Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #3 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.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we saw how the historical record of this event relates to what God told us in the parable of the wheat and the tares. In that parable it said that an enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat. The enemy was identified as Satan. Let us turn there, in Matthew, chapter 13 where Jesus is explaining the parable. It says in Matthew 13:36-39:

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Let me read verse 38 again: “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one.” Compare this to what God said of Cain, in 1John 3:12:

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.

God says that Cain “was of that wicked one,” just like the tares are representative of the “children of the wicked one.” The wheat and the tares would be God’s elect and the unsaved, respectively, that grew together in the corporate churches throughout the church age over many centuries. God permitted them to grow together until the time of harvest. Harvest was said to be “the end of the world.” The Greek word translated as “world” in Matthew, chapter 13 is a word that means “age.” It is the “end of the age.” The word “aion,” Strong’s #165, is translated as “world” several times, but it never means the physical world. There is another Greek word, “cosmos,” Strong’s #2889, that is used in that same parable where Jesus said, “The field is the world,” and that is a translation of the word “cosmos,” Strong’s #2889. When Jesus said, in Matthew 13, verse 39, “The harvest is the end of the world,” that usage is a translation of a different Greek word that means “age.” It is the “end of the age.” We wonder why God did not use the same word “cosmos” that He used in verse 38. When we read of God creating the world, like in John 1, verse 1, it is always the word “cosmos” to indicate the physical word. However, the word “aion” can be translated as “ever” or “age” or “ages” or “course,” but it never means the physical “world” in any way. It is not speaking of the end of the physical world, in other words, when it is the time of harvest and God brings about the separation of the wheat and the tares, but it is the end of a particular “age.” It is not our purpose in this study to get into a discussion of the “age,” but maybe we will do that at another time.

But, here, this separation of the wheat and tares is not taking place at the end of the physical world, but it is taking place in the harvest time at the end of the “age.” That is important for us to know because we understand that God put in motion the process of separating the wheat and tares during the Great Tribulation and He completed that process on May 21, 2011, Judgment Day, and then the tares were bundled for burning and the wheat was gathered into His barn and that was the end of the age, so what God is telling us in the parable of the wheat and the tares matches very closely with this account of Cain and Abel. Just as the wheat and tares grew together, so, too, did these two brothers. They had much in common. They were the first two boys born into the world. Their parents are Adam and Eve and there are no other people anywhere, so we can gather from that they would have had a close relationship as they grew up. They would have played with one another and they would have had fun together because there was no one else to play with and that would force them to have a very close relationship. More than likely, for most of their lives you could not tell them apart. Of course, we know the story. We know that Cain was of the wicked one and he killed his brother Abel. We know Abel was righteous because the Bible tells us. So, we identify Cain as “evil” and Abel as “righteous,” but we only know that because God introduced an offering. From everything we are told in the Bible, these two sons grew up together and got along well. An outward observer would not have been able to distinguish that one was saved and the other was not saved.

Then there came the time described in Genesis 3:4:

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.

In this time period, God let it be known that He had respect to Abel and his offering, but not unto Cain and his offering. Based on the lethal response of Cain killing his brother in anger, we can understand that God had never made it known before which brother He respected and which brother He did not respect, but in the process of time God revealed that one offering was acceptable and the other offering was not acceptable.

Notice that I keep referring to the phrase, “And in process of time it came to pass,” and the reason why is that it is not a correct translation. The King James translators did not translate the first part of Genesis 3, verse 4 very well at all. We are living at the end of the world and God has opened the Scriptures and we have all kinds of Bible helps and we can check out each word. The King James translators did not have all the advantages we have today. They came to the text and they wanted to translate each verse as best they could and in the overwhelming majority of times, they did an excellent job of translating, but not in this verse. We also have to take into consideration God’s providential will and God’s oversight of the translators in the sense that God could keep them back from a proper translation. We have a good example of this in the word “Sabbath” in Matthew 28, verse 1 where it literally should say, “In the end of the Sabbaths as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths,” and, yet, the translators translated the word “Sabbaths” as “week.” They translated a plural word in a singular way. God used this (wrong) translation to hide truth. God did this oftentimes. You find the actual translation and that helps the reader to understand what God really had in mind. The Bible was written as a parable and the definition of a parable is that which, ultimately, hides truth. So, from time to time, God allowed these outstanding translators to get it wrong. Here, in Genesis 3, verse 4 God allowed them to get it wrong. One of the reasons they probably got it wrong is this account took place at the very beginning with the first family. Genesis is a Book of beginnings and we are reading of these two sons that were grown up and now they are giving an offering, so it does make sense that you would translate it, “And in the process of time it came to pass.” In the course of time, when these boys grew up they brought an offering.

