Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we are going to read Genesis 4:1-5:

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from JEHOVAH. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto JEHOVAH. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And JEHOVAH had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Here, God tells us of the birth of Cain and Abel to Adam and Eve. He also tells us of an offering they eventually would bring to God. One was an offering from Cain and it was of the fruit of the ground. The other was from Abel and it was of the firstlings of the flock and the fat of it.

Now some theologians conclude that God had respect unto Abel’s offering because it involved a sacrificial animal and because it was of the fruit of the ground and God wanted to illustrate the sacrifice that would point to Christ, so He accepted Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s offering. The theologians are wrong. That is not the reason God accepted the offering of Abel, but not the offering of Cain. The Bible lays out both types of offering. There are meat offerings that come forth from the ground and there are meat offerings that come from animals. Both were acceptable. As a matter of fact, the occupation of Cain as a tiller of the ground is the same occupation that God assigned to his father Adam as He sent him forth to till the ground from whence he was taken. There was nothing wrong with the type of offering from either man. This is the first thing we should understand.

But, before we get into that, let us take a look at this whole spiritual picture. We know the historical story. We understand that Cain and Abel were brothers born to Adam and Eve and at the time of this offering Cain was envious of his brother because his brother’s offering was respected and accepted by God, while his own offering was not respected. This made him jealous and angry. In his anger he slew his brother. He killed Abel. It was the first physical murder recorded in the Bible. That is the historical story, but the Bible is a spiritual Book and we must look for the deeper spiritual meaning.

We know that Adam is a figure of Christ and Eve can be a picture of the bride of Christ and the mother of Jerusalem above. She is the mother of all living. As it says in Galatians of Sara (who also identifies with Jerusalem above), she is the mother of us all, referring to the elect.

But, here, Eve conceives and gives birth to Cain and then Abel. Abel was a righteous man. If Eve had just given birth to Abel, we would see that picture – she is the mother of us all (the elect) and Abel is one of the elect. But, without question, Cain was not one of the elect of God. He was an unsaved man. There is no doubt about it, if we look at what it says in the New Testament Book of Jude. It says in Jude 1:10-13:

But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: cloudsthey are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

This is a condemnation of false prophets and of those that are far from the kingdom of heaven. That is why God says in verse 11, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.” And that is not a good way. It is the way that leads to destruction. It is not the “narrow way” of the Lord Jesus, but it is the broad way and it is the way of the unsaved.

It says in Hebrews 11:4:

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Here, we learn that Abel offered his sacrifice by faith and he obtained witness that he was righteous, which means that Cain did not offer by faith and Cain was not righteous.

It says in 1John 3:7-12:

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

We can see that there is no question at all that Cain was not saved. God says that he was “of that wicked one.” Who would that be? It is Satan. Jesus told the Jews, “Ye are of your father the devil.” They protested, but it was a fact that the ungodly, unsaved people of the world that pursue sin and believe the lie are of their father the devil, spiritually.

God’s elect, on the other hand, are of God Himself, the heavenly Father. Spiritually, you can either be of God the Father who has begotten you through His Gospel or you can be of Satan as you remain in your sin. Of course, during the time God was saving people there was an “in between” state for the “fatherless” or the “orphan.” In paying for the sins of the elect from the foundation of the world, it meant that they would not remain of their father the devil, but until God would apply His Word to their hearts and make them born again these would be “fatherless.”

But, here, as God speaks of Cain, he is not “fatherless,” but he is of the wicked one and would remain unsaved because he was not elected to salvation, which means that Cain had his sins upon him and this left him as unrighteous and of the devil. This was not the case with Abel. God speaks again, and again, of the righteousness of Abel, where it said that Cain’s works were evil but his brother Abel’s works were righteous. It also says in Matthew 23:35:

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Again, it says “righteous Abel,” so the spiritual condition of these two sons is well documented in the Bible. God wants us to know about it. He wants us to be clear that Cain was of the wicked one and Abel was righteous. Cain was not saved and Abel was a child of God. And it is very clear.

