Cain - First human child.
Genesis 4:7 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."
In spite of parents' effort and worries, conflicts between children in a family seem inevitable. Sibling relationships allow both competition and cooperation. In most cases, the mixture of loving and fighting eventually creates a strong bond between brothers and sisters. It isn't unusual, though, to hear parents say, "They fight so much I hope they don't kill each other before they grow up." In Cain's cases, the troubling potential became a tragedy. And while we don't know many details of this first child's life, his story can still teach us.
Cain got angry. Furious. Both he and his brother Abel had made sacrifices to God, and his had been rejected. Cain's reaction gives us a clue that his attitude was probably wrong from the start. Cain had a choice to make. He could correct his attitude about his sacrifice to God, or he could take out his anger on his brother. His decision is a clear reminder of how often we are aware of opposite choices, yet choose the wrong just as Cain did. We may not be choosing to murder, but we still intentionally choosing what we shouldn't.
The feelings motivating our behavior can't always be changed by simple thought-power. But here we can begin to experience God's willingness to help. Asking for His help to do what is right can prevent us from setting into motion actions that we will later regret.
Lessons from Cain's life:
- Anger is not necessarily a sin, but actions motivated by anger can be sinful. Anger should be in the energy behind good action, not evil action.
- What we offer to God must be from the heart - the best we are and have.
- The consequences of sin may last a lifetime.
The event of Cain and Abel begs for one to ask the following questions:
ReplyDelete1. What was the sin they committed that required offering up their sacrifice?
2. Abel was a sheep herder and Cain a tiller of the ground and they both offered up the products of their profession but Abel’s sacrifice was accepted but Cain’s was rejected. Why?
3. Could it be right from the START they are carrying out the purpose of God (Yahweh Elohim)? That is Good Vs Evil.
4. We have a similar event with Jacob & Esau in which HE loves Jacob & hated Esau before the twin boys were born or having committed any sin, Rom 9:11-17.
Romans 9th chapter is a very powerful chapter that is worth reading. We are totally at HIS mercy and we only hope that we are not playing the role of the negative one. Paul put it this way in Rom 7: 15, “For that which I do, I know not why: for what I would, that I would not: but what I hate, that I do.”
But once that negative spirit is cast down and out of one’s body, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Yahshua the Messiah, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit (Rom 8:1)
Is it because Cain's heart was not in it, that he was doing it out of obligation and not out of faith?
ReplyDeleteHebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.