Exploring Faith and Jealousy: The Story of Cain and Abel

Show Notes

Episode 422: 
In this episode, Chris and Jeff dive into the intriguing story of Cain and Abel from Genesis chapter 4. They explore themes of jealousy, obedience, and the consequences of our actions. The discussion also touches on the importance of bringing our best to God, as illustrated by Abel's offering compared to Cain's. Join us as we unpack the first murder in human history, its deep implications, and how small sins can lead to greater tragedies.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys,
a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in
practical ways. Welcome to the Bible guys.

I'm just making stuff up. Wow. Yeah, Hey, my name

is Chris, this is Jeff,
and we want to welcome you. Whether

you're joining us on a Tuesday,
or you're back watching and binging there you

go, yes, or you know, just back listening just hoping Chris would

sing to us this morning. Well
I made that up. It could be

our new jingle to everything, and
I don't think so. Okay, Well,

hey, today we're opening up with
a segment called mail Bags. There

you go, mail Bags, Mailbags, and today Jason R. Writes in

and Jason R. Says this,
we've seen both your musical sides. So

my question is if you started a
band with five of your closest friends,

what would the band's name be and
what kind of songs would you sing?

That is such an interesting question.
Wow. First of all, thank you

Jason Jason for caring. Well.
I wonder what kind of band? What

kind of band would we have?
Yeah? First of all, five closest

friends, holy cow? Like would
you do? Like a rock band?

I, I don't know. You're
probably pop band. I mean you're a

Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. Listen. That's the thing that you remember,

because that's the thing. It's either
it's either gonna be you want to make

fun of me. It's either gonna
be. It's either going to be a

pop band, you and Taylor,
or it's gonna be it's gonna be theater

like like you're gonna have a theater
trip Taylor. Right, so you and

you and you and Zach listen.
I like all sorts of music. You

know. When I lived in Atlanta, call your band Zach Swift, Oh

my, there you go. Oh
my word, Taylor Refron, that'd be

awesome, or a Swift Swift,
there you go. When I lived Atlanta,

I had no choice but to like
country music more. I like the

requirements. Like law. It was. If they put you over and you

listen to something besides country music,
you take it, you get in trouble.

I actually, uh, country music
by far was my favorite genre of

music, and then I moved up
here. For some reason, it just

wasn't around me. And I'm not
the kind of person that just seeks out

music if it's around me right.
So I don't know that that's a weird

statement, but I don't like,
like play a lot of music. I

don't go out of my way to
buy CDs back in the day or something

like that, so, uh,
you know, make a playlist today,

those kinds of things. So I
so I just I just sort of,

you know, like listen to the
stuff that's sort of playing. And I

loved country music and so and so. Yeah, I mean one of my

favorite artists today, you know,
actually a lot of them still country music.

So I would actually say I would
shoot for country Boots, Scoot and

Zarbagh, and I would call the
name of my band you call it,

I would call it. Uh,
that's hard, that's hard. That's a

hard question, Jason. Okay,
So I just ran it through. I

said, give me a cool rock
band name that this is your give me

ten cool rock band names for a
lead singer named Jeff. They gave me

some dumb ones Jeff's Electric Revival,
Sonic, Jeff'scape, Jeff's Orbit. Right,

So then I said ten more aggressive
names, and it gave me Cataclysmic

Jeff, Jeff's Anarchy. But the
best one, well, there's vengeance of

Jeff. That's kind of the savage. Jeff Uprising. There you go.

Wow, that's that's so. There
you go, Jeff Savage, Jeff Uprising.

Can you do? Can you do
me a favorite? Since you have

it right there? A country band
with somebody named Chris. Give me give

me a country band name with a
lead singer name with a lead singer named

Chris. Okay, let's see they
see this is good. This is good

for those who don't use the best
one. Yeah, okay. Chris and

the Heartland Drifters. Chris, Chris
and the Heartland Drifter. That's rough.

You want more about it? Only
gave you I only asked it for one.

