The story of Cain and Abel is about conflict among brothers. Cain, as the heir to Adam, according to the world’s values, would have been heir to Adam. That is by the law of primogeniture, or the rights of the firstborn. Upon the death of Adam, Cain, by the world’s standards would inherit the earth. God’s Will was then, as now, that “the meek shall inherit the earth” (Psalm 37:11; Mat 5:5). Meekness was not a new condition for inheritance because it is in each of God’s “Testaments.”
Meekness in the psalm is ‘anav: gentle, humble, lowly,
meek, poor and so forth. (Strong’s Dictionary). “Lowly” is quite descriptive;
God is to be exalted and mankind diminished. Because original sin is exalting
oneself over God (Gen 3:5) , meekness is diminishing that arrogance. Abel deferred
to God and “Abel… brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof”
(Gen 4:4). God was pleased, not because of the animal, for the animal already
belonged to God. He was pleased with his man for elevating Him.
Cain brought the fruit of the ground; things for which he
had sweated. He brought works to God. The Lord would have respected grain,
for grain is God’s seeds. However, Cain brought fruit of the ground (Gen 4:3). Wheat,
barley, and such seeds are acceptable, but fruits never were in scripture. “Fruits”
were unwelcome sacrifices because the Serpent dispensed fruit.
Abel had reverence for his Father God, but Cain his father
the Devil. [1] Abel
brought the same gift that God had given his father (flesh from a lamb) but
Adam the flesh of fruit with which Satan had tempted Eve.
Cain was wroth when his sacrifice was rejected. Why would have
God been pleased? for Cain was the son of the Wicked One, to wit: “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” (1 John 3:12).
Note that when Adam was sinful, he was meek. He endeavored
to cover his shame. Cain covered his shame by murder. Anger subdued him, and if
he had been God’s, God would have humbled him. His anger at both God and his brother
was evidence that Cain did wrong in the sight of the Lord.
Cain had the audacity to challenge God, “Am I my brother’s
keeper?” Well, Abel was a keeper of the sheep (Gen 4:2). Brothers of Jesus are as
sheep. Cain should have been shepherding Abel as the older brother, but
instead he killed him. Abel would not have killed the sheep, God would have. God’s
Will, before Adam, was that man shed neither the blood of man or beast (Gen
9:5-6). Only after the world was populated would man be allowed to kill and eat
meat.
Abel had brought meat for God to kill as He did with Adam.
For Adam it was for safety and for Abel it was for honoring the preservation
that God had provided. The sheep that Abel brought was for God to make for him
a coat of skin, as he had done for Adam.
Of course, that prefigures the Coat of the Lamb (i.e., the
Holy Ghost of Jesus) that God put on his children after He was glorified. Abel’s
lamb was glorifying God who would, in turn, kill the lamb and Abel would have
worn it as a coat for preservation.
Cain, if he had brought palm leaves, fig leaves, or even hemp; God would have woven him an apron for some safety, but he would have been exposed to his father the Devil. Adam and Eve, with their aprons of fig leaves (Gen 3:7) had remained exposed to the Devil. Hence, Cain’s covering was not enough; it would take blood and water from Jesus to preserve their corruptible flesh. Now examine what Jesus taught:
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:5-6)
Sacrificial lambs were to be killed and the blood collected by
those who were ceremonially cleansed by the complete washing of water. When the
lamb was killed, then the blood was collected in cups and the contents
sprinkled over the altar be those so cleansed. [2] The
water and blood are important because the water represented the seriousness of
the sacrifice, and the blood, the sacrifice itself — the firstlings of the
flock. Normally priests, God’s designated, would perform the slaughter, never any
unclean sinners.
With that, Abel was certainly ceremonially clean in both flesh
and spirit. He brought the firstborn of the crop for God to supply the blood,
just as God did on the Cross much later. Cain was neither ceremonially clean
nor clean in the heart. He was jealous that his brother was the designated heir
of God. Even with his arrogant attitude, he thought God would still honor his
work and the sweat of his face! Ten
comes the key verse. It is difficult to comprehend, so be patient:
KEY VERSE: 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. (Gen 4:7)
First off, doing well is acceptance from whom? Of course,
the answer is “God.” What must Cain do? He had already worked hard but
doing well would be him killing the beast in himself. His sacrfice would
be himself. He would give his own heart to God to circumcise just as Abel gave a
lamb for God to circumcise the flesh thereof. Rather than fruit or even the
flesh of a lamb would not do for Cain, but his own flesh.
God would even have done the “bloody” deed as Zipporah
called it! (Exod 4:25-26). God does the circumcision and He always has. Circumcision
of the foreskin is what the faithful would do for their brothers… circumcision of
the heart is what Jesus did for His brothers.
Cain fully “circumcised” his brother. He did the bloody deed.
God had no part in that. He questioned Cain as if He knew nothing about the
bloody deed, but He already knew Cain’s heart. He also knew that Abel’s was
circumcised but Cain’s was not.
“Doing well” in God’s eyes would be Cain presenting himself as
the sacrfice. Paul said it well, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).
