Lesson 6- Cain murders Abel

Genesis 4:1-16

After Adam and Eve was forced to leave the garden of Eden and had settled into their new home, they had their first baby.The baby was a boy.  Oh, how happy they were! Eve was so happy that she said, "With the Lord's help, I have given birth to a man" (Gen. 4:1). They named him, Cain which means possession. Later, Adam and Eve had another baby boy in whom they named Abel, which means vanity.

When these boys grew up they had jobs that they did. Cain was a farmer that planted and took care of plants. Abel became a sheep herder, which is someone who takes care of a herd of sheep.

Now do you remember in the last lesson where we learned that God covered Adam and
Eve's sin by sacrificing an animal & using it's blood to cover their sin? Ok. God taught Adam and Eve how to sacrifice animals to cover their sins, and they taught Cain and Abel to do it too. Well, one day when they were to bring a sacrifice to God, Cain brought a gift to God of food he had grown. Abel brought the best parts of a lamb to God as a gift. God was happy with Abel's gift but not Cain's. Why? Because it had to from the blood of an animal, as God had taught them to do. So Cain disobeyed God when he brought the plants and not an animal. That is a sin.

Cain was upset because did not accept his gift and it showed in his face. God saw Cain's unhappy face and asked him why he was angry & unhappy. Then God went on to explain that if he would obey him & give the right gift, he would have accepted it. Then God warned him to be careful not to let his anger turn into sin. But Cain did not listen to God's warning. Instead Cain thought on how he was mad about the fact that God had accepted Abel's gift and not his. This made Cain jealous, & angry at Abel. As he thought about it, his anger turned into bitterness, his bitterness turned into hate towards Abel. Finally, Cain's hate for his brother, Abel made him want to get rid of Abel. So he made a plan to murder Abel.

One day, Cain set a trap by inviting Abel into one of his fields to talk. While they were in the field, Cain attacked Abel and murdered him. Later, God went to Cain and asked him where Abel was. Cain told God that he didn't know. Then he went on to tell God that it was not his place to keep tract of his brother, Abel.
That is when God told Cain that Abel's blood cried out to him & he knew that Cain had murdered Abel.

For this sin, God punished Cain by sending him away from the nice fields that he had worked in & into lands where nothing would grow to wander & never have a permanent home. I believe that Cain was the first person to be a nomad. Cain was overcome with grief of what he had lost. Cain also was afraid that he would be murdered by someone else because they knew he had murdered Abel. God told him no that would not happen. To make sure of that, God put a mark on Cain that told people that they were not to touch him or get punished by God (Gen.4).

That is mankind's first murder in the history of the earth. You see, Murder was another consequent of sin. For the sin of anger was allowed to grow unchecked until it grew into hated & then murder. Now you know why it is important to forgive people before you go to bed each night (Eph. 4:26).