Cain is the third human character named in the Bible. He is the first child of Adam and Eve, and the first human born naturally in the Bible. Whereas Adam and Eve were both created, Adam from dust and Eve from Adam, Cain was born. And what a precedent he set for humanity.
Cain's story is one of great interest and a good level of ambiguity. Let's take a look at Cain through the Bible.
References to Cain
There are 17 mentions of Cain. 14 of them come in Genesis 4 with Cain's story, and 3 are in the New Testament.
Unlike the previous two characters, Adam and Eve, Cain is not mentioned in any Pauline epistle. Instead, Hebrews 11 is where we see the first New Testament reference to Cain. Hebrews 11 provides a list of people written about in Old Testament literature who walked by faith and were credited righteousness by God. Verse 4 speaks of Abel, offering his sacrifice in faith. So here we see, as we will dive into deeper later, the reason for God's love of Abel's sacrifice over Cain's: faith.
The second mention of Cain in the New Testament comes in 1 John 3:12. John tells his readers not to be like Cain, who "belonged to the evil one." He brings up Cain as a representative of the world, who follows the ruler of the kingdom of the air, Satan (Eph. 2:2). Cain killed his brother out of spite, because, according to John, "his own actions were evil, and his brother's were righteous." Based on this, John tells his readers not to be surprised if the world hates them because of Christ, for there is clear precedent for this behavior since the firstborn child of humanity.
The final reference to Cain again comes along a list, this time a list of historical evil in the Bible. It comes in the book of Jude. As mentioned previously in my post about Adam, Jude implores the Church in his letter to be aware of false teachers and followers among them, attempting to distort the Word of God into something worldly. He mentions Cain in that just like Cain and other characters in the Bible (Balaam and Korah), these people are abandoning the life-sustaining, eternal truth of God for personal gain.
As we can see, Cain is not looked upon fondly by the authors of the New Testament.
Cain's Story
The story of Cain is inextricably linked with the story of his brother, Abel. Genesis 4 begins with Adam and Eve, having been banished from the garden and cursed to death, bringing into the world two sons. The first is Cain. Eve names her firstborn Cain because, she says, "With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man." The name Cain means "brought forth." There is no in-depth explanation of Abel's name, but rather it just says that later she gave birth to Abel. Verse 2 tells us of the work the brothers do. Abel was a shepherd and Cain "worked the soil."
The next part of the story is important. Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. Cain's offering was described as "some of the fruits of the soil," and Cain's offering was described as "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock."
We can examine the contents of the offerings, which has value, but if we stop there, we are clearly missing the point. The New Testament examinations of this story do not focus on the content of the sacrifices. Hebrews speaks of faith, 1 John speaks of Cain's "evil actions" that led him to kill his brother. Is presenting an offering to the Lord evil? Certainly not! No, the story of the offering of Cain is not about the content of the offering, but of the heart.
We know well from many other places in the Bible that God is much more interested in the heart of a person than their outward appearance (1 Sam 16:7, Ps. 51:16-17, Prov. 4:23, Mark 7:21-23, etc.). Although there is a level of ambiguity in this story as to why God accepted Abel's sacrifice over Cain's, the rest of the Bible makes it abundantly clear. Scripture loves to answer the questions it brings up, and here it clearly does. Even the surrounding text helps in our answering of the question.
After God looked favorably on Abel's offering, Cain became angry. God comes to him and asks "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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." (Gen. 4:7)
Sin ruled over Cain. Following this challenge by God to change the posture of his heart, Cain tells his brother "Let's go out to the field" (Gen. 4:8), and you can see where this is going. Cain killed his brother in the field. After the death of Abel, God comes to Cain and asks him where Abel went. Cain lies to the God of the universe and utters the famous line "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9).
We are nine verses into the story of Cain. Nine. Here is what we know about him. Cain works the ground (in other words, he's a farmer), he has a heart that does not love God, he is resentful, feels entitled to God's love, is a murderer and a liar, and is proud enough to think he can fool an all-knowing God. We'll come back to Cain's character. For now, let's get to the end of Cain's story.
God, knowing everything, knew that not only had Cain killed his brother, but that Cain hid it and lied to Him. This is the first recorded time someone has lied to God in the Bible. Even Adam and Eve, though they shifted the blame without end, did not lie about what happened. Cain, the third human ever, is the third human to be punished by God.
God curses Cain. He is no longer to till the soil. In fact, no matter how hard he tries, the ground will not produce a crop for him (Gen. 4:12). He is to become a "restless wanderer," never to find peace.
Cain, in a moment of clarity, sees the severity of his punishment, and tells God that whoever finds him will surely kill him. God places a mark on Cain, telling him that if anyone kills him, their punishment will be seven times greater than the punishment laid on Cain himself.
So with that, Cain became a wanderer. Some time later, Cain and his wife have a child. They name him Enoch, and when Cain built a city, he named it after his son. This Enoch is not the same as the Enoch who walked with the Lord. That would come from the line of Adam and Eve's third son, Seth.
What we see from Cain's genealogy is a family line of people whose hearts are against God, culminating towards the end of Genesis 4 in a man named Lamech. He married two women. This is the first time in the Bible that a man married two women, and though the Bible does not come out and say that polygamy is a poor practice, there are many places that show the problems that arise when man messes with God's design of marriage. Lamech is a murderer, and even more prideful than his ancestor Cain. After killing a man he says "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times," as if Cain's curse were something of which to boast.
Cain's family is not mentioned much beyond Genesis 4, but it is clear that wickedness runs in the family.
Where does Jesus come into this?
Y'know how I said we were going to come back to the character of Cain? Well we're back. The time is now. So let's just lay out his heart one more time. Cain was entitled. Cain was angry. Cain was envious. Cain was a murderer. He was a liar. More than anything, Cain's heart was utterly opposed to God.
We are just like Cain. I cannot tell you how many times I felt like I deserved God's love. How unfair it was to be going through a situation that felt contrary to what should be happening. We don't deserve God's love, yet he has been more than gracious in lavishing it on us in this life and beyond.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been angry at someone else, or envious over what someone else has, or how many times I have lied to cover for myself. I cannot describe to you how much I battle pride. And in terms of murder, in Matthew 5, Jesus explains that when we are angry with a brother or sister, we are subject to judgement, or essentially have the same sentence as the murderer.
Whether we know it or not, we have all drowned in the pit of our own sin. We were not neck deep, or nearing death, Ephesians 2 makes it clear, because of our sin we were dead. Sin ruled over us, and we had no power to escape it. But God, rich in mercy, provided a way out (Eph. 2:4-5). Though we did nothing to deserve it, God the Father sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, to make us alive through Him.
Though we were dead, through the death and resurrection of Christ, who lived the perfect life that we could not, we are brought from death into life through faith in Him. This faith is not something we could ever have earned or deserved, but it is entirely given as an expression of God's grace (Eph. 2:8-10).
And when we receive this gift of God, faith in Christ, we are also given the Holy Spirit. Through His Spirit, God changes our hearts, bringing us, again by grace, to represent the image of Christ more and more as we go about our lives. God brought us out of our sin, but beyond that made us ambassadors for Him (2 Cor. 5:20). How great is our God, and how great is His mercy!
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