The First (Dysfunctional) Family
Genesis 4: 1-16
By Rev. Keith Davis
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in our world today we use
the term dysfunctional family to describe the failure and collapse of the basic
family unit. Experts say dysnfuncional families are the
result of alcoholism, substance abuse or other addictions by one or both
parents. That parent’s addiction upsets the fragile balance of
the household, and as a result, everything within collapses like
a house of cards. The most heartbreaking aspect of this whole situation, is that
young children growing up in that environment are sometimes led to believe that
behavior
like this (and life like this) is normal. And so these children grow up
into teenagers and adulthood, they begin to emulate the dysfunctional behavior
of their parents. There’s a very good chance that they will introduce those
very same problems and miseries into a family that they form in the future. But
while the term dysfunctional family
may be a relatively new term, it certainly
does not describe a new behavior or condition. Furthermore, dysfunction is not merely the result of alcohol and substance abuse. Dysfunction is
the result of man’s sin and disobedience to God. Finally, dysfunction (to a
certain degree) is found not
just in certain
households, not just in the
inner city or poverty stricked neighborhoods. No, dysfunction is present
in every household. To one degree or another, every family struggles with
dysfunciton – mine as well as yours. And the history of all dysfuncional
families dates back to the very first family – back to the family to which we
were introduced this morning. Here in Genesis 4, we meet the first two sons born
into creation, born to Adam and Eve, and we read of the way sin tore that
family apart
We notice: Sin
Destroys/Devastates the First Family. Notice how sin…
1) Produces Hatred (vv. 1-5)
2) Prompts Murder (vv. 6-8)
3) Provokes Judgment (vv. 9-16)
1) Produces Hatred (1-5)
Congregation, Genesis four begins with a measure of hope and promise.
These verses tie in well with something we talked about last week, namely, that
Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of the living. We
said how Adam named his wife Eve in faith, knowing that God
promised that man’s salvation would come through the seed of the woman. So Adam
and Eve conceived a child – a son, and Eve called her son Cain, for with the help of the Lord I
have brought forth a man. The
name Cain literally means gotten or acquired or obtained. I know
that there is much debate about this, but based upon what Eve says, based upon
the name
she gives her firstborn son, she seems to have at least the hope, the
anticipation that Cain is the
promised one; Cain is the man, the seed of the woman who has come to
crush the serpent’s head.
She names him Cain in the hope that she has acquired the one through
whom she and Adam and
all creation will experience victory. But as we know, Cain is no Christ.
The text tells us that
after Cain was born, Eve gave birth to Abel.
Contrary to Cain’s name, Abel’s name was not as hopeful and promising.
Abel’s name means
breath, or vanity or meaningless; it can even mean sickly (perhaps Abel
was a sickly infant; or it
could be that they named him Abel in light of the sinful world in which
they lived.)
Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that Abel kept flocks and Cain tilled
the soil. There is no
judgment made here as to what vocation was better. Both were necessary and both were godly
vocations. The strife between Cain and his brother arises, however, over
the nature of the
sacrifice that each gives to the Lord.
Before we go any further, it’s helpful to point out that the sacrificial
system of worship for God’s
people wasn’t formally introduced until much later in Israel’s history
(when they received the
Law in the Sinai wilderness); however, the principles of that sacrificial system of worship were
most certainly passed down by God to Adam and to Eve and to their sons.
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In other words, God had undoubtedly let them know what He required of
them; God let them
know what was acceptable in terms of worship. We can safely assume that
this was the case –
that God told them what was expected, what was right, based upon what God said to Cain in
verse 7 If you do what is
right, will you not be accepted?
Now, let’s go back to the nature of their sacrifices. Verse 3 says Cain
brought forth the first
fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. So yes, Cain was a pious
man. He did not refuse to
worship God. And Cain, by all appearances, was no doubt sincere and
zealous in his worship.
And we might think, this is perfectly natural. It’s perfectly logical.
Cain is a farmer, a tiller of
the soil, he brought forth that which was important and valuable to him –
the first fruits of his
crop. Then the Bible tells us what Abel brought forth.
Verse 4: But Abel brought fat
portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. Here too, we might
think, Abel’s sacrifice is logical. Abel brought a sacrifice from that
which was valuable and
important to him.
