Genesis 4 Adam and Eve became the parents of Cain and then Abel.  The story is well known.. Cain worked the soil, Abel raised sheep.  Both brought an offering to the Lord. But.. God did not show favor upon Cain's offering. This made Cain angry.. which led him to take out his anger on his own brother.  As James wrote.. "each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." ( James 1:14-15)

The Lord told Cain that "sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." Cain did not master sin.. but became its slave. 

Hebrews 11 tells us that Abel's offering was a "better sacrifice.. through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous."  What was it about Cain's offering that was not pleasing to the Lord?  Why did Cain take it out on his brother? And,  what do we need to learn from this?

 We know that the Lord looks at the heart of each person.. Cain's heart was not right with God.  Perhaps his offering was inferior.. not his first or best crop.. or he was just going through the motions of worship without recognizing that all he was bringing to God was what God had given him.. Perhaps he was proud.. or selfish.. or spiteful.. whatever it was.. God saw and called him out on it. 

.Cain was banished from the land where they were living. His skill as a farmer would never be the same for God said the the ground would "no longer yield its strength" to him.  He would be a "vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.."   Cain was distraught at this curse upon him.. and was afraid that he would be killed in revenge for killing Abel.  But, we are never told that Cain was sorry for his sin or that he sought forgiveness from the Lord. 

Cain went out into the wilderness and "settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden."  He built a city and named it Enoch after his son. The generations following Cain brought many changes. 

Meanwhile, Adam and Eve had another son and named him Seth. Seth had a son named Enosh.  It is in his time that we are told, "Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord." 

Father in heaven, we have so many questions about those days!  What happened to those people ? They seemed to have lost that closeness to You that Adam and Eve had once enjoyed.. even after the fall.  You spoke to Cain.. You saw Abel's death.. Yet, things were different by the time Enosh was born.. Worship was different.  Life was different.  Yet, You do not change and Your Truth does not change either.  Help us to have a heart of righteousness, like Abel, to come into Your  Presence in obedience and love and sincere worship. Help us to resist sin and temptation and the devil.. and to call upon Your Name.. with reverent expectation and true humility. In Jesus' name we pray.Amen.