Genesis 4

Genesis 4:8

We have here, 1. The birth, names, and callings, of Cain and Abel, ver. 1, 2. 2. Their religion and different beliefs in it, ver. 3, 4. and part of ver. 5. 3. Cain’s anger at God, and the reproof of him for that anger, ver. 5, 6, 7. 4. Cain’s murder of his brother, and the proofs against him for that murder, ver. 9—16. 5. The family and potency of Cain, ver. 17—24. 6. The birth of another sin and grandsin of Adam, ver. 25, 26.

1. AND Adam knew Eve his wife: and the conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2. And the again bare his brother Abel: and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

v. 1, 2. We have an account in these verses of the children of Adam; two are only mentioned:

1. Cain the eldest; his name signifies possession, and his birth was a cause of joy. A man child was gotten from the Lord, the Lord mother hoped for the Lord also. Nate, Patrons are not to promise themselves too much from their children, and that makes the disappointment the heavier.

2. Abel; that is, vanity. Perhaps in comparison with his brother, he was lightly esteemed, as his name imports. The partiality of parents is often sinful; and in the issue, the disregarded child proves their blessing, and the darling their plague. Nate, Man in his fallen state, may not be called Abel, for he is altogether lighter than vanity itself.

3. Their employment. Adam brought not up his sons in illiteracy, but honest industry: one a shepherd, the other a husbandman. Learn hence, (1.) the shepherd and the plowman ought not to repine at their laborious calling; it is the most ancient, and was reckoned among the most honourable. (2.) Fathers have a right to chuse a calling for their children, and is in their duty to be diligent and industrious in it.

4. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. 4. And Abel, he also brought of the firstling of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel, and to his offering: 5. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

v. 3, 4, 5. The sons of Adam no sooner began to be grown up for labour, but we find them before the Lord. Religion was the first thing, no doubt, he taught them, and divine worship is a principal part of it.

1. They appeared, according to their vocations, with their several oblations of the fruit of the ground, and of their flock: (1.) The worship of God should be the first thing we should fulfil into our children; if they are brought up in the nurture of the Lord, we may have good hopes, when they come to years of discretion, to find them in his holy ways. (2.) According to the Lord hath blessed us, we are bound to honour him with our substance, whether for the support of his cause, or the relief of the distressed. He will count this done to himself. (3.) Among the worshippers of God, there will ever be found hypocrites: men forward enough to bow the knee, and give alms, and appear religious, but void of true faith, without which, it is impossible to please God. Such was Cain.

2. They were very differently regarded. Cain was rejected, whilst Abel offers an acceptable sacrifice, if it be asked, why? 1. Because Cain was a wicked man, his ways were displeasing to God, and therefore his sacrifice was an abomination. 2. Be-

cause he was an unbeliever; his works were his truth, and he looked to no better righteousness than his own for acceptance. Nate, The works of the self-righteous are in God’s sight the works of the ungodly, and will be rejected with abhorrence. Before we presume to approach God, let us ever remember, that our sacrifices can only be acceptable to him, when offered in the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Abel’s sacrifice, on the other hand, God had respect to: 1. Because it was offered in faith: this was its commendation to his regard. It was a sacrifice of atonement in blood, implying an acknowledgment of his sin and desire, and protection of his dependance on the Redeemer to come. Nate, Wherever faith in Jesus, is there God will testify his approbation of our services: though the fire of heaven do not descend upon our sacrifice, as it seems to have done on Abel’s, the fire of love will upon our heart, and bear witness of our acceptance, that we are the children of God. 2. Because it was accompanied with the offering of his heart. He was a righteous man, Most, xxiii. 3. And as the tree was good, its fruit was holiness to the Lord. Nate, There is a real difference in the characters of men: no good works can proceed but from an honest and good heart: the same faith which makes the person accepted, purifies the heart, and enables it to perform an acceptable service. Be it remembered, however, who maketh us to desire, that we may not think more highly of ourselves, than we ought to think.

3. The effect this produced on Cain. Anger against God, as if he were unjust in his regards, and envy in his innocent brother, because of God’s favour to him, kindle in his bosom, dart from his fiery eyes, or disfigure his pale and fallen countenance. Behold a lively picture of the devil: how like is the offspring to the parent; a fallen man to a fallen angel?

