Genesis (Part 6)
Bible Study Time 7-6-08
(From James Roberts 9-8-96)
Bible Study Time 7-6-08
(From James Roberts 9-8-96)
In our Journey Through the Scripture last week, we saw Adam and Eve having children named Cain and Abel. In these two children we see a very good picture of mankind today in that some choose to walk with God by faith, while others rebel against God and choose to walk according to their own human wisdom and logic.
Last week we also saw in a dramatic way, the fact that God does change the way He deals with mankind when circumstances arise which warrant such a change. Before Adam and Eve sinned, God walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. This indicated the type of close, intimate fellowship that they experienced with God there in the garden. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God drove them out of the garden because they were sinners and because they were conscious of their sin.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they passed on to all of their descendants the nature to sin. The book of Romans says:
Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men . . .
That’s why David said in Psalms, Chapter 51, that he was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. It wasn’t because his mother and father had sinned when he was conceived. No, it was because David knew that even when he was born, he was born with a nature to sin. David was simply acknowledging that he was born with the old sin nature.
Mankind today does not like to accept the fact of the old sin nature. Men today baulk at the idea that they are fallen creatures and that their actions are displeasing to God because their actions come from that old fallen nature. The Bible teaches that God requires a sacrifice for sin before man can be brought back into fellowship with God.
In Genesis, Chapter 4, we find that in the process of time, Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord. Undoubtedly, when Cain and Abel were children, their sins were covered by the sacrifices that Adam offered on their behalf. When Cain and Abel became adults, however, each had to assume individual responsibility for his own relationship with God.
And so it is with you and me. Each one of us is responsible for our own relationship with God. By nature we are dead in sin, but God has provided a way for us to be brought back into a place of acceptance and fellowship with God through the death of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it came time for Cain and Abel to offer their sacrifices to God, it seems that they had to bring them to the gate of the Garden of Eden where the Cherubim were. These Cherubim had flaming swords that turned in every direction. I do believe that the very presence of God was in this place.
When Cain and Abel brought their offerings, God had respect to Abel’s offering and probably showed His good pleasure by consuming Abel’s offering with fire. However, God did not accept Cain’s offering; Cain’s offering just sat there on the altar.
This made Cain furious. I can just see Cain ranting and railing against God, saying, I brought You the very best that I have to offer; I worked hard to raise this beautiful fruit, but You won’t even acknowledge it; You accepted Abel’s offering even though he had to do nothing but go out and kill a lamb.
The book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, presents God’s perspective which is totally different. It says that it was by faith that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. That means that God must have given Cain and Abel specific instructions about what to bring and when and where to bring it. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so Abel came to God in faith, offering his sacrifice in accordance with the word of God.
As Cain and Abel were growing up, they probably watched Adam as he offered sacrifices to God, and they would listen as Adam explained to them exactly what he was doing and why. Adam must have taught them the word of God concerning the kind of offerings that God would accept and when and where they were to offer their sacrifices.
Well, as Cain grew up and became responsible for his own sacrifices, he decided that God probably wouldn’t be all that strict about the kind of sacrifice that He would accept, so he decided to bring some of the beautiful fruit that he had grown from the ground. After all, why wouldn’t God be pleased with such a beautiful offering?
When God refused to accept his offering, Cain rebelled and refused to acknowledge his sin. Instead, he accused God of being unjust. But notice the gentle nature of God’s response to Cain. God said, Cain, if you do well, I’ll accept you, but if you do not do well, sin is at your door, and you shall rule over it.
When God said, sin lies at your door, He may have been saying that a sin offering was lying at the door. This would mean that God had provided an offering for Cain and that this offering was lying right at the door of Cain’s tent. God indicated that it was a gentle lamb in that Cain would be able to rule over it.
Oh my, what a gracious offer. God was willing to provide an offering for Cain, and this offering would require no work on Cain’s part. All Cain had to do was pick up the offering and bring it to God by faith. But Cain refused to accept God’s offer. Instead, Cain asked Abel to meet him in the field, and there in the field, Cain killed his brother, Abel.
The book of Hebrews says that Cain killed Abel first of all because Cain’s deeds were evil and secondly because Abel’s deeds were righteous. You see, Cain hated Abel simply because Abel believed God and was accepted by God. In fact, in his state of rebellion against God, Cain hated both Abel and God.
After Cain killed Abel, God came looking for Cain, asking, “Where is Abel your brother?” Instead of acknowledging his sin, Cain said, “I don’t know where Abel is. Am I my brother’s keeper? Then God confronted Cain and said,
Genesis 4:10-12 NKJV
10 . . . "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."
Until that time Cain had been a tiller of the ground, and undoubtedly, the ground had produced beautiful fruit for Cain. But God said that from this point on, the ground would no longer produce fruit for Cain. God said that Cain would be a vagabond and a fugitive, and then God placed a mark on Cain so that no one would kill him. In fact, God said that He would personally take vengeance on anyone who killed Cain.
