First Murder

Genesis 4 documents the first murder.

Two of Adam's and Eve's children, Cain and Abel, brought an offering to God.  Cain was a farmer and brought his offering from his harvest, but Abel, a shepherd, brought the best of the first born of his flock.

God accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's offering, which made Cain very upset, to the point where God spoke to him and gave him a warning:

7 If thou doest well, shalt 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. KJV

What does that mean?

The NIV says, "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."

This brings question to Cain's offering.  God is saying that Cain had done something wrong.  Is it possible that although he brought of his harvest, it was not the best and it was not of the first of his harvest?

There are times when we bring our offering to the Lord, but how many times do we bring what is left over after?  How many times do we give to the Lord as an afterthought?

Malachi 3:8 asks a question:

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.  New American Standard

Leviticus 27: 30 clarifies: And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy unto the LORD.

Cain had brought an offering of the fruit of the ground.  There is no indication that it was the best of the fruit.  There is no mention that he brought of the seed to God.  God rejected this offering.

When we look at Leviticus 1 - 9, we see where God requires the first - the best of the flock or cattle - as offerings.  The required flock had nothing wrong with them.  They were the fattest and best of the flock or of the cattle.  That was what God required.

Abel's offering to God was of the first born - the best -  the fattest.  That was what he had offered up to God.  And that was what God accepted.

So we next see that Cain spoke to his brother Abel, and became so angry that he killed his brother.

We have God asking a question,

9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

 The All-Knowing God knew what had happened, before he asked Cain.  He had already warned Cain that sin was lurking close by and told him to master sin.  Yet Cain had fallen to sin.  Then he became flippant toward God when he asked if he was his brother's keeper.

God responds in verse 10,

But the LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!" (New Living Translation)

God brings Cain face to face with what he had done.  He charged him immediately with the crime that he had committed.  Not only that, He said something very important: "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!"

God is saying that blood is alive, that it speaks, and that He has to listen to the voice of blood.

In Genesis 9: 4 - 6, God speaks of life in the blood.  Not only that, He required a punishment to every man or every beast who killed a human being.  He gave a reason: He had created Man in His own image.

Man was special to God.  He had been made with loving care in God's own image.  The life that God created, the living soul He had created, is to be protected and held in honour.  Killing a man is like attempting to destroy God, who had used His own image to create Man.

Back in Genesis 4: 11 - 12, God put a curse on Cain that resulted in the ground becoming hard and unyielding because of Abel's blood that had flown into the ground.  He declared Cain to be a fugitive and a vagabond.

According to Dictionary.com, this meant that Cain was like an outlaw - someone fleeing prosecution - and a shiftless nomad, moving from place to place, unable to settle down.

Cain exiled himself from God (verse 14) and declared that anyone who found him should kill him.  However, God countered that declaration by saying that anyone who killed Cain, He would take vengeance against that person.  To protect Cain, He marked Cain so that anyone who found him would recognise the mark, realise that God's protection was on him, and would not kill him.

There was no indication what the mark was.  In that era, however, it would have been an easily recognisable mark that set Cain apart from all other men.

So, Cain and his wife left and built a city to the east of the Garden of Eden.  We then see in verse 23 that his great-great-great grandson, Lamech, confessed to killing two men.  However, he declares, anyone seeking revenge against him for the death of the two men would be avenged by God, thus hiding under God's protection.

26 And Seth had a son, and he gave him the name of Enosh: at this time men first made use of the name of the Lord in worship.  Bible in Basic English

Another first.  According to Barnes' Notes on the Bible, this is the first time that Man initiated a conversation with God and also the first time that Man used the Name of God in prayer and in worship.

Clarke's Commentary of the Bible indicates that Man started swearing, using God's Name, in the days of Enos.  It also indicates that men began worshiping idols in Enos' days.

Both Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible and Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary of the Old Testament referred to Enos as being "weak, feeble, and frail".  Other commentaries stated that it was at this time that Man started to call himself "son of God".

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary interpreted verse 26 to mean that Man began to publicly protest against the wickedness of the world around them as He worshiped God.

Reference:

Biblos.com