Up on the north coast, near Benone, there is a Maize Maze. It’s a maze that has been cut in a field of maize (corn). Now, I’m not sure if it’s an amazing maize maze - I haven’t done it - but maybe if you’re up next summer you can give it a go. Nearer home, there’s the Peace Maze in Castlewellan Forest Park. I’m not sure if it’s been called the peace maze because if you send the kids in to have a go, you’ll get some peace for half an hour. Has anyone tried the Castlewellan maze?
Even if you haven’t, I’m sure you know how mazes work. You start at the start, and have to find your way to the end. (In Castlewellan, you get to ring the bell!) But it’s not as straightforward as following one simple path the whole way. Inside the maze there are lots of options, lots of ways that seem to be right, but that eventually turn into dead ends.
As we come to Genesis 4, it’s as if we’re just stepping into the maze. We are on the hunt for the Saviour promised by God after Adam and Eve had messed everything up. That’s what we saw last week in chapter 3. Paradise was lost through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. They had one rule to keep, and they disobeyed; they knew shame and guilt because of their sin. They expected to die straight away - because they deserved to die straight away.
But God showed mercy (in covering their sin) and grace (in promising a Saviour). Look back again to the promise, which is within the curse against the serpent who is the devil: ‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ (3:15)
Adam and Eve have been kicked out of Eden, but that promise is ringing in their ears. And the hunt is on. Who is the offspring of Eve who will crush the serpent’s head, and win the victory over sin and death and hell? We know that the offspring we’re waiting for is Jesus, but Adam and Eve don’t know that. And so they are just stepping into the maze, looking for the next step, for the right path to lead them to the victory.
In verse 1, it looks as if God’s promise has been fulfilled. In just one step, it looks as if Adam and Eve are on the right path. After all, God had said that it would be the woman’s offspring. And here we have the very first birth of the very first baby in the whole world. Adam and Eve are pleased to announce the birth of their first son, Cain; mother and baby doing well.
So well, in fact, that Eve says there: ‘With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” (1) The name ‘Cain’ sounds like ‘brought forth’ or ‘acquired’ - and Eve thinks that she has acquired the child of promise, the Saviour. Abel’s birth (2) has no special words recorded. He’s not Cain.
When the boys grow up, they decide to diversify their farming - Cain going into arable, and Abel working with livestock. And in due course, they bring an offering to the LORD. It’s like the very first harvest thanksgiving. Cain brings some of the fruits of the soil, Abel brings fat portions from some of his firstborn sheep. And God accepts one, but not the other.
Look at verse 4: ‘The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.’
Why the difference? Some think that Abel’s involved blood and Cain’s didn’t. That might be part of the answer. Or that Abel’s was from the firstborn of his flock, whereas Cain just brought some of the fruits of the soil. Perhaps. But notice that it wasn’t just the offerings that were accepted or rejected. It was also the offerer that was favoured or not. In 1 John 3:12 we’re told that ‘Cain’s actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.’ God knows our hearts - he knows the motives and attitudes behind our actions. And so Cain doesn’t receive God’s favour. And it leads him to get angry.
Do you see how the LORD shows him grace? Tries to help him? Tries to turn him? ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ (6-7)
Cain has a choice to make. Just like his parents, he has heard God’s word to him. What will he do? The right thing? The wrong thing? Sin is pictured as crouching at the door, just waiting to pounce, to take over. It desires to have Cain (and each of us) - but he is to master it.
Sadly, we see that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Cain rejects God’s word, and attacks his brother, and murders him. And do you see how Abel is referred to in verses 8 and 9? He’s not just ‘Abel’ - he is ‘his brother Abel’ or ‘your brother Abel.’ So much for brotherly love. More like brotherly hate.
And so the LORD speaks to Cain again, asking, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And do you see how Cain responds? ‘I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Answer - yes! You should be! But sin has mastered Cain - pride which refuses to repent; envy which resents his brother; murder to snuff out an image-bearer of God.
Are we our brother’s keeper? Our sister’s keeper? We should be! Caring for and protecting those who need our help. Especially those who have no voice. Those whose blood will cry out, like the blood of Abel. ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.’ (10-11)
Cain is sent to be a restless wanderer; protected by the mark put on him, so that no one will kill him. And if anyone does kill him, there will be vengeance seven times over. And so Cain leaves, under God’s curse, and goes to the land of Nod. (A place I hope none of us are in this morning!)
Cain is obviously not the promised Saviour. If anything, he’s part of the serpent’s offspring, under the power of sin, and the kingdom of darkness. But his dead end pathway goes a bit further. We’re told about his city, his family, his generations, and it all comes to a head with Lamech.
Here we see the fruit of Cain’s lifestyle, the end of his disobedience. He takes two wives (rather than just one); his family seems to be innovative and entrepreneurial - developing tents and musical instruments (harp and flute), and tools of bronze and iron. And yet, he seems thoroughly unpleasant. Listen to his poem - can you imagine being married to him?
‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.’
There’s an escalation of violence, a full flowering of the fruit of wickedness. The serpent’s offspring to the sixth generation. And so, by the time we get to Lamech, it’s very obvious that we have reached a dead end. We aren’t going to find the Saviour in this family line. We need to go back to where we started and try another path.
And that’s what we find in verse 25. We’re back to the start. Adam and Eve have another son, and Eve calls him ‘Seth’ - God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him. And in due course, Seth has a son, Enosh - and we are back on the right line. It’s not that Seth or Enosh were perfect; it’s not that they never sinned, of course they did; but something new is happening. ‘At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.’ (26)
We’re on the right track again. The search for the Saviour is on; the hunt for the one who will crush the serpent’s head. Yet even here we are getting pointers to Jesus, signs along the way; echoes and glimpses of what our Saviour will be like when he comes. Despite the fiercest of temptations, he never gave in, not even once. He had full control, and was fully obedient to God’s will.
He was and is his brother’s and sister’s keeper - perfectly loving and caring for us; indeed giving up his own life for us, perfectly demonstrating what brotherly love looks like. That’s a theme that’s picked up in the early part of Hebrews - how Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters.
He offered not just a firstborn lamb - he offered himself, the Lamb of God, making the one complete and all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world on the cross. Abel was murdered because of his acceptable offering; Jesus was the acceptable offering.
And because of the cross, Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Heb 12:24). Abel’s blood cried out to God - and what did it cry? For justice! For vengeance! And what is the better word that Jesus’ blood speaks? It speaks of grace, of mercy, of pardon.
We all find ourselves, by birth and choice, to be sons of the serpent. Sin isn’t just something we do - it’s our operating system, it’s a part of us, infecting everything we do. But the woman’s offspring has won the victory, and in his blood we find our peace. Only through Jesus’ blood can we be forgiven, and cleansed, and set free. To depend on anyone else, or even ourselves, is to continue to wander in the maze, trapped in a dead end. But Jesus gives us victory, freedom, life, and peace. Will you call on the name of the Lord today?
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 29th September 2019.
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