Cain should have left his fruit in the cave and came alone
to do His reasonable service to God. God would humble his arrogance and jealousy
of only he would cleanse his dirty flesh with living water that flows from the
Garden of God, and then give to God his heart!
What should have Cain done in addition to presenting himself
as the right thing to do? He should have been his brother’s keeper as ‘adam-kind
was assigned to do (Gen 2:15). He should have traded the fruits that he grew to
Abel for a goat. A “goat” represents Satan. Cain had his chance to vicariously
sacrifice his own “father” but instead, he sacrificed the Will of God.
By paying his brother for an animal, would be keeping
his brother. Perhaps Abel had only sheep to cloth him but would need vegetation. Their diet until Noah’s time was herbs.
Keeping Abel would have been sharing the fruits of the herbs. Abel would have
starved without vegetation and sharing with Abel would have kept him.
God asked Cain a question, “If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted?” What is the acceptable sacrifice? Not the blood of animals
but his own blood, “But as many as received him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”
(John 1:12-13).
God expected the human faculty of the will from Cain. God
would rebirth him, not the blood of an innocent animal, but the evil will
of the Beast within Cain. Cain should have asked God to hang him from a tree,
just as Judas would do to himself long after.
For what reason? To free the Beast within him.
Beast? Certainly. Beasts are without a soul. The soul is not
a membrane, but the “bodily shape” of the Spirit of God residing within them,
as with Jesus (Luke 3:22) — the Holy Ghost of Jesus in the image of his person.
Without God’s Spirit, Cain was without a soul. He was more like the “Beast” that
is called the “Serpent.”
Grace is God doing it all, but the scripture says, “If thou
doest well.” How can that be and still be grace? Doing well is standing
still, as Joshua did in the waters of the River of the Garden — to stand still
and let God remold his creature. In other words, “doing” is nothing but
compliance. Cain did not stand still for his soul to be remolded but became
angry. Anger aborts rebirth.
Then God asked, “Shalt thou not be accepted?” Sinners do not
accept God; God must accept the sinner. Abel accepted God because he was there
to pay homage to him. God did not accept Cain because of his image. He was in
the image of his father, the Devil.
Cain had good and evil in him, as all ‘adam-kind
does. Implied is that Abel wore a coat of a lamb, perhaps a firstborn one and the
best of the herd. God had covered his nakedness just as with his father, Adam.
By grace, God accepted Abel and made for him a coat of skin to preserver,
comfort, and protect him from the world, as well as the fiery darts of the
Wicked One.
Cain had no such coat because he was a tiller of the ground.
Cain remained vulnerable to his Wicked One.
He was not his brother’s keeper, as he reminded God
with arrogance. Most certainly, Abel was willing to share one of his many coats
from his herd, but Cain would not even share, with a tender heart, his fruit
with Abel. Since meat was not authorized at that time, he would certainly starve
Abel. God was merciful. He made Cain wrathful and Cain killed Abel quickly. Remembering
that “To live is Christ; to die is gain” (Phil 1:21), Abel gained that day. His
soul was saved in a heavenly Paradise, as Cain returned to tribulation outside
earthly “paradise.”
Abel put on Christ as he copied his father, Adam, who wore a
coat of skin. Perhaps gentle Abel even spared the skin and put on a garment of
white from the lamb that God provided.
Cain, if he put on anything, it would have been some sort of
apron that he wove with his own hands. That would not suffice for God, and Cain
would not be accepted because works are “As filthy rags” to God (Isa
64:6).
Cain as well have worn Satan’s produce. With nothing covering
all his flesh, if anything at all, Cain was essentially naked but covered with
iniquity, to wit: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Gal 5:19-21).
It is obvious what “clothing” Cain wore that day: a girdle
of adultery against God, a sash of fornication against his brother, unwashed feet
of a farmer with no shoes from God, an idol of flesh, a sword of hatred for
Abel and God, the wrath from the Beast, and envy covering his heart. Then he murdered
his brother and reveled against God. Cain was clothed with the fruits of the
forbidden tree.
If only… if only he had love for God and his brother!
Jesus said that he did not come to bring peace on earth, but
“a man's foes shall be they of his own household” (Mat 10:36). The two were not
even striving for Adam’s approval, but the Word’s (Jesus’s).
The Word disapproved Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted?” Cain knew he had not done well and endeavored to cover his sin.
He put Abel “in the vault,” so to speak, in a secret place, and then acted as
if he did not know where Abel was.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yes, he should have been, but no
he was not. Cain did not so well. In fact, he had iniquity in his heart. What
would be the perfect sacrifice? Circumcision of the Beast from his heart.
The heart is the human faculty of the will. To be accepted,
Cain’s will would have imaged the Will of God. God Willed reverence and Cain
willed selfishness. Only repentance could have washed Cain clean, just as with the
baptism of John in the time of Christ.
Only a coat of the Flesh of Jesus would have tamed the “Beast”
in him. At that time, God provided the coat of an innocent lamb, but with the
advent of the Lamb of God and His death, the “Comforter” (Coat) that Jesus
provided was the bodily shape of His Holy Ghost. If only Cain had put on the
Holy Spirit of God, his wrath would have been placated. He did not and paid the
price. Thereafter, Cain remained the “son of the Beast” and contaminated the
seed of righteous Seth.