Oh we go. Here's five more. Chris, Chris Cannon and the

Ridge Riders. I like that.
The Whiskey Hollow Boys with Chris, Oh

the Whiskey. There you go.
Chris Prairie and the Sunset Strummers. Oh

wow, Chris Lonesome in the High
Planes. No, no, no,

read it again. Chris Crossroads in
the Dusty Boots. Oh wow, that's

pretty good. Okay, but what
did I say Chris Prairie and the Sunset

Strummers. Is that your name is
the Sunset strummers kidding me? Chris Prairie

and the Sunset Strummers. That is
that is so good? It's so bad,

it's so good. How about this? Uh? Let me let me

do this? Oh my word,
give me a country band name mixing Taylor

Swift and Zach Effron For Chris Sarba, why'd you say? For Chris?

Okay, here we go. It's
gonna be crazy. Those are three big

Chris Zarba and the Swift Horizons.
Where's Zach in there? I don't know

where Zach left? Well, nobody
likes Zach Efron saidt you Well, it's

check. GPT doesn't have a choice. It has to follow your instructions.

Where's Zach Effron? Are you kidding
me? It's my apologies for missing that

detail. For a country band name
that combines elements of Taylor Swift and Zach

Effront For Chris Sarba, how about
Chris Sarbon and the Swift Shorelines? Still

didn't do it? See, it's
just on purpose leaving out. Hey,

you should contact Zach Effron and let
him know that chet GPT's on purpose of

going. I think actually he listens, does he? Ye? He's listening

right, Yeah, i'd imagine,
at least I think so. In your

heart, in your heart, your
heart tells you, your heart tells you.

Okay, if you're a new listener, you're probably wondering what the deal

is. Very long time ago,
we had a different podcast, yes,

and in it, I asked,
Chris, in the inevitable movie that's made

of your life, who would you
have play? Chris, I've gotten grief

since Ever since then, I haven't
been able to let it go. At

least every six weeks I bring this
back. And it's the same thing with

the Taylor Swift thing. I just
admitted that I liked Taylor Swift's You're a

SWIFTYE. I said, I enjoyed
it. That something I remember it,

something like, you're obsessed. She's
a national treasure. Okay, So anyways,

there you go. So hey,
so we're going to vote for yours.

Then your band name is better than
my band name. There's there's no

question that that's my band name,
Chris Prairie and the Sunset Strummers. There's

no question. There's no question.
That's so good. Okay, it'll forever

be my band aid. It's so
good. Okay, that's fantastic. This

is one of my favorite segments ever. Well, we sort of them.

You know, you sort of saved
it, right because I couldn't come up

with anything and you pulled that g
GPT makes everything better? Yes, that

makes everything better. That's so funny. All right, So we're actually entering

in how about this segue? Gonna
we're gonna say, way to murder?

Well before that sex first sex?
Oh yeah, well I mean so this

is a PG thirteen lesson? Yeah
today, that's right? Yeah, yeah,

PG thirteen. I would say,
well, I get whatever, that's

a parent's discretion. Yes, what
age? Shall we have the talk?

Because my because chances are have you
wait till thirteen? Yeah? They already

know. I know. But when
you say PG thirteen, everybody goes,

oh, I know what you're talking
about. That's true. If you say

eight, they think you're going to
be talking about, you know, arguing

with your mom and dad. There's
a big differ that and right right,

right, right, Okay. Anyways, here we are. We are in

Genesis chapter four, and we're going
to read one through sixteen. He says,

Now, Adam had sexual relations with
his wife and she became pregnant,

and when she gave birth, to
Cain, she said, with the Lord's

help, I have produced a man. Later, she gave birth to his

brother and named him Abel. When
they grew up, Abel became a shepherd

while King cultivated the ground, and
when it was time for the harvest,

Kin presented some of his crops as
a gift to the lord. Abel also

brought a gift, the best of
the first born lambs from his flock,

and the Lord accepted Abel in his
gift, but he did not accept Cain

and his gift, and this made
Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

Why are you so angry? The
Lord asked Cain, why do you

look so dejected. You will be
accepted if you do what is right.

But if you refuse to do what
is right, then watch out. Sin

is crouching at the door, eager
to control you, but you must subdue

it and be its master. One
day, Kin suggested to his brother,

let's go out into the fields,
and while they were in the field,

Kane attacked his brother Abel and killed
him. Afterward, the Lord asked,

Kan, where's your brother? Where's
Abel? I don't know. Caan responded,

am I my brother's guardian? But
the Lord said, what have you

done. Listen, your brother's blood
cries out to me from the ground.

Now you are cursed and banished from
the ground which has swallowed your brother's blood.

