Gen 4: Cain and Abel's offerings, and Cain's punishment for murdering Abel

This is about Adam's and Eve's lineage, and the consequences of Cain's hardened heart in murdering his brother Abel

• v1: Cain signifies possession, for Eve bore him with joy, thankfulness and great expectation. She probably assumed that this son was the promised seed, and thus triumphed in him.
• v2: Abel signifies vanity. Eve was so taken up with Cain that another son was as vanity to her. Note also that each of them had a calling upon their life.
• v3-5: God was not showing partiality when He looked with favour upon Abel's offering as compared to Cain. The problem with Cain's gift was Cain himself. Cain merely brought some of the fruits of the field. In contrast, Abel gave what cost him dearly - the "fat pieces" (choicest parts) of the firstborn of his flock. Abel could have waited until some of the firstborn animals had matured and produced lambs of their own. At that point he could have given an even larger gift to God. But instead, Abel chose to give what cost him the most. This is a contrast between formalistic and true worship. It was the men, and their hearts' condition that waas the determinative factor in God's deciding whose sacrifice was to be accepted. That Cain's heart was the real problem can also be seen in Cain's reaction - "So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast". Instead of rectifying his attitude, and being angry at himself for his own infidelity and hypocrisy, he hardened his unhumbled heart to be angry with God.
• v6-7: God showed great patience and goodness in reasoning gently with Cain. He made it evident to Cain that he had no reason to be angry at God, that a person with a heart that was right and pure before God would be accepted. The latter half of v7 is a warning to all of us - that sin is always just around the corner, and desires to have us, or overcome and overrun us, but we need to master it. The way of sin is always downhill, and one little wrong will lead to a chain reaction that escalates in intensity.
• v8: Cain invited Abel to go into the field together, not as a challenge, but as a brotherly invitation. "Cain...belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous." (1 John 3:12)
  
• v9: God asked Cain, not because He did not know, but so that He could draw from him a confession, for those who would be justified before God must accuse themselves. Cain pleads not guilty and endeavours to cover a deliberate murder with a deliberate lie, even charging God with injustice in putting forth his question: "Am I my brother's keeper?".
• v10: God speaks as though blood itself is both witness and prosecutor, because God's knowledge testifies against, and God's own justices demands satisfaction.
• v11-12: God curses Cain directly, and lays him under His wrath. Cain was cursed to be a fugitive and hance disgrace and reproach among men.
• v13-14: Cain complains in despair that his sentence is harder than he can bear. He seems to speak in indignation, and complains, not of the greatness of his sin, but on the extremity of his punishment. He sees himself shut out from God's face, love and grace, expelled from the comforts of life, exposed my the hatred and ill-will of all mankind.
• v15: Cain the condemned is still under the protection of God. God is saying in Cain's case, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay".
• v16: Cain left God's presence and dwelt on the east of Eden. Hell is destruction from God's presence (2 Th 1:9)
• v17: Cain, in direct rebellion to God, built his city
• v19-22: Lamech was the first who transgressed the original law of marriage by marrying two wives. Notice also, that Cain's descendants were prosperous and knowledgeable - common gifts and talents may be given to the ungodly, but God in His wisdom chose for Himself the foolish things of the world.
• v23-24: Lamech is even more arrogant and haughty than Cain. He proudly talks about him murdering a man, and compares himself with Cain. In effect, he glories in his shame (Phil 3:19), and even presumes God's protection in his wicked way, daring to infer that if anyone should kill him for the murders he had committed God would much more avenge his death.
• v25: In a single day, one single event, Adam and Eve were deprived of both their children. God however, showed mercy, and gave them another seed, Seth, which means settled or place (cf Cain, the wanderer). Seth was granted in place of Abel, and through him the bloodline to Jesus the Redeemer was restored. Hence we are baptised for the dead (1 Co 15:29), as by baptism, we are admitted into the church, in place of those who by death are removed from it.
• v26: ends in hope: people had started turning to God; the revival of religion