Introduction

Here is a story from the spiritual Dark Ages.

The KEY to it seems to be the final verse in the chapter, v. 26, which says

Genesis 4:26 “Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.

At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.”

Now, of course, we all want this to be a happy story with a happy ending, and we want that for (no doubt) some very deep psychological reasons.

But in the flow of this story where humanity has just been tempted by Satan in the Garden to develop its own definition of right and wrong and declare Independence against God, what happens here next is that the window starts to be opened for us on the consequences of Eden’s actions, and a definite downward path forms the plot line of the story.

We’re all looking for a positive after the awful negative of the Fall into sin, and it’s tempting to cling to this idea that the pendulum was swinging up again with what we’re told here in v. 26, where people seem to be beginning to call on the Name of the Lord.

But there are no positives in the context for these guys at all … so that verse looks like an anomaly in the overall picture.

We’re going to need to come back to this, but for now notice that humanity after the Fall is embarked on a helter-skelter descent into darkness.

In reality, you see, this is the dawn of the spiritual dark ages for the Old Testament people of God.

1) The dawn of the ‘Dark Ages’

In quite a few places, we’re told this Hebrew expression translated “call on the name” refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 12:8; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25).

But can you see the snag there?

In Genesis 12:8, 13:4, 21:33 and 26:25 this calling on the name of the Lord involved building an altar, which was where people in the Ancient Near East would offer sacrifices.

And if this ‘starting to call on the Name of the Lord’ involved altars and sacrifice and stuff, it certainly didn’t begin at the end of Genesis 4 … because building a sacrificial altar had already happened in the big story at the heart of Genesis 4 … the sacrifices that Cain and Abel both brought to the Lord … one of which was accepted and one of which was not.

So if Genesis 4:26 is talking about the start of calling on the Lord (the way the expression occurs elsewhere in Scripture to refer to altars and sacrifice etc.) … well Genesis 4:26 is very explicitly NOT when that started.

And it’s NOT when tat started because this statement about when calling on the Name of the Lord started refers to a time AFTER the birth of Seth.

And Seth was the replacement son of Eve for Abel, after Cain slew him, on account of Cain’s sacrifice having been rejected whilst Abel’s had been accepted!

Are you getting the point here?

Now I’m raising this for a really important reason.

Very often in the Bible we’r told the POINT of what we’ve been told at the end … it’s called ‘The Rule of End-Stress’ … the point is stressed at the end of the story or account or whatever.

We’re going to work out what that concluding verse is directing us to as the point of the account of Cain and Abel but first let’s see what clear and obvious things we’re told about the sacrifices made by Cain and Abel  … one of which offerings proved acceptable to God and one of which did not.

2) The sacrifice of Cain

A) The nature of Cain’s work

Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground.

Now, as a beef and sheep man, it would be all too easy for me to turn this into a rant at all arable farmers, or vegetarians, or allotment holders.

But really there’s no reason to think that one system of agriculture is being preferred over another here.

That is NOT the point being made in the context.

Cain’s work simply explains the SORT of offering he brought.

He brought what he’d produced.

But when you compare this with what’s said about Abel’s offering, something interesting emerges about the spirit of Cain’s offering.

B) The spirit of Cain’s offering

It quickly starts look as if it is the QUALITY of what Cain brought from what he’d produced that is the issue here.

Genesis 4:3 simply says: “At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord.”

The Hebrew term מִנְחָה (minkhah, “offering”) is a general word for tribute, a gift, or an offering.

It is the main word used in Lev 2 for the dedication offering.

This type of offering COULD very often be comprised of vegetables.

The content of the offering (vegetables, as opposed to animals) was not the critical issue, but rather the attitude of the offerer.

And hat is what comes out in the expression behind the word ‘but’ in v. 4

3) The sacrifice of Abel

But Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock—even the fattest of them.

A) A contrast is being painted

Genesis 4:4 “But Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock—even the fattest of them.”

We’re about to be told that God was pleased with Abel’s offering but displeased with Cain’s and if we’re not switched on - not giving our reading of Scripture our best efforts to understand - it could easily look like a bit of a puzzle why God liked meat and not veg and as if He was being a bit unpredictable or even a bit unjust over this matter.

But, you see, the disjunctive clause (conjunction plus subject plus verb) stresses the contrast not between God’s response to Abel and Cain’s offerings, but between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering themselves.

There was something present in one that was lacking in the other.

What might this be about?

B) A quality is being portrayed

Two prepositional phrases are used to qualify the kind of sacrifice that Abel brought.

It was “from the firstborn”

and it was “from the fattest of them.”

This sentence could also be interpreted as a hendiadys: “from the fattest of the firstborn of the flock.”

Another option is to understand the second prepositional phrase as referring to the fat portions of the sacrificial sheep.

In this case one may translate, “some of the firstborn of his flock, even some of their fat portions”

All those options present themselves to the Bible translator but it doesn’t matter, because whichever way we take that, the significant thing we can’t get away from here is that Cain just turned up on time with his run of the mill offering, but Abel brought the very best of what He could offer to the Lord.

Abel is being diligent about honouring God, and glorifying God by offering His best in sacrificial worship.

Cain is turning up to Church on time, but in terms of HONOURING God rather than going through the mediocre motions he just isn’t cutting it with glorifying God.

And Abel’s offering is of the sort that honours and therefore pleases God, but Cain’s is half-hearted and doesn’t honour, therefore doesn’t please, the Lord.

We don’t know how that gets signified, smoke didn’t go straight up, smoke wasn’t the right colour … we don’t know … but however it got signified, it DID get signified, and it put Cain in a big sulk with God.

4) Cain’s big sulk with God

Genesis 4:4-5 “So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?

Here’s the point: Cain the sulky child doesn’t like the rejection that accompanies wrong-doing, so God spells it out to him:

 ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

If you start thinking bad things about God … the way Eve was prepared to do in the previous chapter when Satan suggested God had an agenda to keep the humans from being all they could be when He forbade eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … then sin is crouching at your door.

Knowing in advance how Cain had started thinking, knowing next exactly what Cain had done to Abel … look how graciously God still approaches Cain, the sulky sinner …

A) God’s approach to Cain

Genesis 4:9 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

This is the Almighty.

He is the all-seeing, all-knowing God.

He is the perfect embodiment of total holiness and He is the judge of all the earth.

Now sometimes … it’s very common in our era … we as individuals assume that in fact WE are the judge of all the earth.

It’s a fairly fundamental and fairly SERIOUS mistake.

But when WE drop unjustifiably into that role … as judges of one another … we tend not to approach it like this:

1. 9 “the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

The astonishing thing is the way the good Lord deals kindly with bad people.

It’s hard to grasp.

But here the Almighty is, knowing full well what a dreadful thing Cain’s done, always gently ready to offer a route to repentance.

If that’s a fair description of how God is relating to you today, graciously holding out the option of repentance and restoration to relationship with Him, don’t pull back.

But if you are TEMPTED in that situation to pull back, just look at what Cain did and what then happens next.

B) Cain’s response to God

When God is gently gracious, Cain cuts up really very militantly defensive:

Genesis 4:9 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Cain had done something terrible … this was the Bible’s very first recorded murder … but even now in the hand of the gracious God this was all so mendable.

Tragically, Cain’s lying to try to deceive God, and denying any duty of care for his brother was not going to mend this.

Cain’s learned pride is perhaps the most serious sin in the book because pride is so often the sin that prevents desperately needed repentance.

All Cain needed to do was to put his hands up to what he had done and throw himself on God’s mercy, to avoid God’s judgement.

So what did he do?

The Lord had made humanity responsible as His image to care for the Creation of which other humans were a part … but Abel was also God’s image, His authoritative representative.

Yet here, for dead Abel, Cain denied both his guilt and his human responsibility:

Genesis 4:9-10 “the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

And the answer to THAT question is very definitely ‘yes’

And it’s at THAT point the gracious God, Who is patient with us because He wants for no-one to perish but for all mankind to come to repentance (see 2Peter 3:9!) …

It’s at this point where human beings disclaim all knowledge and all responsibility that God’s tone shifts from offering grace to bringing fearful judgement.

Genesis 4:10-12 “10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

If you’ve been watching Clarkson’s Farm on your TV over the last few months … I hadn’t but on holiday Ben was keen to show it to me … you will realise that all too often in our era, arable farming can be a very unrewarding experience.

Of course, I’m not saying Jeremy Clarkson lies under the curse of Cain!

But when you see how hard he’s worked, how much money he’s put into his agriculture and how little the crop often ultimately realises, it gives you an idea of the frustration and despair that can go with farming … it’s a dicey business … and here God tells Cain that because of his unrepented sin (though the opportunity to repent was given him) he’d now be living under a curse on the pattern of agriculture Cain had originally chosen.

The meaning of this verse is totally unavoidable.

The Hebrew word means and only means ‘to curse’, and to curse is always the very total opposite of the better option, blessing.

The judgement stings, and that is VERY obvious from the way that Cain responds to this.

C) Cain’s self pity

Genesis 4:13-14

“13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.

14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

You see, Cain is VERY concerned about the consequences of his sin.

But this is not repentance.

He’s concerned ONLY about the consequences of his awful sin FOR HIM.

This is not repentance, what we see here is self pity.

1. 13 … it’s all about him: “My punishment is more than I can bear.”

Well, funnily enough, what Cain dished out to Abel had been absolutely all that Abel could bear as well … Abel was no longer ‘bearing’ anything!

Yet Cain accuses God of giving him up to two terrible things v. 14:

“Today you are driving me from the land,

and I will be hidden from your presence”

The covenant was to be a good steward of God’s creation and inherit the land.

The covenant was to be God’s representative ruler of Creation as his vice-regent.

But having violated the covenant well, naturally, the blessing of God’s covenant … the land and God’s presence … was legitimately lost!

And Cain laments (poor me) the consequences of that judgement in the clearest terms.

Without God’s presence and covenant blessing life would turn out grim (v. 14b):

“I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Being the image of the Sovereign Lord brought the Sovereign’s protection.

But having broken loyalty to the Sovereignty treaty, both the Sovereign’s protection and provision were now predictably lost.

And all of this outpouring from Cain amounts to self-pity and bears absolutely no resemblance to Biblical repentance.

In 2 Corinthians 7:10 we read: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

If you want an example of the worldly sorrow that leads to death, take a good look at Cain here.

And yet, God’s heart has got reassuring love for the godless lad that Cain undoubtedly was … will you just LOOK at God’s love for this (as yet) unrepentant and self-sorrowful sinner?

5) God’s love for the sulky rebel

Cain says:

1. 14 “I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

But God says, Genesis 4:15 “ But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”

Cain is STILL a human life-form, and that means he is STILL an image-bearer for God.

Of course Cain will very obviously now be known as a person under God’s displeasure, so God puts a mark on Him to show that Cain is still a Divine image-bearer, and as such harming him is an act against God.

Which is a cross between extreme grace and irony, given what Cain has already done to his brother Abel.

Conclusion - the root of the rot

So let’s get back to the big point of this account here.

By now we’re aware that mankind WAS EXPLICITLY ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ as v. 26 puts it BEFORE v. 26 … if that’s how, in fact, v. 26 should be translated.

You’ll have guessed that my suggestion to you is going to be that this is NOT how v. 26 should be translated.

Here’s the thing.

We are being asked to accept that v. 26 is saying that something started AFTER the rest of the chapter tells us it had already started.

So you go back to the Hebrew text and there you find that the word translated ‘began’ can also - depending on the context - mean ‘to profane’.

Now what we read of from this point is not the start of calling on the Name of the Lord but a rapid decline into progressively more serious profaning of the Name of the Lord.

Genesis 5:3 EXPLICITLY tells us that the replacement son for Abel … the (dead) goodie … turned out to be a son in Adam’s own image (notice NOT a son in GOD’s own image the way humanity was created before the Fall to be).

It all goes HORRIBLY downhill so that by Genesis 6 we read:

“Then human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.”

This account we’ve been looking at in Genesis 4, following on from the initial Fall into sin in Genesis 3 and coming to its natural climax with the Flood in Genesis 6 really does mark the start of the decline of the first Dark Age era in the history of humanity in the Old Testament.

So HOW can we deal with this being interpreted in Genesis 4:26 as the time when people first started to call on … worship and sacrifice to … the Name of the Lord?

Not only is that translation at odds with what’s gone before (where Cain and Abel offer their famous sacrifices), it is also at odds with the following context where far from calling ON God’s Name the people launch a downward spiral of PROFANING the Lord’s Name.

Well now, as it happens, when you go back to Genesis 4:26 with this question about what our English translation can POSSIBLY mean saying this was where people ‘BEGAN to call on’ the Name of the Lord, you discover that the word translated to call on can equally mean ‘to profane’.

Cain slew Abel because Abel’s whole-hearted offering his best to the Lord (honouring the Lord) was accepted whilst Cain’s far less God-honouring (in fact God-profaning) sacrifice was not.

THIS is when people began not to call on the Name of the Lord but to PROFANE it by making not honouring but dishonouring sacrifices of a poor standard and of poor quality to their Almighty Creator.

Giving the Lord second best is to profane the Name that is above all Names.

And that, as it turned out, lay at the root of the rot that led to Genesis 6, the inclination of the thoughts of mankind’s hearts being only evil all the time.

It is a slippery slide into a very deep pit when we start the lark of not giving God His due, the due Abel paid God but Cain didn’t.

Cain turned up for the offering.

He BROUGHT an offering.

He went through all the right motions and perhaps incantations or whatever it as they did.

But God was the very best to Cain, yet Cain didn’t offer his best offering to God.

And Abel did.

And VERY soon that lack of giving God His due showed up as the slippery slope to profaning the Name of the Lord in the unfaithfulness that it truly is.

What was in Cain’s heart came pouring out, as people began to profane the Name of the Lord more and more as time went by.

The growing nastiness we see on social media and in our society had NOTHING on this!

But trust me, the slippery slope stems from failing to give God His due, thus profaning the Name of the Lord only heads one way.

And it is THIS way we’ve been looking at in Genesis here today.

The question is WHO are we ready to give our best?

It should be the One Who’s is actually … the best.

To do otherwise – even in worship and sacrifice – is to enter the spiritual dark ages, profaning the Name of the LORD.