No longer will the ground yield crops
for you, no matter how hard

you work. From now on,
you'll be a homeless wanderer on the earth.

Kane replied to the Lord, my
punishment is too great for me to

bear. You've banished me from the
land, from your presence. You've made

me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who
finds me will kill me. The Lord

replied, no, for I will
give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills

you. Then the Lord put a
mark on Cain to warn anyone who might

try to kill him. So Cain
left the Lord's presence and settled in the

land of Nod, east of Eden. Mercy. Yes, that's what he

needs. Yeah, no doubt.
And this is a crazy story. Yes,

it's crazy, And there's a lot
of indicators here, you know,

principles that actually translate for us today. Right. So obviously Adam and Eve

had two kids, so that's just
pretty that's pretty normal. They grew up

and then it goes out of its
way to say that Abel was the one

that brought a gift, but it
describes the gift. It says, the

best of the firstborn lambs from his
flock. Obviously, because of God's rebuke,

we know that that was the thing
that was right, right because he

says, why are you dejected?
Why are you? And by the way,

God's question is very logical, you
know, he's saying, he's saying,

I don't understand why you're angry because
because I've refused your gift, because

I've said that if you do what
is right, then it'll be, it'll

be, everything will be good.
But if you do what is wrong,

then watch out sins at the door. So you know, don't don't give

in a sin. I mean,
that's a very good answer. But again

they're brand new at this, right, I can only imagine. But you

know, here's another crazy thought.
So Adam and Eve lived to be what

nine hundred something? Yes, right, So back then, and that's a

whole other topic altogether. We won't
get into that. Well, we'll get

to it eventually. We'll get to
it eventually. But so then the question

is this, how old does Cain
and Able actually have to be in order

to be grown adults to perform these
kind of things. So so you know,

we think in our minds, oh, thirty years, but who knows

how long it could have been.
Could have been hundreds of years, right,

so we don't know. But it
says they grew up and then,

you know, and then this happened. So either way, in my mind,

I'm thinking Cain should know better.
Cain's been around the garden. This

isn't the first sacrifice that they've had. It didn't say it was the very

first. It just says when it
came time for the harvest, which indicates

seasons, right, you know.
So anyway, it's just it's just pretty

crazy how Cain was so angry when
God's rules were so clear. To me,

you know, I often wonder if
there's something missing in the story.

Mm hmm. It's not like God's
just arbitrary and goes, I like you,

I don't like you. I don't. I just don't believe that that's

what happened. I think that there's
an obedience disobedience thing, or an intent

issue here. You know. Perhaps
it was you know, Abel brought the

very best, and it does say
that the best of the firstborn lambs whereas

it says that Kine presented some of
his crops. Right, so there's a

some of his crops. Idea,
let me grab some pumpkins and some whatever.

Hey, it's time for it's time
for the offering. Let me just

stuff lose change in my pocket.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as opposed

to intentionality, right, you know
he stopped off at CVS and and bought

some gift cards, right? Right? Right? Did you did you go

to the airport gift shop? Right? Exactly? As opposed to to the

Bible says that the Able brought the
best of the firstborn lames, so he

brought the very best, and Kine
just brought some. And I think that

there's a significant difference in those two
that the Bible is making on purpose.

But I also wonder if the thing
that's missing is did God to already tell

them what I want is sacrifice?
Oh? I mean, I'm just assuming

that. I'm assuming. I thought
that was assumed because because he says to

Cain, why do you look so
dejected? You'll be accepted if you do

what is right well without I mean, God can't make well. In my

mind, the logic says that God
is not going to make that statement without

having already established, having already established
what is right. Yeah, the system

that is set up, because it
might have been right, heart, he

brought me the best, and you
know you didn't. Well, okay,

right, so I didn't have to
be in my mind that that's like a

rule, right, That statement doesn't
necessarily say a perfect lamb. The difference

is Abel brought me the very best, and you know that you didn't.

