The First and Greatest Consequence of Adam’s Sin

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I
have gotten a man from the LORD. 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 the LORD. And Abel,
he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD 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 the LORD 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. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it
came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and
slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I
know not: [Am] I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of
thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now [art] thou cursed from the
earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When
thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a
vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is]
greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the
earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the
earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the
LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on
him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill
him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod,
on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he
builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto
Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and
Methusael begat Lamech. And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one
[was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of
such as dwell in tents, and [of such as have] cattle. And his brother’s name [was] Jubal:
he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare
Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain
[was] Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye
wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a
young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and
sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth:
For God, [said she], hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began
men to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Ge 4:1-26 AV)

There are times in life when our prayers and offerings seem to garner the response
which Cain received from God. I cannot read the above printed passage from the Bible
without being put in remembrance of one of my personal encounters with God. I sensed,
as I happened across these verses, the very Spirit of God speaking through Cain’s
experience to me directly. It was apparent that God was saying to me, “Sorry. That
offering is unacceptable to me. You can and must do better.”
On the one hand I was crushed that I’d not received my anticipated response from
God. On the other hand I was thankful that God Himself, my Heavenly Father, had
spoken a word of rebuke, warning and admonition to me. It was unmistakable and to this
day remains one of the milestones of my own spiritual pilgrimage.
There are times when we must hear a word from our Heavenly Father that takes
the disciplinary form. The question then becomes, “What will I do in response to the
discipline of God?” We must make choices in response to this kind of God’s activity in
our lives.
Cain made a response to God. It doesn’t take too much imagination to read
between these lines. His fallen countenance became seething anger. He was angry with
God, but what can a person do who is angry with God? There are other better examples
in the Bible of people who’ve been disappointed and dumbfounded by God. Their stories
and the better endings attendant with them must wait for another day. Today we are
dealing with the tragic story of Cain and the fratricide he committed.
One of the choices available to all of us is that of trying to even the score.
Technically it’s called vengeance, and vengeance became the hallmark of every one of
Cain’s descendants.
Since there is no way to kill God, Cain decided to kill the object of God’s
affirmation, his own brother, Abel. That is precisely what he did, and now the earth is
doubly cursed. It was initially cursed because of his father’s sin. Cursed again now by
the fact that Cain spilled his brother’s blood upon the earth, closing forever its
fruitfulness to this “tiller of the ground.”
Could Adam ever have imagined this outcome for his sin? Never in his wildest
imagination could the thought have entered into his mind. He would have wished
himself dead a thousand times if he could have foreseen that Abel would be the first to
pay the price for his sin. But it is always the case that the innocent continually pay the
debt for the guilty. The unintended consequences of our rebelliousness would turn our
blood cold, if we but took a moment to think rationally about the choices that are placed
before us daily.
Abel is the emblem of faith. Indeed, Cain did avenge himself with God by killing
Abel, but even here, at the beginning of the story of humanity, we are presented with a
gracious God, Who, while bound to judge the sinner and the sin, agrees to the sinner’s
request and dispenses mercy along with justice.
What was it that provoked the act in the first place? Certainly Cain understood
that no offering of the fruit of the cursed earth could be made an acceptable offering to
God. Here at the beginning of human history, we’re presented with the question of
acceptable vocations and offerings. Cain, his father Adam’s son, had disdain for the
circumstance of his family and in effect said, cursed or not, I’ll make my living doing
whatever I want.
Abel on the other hand had regard for God. Therefore, God had regard for him
and for his offering.
Cain became a marked man. In this case, however, the mark was that of a
merciful God’s protection, even for the father of violence. That’s right, the message of
these early chapters in the history of humanity is this, “Violence is the first and greatest
consequence of man’s sinfulness.” That message has reached through human history to
the present day. We hear the never-ending stories of sin’s impact at every turn.
Shamefully the message of violence today is also mixed with that of religion. For us to
hear the story of a young man from Nigeria named Farouk and his attempt to bomb a
plane on Christmas day as it made its way from Amsterdam to Detroit is one and the
same with that of thousands of Christian Crusaders in the Middle Ages who, even in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, slaughtered mercilessly those who refused to embrace the
message of their cross.
Violence in any and all forms is the first result of man’s sinful rebellion against
God. Notice the sevenfold protection of God—given as a warning to any and all comers
against even sinful Cain. And so the marked man escaped death to live out the rest of his
natural life. But we are left to wonder, is his sentence of life better than a swift and early
end? You see, he was really given a life sentence. A sentence to see his own sin visited
upon him again and again and again and again and again to the perfection of
destructiveness with each succeeding generation down to the seventh generation of man.
More and more and more and more violent the earth became. Until his great,
great, great grandson would pronounce in Cain’s name a seventy seven fold vengeance,
even for so much as an askance look at Lamech.
I wonder if we’d sin the sins we sin if we knew that they are irrevocably visited
upon every one of our succeeding generations. Perhaps we will give it some
consideration next time.
Are you depressed yet? Oh my! But this is the world into which we’ve all been
born. We can laugh together at a joke about not being a “member of this congregation”.
But we are all members of this unfortunate and destructive congregation of violent and
self-willed human beings.
But Jeremiah, the prophet, is asked by God, “Can the leopard change his spots?”
The anticipated answer to the rhetorical question is, “Certainly not.” But the answer of
faith and of hope given in the concluding two verses of Genesis Chapter Four must be a
reassuring, “Yes! It is possible.”
You see, Cain is not to remain the only descendent of Adam and Eve. A
replacement for righteous Abel is given. Seth is born to them as Adam attains the ripe
young age of one hundred and thirty years. And he was given an additional eight
hundred years to see the wonder of that which God was doing.
So it is with us still—sinful though we are by nature and ultimately by choice,
God is still at work for good in all things. While the fleshly line of Cain degraded
continually from bad to worse and worse and worse, the Bible records this hope…
“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth:
For God, [said she], hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began
men to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Ge 4:25-26 AV)
“…then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” Those of faith have
always turned to God in humility, devotion and prayer. Not only have they called upon
the name of the Lord. They have also been called by the name of the Lord. God is never
ashamed to own His children. He delights in them.
So the pronouncement of the great Apostle, Paul, is this—“Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” There is a question and a choice as we
conclude these remarks. The question is the same as that posed by God to Cain before
any of what came to be had come to pass. It’s the question that God asks each of us as
well and it is this, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” His statement
to us is the same as that to Cain as well—“Behold, sin crouches at the door, and its desire
is for you. But you must master it.”
The choice is this. “Will I allow God, in His mercy and grace, to direct my life, in
effect changing my spots, and guide me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s
sake?” Or will I walk in my own selfish way? The choice is mine, and yours.