Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Jan 2nd, 2025 Instead of Abel – God’s Plan B

Today’s Passage  – Genesis 4 – 6 (Click on the reference to listen to the audio. Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 3 – 4; Proverbs 2; Psalms 6 – 10)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Joshua 1:8

Read the “0102 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from this passage – “Walking with God,” “Sin Lieth at the Door,” “Shining Brightly in a Dark World,” and “Respect,” and “Grieving God.”

“25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 4:25-26)

It did not take long for things to really get messed up upon this very young earth. When God created Adam and Eve, everything was good. There was no sickness or sorrow, and there was no sin. Life was good; there was plenty of delicious food to eat and everything else that Adam and Eve needed was provided for them. We are all well familiar with how their great situation changed dramatically and suddenly for the worse. Sin came in, and with sin, came death; not just the physical death that would eventually take place for them many hundreds of years later, but also a separation from God. We know that God provided an appeasement for their sin through the blood sacrifice that was made when he provided them coats of skins (Genesis 3:21), which was a foreshadow of the atonement that would someday be made through the shed blood of Christ. However, the atonement for sin did not erase all of the horrible effects that came into their world as a result of their yielding to Satan. They were banished from the Garden and the earth became a much more dangerous and difficult place to live in.

In Genesis 4, we read about the effect that the sin nature had upon the first two children born into the world – Cain and Abel. According to Galatians 5, within the sin nature, among other horrible things, are emulations (ζῆλοι from  ζῆλος – zēlos – an envious and contentious rivalry, jealousy), wrath, strife, and murders:

“19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

Cains jealousy of God’s praise for Abel’s offering (Gen. 4:4 – 5 – respect – šāʿâ – to look at or regard) turned into wrath and eventually blossomed into murder. Jesus said that the outward action of murder (and all other visible sins) begins within the heart:

“18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:” (Matthew 15:18-19)

Cain’s heart had a lot of evil in it because of the sin that entered into the world through his parents, as was recorded back in Genesis 3. When Eve first ate of the fruit, she had no idea of the devastating consequences that would be caused by it. Had she known that one of her sons would murder the other because of a simple act of eating a piece of fruit, I do not think she would have done it.

The same is true for us many thousands of years later. Our sinful actions today will have a harmful effect on the people we love both today and in the future. As Christians, we need yield our lives to the Spirit of God so that we will be better equipped to resist sin:

“16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. … 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:16, 22-25)

Thank God that just as Adam and Eve received forgiveness for their sin, there is also forgiveness for us when we sin. However, because of sin’s negative effects on us and the people we love, it ought to be our goal to avoid it all costs.

That brings me to my main thought for this morning’s devotion. God, in His grace, provided another child for Eve and they named him Seth, which means “appointed one,” or “substitute.” Eve’s world was no doubt devastated when her eldest son killed her younger son. In a sense, both of her sons were gone. God, however, gave Eve a son to replace the one that had been violently taken from her.

However, there is more to this story than just God’s grace upon Eve. God, in His grace, gave to all the world a believing seed, a righteous seed. Abel was a believer, which was evidenced by the blood sacrifice which he offered to God (Genesis 4:4). When God gave Seth, he gave the world a believer that would pass the faith on to the generations that followed. Notice in v. 26:

“26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 4:26)

“13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)