So it could have been that,
or it could have been both. Right

that God had already established when you
bring an offering to me, bring me

a perfect lamb. And so Abel
does and King doesn't. And now we

do know coming out of this all
of the perfect offerings coming out of this

are lambs, right, and the
first born or the first fruit, yes,

right, the very best without blemish, without spot. Yeah, you

know that first fruits idea, which
we'll get to eventually. But it also

the Bible talks about bringing the first
fruits of your increase. That may be

it is this is the best versus
leftovers. I think about that with regard

to my wife and I were just
talking recently about we've had some adjustments in

our income and so we need to
rea just our tithes, and I said,

hey, you know, we were
trying to figure out which check did

we bring it out of. Only
we get paid twice a month, which

check do we tithe out of?
I said, let's it'll be a little

bit more of a struggle for us
to give our tithe off the first check

rather than the second check in the
month. I said, let's let's do

that. Let's let's give from that
one. Let's let's make sure that we're

establishing it from the front end,
that it's on purpose that we're giving the

first and the best. And it's
it's this principle I always want to be

thinking, am I giving the best? Or am I just giving the leftovers?

A lot of people tip God,
and God is not working for tips,

right, Yeah, for sure,
He wants the very best of what

we have. And so I think
that every time we sit there thinking about

an offering, every time we're thinking
about what does God want me to do?

God wants nothing short of our very
best and he deserves it because that's

what he did for us. And
then another thing that is not mentioned by

word, but is the word jealousy
here, Oh my goodness, I mean,

think about think about this idea.
So there's no indication, what's so

ever that Cain or excuse me,
that Abel did anything wrong. You know,

remember how like like later on we're
going to talk about Joseph and how

his brothers wanted to murder him.
But it also talks about his arrogance a

little bit, you know, it
talks about you know, you can sort

of see that he bragged and you
could almost read between the lines, and

you know, all these sorts of
things. But in this case, there's

a direct connect between Able's offering between
get this him and God. It has

nothing to do with with Cain,
nothing. It has everything to do with

Abel's righteousness, his relationship with his
heavenly father, and yet somebody's jealous of

that. And so it's interesting how, you know, it doesn't mention it.

I wish it would have, actually, but we obviously are reading between

the lines. Or actually it's it's
there in the lines that that Abel did

nothing wrong, and yet Cain killed
him for it, and it's because he

coveted the relationship that Abel had with
God because of his offering. And so

now again that connected to a lot
of different things. There's a couple of

sermons in there, Cain's desire ultimately
was acceptance from God. Cain's desire ultimately

was to be loved by God the
way that Abel was loved by God for

his offering. So it's interesting,
isn't it. So he has this jealousy,

but in the end, his desire
was to connect with God. That's

what he was jealous of, which
again points to how we are made.

So, you know, a lot
of times we'll make fun of Christians or

you know people. You know,
I'm not saying we, I'm saying the

world will make fun of Christians and
put them down. But on the inside,

they admire their conviction, they admire
their faith. They say, wow,

I wish I could believe in something
like that, you know, because

there's something in all of us that
wants a relationship with our creator. Yeah.

And he may not even realize that
was this primary motive, right,

right, But he was just overcome
with jealousy. And it's interesting. God

calls him to change, right,
does invite him and say, hey,

listen, this isn't the end.
You made a mistake, this isn't the

end of the world. Here,
just go do the right thing. And

you know, God always invites us
before we get into deep. God always

invites us to just to go make
things right. And if he'd made things

right, you know, I just
was in a conversation with somebody here recently

that needed a little bit of correction. And this guy is a good leader,

he's a good man. But you
never know when you come in.

It was, you know, in
a situation where I'm a leader over him,

and I thought this could go one
of two ways. If he's a

humble person, he's going to accept
it. If he's a prideful person,

this is going to expose it.
And it could have just blown it up,

you know, come in and this
guy's reaction was almost flawed us not

quite because we're all sinners, right, man, this guy, there's an

Indian uh. There's an Indian proverb
that says, when somebody shovels down on

you, keep your mouth shut,
right, which is such a great phrase.

That is an Indian proverb. It's
another great phrase, a great phrase.

And he did so here he's getting
some bad news, he's getting some

stuff he doesn't want to hear.
And he just sat there. He looked

at the table for a minute,
and then he looked up and he said

Okay, I'm gonna accept that.
And he didn't like any of it.

Now we've had hours of conversation since, but in the confrontation, in that

moment, it was this humility that
went, okay, I'm and and and

we just talked. We sat and
talked for a little while. There was

three of us sitting there, and
we sat and talked. Hey, we

all have blind spots. That's all. It's just a blind spot. Here's

an opportunity to maybe make things better. And he did. That's what God

does with King. God says,
hey, listen, there's a blind spot

here. That's all. Why you're
upset. Just go do the right thing.