However, the last half of verse 4 and verse 5 tells us that God looked
with favor on Abel’s
offering, but he did not look with favor on Cain’s offering. It may be
that fire came down from
heaven and consumed the offering which Abel laid on the altar, whereas
Cain’s first-fruits just
lay there untouched and unaccepted.
As a result, the Bibles tells us that Cain was filled with anger and his
face was downcast. So
what is it that made the difference? Why did God accept one sacrifice
and deny the other?
Hebrews 11:4 states by
faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith Abel
was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well
of his offering.
But again, what made Abel’s sacrifice better? Some like to argue that it
was a matter of the heart
and the attitude (Cain’s hear was obviously not right before the Lord).
Others argue that it had to
do with the nature and content of each particular sacrifice.
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But the truth is, when it comes to worship, when it comes to our
offerings, God cares about both.
That’s why Hebrews 11 says by faith Abel offered the better sacrifice. God cares about both the
worshipper and the offering, not one or the other. And I John 3: 12
tells us that Cain was angry
and murdered his brother because his own actions were
evil and his brothers were righteous.
And what did Cain do that was evil? He offered to God what he thought
was best, instead of
what was required. As Leviticus later stipulates, when Israel was to
come before the Lord with
an offering they were to bring an animal from their flocks, and they
were to sacrifice it to the
Lord, spilling the blood.
Hebrews 9: 22 reiterates that: without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Abel
offered a blood sacrifice to the Lord, and Cain did not. Abel’s heart
was righteous before the
Lord, and Cain’s was not. Thus, Abel’s offering was accepted of the
Lord, and Cain’s was not.
And so Cain was angry. And as we know that his anger came in the form of
a jealous rage which
he took out on his brother Abel; but who Cain was really angry at. Who was the real object of
Cain’s hatred and anger? Was it not the LORD God Himself? Absolutely it
was.
This is reminiscent of the Pharisees hatred and loathing of Jesus as he
came condemning their
self-willed worship, and their self-righteous good works. Yes, the
Pharisees were pious and
sincere and zealous in their efforts, but their hearts and their
offerings were unacceptable to God.
Whereas Christ came preaching about and embodying the acceptable
sacrifice: the body and
blood of the Lamb for the forgiveness of sins. As a result the Pharisees
became angry (filled
with hatred), & they directed their hatred towards Jesus, whom they
crucified on Calvary’s cross.
2) Prompts Murder (6-8)
So it is that Sin provokes hatred. Sin makes us angry at God. And when
we are angry at God,
this anger festers within us, and it causes strife, and envy, and
jealousy, and even hatred between
us and our loved ones. As our text shows, sin not only provokes hatred,
it can prompt murder.
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Notice in verse 6, the Lord who his mercy and kindness, the Lord who
does not desire the death
of the wicked, He comes to Cain and personally counsels him concerning
the hatred and evil that
fills his heart and soul and mind.
The Lord asks Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast? When you
think about it, how
should Cain have responded? God’s refusal to accept Cain’s offering
should have resulted in his
own dissatisfaction at himself for not doing the right thing, and in his
repentance and humility
and sorrow before the Lord.
But instead of remorse and a broken heart we have resentment and a
hardened heart. The Lord
reminds Cain of that which we pointed out previously: If you do what is right, will you not be
accepted? There God is explaining to Cain that if you’re faithful and do what is
required by
God, you’ll be accepted.
God is no tyrant. God is no slave-driver or task-master. He asks for
nothing more than the love
and devotion of man’s heart and the obedience that comes by faith. And
with his tender counsel,
the Lord also gives Cain this warning: but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your
door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.
If you recall, we talked a little bit about this verse in relation to
God’s judgment on the woman.
The woman’s desire shall be for her husband. At the time we said that the word desire has to do
a woman’s desire to rule over man or her husband (even though he was to
rule her).
Here, sin desires to rule over Cain; sin desires to have Cain. And so he
is called to master sin, to
gain control over his anger and resentment, to control sin before it controls and master’s him.
Even though this takes us a bit off the subject, I want to take a few
moments to personally apply
this to our hearts and lives.
This passage closely resembles what we read in James 1:14 but each one is tempted when, by his
own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. However, I think that passage in Genesis 4
explains the nature and objective of sin in even stronger and more
graphic terms. Yes, our sinful
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desire is that which drags us away and entices us to sin, but the Lord
says something about sin
that ought to scare the wits out of each one of us. The nature of sin is
such that it not only
desires us to take a taste every now and then; it not only desires us to
be dragged away on
occasion and put under its spell.
