Blood Crying from the Ground: Genesis 4:1-16

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."

The first child. Perhaps Eve thought he was the promised seed, the one who would crush the serpent. His name meant "acquired" or "gotten"—a trophy, a hope, a future.

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

Two brothers, two vocations. The shepherd and the farmer, both working cursed ground, both living east of Eden.

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.

Both brought offerings. Both worshipped. But something was different.

The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

The text does not fully explain why. Perhaps it was the quality—Abel brought firstborn and fat portions, the best; Cain brought "some" fruit, perhaps leftovers. Perhaps it was the heart. Hebrews would later say Abel offered by faith. Whatever the reason, God's favor fell on one and not the other.

So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Rage and depression, tangled together. The first worship service had ended with the first sibling rivalry, the first bitter comparison.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "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 rule over it."

Sin crouching. The image is predatory—a beast hunched at the threshold, muscles tensed to spring. Desire—the same word used for Eve's desire for her husband—now describing sin's hunger for human souls. Master it, God warned, or it will master you.

Cain did not master it.

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

The first murder. Brother against brother. Blood soaking the ground that Cain had worked. The seed of the serpent striking the first blow.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The second lie to God. The first murderer also the first to disavow responsibility for family.

The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground."

The blood had a voice. The ground that received it became a witness, crying out for justice. Murder could not be hidden. Death demanded answer.

"Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

The farmer could no longer farm. The ground that drank his brother's blood would reject his labor. He would wander, homeless, marked by his crime.

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear."

Even murderers feel sorry for themselves. Cain's complaint was not repentance but self-pity.

But the LORD said to him, "Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

A mark of protection. Even the first murderer was shielded from vigilante justice. Even Cain was not beyond divine mercy—though he was beyond Eden, beyond the ground's favor, beyond peace.

So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Nod means "wandering." East of Eden—further from the garden, further from presence, further from home. The restless wanderer found a restless place.

The serpent had struck. The blood cried out. And humanity's descent had only begun.