What do you think of when you hear “Cain and Abel”? Maybe you think “dysfunctional family” or “brothers at odds.” But I wonder if you have ever heard their names and immediately thought “heart disease.” Yet, in a sense, that is exactly what Genesis 4:1-26 is all about. To be clearer, it is about the hereditary heart disease of sin. Let me explain.

Cain and Abel, brothers from a fallen mother, both bring offerings to God. The informed Israelite who originally received this account would’ve known that both of their offerings were acceptable (one grain and the other animal). Nevertheless, the LORD only accepts Abel and his offering. So what’s the difference? Is God just arbitrarily rejecting Cain? No. Rather, we perceive that God can see something that we cannot. The LORD can see the heart, and Cain’s is diseased. Fundamentally, as can be seen from Genesis 3, the issue with the human heart disease of sin is that it no longer approaches God with trust or faith.

Cain is angry about being rejected, envious and jealous of his brother who is accepted. Instead of dealing with his heart disease honestly and returning to God for help (Genesis 4:6-7), he turns on his brother and destroys that image-bearer.

Now, I mentioned that this is a hereditary heart disease. We see this as the passage proceeds. Lamech, one of Cain’s descendants, shows the same symptoms of Cain – unrighteous anger and murder.

Yet, there is a solution provided in the passage, too. In vv. 25-26, Eve again bears offspring – Seth. This is evidence that God will be faithful to his word that he will bring an offspring who will solve the complex problem of our heart disease (see Genesis 3:15). Through the seed of Seth will one day come the offspring Jesus (see Luke 3:38). And just like Abel, this righteous seed of the woman will be put to death by those envious and jealous of him (Hebrews 12:24). Yet, what man intends for evil God intends for good, so that through Jesus’ death, the blood needed for the healing transfusion is provided. Our hereditary heart disease is healed by this blood transfusion.

Through Jesus’ shed blood we are forgiven. Vengeance was taken on him instead of us. Not only is forgiveness provided, but by the Holy Spirit transfusing the power of Jesus’ blood, we are slowly healed more and more of our inherited illness.

Questions for Conversation

• How do you tend to act when you become aware of your distrust of or disinterest in God? What about when others are aware of your heart disease?
  • Worry, nail biting and busy work?
  • Anger, drinking and gossip?
  • Honesty, repentance and assurance of acceptance?
  • A mixture?
• Do you ever have a hard time admitting that others in your family have this heart disease? Who? Why?
• How can admitting that others have this disease help to put you and them at ease?
• Where do you see Jesus’ blood transfusion making the biggest difference in your progress?
• Compare Lamech’s boast in Genesis 4: 23-24 to Jesus’ command in Matthew 18:21-22. How is Jesus’ blood transfusion supposed to reverse our heart disease?

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

²⁰ Adam^[c] named his wife Eve,^[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side^[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

     Do you see the call to be an image-bearer of God as a privilege or an obligation? Do you see salvation as freedom from the call to be an image-bearer or freedom for the call to be an image-bearer?

Genesis 1:26-31 is the ticket to seeing that image-bearing is a privilege that Jesus came to restore. Just as God acts as Prophet, Priest and King, we are made to image him forth in those very roles too.

God acted as Prophet by authoritatively speaking the world into existence. And God said…and it was so…And God said…and it was so. He also lived up to the role by interpreting his work for us, telling us that it was good. We are called to use our language in similar ways as those who bear our Creator’s image. We not only are forgiven for lying or failing to pray for others but we also are given the Spirit to use our language to create edifying experiences. Additionally we too are called to make interpretive comments. It is risky business, as is all of life, but it is a privilege bestowed upon us at creation.

God acted as King by ruling and exercising full control when he created the environment. Nothing stood in his way as he made the heavens and the earth. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we have not only been forgiven for, say, losing control of our cars in a night of drunk driving; we have been given the privilege of imaging our King as his vice-kings and queens. Male and female alike are called to “subdue and have dominion” over some of God’s creation (notice that time and weather are not included).

God acted as Priest by drawing near to his creation and blessing it, bringing about its full maturity in relationship to him. We see this early in Genesis 1:3 when the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. We see it later when he acts as priest to bless the human couple, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” By multiplying and filling the earth with the image of God, we had the calling to be that blessed presence. But, instead, humanity has been known to be a curse. Wherever we have ended up, there have tended to be wars and unrest eventually. Yet we are remade into Christ’s image through faith in his power and are able to be that blessed priestly presence in the earth again.

Oh, and we don’t have to have sex or children to be fruitful – although we aren’t averse to that. 🙂 Simply through the work of evangelism and discipleship, we participate in the call to multiply the image of God in the earth.

Questions for Conversation:

1. What role do you see most as a privilege? What role do you see most as an obligation in a negative way?

2. Can you think of stories from the Gospels of how Jesus perfectly fulfilled the roles of Prophet, Priest and King?

3. How does Jesus’ death and resurrection for us most reveal the image of God through him?

4. Where do you most need to grow as believer in Jesus Christ? Prophet? Priest? King?

     This past Sunday we learned that God intends to renew all things, including society, through the work of Jesus Christ. Sometimes salvation is presented as “spiritual” as opposed to “physical” and so we envision our ultimate salvation as a non-physical and non-social reality to come. But that is not the case. The visions that God gave to the Apostle John indicate not only that there will be a new creation but also that those who believe in Jesus will be resurrected from the dead and part of a new society within a renewed creation.

To illustrate the difference between the hopes and dreams that are centered on temporary and passing cities and the ultimate city to come, the City of God (or New Jerusalem) I rewrote “New York, New York”. I include the old version plus my new version “God’s New City” [patent pending] below.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Start spreading the news
I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York

These vagabond shoes
They’re longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York

I want to wake up in that city
That never sleeps
And find I’m king of the hill
Top of the heap

These little town blues
Are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it
In old New York

If I can make it there
I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you
New York, New York

GOD’S NEW CITY

Start spreading the news
We’re  here to stay
We want to be a part of it
GOD’S NEW CITY.

These vagabond shoes
They’re longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
GOD’S NEW CITY.

I want to wake up in that city
That never sleeps
And find Christ is King of the hill
Top of the heap

Our little town too
Is going to play
An important part of it
In New Zion!

Since Christ has made it there
We’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to Christ

GOD’S NEW CITY!