Whether Cain’s murderous blow inflicted upon his brother, Abel, was premeditated or not, I don’t know. But it must have seemed strange for Cain to look down upon the still warm and bleeding corpse of his brother. Not desensitized yet to the shedding of human blood by years of wars and homicides and news of killings of passion, it must have seemed strange to Cain to have killed his brother. It was the first human on human violence that ever led to death.

There’s an old expression – I don’t know where it originated – that says, "There’s a First Time for Everything."

I think the expression was designed to give its hearers courage when facing the strangeness of doing things they had never done before – sort of like, "Everything has a first time. People get through it. You will, too." First times are nearly always awkward. We don’t know how things are going to go. Sometimes we don’t know what to expect.

Think of the many "first times" in your life. There was your first time without your parents when you were left with a baby-sitter. You probably don’t remember it but I’ll bet it was a time of trepidation for your mother – especially if you were the firstborn. Then there was that first day of school. I still remember that day. I was terrified. In fact I worried about it for several days in advance. There is that first day of Jr. High and High school. There is that first day on your very first job. There’s your first date. If you’re married, there is that first day when you are no longer a single person. There is that first child for many of us. And on it goes.

Sorry to turn the corner so abruptly and move away from all of these mildly pleasant "first times," but one day long ago there was also the very first murder. Man raised club or sword or spear against man.

Whether Cain’s murderous blow inflicted upon his brother, Abel, was premeditated or not, I don’t know. But it must have seemed strange for Cain to look down upon the still warm and bleeding corpse of his brother. Not desensitized yet to the shedding of human blood by years of wars and homicides and news of killings of passion, it must have seemed strange to Cain to have killed his brother. It was the first human on human violence that ever led to death. Was Cain astonished at how simple it had been to take the life of his sibling or was he aghast that he had actually carried out the evil deed? Was he apprehensive of the results? Did he wonder what his parents, Adam and Eve, would think? Did he look toward the sky and wonder whether fire from God might come down and consume him for his deed? Surely he had seen dead animals before. Indeed, the recent offering brought by this very brother had involved taking the life of one or more of the animals in his flock. Was this killing of a human being different than that for him? Was he sorry he did it? Did he have second thoughts as he stood over the body of his brother? Did he somehow anticipate that he was first among the ranks of many who would bear the stigma of "murderer?" There were no human laws yet that would call him to justice. There were no police departments to investigate the crime. There was no criminal justice department to link him to the murder by forensic evidence. There were no courts or juries to try him for his deed – or for that matter, there were no gallows or gas chambers or lethal injection rooms. What thoughts flashed through the mind of the world’s first killer as the earth swallowed up the blood of his victim?

Was Cain aware of the magnitude of his crime? Did he fully appreciate what evil he unleashed that day? Did he anticipate the rash of deadly violence that would envelop mankind in the wake of his deed – such violence as would cause God to destroy the world and his descendants with a flood? As the relatively new world continued to turn and the birds continued to sing that day on which Abel died, did Cain have misgivings?

To all these questions and more, the Bible provides only an answer of silence. Yet we should acquaint ourselves with what little it does say – which is what I propose to do in this message.

Genesis 4:1-16 is our text this morning. I’m calling this sermon When Anger Boils Over: The Story of Cain and Abel. In this passage we see two men, two offerings, two outcomes, and two choices. We begin with:

Verses 1-2:

We assume that Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve because there is no mention of any sons or daughters before him and this is the first mentioned birth. Genesis tells us later that Adam "had other sons and daughters,"(1) but presumably none before Cain. So Adam and Eve were experiencing parenthood for the first time, not only for themselves, but for all of mankind. It is likely that Cain was born amid all of the joy and hope that most parents have for their children. Some commentators speculate that Eve, when she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord," in addition to letting us know that the mother of all the living was still acknowledging the role of God in her life, may have had hopes that this boy might be the predicted Seed of Woman who was to undo the effects of the devil as told to them in Genesis 3:15. Whatever she may have thought however, whatever may have been the our first parents’ hopes for this boy, just like parents today whose children grow up and depart from them and God, she was going to learn the heartbreak and pain of seeing her child ruin his life with bad choices.

