The twin sons of Adam and Eve (Gn 4:1-2). One was a farmer, and the other a shepherd (verse 2). They both worshipped God, but only one found favor in His eyes; Abel who offered Him sacrifices from his flock, rather than fruits (vv 3-5).

Note: Jesus Christ did not offer the fruits of his labor to his Heavenly Father. He offered himself, and asked his followers to carry their own cross, exactly as he did! (Matthew 10:38).

Cain became furiously angry because his brother Abel was doing the rihgt thing (v 5). Only instead of heeding the words of the Lord and straightening up his own act (vv 6-7), he murdered him (v 8). Later, not only did he rudely deny knowing his whereabouts, he also picked up an arrogant attitude with God for punishing him: "My punishment is greater than I can bear," he complained. "Now that YOU have made me a wanderer upon the earth, what if someone kills ME?" (v 14).

Meditate: While ignoring the words of the Lord reaps CONDEMNATION, heeding them yields CONDONATION.

After assuring him that whoever kills him shall receive seven times his punishment, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord identified with a mark, and settled in the land of Nod where he founded a city and named it after his son Enoch (vv 15-17).

Think: What exactly happened here? Did the Supreme Judge of the Universe fogive Cain and forget about Abel? Why did He protect Cain, the furious rude arrogant liar, and let him get away with murder? Such a character should have been eradicated from the face of the earth, is not that right?

Open your Bible to Deuteronomy 7:9-10 and read it very carefully. Now go back to Genesis 4:17-24. Did you notice anything? All right. Advance to Genesis 5:1-32. How about now? Did anything in particular draw your attention?

Tip: Almighty God works in intriguing ways, mysterious only to Christians who do not really want to know!

Both Cain and Seth (Abel) had descendants named Enoch (Genesis 4:17; 5:21), and Lamech (4:19; 5:28). What is the big deal? Where arrogant Cain named a city after his son Enoch to enshrine his memory (v 17), Enoch the grandson of Seth was taken to the city of God because he obeyed Him (Genesis 5:24); and where the family tree of Cain was deleted from the Book of Life after only eight generations with Lamech and his three sons as the last to be mentioned (Genesis 4:24), the family tree of Seth (Abel), yielded thousands of generations, beginning with Lamech who begot Noah (vv 28-31).

Interesting; no?!

Ponder: The words of king David in Psalms 37:7: "Rest in the Lord; Wait patiently for Him to act. Do not be envious of evil men who prosper."