Cain and Abel pt. 2

7. God gives Cain a warning. What did God mean when He told Cain that “sin desires you, but you must master/rule it”? Hebrew - masal - rule, govern, control. How can one master sin? How could Cain? By doing what is well/right. That involves a change in his heart condition. Stop feeding his anger/his hatred. Listen to God’s Word. God shows him the way out. Warns Cain. Notice how God portrays sin. Not as a taskmaster/slave driver whipping Cain … beating Cain into submission telling him you have to do this/you have to kill your brother. Portrayed as a hungry beast sitting outside the door, ready to pounce on Cain, salivating, he could see Cain of his own free will opening the door to him. God makes it clear. Sin is not to be our master. We are to be the master of it. When we confront sin, we are to take a whip and tame it into submission. (See also Romans 6:11-23, read whole chapter) Christ’s death gave us our freedom from bondage of sin and God’s Holy Spirit gives us the power to rule over it. I wonder sometimes, no, a lot, if Christians live their lives ignorant of the fact they are free from the bondage of sin. Live their lives as if they are still slaves of sin.

8. Did Cain listen to God’s warning? No. Cain’s anger/hatred/bitterness towards God continued to build. Cain directed his anger at God toward who? Abel.

9. Why did Cain kill Abel? Perhaps Cain’s way of getting back at God for rejecting his offering … rejecting him. Was it an act of impulsive anger or was it premeditated? Premeditated. Cain planned Abel’s murder. He called out to his brother to come into the field and there Cain killed his brother.

10. Why did God question Cain concerning Abel’s whereabouts? Did He not know that Abel was dead? Offer of repentance to Cain. Same as God did for his parents.

11. How would you characterize Cain’s response? No repentance. Prideful. Arrogant.

12. How did God punish Cain? He denied Cain what he enjoyed most – working the land/being a farmer. Cain will be a nomad wandering from one place to the next. How would you characterize Cain’s response to his punishment? Self-centered. No remorse for his actions.

13. Why did God “protect” Cain by putting a sign/mark on him so that no one would kill Cain? Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. God would enact vengeance on Cain, not man.

14. What did Cain do in verse 16? Cain walked away from God.

15. Did Cain’s sins impact only himself or were others impacted? Parents and future generations. Read Genesis 3:19-24. Cain’s descendant did great things (tentmaking, music, iron work). When you die, do you want to be known for being a great archivist, engineer, computer tech or do you want to be known as a great follower of God? Someone walked faithfully in obedience to God? Cain’s descendant Lamech introduced polygamy to the world. Lamech perverted God’s design for marriage – one man and one woman. Lamech killed a man who injured him. Hebrew word for wound – bruise. The poetic form of the text indicates that Lamech bragged to his wives about what he did. He made light of God’s actions toward his ancestor Cain.

16. What do you believe was going through Adam and Eve’s mind when they found Abel dead and that their first-born son was responsible? Words of God in the garden. Learned the meaning of death. First time they saw a dead human. Wages of sin. The guilt they must have felt, particularly Eve.