No. If you believe that, then it’s likely that you’ve already fallen
prey to sin’s delusion and
deceit. Make no mistake
about it, sin in Genesis 4:7 is Satan personified. Sin is Satan who
came to Eve in the Garden. Sin is Satan who comes to you and me and
tempts and entices us to
indulge our sinful desires; to indulge our lust, greed, anger, envy, hatred,
our physical cravings.
And let me repeat this, Satan is not satisfied to have us only every now
and then. Satan is
crouching at your door and he will not be satisfied until he owns you
completely and entirely.
When Peter says Satan
prowls about like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, this is
exactly what he means. Satan desires to be our master, our lord, who
rules us at all times.
Satan wants the seed of the woman! Satan wants the members of Christ’s
church. Satan wants
me, your Pastor. He wants the elders. He knows that if he can strike
down the under-shepherd
and the bishops, then the flock will scatter.
Satan wants you parents; he wants your marriage, he wants your children.
And he will stop at
nothing to get it. And in light of this, what do we do? Are we alarmed?
Are we afraid? Do we
heed the wise counsel of our Lord? Sadly -- and to our great shame -- we
do not.
For example, many Christians who are caught up in a habitual, addictive
sin think that they have
the power within themselves to put an end to their sin. They deceive
themselves. They don’t see
need to confess their sin; to talk to someone about their sin. They will
eventually right the ship
on their own and that will be that.
Others of us tend to rationalize our sinful behavior; we play-down the
severity of our sin; or we
provide reasonable excuses for why we did what we did; sometimes we even
try to lessen our
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guilt or to partially exonerate ourselves by pointing out that our sin
was a result of circumstances
beyond our control.
Still other Christians fail to see how their sin is a big deal. Yes, I
have my sins, but everyone
sins! My sin is no greater than the next person’s sin; certainly God
understands that. If this
describes you in any way, beloved, then listen carefully to this.
The next time you’re tempted; the next time you’re visited with the
urge, the desire, the craving
to sin, think about what the Lord said to Cain. Think about the fact
that behind your sinful desire
stands the Devil, and he desires nothing more than to have you (to own
you, to be your master).
And think about the fact that the next time you give in to Satan, the
next time you indulge your
evil desires, the Lord may very well give you over the Satan and his
desires, and you become
enslaved to sin. Beloved, don’t every play with sin; don’t ever
underestimate the power and the
true intentions of Satan. For he desires to do to you exactly what he
did to Cain – to rule you.
And we know what happened to Cain as a result. Cain, being filled with
anger at God and being
filled with jealous rage towards his brother, he arranged for his
brother Abel to meet him in the
field, and there Cain struck down his righteous brother, spilling his
blood on the ground.
Here we see the outworking of God’s prophetic judgment which God spoke
to the Serpent in
Genesis 3:15. I will put enmity
between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers.
He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.
The seed of the serpent drew first blood, and thus we see how the wicked
hate the righteous with
such terrible malice and cruelty. We see how the wicked hated Jesus, how
they rejected His
teachings, how they maligned his Name, how they desired to stone him,
and throw him from a
cliff. It was man’s hatred that nailed Christ to the tree (the hatred of
his own people!).
And keep in mind what Jesus said in John 15: 18-20 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it
hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would
love you as its own. As it is, you do not
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belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is
greater than his master.’ If they persecuted
me, they will persecute you also.
If Satan cannot have us for himself, then he will do everything in his
power to turn the wicked
against us and persecute us even unto death itself.
3) Provokes Judgment (vv. 9-16)
Sin Destroys the First Family. We’ve seen that sin produces hatred; sin prompts
murder; and
thirdly we see that sin provokes judgment. That judgment, of course
comes from God. Once
again we see a striking parallel to Genesis 3. For just as God confronts
Adam following his sin,
asking him a question, Adam, where are you? so too,
God confronts Cain with a question.
Where is your brother Abel? What follows is the record of the first lie uttered by
the mouth of
man. In cold-hearted defiance and rebellion against God, Cain lies to
God’s face. I don’t know!
Cain has been mastered by Satan, the father of lies and a murder from
the very beginning.