Cain sowed seeds of sin. His lascivious lifestyle, after he
was not accepted by God, corrupted the souls of Seth’s seed. “Farmer Cain”
sowed the seeds of discord, and because of him, God’s creatures still have the Beast
within them… all because Cain would not take a knee to God but defied him arrogantly.
Surely sin entered the world by the first ‘adam, but
God accepted his contrition. Sin would have died the day that Adam and Eve put
on coats from God. However, Cain would not, and most since then have refused to
put on Coats that God provides. The water of baptism runs off and may soon be forgotten,
but baptism of the Holy Ghost covers sin unless the old creature desires emancipation
from God all over again.
“Regeneration” is becoming as reformed Adam. “Degeneration” is
continuing as sinful Adam. Cain may have thought he was honoring his father and
mother, but his true father was the Devil, and Cain would favor his spiritual
father. He was a wicked one, and the things of the Wicked One he would do.
Next, God issued a warning: “If thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door.” Cain was not allowed in to the “door” of Paradise for it
was guarded by cherubim to keep beasts out and away from the Tree of Life. And
since sin is to the third and fourth generations, Cain’s line would not enter
the door of the ark for salvation. All but eight in the entire world would be
as Cain and have the Devils DNA in them. Only righteous Seth’s seed would be
resown on a Holy Mountain away from Paradise. God would regenerate His “plantation”
without sowing the corrupt seed of Cain. But somehow, perhaps through wicked
wives, Cain’s seed made it through the flood.
The last of the key verse is ambiguous, “And unto thee shall
be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” God is speaking of sin as Satan
in Cain. Cain would desire the things of his spiritual father — the fruits of the
forbidden tree (see above). However, God’s expectation was a “must be” — “Ye
must be born again” (John 3:7). Cain was born of the Wicked One. When God said,
“Thou shalt rule over him,” he meant the Devil within.
How could Cain have done that? Trust God and not himself.
His “idol” was his flesh, but it was his flesh, not God’s. Cain could have
put on Christ, and then in death, it would have been gain, as it was with Abel.
Jesus recounted the story of the Hebrews in the wilderness who
were bitten by poisonous vipers (John 3:14). Even those who were bitten, when
they looked at the lifeless serpent in his “tree,” lived. Cain could have lived
if God had accepted him as a reasonable sacrifice and put the evil spirit
inside him on a tree and hung him there.
Hanging himself would have not been sufficient for it would
again be the works of his own hands. He would need to be like Isaac,
where God provided the reasonable sacrifice. Cain could have traded for a lamb
that God had provided and hung the Serpent up to wither that day, but that
would come until 4000 years later when Jesus did it for him!
Jesus suffered death on the Cross, but it was Satan in Judas
that withered that day. Cain could have caused the vicarious death of Satan if
he had offered his own flesh, but instead, Jesus would do that for him.
That would have saved God much consternation, but it was not
to be. If it had, then wicked Cain would have been the Savior of mankind, but
he was the son of Satan. Sons of Satan were not meant to die to redeem ‘adam-kind.
That job was assigned to Jesus in the beginning:
Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Ephes 1:35)
Does that not sound familiar? Well, it should because Judas
with Satan in him, hung himself on the Judas Tree. He was the son of the Wicked
One, the same as Cain. Cain was born that way, but Judas degenerated and was reborn
the son of the Wicked One. God’s Plan, before the foundation of the world, was
that Christ would accept or not accept sinners as His children. God’s Plan all
along was for neither Cain nor Adam to be the perfect sacrifice, but only
through Jesus can anyone be saved.
That lifeless brazen Serpent on the pole did not save anyone.
That was an idol that God soon destroyed because it appeared that the Serpent
did the saving. What did that really represent? What Cain should have done, and
what Jesus did— to present himself a living sacrifice as His reasonable service
(Rom 12:1).
God hung Himself on His Tree to redeem ‘adam-kind
with His own Flesh. Satan put Judas in his tree, and that left Satan without
any flesh to live in. As such, Satan was somewhat isolated from mankind that
day. Without flesh, he could not touch God’s children but could only degenerate
them by his DNA being in them.
There is no Cain tree, no Sally tree, no Henry tree, or even a Serpent’s tree. Only God’s “Tree” (the Cross) that points the Way to Paradise. Righteous Abel still cries out from the dust beneath Calvary because Abel had regenerated Adam in him.
[1]
The Devil may have been Cain’s biological father. For the evidence, see my blog,
“Cain: The Bastard Son” at Herrin
Daily Thoughts: CAIN: THE BASTARD SON (kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com)
[2]
The “cup” that Jesus could not pass to another was His blood and water that was
sprinkled on the earth to save ‘adam-kind. That “cup” was His Purpose,
and His very Soul as the Holy Ghost gave up the “Cup” of Jesus.
(picture credit: Art.com; "The Hanging of Judas")
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