The predicted conflict began at once. Two sons are born to Adam and
Eve. Satan watched them. He is interested to see if one of them might
be "the seed." He saw Cain bringing an offering of the fruit of the
ground (the labor of his hands) unto the Lord.[2] Satan must have been
delighted with Cain, as he beheld him, as a self-righteous man,
rejecting God's provision for him as a sinner. He knew Cain was his
man and belonged to his seed. It was different with Abel. Abel
brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof. "By
faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by
which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his
gifts" (Heb. xi:3). He was a believer, who owned himself as a sinner
and because he believed, God accepted his offering. As Satan beheld
this scene he must have imagined that Abel was "the seed of the woman."
Then he filled Cain with wrath and moved him to slay his brother Abel.
Thus Satan manifested himself in the beginning of the human race as the
liar and the murderer. Our Lord testified of this character of the
enemy when He spoke to those who conspired to kill Him and who belonged
to the Devil's seed: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father
of it" (John viii:44). But the murder of Abel was unavailing. Eve
bore another son "and called his name Seth, for God, said she, hath
appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew" (Gen.
iv:25). Satan was defeated for the first time.