to offer. God feels the same way but to an even greater extent.
Adam and Eve taught their sons Cain and Abel how to worship God in an acceptable manner. Yet when the time came to do this, the quality of Cain’s offering was not pleasing, and he didn’t bring it with the same passion that Abel did.
God does not have favorites. He didn’t choose one over the other because He liked one brother better than the next. Abel simply understood the principle of worship and offered God the very best that he had. Cain, on the other hand, offered what he could gather quickly—perhaps an apple here, a pear there, and a clump of grapes.
It’s also interesting to note that Cain offered what God had cursed in the garden at the fall of mankind—the fruit of the land. Abel offered God the very best of His flocks—the fattest lambs—because he understood that worship came from a heart of love and devotion.
How do we live our lives—are we totally committed to the Savior? Do we love Him and want to worship Him on a regular basis?
Remember, worship is something we do with our entire life.