6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
We see the same choice presented to Adam and Even, and echoed throughout scripture: choose life by following God’s law, or choose death by rejecting it. God saw Cain’s heart, and gave him a chance to escape punishment by guarding his own heart. This is also described in Proverbs 4:23 (Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life). Again, in verse 9, God gives Cain a chance to voluntarily repent. Instead, Cain gives a snide response (“I dunno…wasn’t my turn to watch him“).
As we read the rest of the chapter, Cain’s sin sets up a path for his descendant’s destruction. By the time we get to Lamech, we see prideful independence from God, manifested by polygamy (v.19) and wanton violence (v.23-24). This results in ultimately the rejection of Cain’s lineage.
However, the hope is shown in Seth’s descendents. At the end of the chapter, there is a quiet little postscript: At that time, men began to call on the name of the LORD. Mankind saw that their sin was something that could not be celebrated and could not be solved by themselves. At this point, they started repenting and asking for God’s forgiveness.
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