Came. Let this jealousy turn into
bitterness, and this bitterness turns into

rage. And he actually, it's
the first murder, right, right,

the first murder in human in human
history is a result of something that was

so easily fixable. But he took
it personal. I think that there we

tend to take correction so personal.
I'm a farmer, I'm not a shepherd.

Right, you take what I gave
you. And a lot of times

we want to do that with God. We want to worship God the way

we want to worship him rather than
the way that God has already prescribed to

be worshiped. Right, and then
we go, oh, you give me

this correction. It's a personal thing. It's a personal assault. I mean,

it's not personal. I just want
you to be better, right,

so go fix it and then everything
will be fine. And instead he's full

of bitterness, and this bitterness eventually
ruins not only you know, his life,

but his brother's life, and then
he's cursed for the rest of his

existence on the planet. Yeah.
I'm reading this little note in the Life

Application Study Bible that talks about Abel
a little bit, and it says his

strength and accomplishments, and at lists
three things, and it's definitely noteworthy.

It says number one, he's mentioned
in the Hall of Faith or what is

known as the Hall of Faith in
Hebrews chapter eleven. So when the writer

of Hebrews was talking about the Old
Testament characters, how they were known for

their faith and how their actions prove
their faith, it's interesting how Abel is

not ascribed very many, very many
verses here, right, I mean,

Abel comes and goes, right,
He's mentioned in a few verses. We

don't really know much about him.
We just know he's faithful, and we

know he's dead. That's really it. That's it. And yet he's mentioned

in the Hall of Faith, which
is pretty incredible. And then he's also

the very first Shepherd. Now think
about the significance of how Jesus used the

symbolism of shepherd, right, that's
pretty cool. And yet Abel is the

very first shepherd. And then he's
the first martyr for truth. Matthew.

It references Matthew twenty three thirty.
I don't know what that is, but

I think I'm gonna look it up. Well, I hand it over back

to you, because that's pretty cool. So there's a big application here,

and it's this mentioned here in the
Life Application Study Bible. Adminee's disobedience brought

sin into the human race. They
may have thought that their sin eating a

piece of fruit wasn't very bad,
but notice how quickly their sinful nature developed

into their children. Simple disobedience quickly
degenerated into outright murder. Adam and Eve

acted only against God, but Cane
acted against both God and other people.

A small sin has a way of
growing out of control, So let God

help you with your little sins before
they turn into tragedies. What a great

application. Right, Hey, we
think that that little lie, we think

that that little flirt, we think
that that second drink. We think we

can go on and on. All
these little sins we don't think are a

big deal. But ultimately it was
one generation later. A piece of fruit

leads to murder, and that's what
happens. Sin unchecked will always lead the

tragedy like a snowball rolling down the
hill. That's right, that's right,

that gets bigger and bigger as it
goes down. Right, By the way,

that reference that I referenced there,
Matthew twenty three thirty five, it's

actually just referring to when Jesus was
rebuking the Pharisees and he was talking about,

hey, you've killed the prophets,
and he said, and he said,

just like Abel was murdered, you
will kill some by crucifixion. He

was really referred to himself. And
that's interesting, isn't it. So he's

referring he was saying that Abel died
for truth. Yes, he goes for

good. Here, I'll just read
it to you. It says, as

a result he's talking to them,
you'll be held responsible for the murder of

all godly people of all time,
from the murder of the righteous able for

the murder of Zachariah, whom you
killed in the temple, between the sanctuary

and the altar. I tell you
the truth, this judgment will fall on

this very generation. Wow. And
he's including himself obviously, Jesus, because

the verse befo. So it was
acknowledging that ables the first martyr. That's

right, that's right. And in
the New Testament, Stephen is the first

martyr. That's fact Chapter seven.
First Christian martyr, first Christian martyr.

That's right in the New Testament.
So interesting. So, hey, that's

a great that's a lot and I'm
sure that we did we cover everything.

Oh yeah, we just hit the
surface, we really did, ye.

So so hey, address those little
things before they get out of control and

turn into a tragedy. That's great. Well, that's a good closing thought

and we will see you next time, hopefully on the bibble guys,