The
separation of the families of God and of the enemy: Cain
and Abel
But grace could work. The
grace of a God above the evil of man, and Abel approaches
Him by faith.
Hereon follows the
separation of the families of God and of the enemy, of
the world and of faith. Abel comes as guilty, and, unable
as he is to draw near to God, setting the death of
another between himself and God, recognises the judgment
of sin—has faith in expiation. Cain, labouring
honestly outwardly where God had set him to do so,
externally a worshipper of the true God, has not the
conscience of sin; he brings as an offering the fruits
which are signs of the curse, proof of the complete
blinding of the heart, and hardening of the conscience of
a sinful race driven out from God. He supposes that all
is well; why should not God receive him? There is no
sense of sin and ruin. Thus is brought in sin, not only
against God which Adam had fully wrought, but against
one's neighbour, as it has been displayed in the case of
Jesus; and Cain himself is a striking type of the state
of the Jews.
Sin and its
present consequences
In these two chapters we
have sin in all its forms, as a picture set before us, in
Adam's and Cain's conduct—sin in its proper original
character against God, and then more particularly against
Christ (in figure) in the conduct of Cain, with its
present consequences set forth as regards the earth. We
may remark, in both Adam's and Cain's case, how the
government of God on the earth is set in prominence as to
the effects of sin. Separation from God of a being
capable of, and naturally formed for, intercourse with
Him, is there, but left rather for the moral weighing of
the soul. The publicly revealed judgment is that of
consequences on earth. It is clearly said no doubt,
"He drove out the man" with whom He was to have
held intercourse (chap. 3); and "from thy
face," says Cain, "am I driven out" (chap.
4). But what is developed is the earthly condition. Adam
is shut out from a peaceful and unlaborious paradise, to
labour and till the ground. Cain is cursed from the earth
in this very position, and a fugitive and a vagabond; but
he will be as happy there as he can, and frustrate God's
judgment as far as he can, and settle himself in comfort
in the earth as his, where God had made him a vagabond [1]; and that is the world. Here it is
first pictured in its true character.
Man's state and sin apart from
God
Remark also the two solemn
questions of God: "Where art thou?"—man's
own state apart from God—intercourse with Him lost;
and, "What hast thou done?"—sin committed
in that state; of which the consummation and full witness
is in the rejection and death of the Lord.
Lamech
In the history of Lamech
we have on man's part, self-will
in lust (he had
two wives), and vengeance in self-defence; but, I
apprehend, an intimation in God's judgment, that as Cain
was the preserved though punished Jew, his posterity at
the end, before the heir was raised up and men called on
Jehovah in the earth, would be sevenfold watched over of
God. Lamech acknowledges he had slain to his hurt, but shall
be avenged.
Summary of chapters 2, 3, 4:
Seth, the heir of God's counsel
In the second chapter then
we have man in the order of created blessing, the state
in which he is; in the third, man's fall from God, by
which his intercourse with God on this ground is
foreclosed; in the fourth, his wickedness in connection
with grace in the evil state resulting from his fall;
what the world thereupon became; man being driven out
from the presence of Him who accepted by sacrifice in
grace, and ordering its comforts and pleasures without
God, yet borne with; and a remnant preserved, and the
heir of God's counsels, Seth, set up, and men calling on
the name of God in relationship with them, that is, on
Jehovah.
Driven from the presence
of God, Cain seeks, in the importance of his family, in
the arts and the enjoyments of life, temporal
consolation, and tries to render the world, where God had
sent him forth as a vagabond, a settled abode and as
agreeable as possible, far from God. Sin has here the
character of forgetfulness of all that had passed in the
history of man; of hatred against grace and against him
who was the object and vessel of it; of pride and
indifference; and then despair, which seeks comfort in
worldliness. We have also the man of grace (Abel, type of
Christ and of them that are His) rejected, and left
without heritage here below; man, his enemy, judged and
abandoned to himself; and another (Seth) the object of
the counsels of God, who becomes heir of the world on the
part of God. We must remember however that they are only
figures of these things, and that in the antitype the Man
who is heir of all is the same as He who has been put to
death.
