CAIN AND ABEL. -- Genesis 4:3-16. GOLDEN TEXT. --_ Am. my brother's keeper?_ -- Genesis 4:9. TIME --Unknown. PLACE. --East of the Garden of Eden. HELPFUL READINGS. --Gen. 3:20 to 4:3; Genesis 4:17-26; Psalms 15:1; 1 John 3:10-19; Hebrews 11:1-4. LESSON ANALYSIS. --1. _False and True Worship;_ 2. _T... [ Continue Reading ]
ABEL.. BROUGHT OF THE FIRSTLINGS OF HIS FLOCK. Abel likewise brings the products of his own labor, but brings. sin offering, and "the fat thereof" to be burned upon the altar, as afterwards directed in Numbers 18:17. In these two offerings we have the first recorded in history. There is no statement... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT UNTO CAIN... HE HAD NOT RESPECT. It was not an offering made in the obedience of faith. Cain came with. thank-offering, such as the most righteous person might offer, but he brought no sin offering as. sinner. He set up his own plan of worship against God's, or rather, left off the part of God'... [ Continue Reading ]
II. THE FIRST MURDERER. 6. AND THE LORD SAID UNTO CAIN. God talks with him as with. sullen child; unriddles to him what slumbers in his heart, and, like. beast of prey, is lurking at the door. The near approach of sin could not be more truly or fearfully pictured. Against this insidious enemy Cain... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU DOEST WELL, SHALT THOU NOT BE ACCEPTED? His rejection is placed upon the ground of his own acts. He can secure favor by. change of his course. SIN LIETH AT THE DOOR. Sin is personified and thought of as some animal,. beast of prey, ready to spring upon him and drag him to deeper depths. I... [ Continue Reading ]
AND CAIN TALKED WITH ABEL HIS BROTHER. The conversation is not related, but we can judge that it was. complaint and. quarrel, the first religious controversy on record, and caused, as all others have been, by departing from the command of the Lord. WHEN THEY WERE IN THE FIELD. His hard words only... [ Continue Reading ]
WHERE IS ABEL, THY BROTHER? The context seems to imply that he had concealed his brother's body in the hope that his crime would be undiscovered. He had not yet learned that there are no concealments from the All-seeing Eye. As God called to the sinful Adam, "Where art thou?" not because he did not... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BROTHER'S BLOOD CRIETH UNTO ME FROM THE GROUND. The murderer has his concealments stripped off and stands revealed. No man had accused him, but an appeal had been made to God. The blood of Abel, shed upon the earth, had been. crimson witness. So, too, of every victim of murder. Though the dark... [ Continue Reading ]
III. THE MURDERER'S DOOM. 11. NOW ART THOU CURSED FROM THE EARTH. Life was held so sacred that, at first, even the murderer did not forfeit his life, but in the covenant with Noah it was enacted that, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed." Cain is placed under. curse that has... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL NOT HENCEFORTH YIELD UNTO THEE HER STRENGTH. He had been. tiller of the soil, but henceforth his labors would be barren because the earth would refuse to make fruitful returns.. am of the opinion that this means, literally, that he would be banished into. barren region where his labors wou... [ Continue Reading ]
MY PUNISHMENT IS GREATER THAN. CAN BEAR. The meaning is plain if this is. correct translation. Many have held that the word translated punishment should be rendered "iniquity," as in the margin of the common version. If so it would seem to indicate. deep remorse, not penitence perhaps, but. kind of... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THY FACE SHALL. BE HID. 1. He shall be driven "from the face of the earth," or out of the laud known to him and his family. There altars of God and worship were maintained and the divine presence was manifested. 2. Driven from thence he "shall be hid" from the divine face, an exile abandoned b... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, WHOSOEVER SLAYETH CAIN. God gave him the promise of protection in the threat of seven-fold vengeance upon his slayer. He had taken the punishment of Cain out of the hands of men and was dealing directly with the offender himself. It was needful to restrain private retaliation by. severe... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. From the place of his public worship. Various allusions serve to show that after the exile of our parents from Eden there was. place of worship where God was wont to manifest his presence, as in later times he did in Bethel, the cloud and the tabernacle. Cain... [ Continue Reading ]