We don’t know anything about the relationship between Cain and Abel. Nor do we have any clue as to their personalities or whether they got along or regularly clashed. We only know that Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer – which sets the stage for what happened on that fateful day when man first raised a weapon against his brother. It concerns:

Verses 3-4a:

Each man brought to the Lord that which his own labor had produced. Cain, the farmer, brought some of his vegetable produce and Abel, the shepherd, brought the firstborn from among his sheep (or whatever animals he kept).

Here we also have the Bible’s first example of worship – that is, two men presenting themselves before the Lord and bringing some sort of gift which we assume must have been offered to the Lord by fire. Where did this idea of an offering by fire come from? We aren’t told. It is most reasonable to believe that these two men were worshipping according to instructions they had received from their father, Adam, though when God gave Adam such instruction the Bible doesn’t say.

Was this an offering for sin as would later be commanded under the Law of Moses or was it an offering of thanksgiving of some sort? Again, the Bible doesn’t say.

Abel’s offering is the first recorded sacrifice of the life of animals as carried out by man, though there may have been instances of it prior to this. Yes, we do have the case of God killing an animal and using its skin to make garments to cover the nakedness of the first couple(2) – but that was an act of God, not man.

At any rate, what we find next in this brief account are:

Verses 4b-5:

There is much debate among students of the Bible as to the reason or reasons why God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. It seems to boil down to two basic ideas, one having to do with the nature of each offering itself and the other having to do with the attitudes of each worshipper. Both provide plenty to ponder.

In favor of the idea that it was the nature of the offerings themselves, we have the fact that the text states what each offering was. Abel’s offering was some of the firstborn animals from his flock - Cain’s was some kind of vegetable produce from his farm. Thus some folks believe that Abel’s offering was accepted because it was a blood sacrifice while Cain’s was rejected because it was not.

While this may well be the reason, we need to know that vegetable sacrifices would later, under the Law of Moses, be commanded right along with animals – though not for sin offerings. So if the offering described here was a sin offering (which we don’t know for sure) then the reason for God’s acceptance or rejection probably was that one was a blood sacrifice and the other was not.

As for the idea that it was the attitude of the worshippers that was the issue, we have a couple of possibilities. First, note that verse four stipulates that Abel brought the "firstlings" of his flock. This would be the best a shepherd would have to offer – the first of his increase – the earliest born lambs from his flock. Conspicuously, the same isn’t stated about Cain’s offering. He just brought some vegetables. It is sometimes pointed out that had Cain done what Abel did, he would have brought some of the "firstfruits" of his produce. Also to support the idea that it was the attitude of each worshipper and not necessarily the offerings themselves, verse 4 says, "the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering." Then verse 5 says, "for Cain and his offering he had no regard." Thus it is suggested that it was the heart of each worshipper that God accepted or rejected.

I don’t suppose there is a way we can know for sure which is correct on this side of eternity. What we can say is this:

Whether it was the nature of the sacrifice, suggesting that God wants things done His way, according to His instruction, or it was the disposition of the worshippers, suggesting that worship is as much an attitude as it is an action, we need to pay attention to what we are doing when we come before God. Jesus said in John 4:24: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

We must concern ourselves with both the spirit of our worship and the truth of it. It is God Whom we must please in our worship and not ourselves. As you probably already know, much of what goes on in the name of "worship" these days doesn’t even come close to either of these issues, being something done solely for the entertainment of the "worshipper." Such activity, while it might get the pulse of the participant going and it might be a lot of "fun" - may actually be as rejected by God as Cain’s worship was back in the days of Adam and Eve.

My point here is not to judge. It is simply to caution us that we need to be concerned that God accept our worship.

Next we come to:

Verse 5b says, "So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell."

This verse speaks volumes about Cain’s attitude in his worship. He leaves the worship angry and dejected, as though it were all about him – as though he were the one who needed to be pleased. And he was very displeased. He was angry with God. The passage says literally that Cain’s "face fell." Then the Lord put two choices before Cain.

God cared about Cain and his attitude. He loved him just as he loved his brother, Abel. So as a loving Father, He called on Cain to consider his ways. "Why the anger and why the sad face? If you simply correct what is wrong, you’ll feel good again. But if you don’t, it will lead you into sin. You must master it before it masters you."

