Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 2

Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1 – 5:24

Tonight, we’re just going to pick up where we left off last week, so turn with me to Genesis chapter 4, and we’ll begin right with verse 1. For a little review from our last lesson, you’ll remember that Adam and Eve were brought back into fellowship by virtue of the animals that were slain, and God provided the blood sacrifice, first and foremost, and them being clothed by the righteousness of God, they were also clothed by the skins to cover their physical nakedness. And since sin had now entered they had to be removed from the Garden of Eden.

Then as we come into chapter 4, we have a whole different set of circumstances. Since sin has now come into the picture, there is a necessity for getting back into a right relationship with God. They are no longer under the light easy keeping of the Garden as they were before, and now they’re going to go out and make their way by the sweat of the brow. Now they’re going to have to live under the effects of the curse. They’ll have to fight against thistles, thorns, weeds, insects, and all the things that the curse brought in are now part and parcel of Adam & Eve’s environment.

Now they are going to being raising children, but always remember it is now all under the curse. So as we come into verse 1, we find them out of the Garden of Eden, and we don’t know how long, because the Bible doesn’t tell us specifically.

Genesis 4:1

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, (the first child) and (Eve) said, I have gotten a man (child) from the LORD.”

There are some Bibles that say, “with the help of Jehovah” and still others, which I prefer, that say this is better translated, “I have gotten a man child, even Jehovah.” Now think about that for a minute. Come back now to chapter 3, and we touched on this verse, and when we read it earlier, I said we’d be coming back to it, so I didn’t at that time go into it too much depth a couple of lessons ago. The Lord God or Jehovah is addressing Satan in verse 14 and 15, but verse 15 is the one we like to look at where it says:

Genesis 3:15

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, (that is between Satan and Eve) and between thy seed and her seed; it (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou(Satan) shalt bruise his heel.”

Remember we pointed out this is foretelling this long run of enmity between the powers of Satan and especially the Son of God who would be coming on the scene as the Redeemer. Now if you will flip back to Galatians chapter 3 for a moment because we always have to qualify everything with Scripture. The whole idea of studying is that we can compare Scripture with Scripture.

Now the Seed of the woman is unique in verse 15 of Genesis chapter 3, but we have to follow that Seed all the way through Scripture because, like I said it was looking forward to the coming of a Redeemer. Here in this passage it’s certainly qualified as to who is the Seed of the woman.

Galatians 3:16

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not. And to seeds, (plural) as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

So we can always Scripturally refer to the Lord Jesus then as “The Seed of the woman.” Remember when we first started way back in Genesis 1:1 with creation, and then as we came into the verses about Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit? At that time I certainly tried to make a point that first and foremost we had to understand that Adam, as he was first created, actually contained within him the woman as we now know was Eve. So when Eve was created, the Bible makes it clear that she came out of Adam, because Adam had to be the Federal Head of the human race, and that everyone, including Eve, would now come from that line of Adam. So that’s why the Scripture tells us so plainly that the human race didn’t come under sin by virtue of Eve, even though she ate first.

I Timothy 2:14

“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”

So sin came on the whole human race by way of Adam! Now we have to understand that Eve was in Adam! Also because even though God didn’t put the curse on Eve for eating from the tree, yet she inherited that sin nature just like every other person since, through Adam. Now all of this should begin to tell us something. For some reason or another, God had to keep the fault that fell upon mankind from Eve, because she was tricked into it. So God insulated her from being at fault. She simply inherited her sin nature from Adam. She was a fallen creature, and under the anathema sin just as much as Adam or anyone else, yet God had something else in the long range view in order to provide a Redeemer, and that had to come through the woman.

Now if you really stop and think most of us certainly ascribe to the virgin birth of Christ, and isn’t it amazing that Christ would be born of a woman, who out of the line of Adam, was a sinner like everyone else. Always remember Mary was not sinless. But isn’t it amazing that God could bring to pass the birth of the Christ child from a normal human being of the female species, and yet her offspring would be sinless, and not pick up anything of that human element of the sin nature.

