Cain vs. Abel - Moses 5:13-40; Genesis 4:1-15

Whatever way Satan was permitted to influence A&E and their children, the people who were now inhabiting the earth were very susceptible to it, “and men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.” Just like we have today, “the Lord God called upon men by the Holy Ghost everywhere and commanded them that they should repent,” and promised that those who repented would be saved and those who did not would be “damned.” We know from Moses that A&E had many children, but we don’t know much about them. The first one who is mentioned is Cain, and it seems like he might have been born later in life because Eve says about him, “I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words.” It seems like by the time Cain comes around Eve is already heart broken by her other children rejecting the gospel and is hoping for better for Cain. Unfortunately for A&E Cain followed the example of his siblings and “hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him?” Eve has another son and calls him Abel, and even though it is written like Abel is born after Cain rejects the gospel, that seems unlikely. Unlike everyone else it seems, Abel “hearkened unto the voice of the Lord.” Abel is a shepherd and Cain is a farmer, and it says that Satan commanded Cain to “Make an offering unto the Lord.” It’s interesting to consider why Satan would tell Cain to make an offering to God, and especially since Satan probably doesn’t tell Abel the same thing, yet Abel makes an offering as well. Maybe Satan encouraged Cain to make an offering to God because he knew that Cain’s heart wasn’t in it and the offering would be rejected which would hurt Cain’s feelings and then turn him further away from God and to Satan. While that’s possible, it seems like there are a lot of moving parts in that plan with an uncertain outcome. Maybe Satan’s motivation was to put himself in a role as not opposing God but as the “comforting friend” who leads Cain down a negative path when he feels rejected by God. It’s hard to know, I honestly don’t know why. In an article from a church magazine from July 1984 it says that Satan commanded Cain to off the sacrifice because “Satan knew Cain’s offering would not be accepted, and he was pleased that he had led someone to do wrong.” Because Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices, maybe it was simply the time to do it and Satan encouraged Cain to do it because he knew the end result. Maybe he told Cain “go ahead and offer the sacrifice that you are supposed to,” but then as Cain was getting ready, Satan whispered, “not your best fruit,” or “don’t give up your favorite stuff for some stupid offering.” Because Abel is a shepherd, offering “the firstling of his flock, and of the fat thereof” was probably easier to procure, and Cain offered “the fruit of the ground.” As far as I know, I thought that the first fruits of the field were acceptable offerings. If they are not and Cain knew he was supposed to offer up an animal sacrifice and offered fruits instead, then of course that offering wouldn’t have been accepted, but it seems pretty bold to offer a completely different thing than asked for. What seems more likely to me, and this is assuming that first fruits of the field were acceptable offerings, Cain probably didn’t offer his first fruit or his best fruit, his heart probably wasn’t in it, he probably only gave the crappy stuff because he knew his parents wanted him to do it, or something like that. I just want to quickly point out here that when Cain’s offering was rejected, “Satan knew this, and it pleased him.” So even though one of his followers had his feelings hurt, Satan was still happy about it. There’s not loyalty there, Satan wants to see everyone hurt regardless of who they are loyal to. I was always under the impression that when Cain’s offer was rejected, it was God coming down and scolding Cain, treating him terribly, then of course it hurt Cain’s feelings. What actually happened seems to be completely different, the Lord basically asks Cain, “What’s up, why are you upset?” The Lord counsels Cain that his offer can be accepted “if thou doest well,” and if he doesn’t do well, “sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee.” This sounds like what Jesus said to Peter in the New Testament. There is a lot that the Lord says to Cain, and some of the articles I’ve read make it sound like Jesus came down personally to have this conversation with Cain face to face, but it seems to me more likely to be done through the Holy Ghost, and not just because that’s how it’s done with us now, but it was explicitly stated a few verses earlier that God used the Holy Ghost to teach the people the commandments. God says a lot to Cain about Satan and Perdition and cursing “except thou repent,” but I wonder if this isn’t so much exactly what God said to Cain verbatim at the time, but what ended up happening put into the form of a warning for the benefit of the reader. This conversation seems to be a turning point for Cain because from this point out he “listened not any more to the voice of the Lord,” nor to anyone else who was righteous. A&E are devastated and “mourned before the Lord, because of Cian and his brethren.” Another reason to believe that Cain had many older siblings, “Cain took one of his brothers’ daughters to wife.” It would be hard to do that if Cain was the oldest sibling and had to wait for a wife until his younger brother had children and one of those children grew up enough to be married. It makes more sense that Cain was a lot younger than his other siblings. It appears that this is where the first Satanic covenant comes in, and it begs the question is Satan learned the significance of covenants in the pre-mortal world where surely we made covenants with God. Satan suggests to Cain that he get his brethren and swear an oath “and if thou tell it thou shalt die,” and promises to deliver Abel “into thine hands.” Satan’s promise to deliver Abel into Cain’s hands means that the first murder hasn’t taken place yet, so when Satan says “die” here, the humans wouldn’t have had any context for what that means, because up to this point there would have been no human death. So it seems like this might have been something that was reflected on after the fact. Satan swears to Cain that “he would do according to his commands,” which is interesting because it seems like Satan always wants to be the one in control, but there is a significant psychological shift that can take place when someone is put in charge of the agenda. For instance, Satan wanting Cain to do all this wicked stuff, instead of telling Cain what to do all the time, which Cain will probably resist, Satan puts Cain in charge of the plan which means that Cain will be invested in the outcome instead of just feeling like a child being bossed around. It’s actually quite masterful manipulation. The IM says, “Cain was the first man on earth to enter into a covenant with Satan and to use covenants to protect others from disclosing sinful acts. However, he was not the last. In the scriptures this kind of covenant relationship is called a secret combination.” Cain even states the universal motto of secret combinations “that I may murder and get gain,” which he probably wouldn’t have understood what murder was at this point, but it is the purpose. Cain goes to where Abel is in the field, and while they are talking “Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.” Up to this point, the only death that these people had any experience with was from animals, so Cain must have known how to make a living being stop living, but the significance of not only a human death but of a murder was probably something Cain had no concept of. It’s like with Judas, he had spent all this time with the Savior seeing miracles and all types of stuff, he had no idea how significant his betrayal would be, just like Cain has no idea now. And that is apparent when the Lord comes to talk to Cain about Abel. Just like when God asked Adam “where are you?” in the Garden, He asks Cain, “Where is Abel, thy brother?” He asks a question he already knows the answer to, allowing the person the opportunity to come clean or to double down. Cain doubles down with the famous “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God reveals that He knows what happened and curses Cain with even more difficulty raising food because the earth has had to “receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand,” so the earth is further cursed for him, and he will be “a fugitive and a vagabond.” Even though Cain had just boasted in his murder, just like his mother said in the Garden, Cain defends himself saying, “Satan tempted me because of my brother’s flocks. And I was wroth also… my punishment is greater than I can bear.” He’s worried that whoever finds him will kill him, which begs the question why? If most of the people around living are wicked, then why would they be outraged on behalf of Abel and want to seek revenge for him on Cain? I would think that Cain would be considered a hero, but maybe it’s more than just a righteous vs wicked thing. Abel would have been kinfolk to all the other people there as well, maybe he was well liked, maybe it wasn’t so much of everyone else is wicked, but more than they just rejected the gospel and went about living their lives and that they considered murder to be abominable. Maybe people didn’t like Cain and what he did was just too much for it to be allowed in their society. God agrees with Cain that someone killing him would be unacceptable and promises, “whosoever slayeth thee, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” The lecture series that I’m listening to noted that God comes to punish Cain for killing Abel, but ends up giving him a protection as well, which is interesting, I wonder if Cain saw it that way.