Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #6 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we are going to read Genesis 4:3-7:

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? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

In our last study we were getting into the subject of God opening up the Scriptures to reveal that God saved His elect through the faith of Christ and not through our own faith. We went to a few verses and we discussed how the offerings of Cain and Abel relate to that because Cain’s offering was an evil work, according to John 3, verse 12. That is why Cain became upset because God let it be known that his works were evil. Abel’s offering was a righteous work and in accepting it God was making it known that Abel’s offering was righteous. We were thinking about the scenario and it is a likely scenario that Cain was similar to the people of Israel that thought they could please God by keeping God’s commandments through the Saturday Sabbath observance, through circumcision, through the sacrifices and through the keeping of ceremonial laws. They thought these things pleased God and, yet, in the Old Testament God had let it be known that the blood of bulls and goats did not please Him. These sacrifices, of themselves, is not what God desired. That is an amazing thing and King David was moved to write this in Psalm 51:16:

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

This is an amazing statement when we see all the Laws God gave regarding the offering of sacrifices. You can imagine the difficulty the natural-minded man (whether a Jew of the Old Testament or a church goer of the New Testament) has in grasping God’s Word and what it is that actually pleases God. God commanded the offering of sacrifices and the natural-minded man thinks, “I will please God by doing this command,” and he offers his sacrifice, but according to Psalm 51 God does not desire sacrifice. The deeper spiritual meaning of things is absolutely essential and it has always been most important.

So, God let it be known that He desired a sacrifice, so Cain brought a sacrifice and Abel brought a sacrifice. Again, in all likelihood, Cain worked hard to do this. He had to plant his crop, water it and care for it and wait for the season of fruit and then he took of the fruit of the ground to give to God. It may have taken months for Cain to go through all of this. Abel just went out to his flock and killed a firstling of the flock. It probably took a few hours for him to prepare his offering. Cain was probably thinking, “I really labored. I really worked hard to present my offering to God and Abel did the least amount required, so my offering will certainly be better.”

This is why we went to Luke, chapter 15 in our last study to look at two other brothers. These two brothers were completely different. One brother took his inheritance and left his father and he wasted his inheritance with harlots and riotous living. The other brother stayed with his father and he kept his father’s commandments. As we look at this father and his two sons, what if we are told that one is a child of God and the other is not a child of God? What if we are told that one has an acceptable sacrifice and the other does not? What if we are told that one brother was accepted of God and the other was not? Our minds would immediately go to the brother that stayed with his father and did not waste his inheritance. That is what the older brother thought, too, but then a servant told him, in Luke 15:27-32:

Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

We do not have time (and it is not our focus) to go into this parable and explain everything, but, basically, God is laying down a very important truth and that is the child of God is not always who you would expect him to be because it is not based on their works or their obedience to the Father. God’s salvation is not based on merit of any kind. This is what the natural-minded individual cannot grasp. He does not understand that all are sinners and all have done wickedly and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Whatever we attempt to do to please God and whatever “work” we are involved in will never be able to accomplish salvation. It is impossible.

It is God who chooses: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” God made choice between these two twin brothers and God tells us He chose one before either was born and before either had done good or evil. God made the selection and He chose Jacob and not Esau. In the case of the two brothers in Luke, chapter 15 the more law abiding brother that did his father’s commandment was not one of God’s elect. God will give him earthly blessings and there are many blessings that are associated with living according to the Bible and with being someone who was part of Israel of old or part of the New Testament church. When someone lives according to the Bible, they are living their life in the best way possible and if we try to live according to the Bible, even if we are not saved, there are blessings. The father said to the elder son, “All that I have is thine.” But he said of the younger brother that he “was lost, and is found.” As far as salvation is concerned, God works according to His program of election. The unsaved man of the world does not understand election and he operates according to “works.” He thinks that if you do good work, you will be accepted.

This is what Cain was thinking: “I have worked harder. I have obeyed better. I put all kinds of thought and effort into this offering and my offering is the better offering.” He knows his brother Abel and he may have known that Abel did not put that kind of time and effort into his offering. But then comes the time when it is “the end of days” when God is going to make it known after many years: “And JEHOVAH had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” Naturally, Cain felt abused, in a sense. He felt it was of no use to work hard to try to please God and he felt angry. He was not just angry at Abel, but he was angry at God. He was angry that God did not recognize that he had done a good work. His work was considered evil in God’s sight. He was also angry because he did not know what he could do to please God, so in his anger and wrath he rose up against his brother and killed him.

So, we really have a tie-in to God revealing the way of salvation. Remember that Cain was said to be of “that way” in Jude. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And we read of Cain in Jude 1:11:

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain…

What is the way of Cain? We know the way of Christ is that we are saved by the faith of Christ. It is all by grace in God’s election program. The “way of Cain” is to attempt to do good works and to keep the works of the Law. If God says to “believe,” then you attempt to believe. So, it was at the time of the end when God opened up the information to make it crystal clear that we are saved by the faith of Christ and not by our own faith. Then God’s elect began to proclaim it and then Arminianism (the free will gospel) was finally seen as being “another gospel” and this was very offensive to the people within the churches and congregations as they heard that “accepting Christ” and “believing on Him” is another gospel. Again, they reacted angrily and they lashed out, and so forth, so we do have that tie-in.

