Genesis 4: Resurrection.

As we turn the page to Genesis 4, our eyes should be on the look out for the serpent crusher. For the one who will put right what Adam put wrong. As Eve holds Cain in her hands, we can forgive her for thinking that she's found him.

I've gotten a man with the held of the Lord. Another Adam, one unsullied by sin, one who could crush the serpent. Is he the one? We very quickly learn the answer is no. His offering is not by faith, it's not a fatty animal, it's just a token. Abel gave God the best of his flock, Cain just picked some fruit off the floor and showed up with it. Man sins with fruit.

Sin crouches once more, and we lean forward to see what this second Adam will do? He opens the door, walks to the field, and kills his brother. He is cursed, and sent to wander, seven generations later, the chaos of the fall is perfected, as Lamech is avenged seventy seven times.

Through this all, Abel is silent. He never speaks. Passive, he doesn't fight back. That's the fate of the faithful, isn't it? The Israelites on the wrong side of the Jordan would have thought. We're faithful, but we're lambs to the slaughter. We're faithful, but what hope do we have? And we can think the same. The church is faithful, but outnumbered, the church is faithful, but outgunned. The serpent has been crushed, but it's death throes are so powerful, how can we keep going? How can we keep trusting?

Because at the end of Genesis 4, we see resurrection. As in the rest of Genesis, Moses get's the unimportant out of the way before returning to the seed of the woman and the progression of the story. Cain's family are evil, Abel lays dead in the ground, but God appoints another, Seth, to carry on his line. And in the time of Seth's son Enosh, people begin to call on the name of the Lord.

Resurrection.

JC Ryle said that without the cross the Bible is a dark book, and without the resurrection, the cross is the darkest of days. Without Seth, Genesis 4 is nothing but doom and despair, without Sunday, we can't face Saturday.

But there is Seth, there is Sunday, there is an empty tomb. So even in this day of legislated and celebrated immorality, we don't need to say with Elijah that we alone are left. Instead we remember, because Jesus walked out of the tomb, that God will always provide what He promised. One to crush the serpent, in the past, now, and forever.