[1]
Nod is "vagabond." God had made him Nod; and he
settles himself, calls "the land after his own
name," or at least his son's name, as an
inheritance, and embellishes his city with arts and the
delights of music—a remarkable picture.
Genesis 4 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
But grace could work. The grace of a God above the evil of man, and Abel approaches Him by faith.
Hereon follows the separation of the families of God and of the enemy, of the world and of faith. Abel comes as guilty, and, unable as he is to draw near to God, setting the death of another between himself and God, recognises the judgment of sin—has faith in expiation. Cain, labouring honestly outwardly where God had set him to do so, externally a worshipper of the true God, has not the conscience of sin; he brings as an offering the fruits which are signs of the curse, proof of the complete blinding of the heart, and hardening of the conscience of a sinful race driven out from God. He supposes that all is well; why should not God receive him? There is no sense of sin and ruin. Thus is brought in sin, not only against God which Adam had fully wrought, but against one's neighbour, as it has been displayed in the case of Jesus; and Cain himself is a striking type of the state of the Jews.
Sin and its present consequences
In these two chapters we have sin in all its forms, as a picture set before us, in Adam's and Cain's conduct—sin in its proper original character against God, and then more particularly against Christ (in figure) in the conduct of Cain, with its present consequences set forth as regards the earth. We may remark, in both Adam's and Cain's case, how the government of God on the earth is set in prominence as to the effects of sin. Separation from God of a being capable of, and naturally formed for, intercourse with Him, is there, but left rather for the moral weighing of the soul. The publicly revealed judgment is that of consequences on earth. It is clearly said no doubt, "He drove out the man" with whom He was to have held intercourse (chap. 3); and "from thy face," says Cain, "am I driven out" (chap. 4). But what is developed is the earthly condition. Adam is shut out from a peaceful and unlaborious paradise, to labour and till the ground. Cain is cursed from the earth in this very position, and a fugitive and a vagabond; but he will be as happy there as he can, and frustrate God's judgment as far as he can, and settle himself in comfort in the earth as his, where God had made him a vagabond [1]; and that is the world. Here it is first pictured in its true character.
Man's state and sin apart from God
Remark also the two solemn questions of God: "Where art thou?"—man's own state apart from God—intercourse with Him lost; and, "What hast thou done?"—sin committed in that state; of which the consummation and full witness is in the rejection and death of the Lord.
Lamech
In the history of Lamech we have on man's part, self-will in lust (he had two wives), and vengeance in self-defence; but, I apprehend, an intimation in God's judgment, that as Cain was the preserved though punished Jew, his posterity at the end, before the heir was raised up and men called on Jehovah in the earth, would be sevenfold watched over of God. Lamech acknowledges he had slain to his hurt, but shall be avenged.
Summary of chapters 2, 3, 4: Seth, the heir of God's counsel
In the second chapter then we have man in the order of created blessing, the state in which he is; in the third, man's fall from God, by which his intercourse with God on this ground is foreclosed; in the fourth, his wickedness in connection with grace in the evil state resulting from his fall; what the world thereupon became; man being driven out from the presence of Him who accepted by sacrifice in grace, and ordering its comforts and pleasures without God, yet borne with; and a remnant preserved, and the heir of God's counsels, Seth, set up, and men calling on the name of God in relationship with them, that is, on Jehovah.
Driven from the presence of God, Cain seeks, in the importance of his family, in the arts and the enjoyments of life, temporal consolation, and tries to render the world, where God had sent him forth as a vagabond, a settled abode and as agreeable as possible, far from God. Sin has here the character of forgetfulness of all that had passed in the history of man; of hatred against grace and against him who was the object and vessel of it; of pride and indifference; and then despair, which seeks comfort in worldliness. We have also the man of grace (Abel, type of Christ and of them that are His) rejected, and left without heritage here below; man, his enemy, judged and abandoned to himself; and another (Seth) the object of the counsels of God, who becomes heir of the world on the part of God. We must remember however that they are only figures of these things, and that in the antitype the Man who is heir of all is the same as He who has been put to death.
[1] Nod is "vagabond." God had made him Nod; and he settles himself, calls "the land after his own name," or at least his son's name, as an inheritance, and embellishes his city with arts and the delights of music—a remarkable picture.