Ain't It a Shame, What Happened to Cain?

Ain’t It a Shame, What Happened To Cain?

“The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”  Gen 4:6-9 (ESV)

Am I my brother’s keeper? This is the first question, full of anger and seasoned with sarcasm, ever to be uttered by man. I have often thought how things might have been if Adam asked God “Why can’t I eat the fruit of this tree?” but he didn’t. Maybe it was because Adam knew better to challenge His Creator. After all, we all know what happened to Creation after the serpent crawled out from under the rock that he was hiding beneath. He began to question the authority of God to Eve. And would have God answered Adam…hmmm? Well, He doesn’t answer Cain directly but if you’re reading your Bible you can tell that God has used the entirety of His Word to give Cain and us His answer.

We all should know the story. Cain and his brother Abel bring their offerings to God. Abel’s offering is accepted because he approaches the altar as a sinner. Cain’s offering is not accepted. It could have been that because he approached the altar with a heart that may have said, “I’m in the building, I’m in the pew with my Bible open to some chapter, here’s the tithe check and can we get this over with I don’t want to miss the ball game on T.V.” attitude that God rejected his offering. And maybe you just had an “OUCH” moment with that statement or maybe you are an Abel who sits next to a brother who is huffin’-n-puffin’ this under his breath.

As we follow along in the story Cain lures his brother out to the fields and strikes him down giving us the first recorded act of murder. What we don’t get told in the story is why. Why did Cain feel the need to kill his own brother? I believe that if we look at the entirety of God’s Word we will find that the answer is throughout the Bible. It does begin with disobedience and then it branches out in many directions. Perhaps Cain’s pride of being the first born or the jealousy of a man who toils on the earth while watching someone take a nap under a tree as the sheep sorta-kinda tend to themselves. How about just the plain simple envy of someone else who has gotten that Fatherly recognition that maybe they rightly feel is theirs. In any case, I think Cain allowed himself to become offended and killed to try to get it out of his system.

Cain displayed a proud and unbelieving heart towards God. How do we recognize this?  It’s when we take a look at the beginning of chapter four in Genesis you see there in verse three, “In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground”. Doesn’t say first fruit does it? No it doesn’t. In a nutshell it says that Cain wanted to hurry up and get this offering stuff done and over with, right? Ain’t got the time to pick the best just pick something up off the ground and throw it on the altar. Maybe he was already angry that because of what Adam and Eve did in their disobedience is what had him digging in the dirt. We’ll never know…or will we? Have we looked in the mirror lately? Hmmm…

 “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In his pride Cain felt that he didn’t answer for nothing. But that doesn’t work for us does it…Brother? If you have Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior in your life you are your brother’s keeper by default. If we are alive in Him and dead to ourselves we called to go that extra mile with each other. So you might as well wear your best walking shoes because that mile may be longer than you think.  It is a shame what happened to Abel for certain but ain’t it a shame what happened to Cain? But we don’t have to carry around this same shame, do we?  That was nailed to a Cross of wood at Golgotha. We need to leave that there and live for the One that was able to bear it for us. Amen? – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a regular contributor to Freedom Fighter

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Joshua 19-21; Psalm 80; Proverbs 28

Compass Pointers: “In all ages there have been two sorts of worshippers, such as Cain and Abel; namely, proud, hardened despisers of the gospel method of salvation, who attempt to please God in ways of their own devising; and humble believers, who draw near to Him in the way He has revealed. Cain indulged malignant anger against Abel. He harboured an evil spirit of discontent and rebellion against God. God notices all our sinful passions and discontents. There is not an angry, envious, or fretful look that escapes His observing eye.”  Matthew Henry Concise

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 13:14; Level 2: Proverbs 13:2-25

Anchored to the Rock: There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him. William Law