Genesis 4:1-15
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
This is no accidental killing, so Cain is not guilty of manslaughter. Nor is it second degree murder committed by one flown into a rage. This murder is heartless and calculated. Yet, even to charge Cain with murder in the first degree hardly assesses him. Would that he were culpable only of a murderous act. Would that this was merely a crime. But Cain is not simply guilty of a criminal act. The tragedy is far more profound. The heartbreak of this narrative is not the murder. It’s the suicide. Cain’s sin was self-destruction. Yes, of course, it was the murder of another, but in truth Cain took the life of his own flesh and blood. The death was Cain’s. In the attack upon his own blood brother Cain as surely slew himself. Such is the calamity of taking life into one’s own hands.
The tragedy is not primarily the death of Abel. Weep not for him. His blood still speaks. His soul yet lives. The Lord’s regard for Abel has not changed. Abel depended on the mercy of God. He lived by faith. He died in faith. As Hebrews says, “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 gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”
Abel is among the living witnesses. Abel survives. Though he received the worst man can do to another, yet he lives a redeemed child of God, washed in the blood of Christ’s sacrifice his offering signified.
Note the paradox: the one whose blood was shed lives, yet the survivor’s fate is worse than death. Void of repentance or trust, Cain is driven from the ground, a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. He is dead to God, unresponsive to God's continued providence and without even the satisfaction of justice. Cain cannot even argue, “I paid my debt of an eye for an eye” because he remained unmolested under God's mark.
He did this to himself. The carnage was self-inflicted. Such is the ruin of sin, by sin, to the effect of sin which is death.
What hope then is there for us who have not been our brother’s keeper? Is there a cure for the self-inflicted, slow suicide of sin?
Our deliverance is in the narrative of the other brother, the brother who surrenders his life voluntarily, a brother of the same flesh and blood as we, the mediator of a new covenant whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24).
Again we have a paradox. From the death of this brother comes life to us. This time it’s not death by the hand of our brother, but life by the pierced hands and dying of our brother. His blood covers the earth.
At first this strikes people as absurd because death is the end of life. But not in the death of this brother. The death of this brother is the beginning of life for us. This brother is Jesus Christ. We are guilty of his murder. Our sins robbed him of his life. Our iniquities, as dreadful as Cain’s, were laid on him, yet by his wounds we are healed.
Abel’s blood cried for retribution, but Jesus’ blood cries for mercy. “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies; but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.”
Cain, though he was guilty was spared sevenfold vengeance. Jesus, though innocent was condemned an hundred-fold. Cain complained of punishment greater then he could bear. But our brother Jesus never complained of the punishment he bore in silent anguish, not out of his own iniquity but from all the evils of all his brothers. Cain rose up against his brother. Jesus was raised up in favor of his brothers; raised in death upon a cross and raised again in life upon His Word.
Sin’s grip is broken. Our self-inflicted wounds are healed.