Learn here, (1.) Rituates only exasperate the unhumbled. He is filled with the fury of the Lord, as a wild bull in a net, Ife. li. 20. (2.) The children of God are ever the objects of anger, and envy to the children of the devil. The wicked feels the righteous, and guiseeth upon him with his teeth, Pfal. xxviii. 21. (3.) The roostly of the death began in Cain and Abel, and will only end with the end of time.

6. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7. If thou doest well, shall 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.

v. 6, 7. God condescends to reason with Cain on the perversion of his conduct. The sinner that perishes, shall be left inaccessible. I stretched out my hands, but no man regarded—It were well, if on the first motions of sin in the heart, or in the first glance of the kindling eye, this question were in our thoughts, Why art thou wroth? There was no reason for it: for,

1. Acceptance was as free for him as for his brother, if he came in the same way: it was infidelity and disobedience only that excluded him; but that moment if he returned, he should find favour: bring the sacrifice of faith, it should be welcome, and go and sin no more. Nate, God is ever ready to receive the returning sinner; may his goodness lead us to repentance. ‘Tis a fearful thing to abude it, and thereby to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.

But, 2. If he persisted in his evil, his unbelief, and envious wrath, he must expect to be rejected, and judgment would proceed against him. He assured, sooner or later, God will punish. Woe to that sinner, at whole door, in an hour of death, and in a day of judgment, unpardoned sin is found.

3. God assures him, as Abel was his younger, he should also be his inferior. God designed not to degrade him from his birthright, though his sin deprived him of the blessing: remember, dominion is not founded in grace: the gifts of God’s special favour, alter not the distinctions of his providence. Religion never taught a man disloyalty, or disrespect of his superiors, but the want of it. The best christians are ever the most submissive subjects, the most dutiful children, and most respectful servants.

4. 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 flew him.

Anger in the heart, is murder at the door: nothing is wanting but opportunity and impunity, to make every passionate man another Cain. Many were the aggravations of this foul crime. It was his brother; a brother to him ever dutiful and submissive, a person distinguished with God’s favour, and one, who, unsuspicious of danger, talked with him as a friend. But what can stand before malicious envy? No doubt the time was, when Cain had started at the horrid deed; but when once a man gives place to the devil, there is no conception to what a pinch of daring wickedness he may arrive. Ogle prompio. If we would not commit murder, let us refrain from anger. Death thus began its ravages, its wages now appeared. But

Before Christ about 1713. Or have the excelsior. Or forbid to the other. Chap. ii, 18. c will. v. 9. Matt. xxii. 33. John ii. 18. John ii. though

Before Christ should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should the people should

Heb. Blanc. Heb. iii. 14. Rev. ii. 16.

9. ¶ And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? and he said, I know not: As I my brother keeps? 10. And he said, What hath thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood? crieth unto me from the ground. 11. And now are thou curled from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. 12. 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.

Genesis 4:9

The murder was secret, and no doubt carefully concealed. But there is a great cry, from which nothing is hid, nothing is secret: and he in this world orders his providence, often in ways almost miraculous, to bring the blood that is covered to light. God here, 1. Maketh inquisition for it by an alarming question, suited to cover him with confusion, perhaps designed to humble him to repentance. 2. His answer; false and insolent.

(1.) False: I know not. A direct and wilful lie. He would fain conceal it; what folly? Can omniscience be imposed upon? One sin never comes alone: he who dared to commit murder, hesitates not to cover it with a lie. They have both the same father: thus sin ever blinds the eyes and hardens the heart.

(2.) Insolent. Am I my brother’s keeper? Who else should have been? Who so proper? Who so bound in love and duty? Note, God justly expects of us a kind concern for our brethren; if they receive damage to body or soul, through our neglect, much more through our means, he will require it at our hands.

v. 10, 11, 12. We have here, 1. God’s reply, pointed with conviction, covering him with confusion, What shall thou dost the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. Blood hath a voice to reach the skies; murder will call for vengeance; blood for blood.

(1.) Shall murdered bodies thus cry out, and murdered souls be silent? Hear, ye careless sinners, whole lips and lives cast abroad firebrands and death. Tremble ye negligent paffons: how many lurk immortal souls are laying their blood at your door? (2.) Where shall the man flee, whose sin hath testified to his face, whose guilt is evident? To the blood of Jesus. This crieth louder for mercy, than Abel’s did for vengeance: happy the soul whose cries of sin are drowned in deeper cries of the blood of the Saviour. Even a murderer need not despair.