Now why would God want these facts to be so well known and so obvious? With Adam and Eve conceiving these two sons, it is a picture of what will take place on the earth throughout time – there are saved and unsaved. But, especially, it was true within Israel of old and within the New Testament corporate church. Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ established the New Testament church and it was God’s program to form the churches and congregations, but God was fully aware that within the corporate church there would be both the saved and the unsaved. For instance, it says in 2Peter 2:1:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Notice the language. God says there are false prophets and false teachers that bring in damnable heresies and, yet, God says of them, “even denying the Lord that bought them.” How is that possible? It is because in establishing the corporate entity, there were the elect of God and many that were not the elect of God. The Lord really focuses upon this in the parable of the wheat and the tares, in Matthew 13:24-30:

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

An enemy sowed tares among the wheat. The enemy is Satan. The tares are of the wicked one, just as Cain was of the wicked one, but the wheat identifies with the righteous. And within the New Testament corporate body, there were both wheat and tares and they were to grow together until the set time of harvest. Until that time God gave instructions that we were not to try to pull up the tares lest we harm some of the wheat. We were not allowed to separate the wheat from the tares until we got to harvest. At the time of harvest instructions would be given concerning the tares. That would be the time of separation. We know that this language of the wheat and the tares and their final separation related to God’s plan for the end of the church age. The command came forth from the Bible which set in motion the process of separation of the wheat and the tares. The command was to depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains. The wheat were to come out of the churches and go to God and His Word, the Bible. It was a commandment from God. Being given ears to hear, the elect would recognize the voice of the Lord and obey Him, so the wheat came out of the churches and the tares remained behind. Finally, by May 21, 2011 the process was complete. The separation was finished. The tares were bundled within the corporate church for burning. All that remained there at the end of the Great Tribulation and the end of God’s salvation program were the tares or the enemies.

But, here in Genesis, chapter 4 we have Adam and Eve (Christ and Jerusalem) and, in this case, since Cain was of the wicked one and Abel was righteous Eve would be a picture of both “Jerusalems.” She would be the mother of Abel, typifying “Jerusalem above” and she would be the mother of Cain, typifying “Jerusalem which is now,” the corporate church. Both sons were born into the same family and both carry the name “Christian,” we would say, and both grow together. Cain would have grown from a baby to a toddler to a young boy and, finally, to a young man and, likewise, Abel would have followed and they grew together, just like the wheat and the tares grew in the field. Cain and Abel grew up together and there was no separation between them – you could not have foretold that Cain would be the wicked one and Abel would be the righteous one. They were probably very similar and they were nice boys and nice young men, but in the process of time God let it be known that He required an offering. This was something that God had revealed to them, maybe through their parents, but He let it be known. This was all connected to what God had done in slaying the animal and covering Adam and Eve. There needed to be an offering as a covering for sin because they had offended God. So, in the process of time both brought an offering to God. It was the occasion of this offering where God let it be known that one offering was acceptable and the other offering was not acceptable, in Genesis 4:4-5:

… And JEHOVAH had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect…

It was that bit of new knowledge for Cain and Abel and it was that introduction of God’s choice in making known whose offering He chose that set the stage for Cain rising up and slaying his brother Abel.

Is that not interesting? That does fit very well with what happened with the end of the church age. Both the wheat and the tares grew together. The saved and the unsaved were within the congregations of the world and they were together for century after century. They co-existed and no one would dare to say, “You are not saved. You are a tare.” You could not make that kind of judgment, but after growing together there came the time of harvest at the end of the world. God opened up the Scriptures to make known that He preferred and chose certain ones, but not others. He accepted certain individuals and He did not accept others. God made it known that some had His blessing and others did not and He did this through the mechanism of the end of the church age doctrine. That mechanism identifies with the mechanism in Genesis, chapter 4 which took place in the process of time in regard to two offerings. God revealed which one was approved and which one was disapproved, which was not something God often did, but in this case He did. He also did it at the time of the end of the world.

We will look more at this, Lord willing, in our next Bible study.