At this point I would like to just say that in spite of man’s fallen nature and in spite of man’s rebellion against God, God still sees great value in human life. I believe that there is a strong application in this lesson for us today. Some people today take abortion very lightly, and we are told that 95% of abortions are done simply as a means of birth control. They are not done because the mother’s life is in danger or because of rape or incest. They are done simply because people don’t want the child.
We see clearly in the scriptures that God has always held people responsible for murder, and even in the case of a guilty person such as Cain, God still values human life. That being the case, how much greater is God’s condemnation of those take the life of an innocent, unborn child.
As we look further in Genesis, Chapter 4, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma. God had promised that a Redeemer would come from one of Eve’s children, but now Abel was dead and Cain had gone out from the presence of God. So from what line was the Redeemer going to come? As it turned out Eve had another son by the name of Seth, and God determined that the Redeemer would come through the righteous linage of Seth.
But what about Cain? Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, but how does a person go out from the presence of an omnipresent God? David said, if I go up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, You are there; if I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, You are there. How could Cain go out from the presence of the Lord?
Well, this stands as evidence that God had established His presence at a certain place, probably at the gate of the Garden of Eden. This is the place where people would come to offer their sacrifices to the Lord. When the Bible says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, it simply means that Cain went far away from this place where God’s presence was. Having left this place, Cain was no longer in a position to fellowship with God.
As we move on into Genesis, Chapter 5, we see the genealogy of the descendants of Adam. As we look at this genealogy, there is one thing that stands out and that is that after each person’s mini-history there is one final epitaph which reads, “and he died.” All the way down the list we read, and he died, and he died, and he died.
Every person in that list died except one person and that was Enoch. Next week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to talk about Enoch, and we’re going to see that Enoch was a man who walked with God in the midst of an ungodly generation. Enoch did not die, but everyone else did. According to Hebrews 9:
Hebrews 9:27
27 . . . it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment:
Unless the Lord comes to take all believers up to heaven before we die, we will all certainly face death. Every day we are getting closer to the time that we will die. We have no claim on life. The genealogy says, and he died, and he died.
Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin . . .
You and I have no claim on life, and I trust today that you are like Abel and Enoch in that you are walking by faith and walking with God even though you live in the midst of an ungodly generation. If you walk with God by faith and believe what He has revealed in His word, you are a child of God, and you can rest assured that when you die, your spirit will go to be with the Lord in heaven. The Bible says that we should comfort ourselves with this thought.
Well, we’ve come to a stop sign which means we’re going to have to stop in our journey for today. But next week, the Lord willing, we’ll take up our journey once again. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
Last week we also saw in a dramatic way, the fact that God does change the way He deals with mankind when circumstances arise which warrant such a change. Before Adam and Eve sinned, God walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. This indicated the type of close, intimate fellowship that they experienced with God there in the garden. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God drove them out of the garden because they were sinners and because they were conscious of their sin.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they passed on to all of their descendants the nature to sin. The book of Romans says:
Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men . . .
That’s why David said in Psalms, Chapter 51, that he was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. It wasn’t because his mother and father had sinned when he was conceived. No, it was because David knew that even when he was born, he was born with a nature to sin. David was simply acknowledging that he was born with the old sin nature.
Mankind today does not like to accept the fact of the old sin nature. Men today baulk at the idea that they are fallen creatures and that their actions are displeasing to God because their actions come from that old fallen nature. The Bible teaches that God requires a sacrifice for sin before man can be brought back into fellowship with God.
In Genesis, Chapter 4, we find that in the process of time, Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord. Undoubtedly, when Cain and Abel were children, their sins were covered by the sacrifices that Adam offered on their behalf. When Cain and Abel became adults, however, each had to assume individual responsibility for his own relationship with God.
And so it is with you and me. Each one of us is responsible for our own relationship with God. By nature we are dead in sin, but God has provided a way for us to be brought back into a place of acceptance and fellowship with God through the death of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it came time for Cain and Abel to offer their sacrifices to God, it seems that they had to bring them to the gate of the Garden of Eden where the Cherubim were. These Cherubim had flaming swords that turned in every direction. I do believe that the very presence of God was in this place.
When Cain and Abel brought their offerings, God had respect to Abel’s offering and probably showed His good pleasure by consuming Abel’s offering with fire. However, God did not accept Cain’s offering; Cain’s offering just sat there on the altar.
This made Cain furious. I can just see Cain ranting and railing against God, saying, I brought You the very best that I have to offer; I worked hard to raise this beautiful fruit, but You won’t even acknowledge it; You accepted Abel’s offering even though he had to do nothing but go out and kill a lamb.
The book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, presents God’s perspective which is totally different. It says that it was by faith that Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. That means that God must have given Cain and Abel specific instructions about what to bring and when and where to bring it. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so Abel came to God in faith, offering his sacrifice in accordance with the word of God.