2. God’s judgment against him: now thou art curled. No judgment so heavy as the wrath of God, and how much more when without hope of mercy. He is spared to live upon the earth, not in prospect of repentance, but as a warning against sin: a repudiate spirit, is a damned one in this world. How should we be afraid of sin, lest we provoke God to give us up to a repudiate mind, and then we are as desperate as if already shut up in the belly of hell. Two things shall make his abode here as miserable, as his prospects hereafter are terrible.

(1.) The earth shall withhold her fullness; though filled, it shall not yield her increase. Adam received it barren, but by threat it brought forth fruit. Cain shall not only fawnt to till, but shall find it barren still. Note, A wicked man hath the curle of God on whatever he hath and doth; and this, like the gall in the cup, embitters all.

(2.) If shall refuse him a settlement; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be. He shall be cast out from the society of men, and left to wander up and down, as much a terror to himself, as an abhorrence to others. Note, This fugitive and vagabond is every sinner; he seeks to fly from himself, but guilt, like a fiend of hell, haunts him; and conscience, with a scorpion’s whip, continually scourges him.

Or mine inquiry is greater than that it may be forgiven.

Genesis 4:15

13. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14. 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 pain, that every one that findeth me shall stay me. 15. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whoever shayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him: seven-fold. And the

Heb. lxxv. 14. LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

v. 13, 14. Cain’s punishment was less than his inquiry deserved; yet he murmurs against it, as cruel, and more than he can bear. The hardened heart of man is thus ever disposed to change God foolishly. Doth a living man dare to complain of any present burden? Let him rather stand astonished that he is out of hell. Note, They who quarrel with the punishments of sin, as too severe, will feel them to their cost by and by; and he made to own the justice of them too. Four fore judgments were upon him; expulsion from God’s face and favour, as a repudiate; expulsion from the comforts of society and the church of God; a restless and tormented conscience; and the continual and terrible fears of death. Learn, 1. The soul who departs from God, is the prey of constant disquiet: though he seeks rest, he finds none. 2. Guilt is the source of excelsess, and every prospect of death to such an one, is big with terror and dismay.

We have here God’s protection of Cain, and the mark set upon him. First, to confirm the sentence passed upon him he is not to be executed, lest he be forgotten, but lives a standing monument of God’s vengeance against sin. We need not wonder that God does not immediately cut off during and preformous sinners: he hath wise ends to answer in them. Secondly, the mark was to point him out; not more to save him harmless, than to brand him infamous, This is the Murderer! The mark of sin is upon every guilty soul: though secret now, the day is near when the brand of the beall will appear in the forehead, and the impenitent sinner be pointed out as the object of scorn and abhorrence to sinners and angels; and be doomed to live for ever as an outcast from God, with devils in hell.

16. ¶ And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17. 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. 18. And unto Enoch was born Irod: and Irod begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methujael: and Methujael begat Lamech.

v. 16, 17, 18. We have here, according to the sentence, 1. Cain’s banishment: The presence of the Lord he no longer defired; but dreaded, and therefore fought to fly from it. He had done now with worship and sacrifices; and as God had forsaken him, he renounces all profession of godliness, and commences vagabond. None sink so low, none grow so infamously vile, as those who having made profession of godliness, return, as the dog to their vomit.

2. Whether he went. To the east of Eden, the way the flaming church stood; infamible to God’s dreadful judgments, and defying them; such daring inquiry being the last produce of the abandoned heart: but he found no rest. It was the land of Nod, or trembling, to him wherever he was: he could not fly from himself. Let the guilty sinner never think of flying from God, but to God, if ever he hopes to find rest unto his soul.

3. His labours. To build a city, an expedient dictated by his fears, perhaps to secure his person; or by his implicity, in hopes of disappointing the divine sentence; or by his implicity, to divert his thoughts; or by his perils, to make himself distinguished: whatever a wicked man doth, his motives, pursuits, and ends, are all wrong. Learn hence, (1.) ‘Tis a sad symptom of a sinful state, when a man cannot bear his own thoughts, but must be seeking some continual engagements in order to divert his mind. (2.) The sinner feels: a fixed abode in the earth: he would set up his name and city here. To be worldly minded, is the sure evidence of departure from God. (3.) In vain are all the attempts of the guilty: his possessions must fail, his cries moulded into dust, his name be blotted out, and death, which brings him to the judgment that of God, disappoint all his labours under the sun.

4. His family. The names of them are mentioned, but no good of them; they were chips of the old block; malus cervus, malum evum; what a curle to his family is a wicked patent?

