A few days ago I started a new Bible in One Year reading plan for 2026, and yesterday I was reading in Genesis chapter 4. And the very first verse in chapter 4 (where Eve gives birth to Cain) got my attention:
“I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
Now, the day before, I was reading Genesis 3, and I remember the conversation God had with Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the Garden. Particularly the serpent in Genesis 3:15:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
Hmm… “Between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head…”
Is it possible that Eve (in 4:1) was hoping for an immediate fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 3:15? That the son she had just given birth to would crush evil and reconcile them with God?
If so, what Eve was hoping would be the beginning of restoration has become the very first act of human violence. The promised seed (Cain – in this instance) does not crush evil; he is overcome by it. And we see that sin has not weakened with time – it has actually intensified. What began as an act of disobedience in a garden ends with bloodshed in a field.
And it’s also interesting how Scripture is silent about Adam and Eve after this.
No prayers recorded.
No explanations offered.
No words of grief preserved.
But they now know something they could not have known before – that sin is not an isolated failure – it is a generational curse. It does not end with the sinner. It spreads, it escalates, it reaches into the next generation and the next generation and the next. And it turns brother against brother.
So the hope we sense from Eve in Genesis 4:1 is crushed not by circumstances, but by human nature itself. They must now live with the truth that the world they broke has now broken their family. And we must live with that truth also.
This is the lesson God allows to unfold without commentary: Humanity will never save itself. No child of Adam will undo Adam’s curse. No offspring born of human effort will reverse what human rebellion has unleashed.
Genesis 4 does not contradict Genesis 3:15… it clarifies it.
The promised seed will not come from humanity in its strength, but to humanity in its weakness. Redemption will not rise naturally from the human line – it will arrive only by God’s intervention.
Eve’s shattered hope becomes God’s unspoken sermon. What humanity cannot do, God alone has already done in Christ Jesus, His Son.
Former Blackout Artist 