The First (Dysfunctional) Family

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.

3

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.

4

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.

5

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

6

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

7

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

8

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,

9

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.

10

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.