The second pair among the first group of historical figures in the Old Testament is Cain and Abel, who were two sons born of Adam and Eve. This pair represents the two categories of Adam’s descendants, one category rejecting God and taking the way of death, and the other receiving God and taking the way of life.
After Eve followed her husband, Adam, and received the promise of God’s redemption, she brought forth their first son and named him Cain, which means “acquired” (Gen. 4:1a). She considered Cain the seed of woman promised by God, the one who would bruise the head of the serpent, which had poisoned them. Therefore, she declared, “I have acquired a man, Jehovah” (Gen. 4:1, lit.). In fact, Cain would not be the one to bruise the head of the old serpent; rather, he would be a follower of the old serpent. It was not until four thousand years later that the virgin Mary gave birth to a child whose name was called “the mighty God” (Isa. 9:6). That child was Jehovah. He was the God-promised seed, the One who would bruise the head of the serpent, which had poisoned man.
Adam and Eve certainly must have told their children how they had been created by God, how they had been charged by Him not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, how they had violated God’s prohibition, and how they were in fear and trembling as they awaited death. Adam and Eve must have told them also how God came in to preach the gospel by promising them that the seed of woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and how God had slain the sacrifices, which were their substitutes, and used the skins to make clothing to cover their nakedness that they could stand before God and have fellowship with Him. Therefore, Cain came to know God through his parents. Although he knew God, he refused to take God’s way. In rendering service and worship to God, he did not act according to God’s revelation; he failed to present an offering with the shedding of blood according to God’s redemption. Rather, according to his own preference he presented the fruit of the ground (Gen. 4:3), the product of his own labor, as an offering without the shedding of blood. As a result, he was not accepted by God, he lost God, and he was driven away and went out of the presence of God (Gen. 4:5, 16). His descendants thus moved toward a godless culture (Gen. 4:17, 20-22). They murdered (Gen. 4:23-24) and practiced polygamy (Gen. 4:19). Eventually, they became altogether godless, they had nothing to do with God, and they were without hope and were altogether empty in the world.