Now why? I know this is getting a little deep, and I’m afraid that the average Christian never even stops to consider it, but I teach so that we get down to the basics, and the things that maybe aren’t so easily understood. Remember God intends for us to study, and grow, and go into the deep things, as Paul calls them.

So Eve was somehow or other insulated from the blame of the curse when she ate of the tree – and I think the easiest way I can show this is that the seed or egg of the woman, when she begins to get ready for reproduction, within her body there is building all of these potential seeds if you want to call it that. And those seeds will never be anything except just that until they are impregnated from an outside source, such as from the father.

Now this is hard for some people to understand, but as soon as the young mother become pregnant, then the first thing that happens is these cells begin to divide and multiply rapidly, up until we get from 16 till maybe 32 of these cells. Then at about 32 and maybe sometimes at 64 cells all of a sudden in the development of that little embryo, that process of cell division and multiplication stop, and the body cells begin to develop. Now when I say the body cells, I’m talking about the fingers, toes, feet and legs and all that. All of this is going to form that little human body. Then at some point quite a while down the line, these little reproductive cells find their way into the fetus as a whole.

That’s why several lessons ago I said that Eve wasn’t a rib, but rather she was taken out of the side of Adam, and was probably the reproductive part of Eve, and I think the correct term for that is the germ plasm, and that’s all part of our reproduction. Now here’s the amazing thing: Eve had to be insulated from any part of the curse, so that these reproductive cells, beginning from Eve all the way down to Mary and probably continuing on to this very day, do not carry the curse from one generation to the next except through the father. It’s only the father that precipitates what we would call the circulatory system or the blood system.

Now you have to thank about this because this doesn’t come easy like 2 + 2 = 4. So if the female of the species has been insulated from the effects of the curse, in the reproduction area, she cannot pass down from her generation to the next the curse of sin. That can only come from the father. Now physiologically again there is none of the mother’s blood that ever becomes part and parcel of that little infant baby, because the blood comes from the father, and always remember that.

Now then the line of the curse comes through the blood, through the father! Therefore every human being is a born sinner, by virtue of the fact that he has inherited from the father, although she is just as much a sinner as anybody else. But why has all this happened? Why did God see fit to insulate the seed of the woman from the curse. Well God was looking down through the eons of time to the coming of that Redeemer. Christ had to be born of a woman, but He also had to be sinless!

Since the ovum or the reproductive cells of the woman did not carry the curse, God as we know, was the One who impregnated Mary and so she became the mother of the Lord Jesus without the benefit of a human father, and that’s why we call it the virgin birth. Now then you see the Lord Jesus could be born of the woman, without the effects of the curse that came from the human father and so what was He? He was sinless, He was Divine, His blood circulatory system did not originate with the human element, it only originated with God. And yet since He was born of the woman He was human, He had the same appetites that we have, He lived, He ate, He slept like we do, and yet He was without sin.

So now then coming back to Genesis chapter 4, and verse 1. I never like to use the word “assume,” because we can never do that with Scripture., but I think it is so perfectly implied here that since God had provided the way back to Himself, by virtue of Adam and Eve’s faith, that they would continue to live, and they would continue to have children, they would be the parents of the human race. God provided that blood sacrifice that was necessary, but faith is always another one of the prerogatives. It has to be faith + the blood offering. Remember what Hebrews says?

Hebrews 9:22b

“…and without shedding of blood is no remission.”

Then for the other one that is required here is also found in Hebrews chapter 6.

Hebrews 11:6a

“But without faith it is impossible to please him:…”

And it was the same way here with Adam and Eve. God provide the blood sacrifice for Adam and Eve, but they had to believe what God said thus showing their FAITH. Now let’s look at Genesis 4:1 very carefully. Stop and analyze, what Eve is driving at here in verse 1, when she says, “I have gotten a man (child, even Jehovah) from the LORD.”

Well what did Genesis 3:15 promise? The Seed of the woman who would defeat Satan. We know that took place at the cross. So evidently, and I know this takes some deep thinking, the Lord had shared this much with Adam and Eve. That since sin had come into their existence and sin would be plaguing the human race, God Himself would come back on the scene, born of the woman, and become their Redeemer. So Eve had this front and center in her thinking, and when this little boy baby (Cain) was born, what did she think? “This is already HIM. He has already kept His Word. But you see Eve didn’t realize that it would be generations down the line before that Redeemer would come on the scene, but she certainly had the concept.