5. ¶ And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20. And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21. And his brethren came out Jabal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the father of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

v. 19, 20, 21, 22. We have some account of one of Cain’s posterity; and as we might expect a bad father and a worse son; 1. His

Before Ch. about 15. Heb. Ch. Heb. R. Heb. R. Babes Cloth 3574.

1. His taking two wives. He was the first probably, who had transgressed the divine institution: he began the bad custom, but better men followed him. How hard, when custom hath established sin into a law, to escape from the pollutions that are in the world!

2. His remarkable family. Wicked men often prosper, and flourish like a green bay tree for a time; but their end is, to be confessed together. Be not those restless thon, though his house be increased. We have the names and occupations of his children: (1.) Jubal, the father of Shepherds, celebrated for his knowledge in breeding and keeping cattle. (2.) Jubal, a musician, and the first inventor of it. (3.) Tubal-Cain, famed for his works in heals and iron. (4.) Naaman, their sister, the beautiful, as her name signifies. It seems not improbable, in this degenerate race idolatry began; and Lamech being the Jupiter, his sons are the Pan, Apollo, and Vulcan, and his daughter the Venus of the heathens. Observe, 1. Amistil all their worldly inventions, no mention is made of God, or his service: as long as the worldly mind can profit or please himself, he looks no higher. 2. Wicked men may be made very useful in their generation. 3. Though musical was first invented by a bad man, God hath made it subservient to a good end. This is a pity the profession of musical should, in their conduct, rather chuse to imitate the inventor Jubal, than the reformer of it David.

Owl would fly a man in my wound, do; Or in my hunt.

23. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, heathen unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven fold.

v. 23, 24. Lamech’s wickedness is farther recorded.

1. His imperiousness. His wives hear his voice, and tremble. Nata, (1.) Those who marry like Lamech, for lull, will fathom long speak the kind voice of love. (2.) The most rigorous exactness of others duty, are often the most flagrant neglectors of their own.

2. His ferocity. I have slain a man to my wounding, &c. I have done it, nor fear the consequences; or as in the margin, I would fly a man, that dared provoke, or stand in my way, though I were wounded in the conflict. Bloody-minded men stick at nothing when their passions hurry them on! the accursed sin of dwelling is Lamech’s spirit.

3. His presumptuous impiety. From Cain’s protection, he infers his own ferocity, commit what crimes he would: thus wicked men wax words and words. Because God’s vengeance is not speedily executed, they harden themselves in the confidence of impunity: but though vengeance be slow, it is sure; their damnation sundereth not. All we hear of Cain and his seed, is a continuance of evil: a bad beginning necessarily leads to a bad end.

4. Chap. v. 5. 10 b. Shatt. 3574. Chap. v. 6. Or to call themselves the name of the Lord.

5. ¶ And Adam knew his wife again, and the bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed-infessed of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26. 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.

v. 25, 26. Great, no doubt, was Adam’s grief for his lost Abel; greater for his rebellion, Cain: but he shall not have all forrow and no comfort. God will in some fort make up the breach; though he shall have enough to awaken the remembrance of his sin and his forrow, he shall not be left utterly defturite. 1. God gives him another son, to be the establishment of his family, and in whose house the worship of God should be perpetuated in the room of Abel. God will never want a holy seed. Though the church be never so persecuted, Samaria mayrean from a cellar: There shall still be a generation to serve him. 2. The name given him; Seth, placed or settled; and another seed, typifying that emphaticised seed the Messiah, who should be placed as an ensign on an hill, and to whom should the gathering of the people be. 3. The farther increase of his family in Seth’s son, Enos, or miserable; so called, to reunion us that the best of men were but miserable sinners. And now in their land’s seed, they behold a comfortable prospect of the perpetuity of the true religion. For, 4. They were distinguished for their regard to God’s name and worship: they were of a different character from the irrefutable offspring of Cain: they continued in prayer and public sacrifices: no doubt Adam’s children had done so from the beginning, but they now began to be more remarked for it. The more the wickedness of men appear, the more should the people of God be quickened: ’tis high time to be jealous for God’s glory, when iniquity abounds. The margin reads, they began to be called by the name of the Lord: Perhaps a name of reproach given by the wicked sons of Cain; the godly, the precise. The people of God ever bore his Vol. I.

name; a name of infamy in the earth, but a name of honour in heaven; the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.