As Cain and Abel were growing up, they probably watched Adam as he offered sacrifices to God, and they would listen as Adam explained to them exactly what he was doing and why. Adam must have taught them the word of God concerning the kind of offerings that God would accept and when and where they were to offer their sacrifices.
Well, as Cain grew up and became responsible for his own sacrifices, he decided that God probably wouldn’t be all that strict about the kind of sacrifice that He would accept, so he decided to bring some of the beautiful fruit that he had grown from the ground. After all, why wouldn’t God be pleased with such a beautiful offering?
When God refused to accept his offering, Cain rebelled and refused to acknowledge his sin. Instead, he accused God of being unjust. But notice the gentle nature of God’s response to Cain. God said, Cain, if you do well, I’ll accept you, but if you do not do well, sin is at your door, and you shall rule over it.
When God said, sin lies at your door, He may have been saying that a sin offering was lying at the door. This would mean that God had provided an offering for Cain and that this offering was lying right at the door of Cain’s tent. God indicated that it was a gentle lamb in that Cain would be able to rule over it.
Oh my, what a gracious offer. God was willing to provide an offering for Cain, and this offering would require no work on Cain’s part. All Cain had to do was pick up the offering and bring it to God by faith. But Cain refused to accept God’s offer. Instead, Cain asked Abel to meet him in the field, and there in the field, Cain killed his brother, Abel.
The book of Hebrews says that Cain killed Abel first of all because Cain’s deeds were evil and secondly because Abel’s deeds were righteous. You see, Cain hated Abel simply because Abel believed God and was accepted by God. In fact, in his state of rebellion against God, Cain hated both Abel and God.
After Cain killed Abel, God came looking for Cain, asking, “Where is Abel your brother?” Instead of acknowledging his sin, Cain said, “I don’t know where Abel is. Am I my brother’s keeper? Then God confronted Cain and said,
Genesis 4:10-12 NKJV
10 . . . "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."
Until that time Cain had been a tiller of the ground, and undoubtedly, the ground had produced beautiful fruit for Cain. But God said that from this point on, the ground would no longer produce fruit for Cain. God said that Cain would be a vagabond and a fugitive, and then God placed a mark on Cain so that no one would kill him. In fact, God said that He would personally take vengeance on anyone who killed Cain.
At this point I would like to just say that in spite of man’s fallen nature and in spite of man’s rebellion against God, God still sees great value in human life. I believe that there is a strong application in this lesson for us today. Some people today take abortion very lightly, and we are told that 95% of abortions are done simply as a means of birth control. They are not done because the mother’s life is in danger or because of rape or incest. They are done simply because people don’t want the child.
We see clearly in the scriptures that God has always held people responsible for murder, and even in the case of a guilty person such as Cain, God still values human life. That being the case, how much greater is God’s condemnation of those take the life of an innocent, unborn child.
As we look further in Genesis, Chapter 4, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma. God had promised that a Redeemer would come from one of Eve’s children, but now Abel was dead and Cain had gone out from the presence of God. So from what line was the Redeemer going to come? As it turned out Eve had another son by the name of Seth, and God determined that the Redeemer would come through the righteous linage of Seth.
But what about Cain? Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, but how does a person go out from the presence of an omnipresent God? David said, if I go up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, You are there; if I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, You are there. How could Cain go out from the presence of the Lord?
Well, this stands as evidence that God had established His presence at a certain place, probably at the gate of the Garden of Eden. This is the place where people would come to offer their sacrifices to the Lord. When the Bible says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, it simply means that Cain went far away from this place where God’s presence was. Having left this place, Cain was no longer in a position to fellowship with God.
As we move on into Genesis, Chapter 5, we see the genealogy of the descendants of Adam. As we look at this genealogy, there is one thing that stands out and that is that after each person’s mini-history there is one final epitaph which reads, “and he died.” All the way down the list we read, and he died, and he died, and he died.
Every person in that list died except one person and that was Enoch. Next week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we’re going to talk about Enoch, and we’re going to see that Enoch was a man who walked with God in the midst of an ungodly generation. Enoch did not die, but everyone else did. According to Hebrews 9:
Hebrews 9:27
27 . . . it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment:
Unless the Lord comes to take all believers up to heaven before we die, we will all certainly face death. Every day we are getting closer to the time that we will die. We have no claim on life. The genealogy says, and he died, and he died.
Romans 5:12 KJV
12 . . . by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin . . .
You and I have no claim on life, and I trust today that you are like Abel and Enoch in that you are walking by faith and walking with God even though you live in the midst of an ungodly generation. If you walk with God by faith and believe what He has revealed in His word, you are a child of God, and you can rest assured that when you die, your spirit will go to be with the Lord in heaven. The Bible says that we should comfort ourselves with this thought.
Well, we’ve come to a stop sign which means we’re going to have to stop in our journey for today. But next week, the Lord willing, we’ll take up our journey once again. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
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