Note that Cain had not yet sinned in his anger. God didn’t say, "OK, Cain. You’ve sinned because you’re angry and you need to repent." No. He said, "Sin is crouching at the door. Sin wants to master you. You must master it."

Anger in and of itself is not sin. Ephesians 4:26 says, "Be angry, and yet do not sin…." Anger is not sin. The problem with anger is that it so often leads us to sin. As the old Arab proverb says, "Anger blows out the lamp of the mind."

I like to look at anger as a God given emotion that is designed to stir us up sufficiently so that we will fix the problem or resolve the issue that is angering us. Anger can be a tool for good when it drives us to make things right or make right choices. How many times has something bothered us and bothered us but we’ve done nothing about it until one day we get angry enough to fix it?

Like Cain here, when we get angry we have two choices: We can continue on an angry path until we sin or we can utilize the motivation of anger to correct what needs to be corrected.

Apparently Cain knew what he had done wrong – otherwise God could not have called on him to do right. The problem was that instead of doing right, Cain continued to pout and stew in his juices until the pot boiled over.

Verse 8 says, "And Cain told his brother." Was Cain looking for some sympathy here in the conversation he had with Abel? Was he hoping his brother would join him in his anger toward God for rejecting his offering? Anger often spills out of its bounds and onto others when we don’t resolve it promptly. And anger loves the company of others who will become angry, too.

What words were exchanged between these two brothers? What did Abel say to his big brother? It certainly follows that he would take God’s side in the matter. Perhaps he said, "Cain, if you just do what God says, everything will be all right." But Cain didn’t do what was right. Instead, his anger boiled over onto his brother.

Jesus gave a stern warning about anger in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:21-22 He said:

These verses link anger with murder. Note the escalation of this volatile emotion. Someone is "angry with his brother." Then his anger continues to grow to the point that he is calling his brother "Raca" (as word meaning "Empty Head"). Then it escalates some more until the angry one calls his brother "You fool," a term of utter contempt.

The dangerous nature of anger and its potential to escalate unless we deal with it is why Paul said in Ephesians 4:26 that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. We’re supposed to settle our problems and issues daily. Just like Cain here, we have two choices. We can get things right or we can sin. And it is likely, indeed even probable, that if we don’t get things settled soon, we will ultimately sin.

Cain made the wrong choice. Verse 8 says:

God’s warning about Cain’s anger had fallen on deaf ears. He didn’t listen to God and presumably, he wasn’t willing to listen to whatever his brother may have told him.

Perhaps you remember the case of Moses where he became angry with the children of Israel to the extent that he struck the rock and took glory for himself that rightly belonged to God. What did that outburst of unresolved anger cost him? It cost him the Promised Land. After forty years of travel, he didn’t get to go in. There is indeed a high cost attached to a hot temper!

We see it here with Cain. Verse 9:

In December 1863, Edward Everett Hale published a story in ATLANTIC magazine titled, "The Man without a Country." The story was about a United States Army officer, Philip Nolan, who was involved in the Revolutionary war treachery of Aaron Burr. At his trial he was asked if he wished to say anything in his defense to show that he had always been faithful to the United States. But he cried out, "May God curse the United States, I wish I may never hear of the United States again." The judge decided to take Philip Nolan's request seriously. Instead of sentencing him to death for treason, he sentenced him to be imprisoned at sea on government vessels with instructions to the officers that no one was to permit him to hear the name of or receive any information about his country. Many years went by. Nolan passed from ship to ship, always transferred before the one he is riding on arrived at a U.S. port. Government red tape kept him from being pardoned. At last he died at sea - but not before the supposed author of the story, a naval officer, breaks orders and tells him about America and its remarkable growth and prosperity during the preceding twenty-five years. Nolan's last words were that no one ever loved a country as much as he.(3)

The man in Edward Everett Hale’s story apparently changed his mind and was sorry for what he had done. There is no evidence in Scripture that Cain ever changed his mind or softened his heart. He died without God, banished from the family of Adam.

You and I would do well to look to our ways. If anger is our problem then we need to master it before it masters us.

Footnotes: Use your back button to return to your place.

1. Genesis 5:4
2. Genesis 3:21
3. http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ManOut.shtml

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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