Back in Genesis 3:15, God had prophesied that there would be a continuing conflict between the descendants of Eve and the descendants of the serpent (a struggle that would reach its climax at the cross). Adam and Eve are now to witness the reality of the prophecy in the tragic history of their first two sons.
While the story of Cain and Abel is to be understood as historical, it also symbolizes the age-long conflict between good and evil, right and wrong, and between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
In a secondary sense, Abel represents the “believer” who comes to God through the acceptable blood sacrifice of a substitute (Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman). Cain represents the “unbeliever” (the seed of the serpent) who depends on his own self-righteous works to gain access to God and is rejected.
Most likely at an appointedtime and place, Adam and Eve were able to meet God,being careful to approach Him by means of a proper offering, especially marked by the principle of substitution—the innocent for the guilty.
THE BIRTH OF CAIN 4:1
Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the Lord I have acquired (or gained) a man.“
Cain was born into a God-fearing home. Adam and Eve were sinners, but they were not pagans. It is a great blessing to be brought up in a godly home, to be shown the way of salvation, to be encouraged to pray and worship the Lord.
We see clearly here that sexual union between a man and a woman is to be in the context of marriage; Adam lay with his wife Eve. To have a sexual union outside the context of marriage is sexually immoral and is sin.
1 Corinthians 7:2 Because of the temptation to impurity and to avoid immorality, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband.
Among human beings sex is not just blindinstinct but a conscious, intimate act and something which rightly belongs to a man and a woman within the marriage bond.
Eve was not only thankful for a child, but also that the Lord had enabled her to give birth to a man. Little did she know that this gift from the Lord would become the world’s first murderer.
THE BIRTH OF ABEL 4:2
And again she gave birth to his brother Abel. And it came to pass that Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a worker of the ground.
Nothing is made of Abel’s name in the text of Genesis, but his name in Hebrew means “breath” or “vapor”. It was prophetic and a reminder of the frustration and fragile nature of physical life in a fallen world.
Psalm 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
James 4:14 For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
For the godly as well as the ungodly, life is subject to the effects of a fallen sinfulworld.
From the context of Genesis 4, we understand that some of the sheep Abel looked after were used for sacrifice. The lesson which God had taught Adam and Eve was not to be forgotten. Atonement for sin required the shedding of blood.
Throughout the Old Testament the blood sacrifice of unblemished lambs was required by God as a temporary covering of sins until the Lamb of God (the Seed of the Woman) would come and shed His blood as a never-ending sacrifice for sinners.
CAIN AND ABEL’S OFFERING TO THE LORD 4:3-5
At the end of the days Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Adam and Eve had been driven out of the garden, away from the presence of God. By God’s grace, however, and in view of His promised “Seed of the Woman”, who would “crush the head of the serpent”, He still allowed sinners to approach Him under certain conditions.
The words in the Hebrew, “at the end of the days”, seem to suggest that these offerings occurred at the end of the week on the Sabbath. If this is the case, we see from the very beginning that one day in seven (in this case the seventh) was set apart as a special time of thanksgiving and worship to God.
No doubt from the beginning God had instructed Adam and Eve (who instructed their two sons) that He required a blood offering as a prerequisite to approaching Him.
Out of pride and rebellion to God, Cain brought an offering which his own effort had produced from the ground that God had cursed. At any rate, his heart was not right before the Lord, and his offering was not in faith and obedience to God’s directive as was his brother’s. Therefore, God rejected his gift.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his offering. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
Abel was an outward symbol of the fact that Cain’s works were not adequate to get him into God’s presence.