Literally, in the original Hebrew, it says, “In the end of days it came to pass” or “At the end of days it came to pass.” This was early in the history of the world and, yet, the word translated as “process” is actually a word that means “end.” As a matter of fact, this Hebrew word, Strong’s #7093, is never translated as “process” anywhere else in the Bible, but it is often translated as “end.” It says in Exodus 12:41:

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of JEHOVAH went out from the land of Egypt.

This is an important verse because it means the “end” of the four hundred and thirty years. So, when it says in Genesis 4, verse 3, “In the end of days, it came to pass,” this means the “end” of days or the “end” of the age. But let us keep looking at this word that is translated as “process” in our verse. It says in Psalm 39:4:

JEHOVAH, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

It is the word used in the Book of Daniel several times. I will read a couple of instances. It says in Daniel 8:17:

So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall bethe vision.

It also says in Daniel 8:19:

And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.

The word translated as “process” in our verse is this word translated as “end.”

It is also the word found in Habakkuk 2:3:

For the vision isyet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

We see this word “end” in these verses that we have often identified with the end of the world. Now, again, the end of the world begins with the end of the church age and the judgment that began on the house of God. That is what began the “end of the world.” That is when the day of God’s wrath began because He began to pour out the cup of His wrath on the people called by His name. After the 23-year Great Tribulation, the judgment transitioned to all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, so the “end” encompasses the entire final stage of the Great Tribulation and Judgment Day.

Now we can see that in this passage which recounts true historical events that took place with the birth of Adam and Eve’s two sons, it was “not in the process of time,” but it was “in the end of days” that it came to pass. Once we realize this, we understand the spiritual implications of the historical parable God is relating because it does relate to the wheat and the tares at the end of time. There are two sons and one is righteous and one is unrighteous, like the “wheat” is of the good seed, the Son of man, and the “tares” are of the wicked one. God even tells us in 1John 3, verse 12 that Cain was “of that wicked one” to further link together Cain with the “tares.” Cain was like the unsaved within the corporate body. Adam was a figure of Him that was to come, the Lord Jesus and Eve was a figure of the mother of us all, but in this case since she gave birth to Abel, a righteous one, and also to Cain, she is a type of both “Jerusalem above” and the “earthly Jerusalem,” the corporate church. This was where Cain developed and grew as a tare; they both grew together as they became young men. They were close brothers and this had to have been the case because there were no other options for friends, so they had a close relationship until God introduced this offering “in the end of days.” When God introduced this offering, then God also made it known that Abel did well and God was pleased with his offering, but He made it known that Cain did not do well and He was not pleased with his offering. It was not an acceptable offering. God revealed, for the first time, a difference between the two brothers and the difference is in their offering. There is something about Cain’s offering that is not right and there is something about Abel’s offering that is right. One is displeasing and one is pleasing. God revealed this fact in Genesis 4:3-6:

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. And JEHOVAH said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

God is communicating with Cain. God has made Himself known personally to these two brothers that one of the offerings is acceptable and the other is not acceptable. To say it another way, it was not Adam that said, “Abel, my son, you have presented a very good offering and you are blessed.” It was not Adam that turned to his other son and said, “Cain, my son, your offering is not good.” Neither was it Eve that told them that one offering was good and the other was not good. This information did not come forth from man, but it was God Himself that revealed this “in the end of days.” God revealed “in the end of days” that one offering was proper, good and acceptable and the other offering was improper, bad and not acceptable.

Let us go, again, to 1John, chapter 3 where it says in 1John 3:9-10:

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.

Notice in these verses that God is, again, talking about two types of children. There are children that are born of God and children of the devil. There are two groups of children being discussed. One is of God and one is of the devil. Then it says in 1John 3:11-12:

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.

This gets right to the heart of the issue. This is the reason why God did not accept Cain’s offering, but did accept Abel’s offering. It was because one (offering) was of God and that was Abel’s and one (offering) was of the wicked one, Cain. Their offerings demonstrated who their spiritual fathers were and Cain’s offering was an offering of his own works. We do not have all the information, but God had let it be known that He required offering and Cain presented his offering and Cain trusted in the “work” that he did because it says in 1John 3:12: “Because his own works were evil.” He trusted in his own efforts in producing and harvesting his crop and presenting it to God and thinking it would be pleasing to God. He trusted in his own works to obey the requirements of God.

But Abel’s work was righteous. He presented of the firstling of his flocks and the fat thereof, but he was not trusting in that offering but he was trusting in who the offering pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ.