Genesis 4-5

What’s Happening?

One of the most important threads in Genesis is the promise of two “seeds” in Genesis 3:15. God said there would be enmity between those who bear his image of life and those who deform into the serpent’s image of death.

The very next story shows how quickly this battle begins. Adam and Eve have two sons: Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1–2). Abel bears God’s image of life by offering his best to God, and God accepts him. But Cain’s offering is rejected. God warns Cain that this moment is a crossroads: “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7).

This is the first time the word “sin” appears in the Bible. And it’s pictured like a beast, waiting to devour Cain just as the serpent deceived his parents. Instead of ruling over this beast, Cain submits to it. In jealousy and anger, Cain murders his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8). Under the power of sin, Cain bears the serpent’s image of death. Abel’s death is the first recorded in Scripture, and it shows how quickly the serpent’s violence spreads into humanity.

Cain then leaves God’s presence and builds a city (Genesis 4:16–17). His descendants multiply, but so does their violence. Eventually, one of Cain’s descendants, Lamech, boasts that he has killed a man and sings that his curse is even greater than Cain’s (Genesis 4:23–24). Humanity is increasingly mastered by the beast of sin, spreading death and deforming God’s image.

But God’s promise has not failed. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth (Genesis 4:25). From Seth’s line, people begin to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). His descendants multiply, but instead of boasting in violence, they walk with God. One descendant, Enoch, is said to have walked so closely with God that he did not taste death—God took him directly into life (Genesis 5:24). Through Seth, God shows that nothing—not even the beast of sin or the sting of death—can stop his promise.

Where is the Gospel?

The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the promised seed of Eve. Unlike Cain, Jesus was not mastered by the beast of sin. Though he was born in the likeness of Adam’s children, he lived perfectly in the image of God. Instead of spreading death, he brought life, healing, and flourishing into the world.

Hebrews says that Jesus’ blood “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24). Abel’s blood cried out from the ground with the tragic testimony that suffering and violence end only in death. But the blood of Jesus speaks a different word. The beast of sin, the seed of the serpent, and Cain-like humans spilled his blood just as Cain spilled Abel’s. Yet when Jesus’ blood fell to the ground, it planted the promise of resurrection. By rising from the dead, Jesus shows that life will come from death, and that even in a world ruled by sin and violence, God’s blessing will multiply.

This is how Jesus crushes the serpent’s head: by taking sin’s greatest weapon—death—and destroying its power with eternal life. Where Cain’s line filled the earth with violence, Jesus’ resurrection begins a new family who will fill the earth with life.

See For Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would give you eyes to see the God who keeps his promise to bring life even when sin and death seem to win. And may you see Jesus as the promised seed who defeats the beast of sin, crushes the serpent’s head, and brings God’s blessing of life to the whole earth.