What a chilling reminder this is to us that sin never stands in
isolation; one sin necessarily gives
rise to other sins. Here, murder gives rise to lying. It’s almost
unimaginable that Cain would try
to lie in the face of God, but we know how this works. We’ve seen this
in our children’s lives, in
our own lives when confronted with sin: we may be caught red-handed but
we lie anyway!
We lie and distort and twist the truth, saying anything necessary to
deflect judgment and blame.
That is how much sin blinds our minds and hardens our hearts. So at this
point it’s clear that
Cain is fully within the grasp of Satan; that is made even more evident
by his next statement –
which is arguable worse than the first.
Cain not only lies to God, but then he mocks God, he scoffs at God’s
question saying Am I my
brother’s keeper? In a sense, Cain says, my brother’s whereabouts and his safety is not my
business; its not my concern. Surely Abel is old enough to take care of
himself. It’s likely that
Cain intended something deeper than this; he may be telling God you’re the keeper of the world,
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you’re the one who supposed to be watching over all
things. Shouldn’t you know where Abel is?
In a backhanded way, Cain could even be telling God hat he was partly
responsible for what
happened to Abel.
Notice, God does not answer Cain’s mean-spirited question. Instead God
announces that he
knows exactly what has happened. The Lord says Listen! Your brothers blood cries out to me
from the ground. The Lord speaks as if Abel’s blood was the very witness and prosecutor.
As Matthew Henry correctly points out, the blood of righteous Abel cries
out for justice: Blood
for Blood! Abel’s blood must be avenged, even as the blood of the
martyrs under the altar in
Rev. 6:10 How long O Lord
until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?
What follows next is God’s sentence and punishment pronounced upon Cain.
We note that is it
both just and merciful. In his study on Genesis Rev. Vander Hart writes
Cain is cursed in his
soul, is made a wanderer in his body, and becomes unfruitful in his
labor.
It is at this point that Cain seems to show a hint of remorse for what
he has done; he pleads to
God for mercy, saying he can’t bear the punishment, and he worries that
whoever will find him
will kill him. Now, many wonder how who it is that Cain had to fear.
If they are the first two sons, then who is living out in the world
beyond them? We have to
understand that Cain could have been anticipating the day when the numbers
of people in the
world would grow substantially. But it is more likely that the
population of the earth was already
substantial; Genesis 5: 4 tells us that Adam was 130 years old when he
had Seth.
So assuming that Abel’s murder took place just prior to that, it would
give Adam and Eve over 6
times the average time span for bearing children, and then their
children would bear children,
and their children’s children, etc. Suffice it to say that by the time
Cain was banished, the
immediate region would have been populated by relatives of Abel,
relatives who would be
looking to exact vengeance on Cain.
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But God listens to Cain’s cries and places mark on him, ensuring that no
one who found hi
would kill him. Then we read the final words of the text – words which
echo the sad departure
of Adam and Eve from Paradise: So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the
land of Nod east of Eden.
Cain’s physical banishment from God was symbolic of his spiritual
banishment. He was no
longer a child of God; he was now the possession of Satan. As we said at
the outset of the
sermon, the children who grow up in dysfunctional families tend to
repeat and even increase the
sins of their parents, and this is true of Cain.
While Adam and Eve fell into sin, they did not lie to God, they did not
scoff at God and they did
not abandon God and His ways. Cain however, has clearly chosen to walk
the way of evil. In
fact, in Jude verse 11 it speaks of those false teachers who had
infiltrated the church and were
perverting the grace of God, Jude writes: Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain.
The way of Cain is the way of selfishness; it is the way of self-styled
worship and living, it is the
way of lies and deceit, it is the way of murder and destruction;
ultimately it is the way of the
eternal damnation.
And so God calls us today to follow the way of the righteous one – not
the way of Abel but the
way of the One who is better than Abel. We are called to follow he way
of Jesus the mediator of
a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks
a better word than the blood of Abel.
It is this Jesus, this Mediator who saves us from our sins, who redeems
our dysfunctional
families, who redeems us out of our dysfunctional lives; who saves us
from going down to defeat
to the One who would rule us and master us.
And so we render acceptable worship to the Lord our God; by faith we
bring our offerings of
thanksgiving to God, we bring before God hearts and lives that yield to
his will, to his control, to
his rule. Thus as husbands and wives, as moms and dads, as boys and
girls, our lives are
redeemed
from the way of Cain, and we walk in the way of Jesus Christ. Amen.
