Eve names Seth, but in Genesis 5, the text says Adam does, so the implication may be that they both did. And perhaps that’s the point. We are meant to work together.
Cain means acquired
Abel means a breath; vanity
Seth means appointed
“By the work of my hands, I attempt to acquire a name for myself. But this, too, is vanity, a grasping for the wind.
But God appoints another way. God’s way.
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have obtained a male child with the help of the Lord.”
Genesis 4:1 (NASB)
Eve is the first to refer to God by the Name.
On the one hand, this points to intimacy. God is not merely “out there” to her, but close enough to call by name. God’s very own name.
On the other hand, is she using the Name in vain? Is Cain’s identity wrapped up in this vanity?
We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)
It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.
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,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)
What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?
Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”
This is death.
God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.
It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.
But WE are given God’s name in Genesis 2:4, right before the Tree of Life is described:
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:4 (NKJV)
God’s name and the Burning Bush seem linked, both in Exodus and in Genesis.
I wonder if Moses was given a vision of the Tree of Life, barely obscured by flaming swords (Gen 3:24).
So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:24 (NKJV)
Perhaps the imagery is that the Tree of Life can only be accessed by Fire. This could point to following the Pillar of Fire, or being refined by Fire, or perhaps being “burned in the Fire” as a Living Sacrifice.
It could be many things, but it seems to be linked… to dying.
1. To work and care for the world.
2. To name the things God puts before us.
3. To recognize the Image of God in other people and love them.