International Christian Fellowship

Elstree and Borehamwood to become a Christian Community

Part 4 Murder Grace and Death

Mankind’s Future Part 4 Murder Grace and Death

So far we have discovered God created a wonderful world and that man’s sin caused it to have ugliness in it as well as beauty - this is referred to as ‘The Fall’. 

Read and meditate on Genesis ch.4 & 5 and discover a wonderful promise.

Genesis 3:15 God told Satan He will “put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” We see the first promise of One who is to come who will defeat Satan, though at a cost to Himself. 

Jesus is that One. His crucifixion was the cost He paid. We also see a possible hint of a virgin birth.

Reading 4:1 it is conceivable Eve thought Cain was the seed of which God had spoken. If that is the case she was to be disappointed.

Many ask,” Why was Cain’s vegetable offering not accepted whilst Abel’s offering of a lamb was.”

The reply often given is that Abel’s offering was a blood sacrifice whilst Cain’s was not. And that is true, but not the whole truth.

4:7 God tells Cain that sin is crouching at the door. In Hebrew this can mean a sin offering is crouching at the door, i.e. an animal whose blood could be shed. The brothers knew the story of God shedding blood following Adam and Eve’s sin.

Importantly Hebrews 11:4 tells us it was “by faith that Able offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” 

Romans 10:17 says “faith comes through hearing the word of God.”

In both the O.T. and the N. T. God is concerned about our display of faith, which in Biblical terms means trust in what He has said and who He is. So the brothers must have heard God’s Word to exercise faith.

Many please themselves what they offer God and ignore what God tells us to offer. It is a form of making god in our own image, i.e. making an idol which we then worship.

The rest of the chapter tells of Cain being the first murderer and the mercy God extends to him. It also recounts how Lamech actually boasts about killing someone. 

Does that strike a cord when we hear of gang leaders committing murder today?

4:16 & 17. A question often asked, “Where did Cain get his wife from?”

Ch. 5 Adam had other sons and daughters. Since he lived 930 years it suggests he had plenty of time to have many children.

The question is then raised, “Isn’t it wrong to marry close relatives?” God didn’t forbid the marriage of relatives until about 2,500 years later.

In the beginning mankind’s genes would have been perfect and ‘copying errors’ or ‘mutations’ took many generations before becoming serious.

It is this ‘decaying’ of our genes in every generation that makes it unadvisable today for relatives to marry.

This also suggests the idea of fish ‘mutating’ into man is ridiculous as genes deteriorate and don’t improve, which is what would be required if evolution was true.

Before we finish, I want you to note in ch.5 how we are repeatedly reminded about death.

There is no possibility of reincarnation. Hebrews 9:27 “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” or Matthew 25:46 Jesus said, “they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

We may wonder was it possible for men to live such long lives? We will see in later a talk the whole environment was different and it was going to undergo drastic changes which was to rapidly shorten the lifespan of mankind.

The important question we have to ask our self’s, and not shun away from, is “Will we go away into eternal Life or into eternal punishment?”