Let us go back to Genesis 4:5-6:

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?

By the way, the word “countenance” is “face.” There are some people that you can see their “face fall” when something goes wrong and they are angry. You can tell. Their faces may turn red, or whatever, but God is pointing this out in regard to Cain.

It goes on to say in Genesis 4:7:

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

In this verse, we have one of the most difficult verses in the Bible. This is one of the hardest verses to understand. I have looked at this and looked at this and shook my head because it is full of difficulties when you try to understand it. I do not turn to commentaries often, but I do listen to past Open Forums or read some of Mr. Camping’s books because he has touched on a great deal of difficult verses in the Bible and, for the most part, by God’s grace, he presented right understanding. We are living at the time of the end. Commentaries may have had their place during the church age before God opened the Scriptures and they may have been the best one could do in reading Matthew Henry or Calvin or some of these other commentaries. God had not opened up certain things to anyone and they tried their best in their day, but we are living at the time of the end, so to turn to commentaries written 100 years ago when the Bible was still sealed is not going to help at all in understanding Matthew 24 or Luke 21 or the Book of Revelation or things related to the Great Tribulation, end of the church age or Judgment Day, and so forth. You may find a little bit of help here or there, but it is mostly a waste of time, so I really do not turn to commentaries very much, but just to let you know how frustrated I was with this particular verse, I did look it up in a commentary and I saw that I was not alone in my confusion about Genesis 4, verse 7. Whatever commentary I read, like Calvin and John Gill, they also had difficulties. We will talk about a couple of the problems with Genesis 4, verse 7. Again, it says in Genesis 4:7:

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

The first part of the verse is not the problem. It is the second part: “And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” The pronoun “his” is masculine and we think it is referring to “sin” in the previous statement, where it said,“sin lieth at the door.” So, unto Cain would be sin’s desire, but the problem is that the word “sin” is in the feminine, so if it were referring back to sin, it should say, “Sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be her desire.” So it is mismatched.

Another problem is that if we understand that “sin lieth at the door,” and unto you (Cain) shall be sin’s desire. So sin’s desire would be unto Cain and then it says that “thou” or “Cain” shalt rule over “him” or sin. It makes no sense because the problem is that if Cain does not well, sin lies at the door and we can understand that to Cain is sin’s desire, but how would Cain then rule over sin? Cain is an unsaved man and his works are evil, so he is not going to rule over sin, so how is that possible? If you try other variations, like “unto thee shall be his desire,” it might be referring to something else, but it never seems to fit in the various ways of trying to understand it. The Interlinear Bible has attempted to understand it by doing something that I do not thing should have been done. In Jay Green’s Interlinear, it changes one word and it basically says, “And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou should rule over him.” It changes the future tense “shalt” to “should” and the problem is that I do not think there is justification to make that kind of change. It does seem to make it more understandable: “Unto thee (Cain) shall be sin’s desire, and you (Cain) should rule over him.” Supposedly, God is saying that Cain should have control over his own body, but it is not the word “should.” They had to change the “future tense” to “should” when it really reads “And thou shalt” or “And thou wilt” rule over him. There is a big difference. The word “shall” means you will, but the word “should” implies something that ought to be done, but may never actually be done. There is a big difference. Again, we kind of scratch our heads and pray for wisdom, but we are studying the Book of Genesis and we have to continue on and go to the next verses, but I just wanted to be honest and let you know that this verse is very, very difficult.

I think there is a possibility for understanding this verse, but I do not know if we have time in this study. We will probably have to wait for the next study, but it has to do with the “works.” There were two brothers and two offerings. One offering was an evil work and the other was a righteous work. Abel was not trusting in his own offering, but he was trusting in Christ and the faith of Christ and the work of Christ on his behalf. Abel, like David, was given insight by God (because he was a child of God) to understand that God did not desire animal sacrifice and that God was not delighted by man’s act of offering, but that God required these things to teach us about the truly acceptable offering of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. So, Abel, by God’s grace, was a child of God and he was given insight into this and Abel did not come before God with the thought, “My firstling of the flock is going to please God and He will accept me through this dead animal.” Abel knew that he was offering the firstling and the fat thereof as a sacrifice that pointed to the sacrifice of the Messiah, the one that died for his sins, so his works were righteous. They were not his works, but it was the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, we know that God made a point of that in 1John 3, verse 12 and we also know that God spoke of going “in the way of Cain” in Jude 1, verse 11, and I think the key to understanding when God says, “And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him,” is to notice how similar it is to Genesis 3:16:

… and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The word “desire” is only found three times. It is found here and in Genesis 4 and once in Song of Solomon, where it also relates to the marriage relationship between Christ and His bride, so in two of the three places, the word “desire” relates to marriage. I think possibly that when Genesis 4:7 is referring to Cain with this language, God is referring to a spiritual marriage, but we will have to look at that in our next study.