After Adam and Eve sinned, God sent them out of Eden. But he still loved and cared for them. Remember he promised to send the Snake Crusher to crush, well, the snake! To rescue them from Satan. That Snake Crusher would come from one of Adam and Eve’s descendants (one of their children’s children’s children’s children). Well, Genesis 4 begins with a birth announcement: Eve is pregnant! And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine months later, she gave birth to a boy. Do you see God’s promise beginning to take place? Adam and Eve had seen amazing creatures—hummingbirds, cheetahs, penguins, and kangaroos. But nothing was so amazing as this first baby.

Then God gave them another baby! The first they named Cain; the second Abel. Cain liked to make things grow, so he became a farmer. Abel loved animals, so he became a shepherd. Perhaps Adam and Eve taught their boys how to grow crops and protect flocks, as well as about God, their sin, the curse, and the promise. And they taught them to bring God a gift—an offering—from their work.

One day Cain brought an offering from the ground; Abel brought his firstborn sheep. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s, because Abel trusted God and his promises while Cain did not (see Heb. 11:4). This made Cain angry. Red-in-the-face angry. God said, “Why are you angry? Do what is right, and I will accept your gift. Don’t let sin grab hold of your heart.”

Cain didn’t listen. He let sin grab hold of his heart even more. One day, when he and his brother were working in the field, Cain killed Abel. He murdered his little brother. How terrible. Wicked! Sad. God saw this terrible, wicked, sad thing and punished him. “Now, when you are farming,” God said, “it will be really, really hard. And,” God said, “you shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth” (see Gen. 4:12). Which meant he would be without a home and without his mother and father. How very sad. He wandered away, farther east of Eden.