To me, this has always been an interesting passage:
1. First thing to note, because I know the fairness of this is going to be a question, note that the Bible (whatever version you have) usually has some kind of reference to Cain bringing produce while it always seems to mention that Abel brought the “choice” lambs from the “best” of his flock.
2. At this point, it appears that God’s acceptance is based on the offering. It doesn’t appear that Adam and Eve had to make offerings to be in fellowship with God before the fall. But, the whole deal has changed because of sin. What offering to Christ-followers have to bring?
3. Check out the fact that, even though Cain messes up, God gives him a chance to do what’s right…He even warns him of what might happen if he doesn’t change.
4. I think we all know that Cain kills Abel. But why? In some way, are we like Cain in our hearts?
5. God curses Cain, and the one the thing that sticks out to me is that Cain is very upset because he will no longer be in God’s presence.
6. God marks Cain to keep him from being killed. One more act of grace? [A little side note, some people try to justify racism by using this part of the Bible. They say that the mark of Cain is having a dark complexion; and, I guess they think that that means that they can treat people who are not white like crap. To me, to have that kind of hate in your heart, that’s more the mark of Cain than anything.]
7. Has anyone ever read “East of Eden”? I haven’t. But I always found it interesting that that’s where Cain lived.
8. A little bonus question, for all ye logisticians. Where did Cain’s wife (in verse 17) come from?
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ripple effect: vacaville 
Sorry I wasn’t in yesterday, I was with my friend. But Here’s the Green Arrow, Watch Tower;
2.) I think they have to bring people to know Christ, give things that up to be with Christ, and to love Christ.
4.)I think the reason why he kills Abel is because he is jealous, and want to be recongnized. Yes.
6.) That is grace because God is going to still save Cain from dying.
7.)No.
8.)I think it is his sister, or Eve.
Hey Paul Cain was on Smallvill. lol. O.K. enough joking around. I love you guys. I must go and save the world. Bye.
Comment by the green arrow April 10, 2007 @ 8:37 pmI can guarantee that it WASN’T Eve. Oh, and that was a different Cain, Matt!
You do realize, Matt, that the Watchtower is the name of the official Jehovah’s Witness magazine?
Comment by Paul Mannino April 10, 2007 @ 8:38 pmSo i pretty much wouldn’t want to be in Cain’s shoes(actually more like sandals). It’s hard to imagine that he would just lose control and just kill his own brother. I guess it must be pretty hard to have god favor your brother over you. Its pretty amazing that God let him live afterwards, although a life away from God is probably not a very peaceful life to live. So I was reading the part were God Says that if anyone kills Cain he will give them seven times the punishment and i was thinking, could this have any relationship to the death penalty in today’s society. I mean if God is going to punish anyone who murderers Cain(a murder himself), do you think that we should put to death murders today? I mean, to me it seems like God is taking a big stand on how he feels about taking revenge on murders with the seven times punishment. What do you guys think?
Comment by jose ole April 11, 2007 @ 3:21 amHello there Paul – it’s your Mother in Law 🙂 alias, “REVD UP”
Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your entries – I can recognize you in your words…your enthusiasm for the Lord is all over it! You write like you speak – which is a good thing. Keep it comin’!
Comment by REVD UP April 11, 2007 @ 5:19 pmResponse to Jose Ole:
Hmm…yeah…I know what you’re talking about with Cain. I mean, this is the precedent. First guy gets killed–God says don’t kill him. Hmm…
Later on, though, God will command certain people to be killed. So, perhaps this is a situational thing. God isn’t saying, never put someone to death. He is saying “don’t put Cain to death.” But, it is food for thought.
We probably won’t get to the stuff in Leviticus about killing certain kinds of people, but it is definitely there– not to mention God killing people directly.
But, you bring up an interesting point, Senior Ole.
Comment by Paul Mannino April 11, 2007 @ 5:23 pmIn response to “Revd Up”:
Wow…we must be getting famous on here, if you already found out about this.
