What Estrangement and Envy Reveal...

This week, we have been spending our time together looking at a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Genesis. Wednesday, in Genesis chapter 4, we discovered that the curse of our selfishness and rebellion produces the consequences of estrangement from God and envy of others. Just as it was with Cain, just as it has been for humanity throughout history, our selfishness and rebellion produces estrangement from God and envy of others.

We can often find ourselves tempted to we want what others have and not want others to have what they have. We can often find ourselves tempted to worship out of duty with a focus on showing others how spiritual we are instead of a delight that is focused on who God is.  We can often find ourselves tempted to compete and compare ourselves with others when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. We can find ourselves battling the very same selfishness and rebellion that desires to dominate and manipulate us into rebelling against God.

Today, as the story continues, we see God confront Cain with the consequences of his estrangement from God and envy of others that flowed from his selfishness and rebellion in Genesis 4:9: 

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?"

Now God is not asking "Where is Abel your brother?" because He did not know what happened to Abel. God knows what happened to Abel. Parents, have you ever asked your children where someone or something was at, even though you already knew where they were at and what had happened, as an introduction to a conversation? And usually that conversation involves dealing with something that your children have done wrong that they are trying to hide from you, doesn’t it?

That is what is happening here. God is engaging Cain here by saying “Where is Abel? What happened to Abel?”  God is seeing if Cain will own up to the selfishness and rebellion that is now dominating his life. Look at Cain’s response:

And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's

keeper?"

For Cain to say “Am I brother’s keeper” is like us today saying “I don’t know, it isn’t my day to watch him”. Cain responds to God’s question with deception and denial. This morning, how often do we find ourselves tempted to respond to God in the exact same way when we are confronted with our selfishness and rebellion towards others? We see God’s response to Cain’s denial and deception in verse 10:

He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.”

Again, God is not asking “What have you done?” because God does not know what has happened to Abel. Instead God confronts Cain with the brutal facts: “The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.” Now this phrase “the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me” conveys the sense of the life of an innocent victim crying out for justice. This is a word picture of the life of the innocent crying out to the just God for justice. And as the just God, we see God exercise His justice and judgment to Cain in verse 11:

"Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth."

God responds to Cain’s selfishness and rebellion that resulted in Abel’s death by inflicting Cain with a curse. As a result of the envy that drove Cain to kill Abel, Cain would be cursed from the ground.  In other words, the very earth which received the innocent blood of Abel would now no longer respond to Cain’s efforts as a farmer to produce fruit. And as a result, Cain would be condemned to be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. Cain was sentenced to spend the rest of his days as a wandering fugitive. Cain’s life would be unstable and detached from communion with God and community with others. We see Cain’s response to God’s sentence in verse 13:

 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear!  "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

Cain’s response to his consequences is to express his outrage at their unfairness. This morning, do you see the irony in Cain’s response? Don’t you find it ironic that Cain feels that the possibility of death is too great a punishment after he willingly put someone else to death? Now, you might be here this morning, and for you, Cain’s response has brought out another question. And that question is this: Who is going to kill Cain? Who would be around to kill Cain if there was only Adam, Eve, and Cain and Abel on the planet?

Now some would point to this as evidence that the Bible is inaccurate and has errors. However, as we will discover next week, Cain and Abel were not the only children that Adam and Eve had, but they are the only children that are specifically mentioned in the Bible up to this point. You see, while the Bible records events that occurred in history, it does not record every event that occurred in history. And the Bible does not provide us an exhaustive genealogy of every human being that was ever born.

The Bible records the lives of those in God’s story who played a significant role in God’s story. And in this story, we see the irony that Cain, who killed one of his relatives, is now concerned that he must watch out for his relatives who would want to avenge his death. And as this story continues, we see Moses reveal to us how God extended grace to Cain in spite of his selfishness and rebellion in verse 15:

 So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.  Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

God responds to Cain’s outrage at his consequences by proclaiming that whoever would kill Cain, would experience God’s judgment. And to make sure that everyone knew who Cain was; and to make sure that everyone would be reminded of God’s decree concerning Cain; the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one would kill him. Now while the Bible does not specifically tell us what that sign was, we do know that this sign served as evidence of God’s power and as a symbol to others that identified Cain as being protected by God. And here we see God extend grace to Cain by rescuing him from almost certain death.

In verse 16, we see that Cain went from the presence of the Lord and began to travel to the East. When the Bible says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, this phrase is a way of saying that Cain began his life of alienation and estrangement from God. Cain was no longer an insider, but was now an outsider when it came to experiencing God’s presence and activity in his life. We see how Cain responded to God’s grace in verse 17:

Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

Cain defied God by building a city. Instead of humbly repenting from his selfishness and rebellion and trusting God, Cain responded to God’s grace with rebellion. And Cain and his wife, who would also have been his sister, just to answer that question before it is asked, started a family tree that continued in rebellion against God. In a few weeks, we will go into greater detail in talking about how the world could be populated by two people.

In verse 19, we discover that one of his descendants, named Lamech, rejected God’s design for marriage in order to take two wives and followed in his ancestor Cain’s footsteps by committing murder.  And a few verses later, in Genesis 4:25, we see, as this story concludes, God extend grace to Adam and Eve in the midst of the loss of their son Abel:

 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him."  To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.

After Abel has been killed; after Cain has been removed from communion with God and community with others as a result of his selfishness and rebellion; we see Adam and Eve give birth to another son, whom they name Seth. This story concludes by explaining that it was Seth’s children that would begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Now this little phrase literally means to call or proclaim.

You see, as the descendants of Cain continued in the selfishness and rebellion against God, we see another part of the family tree of Adam and Eve begin to search after and seek God. And it is through a descendant of Seth, named Jesus Christ, that God would most powerfully extend grace and provide all humanity the opportunity to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that resulted in our estrangement from God and our envy toward others. 

Because, as we have seen, all of humanity is in desperate need of rescue. We are in desperate need of rescue because the curse of our selfishness and rebellion produces the consequences of estrangement from God and envy of others.  And it is only through what God has done for us through Jesus that we can experience the communion with God and community with others that we were created for.

So here is the question: Are you still estranged from God as a result of your selfishness and rebellion that causes you to want what others have and not want others to have what they have? Does your envy of others reveal the reality of your estrangement from God? Or have you come to the place in your life where you have allowed God to do for you what you could not do for yourself by responding to Jesus life, death, and resurrection, by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader?