Genesis 4 chronicles the beginnings for the first family after the fall of man into sin.  The first couple of verses portray positives for the parents and their children.

1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.  2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

So much could be said here.  Here I write a day after Mother’s Day, the mother of all living conceives and bares a son.  Not long before, Adam and she hid from God, ashamed and frightened after having rebelled against His command.  It looked hopeless for those two and the end for all humanity.  Not so fast though.  God promised Eve a seed that would crush the head of the serpent, obviously Satan.

At the start of chapter 4, she maybe got that man from the Lord already.  But no.  She believed though.  And then came along his brother, Abel.  The family thrived with the raising of domesticated animals and farming the soil.  God gave life, blessed with children, and provided for needs.

In light of what God says later to Cain, one should assume that God informed the two boys His regulations for worship of Him.  But this is what we read in verses 3-4:

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.  4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord, but only Abel and His offering, the firstlings of his flock, pleased the Lord.  Much later the author of Hebrews writes in 11:4:

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, which was then the basis for Abel offering a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.  This testifed that Abel was righteous.  Like 10:39 said — he believed to the saving of his soul.  God has pleasure in Him (10:38), but without faith it is impossible to please God (11:6).  Abel believed, was saved, but not Cain.  Later John the Apostle writes in his first epistle (3:11-12):

11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

As he was of the wicked one, love for his righteous brother was absent from Cain.  God didn’t approve of Cain’s offering and rather than look to get it right, Cain got angry and pouted.  Like a missionary, God confronted Cain in Genesis 4:6-7:

6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

God told Cain.  It didn’t have to be this way for him.  He could trust God, acquiesce to His Words and will, and be accepted.  God reached out to Cain in a loving way.  He showed him the path of goodness, the road to take.  We know from the next verse, that Cain rejected it.

Even after Cain murdered his brother, and the Hebrew says it was premeditated, murder in the first degree, God visited Cain with an offer to confess and repent beginning in verse 9:

And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?

This reads like God gave Cain one more opportunity and Cain just lied to Him.  When God visited Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they repented.  Their son would not.

In Genesis 4, God evangelizes Cain.  He preaches to him the good news of salvation, something his brother Abel already received.  Cain is an example of a typical unbeliever, who turns away from the Lord and His love.  May we join God in the same ministry of reconciliation.