I’m just excited to be able to do this with all these awesome people!
Comment by Paul Mannino April 11, 2007 @ 5:24 pm2. Christ-followers are supposed to give their sin to God and their lives in service of Him, right?
Comment by D May 10, 2007 @ 4:08 pm3. That’s how God does…everyone has a chance to repent.
4. A lot of people say or do things they wish later they hadn’t, but since we’ve seen what happens to people who kill, most of us wouldn’t go that far without thinking about it. Cain didn’t really have anyone elses mistakes to learn from like we do now, so it may be that if he did, he may have just smacked Abel around a bit, rather than killing him.
5. I know how Cain feels. Its torture to know how you had a good relationship and you can never get it back.
6. Yes, it was grace, but i also think God was telling Cain that He still loved him.
8. It was one of his sisters, wasn’t it?
Cain’s situation was different than any one that we could have. We have the death of Jesus on the cross to serve as a bridge to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. So, although Cain was in a bad way that could not be fixed, we are never in that position with God.
Comment by Cyclops May 10, 2007 @ 9:14 pmIn the matter of Cain’s wife, correct me if I’m wrong, but the Bible says Cain got married, but does it say when? Did he marry a sibling? Perhaps a younger sister? Was it agains the law to marry a sibling yet in Genesis 4? It just seems that being the first born, there were no other women around except for his mother, Eve. How young was Cain’s wife? Intersting to think about if you ask me.
Comment by Shadowcat May 13, 2007 @ 9:58 pmNope…it wasn’t against “the Law” yet because there wasn’t a “Law” yet. I think the gene-pool was clean enough that a) you wouldn’t make twelve-toed babies and b) it wasn’t wrong yet…it was necessary!
As far as the age of Cain’s wife goes. If you want to have fun, it’s almost like 28 Days Later backwards…imagine how quickly people could populate the earth if EVERYONE was making babies (it’s what God said to do). Seriously, you could have a lot of babies in the span of 100 years. And we know that Adam and Eve lived to like 600 or something. So…yeah…you could have had 1st cousins, 2nd cousins, shoot…10th cousins to marry. The timing of Genesis, although frustrating sometimes, takes place over the course of hundreds of years for each lifetime, so a lot could happen in that time.
Comment by Cyclops May 13, 2007 @ 10:02 pmHMMMM…..hhhhhmmmmmmm…..
Again more questions than answers in this passage…(A good read)…But to me it seemd like Able had brought the best Cain had brought an equivilant since he brought from his first crop…?
Able walks with Cain in the feilds but what about the sheep…?
And finally where there other people on earth and Adam and Eve where only the first but when they left god made more…cause who would kill Cain besides his wife or kids…confusing but ineresting.
Comment by Wolverine June 10, 2007 @ 2:20 pmYeah…I’d agree with saying that Abel brought his best.
What about the sheep? What are you asking there?
I don’t really see any evidence of God directly making any other humans besides Adam or Eve. The Holy Spirit “came upon” Mary to make Jesus, but that’s kind of different. So…I think the Adam/Eve family tree had a ton of branches. So maybe a 5th cousin would kill Cain.
Comment by supermannino June 10, 2007 @ 2:24 pm1. Here’s the thing about Abel’s offering: Sheep are like humans, they have one or maybe two lambs at a time. And the ewe may not have more than one litter in her life- sheep birthing can be a very difficult and even fatal process, especially back in those days. The sheep herders would want to keep the strongest lambs, so they could keep breeding more lambs.
So if you think about it, Abel was offering God not only lamb fat, but his future. He was trusting God to provide him with more strong lambs. That, I think, is the difference between Abel’s offering and Cain’s.
Comment by sonneta April 14, 2008 @ 12:03 pmVery cool insights, Sonneta.
Comment by supermannino April 14, 2008 @ 5:23 pm