After being banished from Eden, Adam and Eve began a new chapter outside paradise. In time, Eve gave birth to two sons. The first was Cain, a farmer who worked the soil. The second was Abel, a shepherd who tended flocks.
Both brothers brought offerings to the Lord. Cain brought some of the fruits of the ground, while Abel brought fat portions from the firstborn of his flock. God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but He did not accept Cain’s. The Bible doesn’t give all the details, but it’s clear that Abel’s offering came from a heart of faith and reverence, while Cain’s lacked the same spirit.
Cain became furious. His face darkened with jealousy and rejection. But God, seeing his heart, reached out to him in grace. “Why are you angry?” God asked. “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Instead of repenting, Cain gave in to the anger that consumed him.
One day, while in the field, Cain lured his brother out—and murdered him. The first act of violence in human history wasn’t between enemies. It was between brothers.
God came to Cain with a question, one that echoes through time: “Where is your brother Abel?”
Cain replied with a lie and a cold-hearted question of his own: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
But God knew what had happened. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground,” He said. As a result of his crime, Cain was cursed. The ground would no longer yield its strength to him, and he would become a restless wanderer on the earth.
Even then, God’s mercy showed up. Cain feared he would be killed, but the Lord placed a mark on him—an act of protection that said: no one may take vengeance on Cain.
Adam and Eve later had another son, Seth, and through his line, people once again began to call on the name of the Lord.
This story reminds us that unchecked jealousy can lead to destruction—but God is always near, offering grace and warning us when sin crouches at our door. The story of Cain and Abel asks us: How is your heart before God? And how do you treat your brother?