Now I’m convinced that she had no idea that He would be crucified on a Roman cross, but she did understand that God was going to provide a Redeemer to bring the human race back to Himself. Now let’s just look at the Redeemer concept again. So if you will come all the way back to the Book of Romans chapter 3. We pointed out a couple of lessons ago that the Book of Job tells us:

Job 19:25

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:”

So this whole concept of redemption is all the way through the Old Testament. In fact over in the Book of Exodus, what do we normally call that Book? The Book of redemption! Because God bought His covenant people out of the slave market of Egypt, He redeemed them, He bought them back, and that the whole concept of redemption, it is something that you have lost control over, but you buy that control back. In other words let’s just put down into today’s language. I guess just about every American knows what a mortgage is. Maybe you were fortunate enough that you had a home that was paid for, and then you become unfortunate and had to have some cash, to put the kids through school or whatever. So what do you do with that home that’s been paid for? You go to the bank and you mortgage that property. Now who has really got control over that mortgaged house? Well your banker does. You can’t do anything with that house until you have somehow settled that debt with your banker. There is a way you can get that banker out of your hair, and what do you do? You buy that mortgage back, you pay it off, and that’s redemption.

Romans 3:21-25a

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets: 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (that is between Jew now and the non-Jew) 23. For all have sinned, (by one man, Adam) and come short of the glory of God; 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption (through the process of buying us back) that is in Christ Jesus. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,…”(Remember the two absolutes in Scripture that is found in Hebrews 9:22 and 11:6?)

“Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission!”

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him!”

It takes those two, and you can’t shortcut them, or detour around them, but you have to face them head on. So here we have it. We are redeemed when we believe what God says about the shed blood, about His death, His burial, and His resurrection.

Romans 3:24

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Now let’s look at this system of buying us back. When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, who did Adam and Eve really belong to? Well, the Lord! They were His! He enjoyed their fellowship, He enjoyed their company and they enjoyed His. But you see when sin entered, and they became sin creatures, now who took control over Adam and Eve and their surroundings. Well Satan did. So God lost them, and control over them, Satan now had them, but you see God immediately, in their behalf at least, came in and redeemed them, by virtue of that animal sacrifice and speaking to them in words that they could understand, and they believed Him, so He redeemed them back to Himself.

Now that was just the beginning of the redemption process, and so all the way through Scripture we have this whole idea of redemption. I’ve already alluded to the Book of Exodus as the Book of redemption. Take the nation of Israel for example, when God had called out Abraham and promised him a nation of people that would come from that one man. They would come through the line of Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons, and God was in full fellowship with that whole line of people.

Then you remember the story of how the brothers hated Joseph because he was the favorite son of their father, and for all practical purposes, what did they do with him? They killed him so far as they were concerned, howbeit God had something else in mind and spared his life. But Joseph ends up in Egypt, and because Joseph ends up there and becomes the second greatest man in Egypt and was in control of the grain and getting everything for the seven years of famine. So when the famine hit Canaan and news had it that there was grain down in Egypt, where did the brothers have to go? Down to Egypt. You know the story.

Now as a result of Abraham’s offspring, Jacob and the twelve sons now in Egypt in that pagan godless land, what happens to them? Well they lost their fellowship with Abraham’s God, and they became you might say, mortgaged to the pagan, heathen Egyptians. They went into bondage, and so what’s God going to have to do? He going to buy them back. He’s going to redeem them. So that’s the whole story of the Book of Exodus, how that God instituting first and foremost the night of the Passover, the shedding of the blood of the Passover lamb. The placing of the blood on the door post, it had to start with that.

But as you move through the account of Israel moving out of Egypt after the blood has been applied, then what did Israel have to do? They had to move out, and God led them through the man Moses, and they come to the shores of the Red Sea, and they’re trapped, but what does God do? Oh, He redeems them with His power by opening the Red Sea, and they come through on dry ground, and as a result, they’re bought back by the power of God, by the Passover blood, out of Egypt and unto God’s own self.