Genesis 4:3 – An Early Example of Sabbath Observance?

By John Lemley

“Genesis 4:3 – “In the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.” The focus of this article will be on the words “in the process of time.”

I was first alerted to this phrase as being a possible allusion to the seventh-day Sabbath in the September 1979 issue of Impact Series by the Institute for Creation Research. The title of the article is Creation and the Seven-Day Week by Henry M. Morris. On page ii Mr. Morris quotes Genesis 2:1-3 following it with this explanation:

“And then God blessed and sanctified the seventh day! He declared it to be a holy day, a day peculiarly the Lord’s Day. The six days had been occupied with His creation; one day should be occupied with the Creator. He frequently referred later to “my Sabbaths” (e.g. Exodus 31:13).”

Then, Mr. Morris moves to the account of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4 where he finds an example of seventh-day Sabbath observance.

“That the children of Adam, even after the expulsion from Eden, continued to regard every seventh-day as a day of rest and worship is clearly implied in the story of Cain and Abel…”

(this article is an excerpt from the May-June 2017 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 9, click this link: https://biblesabbath.org/media/May-June_2017.pdf