A Lesson From Cain

Genesis 4: 3-7 - In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground,  and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,  but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.  The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." 

We might never really know what was wrong with Cain’s offering. We are just not told the specifics. Many theologians have given their take on these verses. Most think it had more to do with the attitude of his heart than the gift itself. God could see the scene of Abel’s murder being conceived in Cain’s heart as he brought his offering to the Lord.  God could see the evil thoughts he had in his heart for his brother. God could see the deep anger he held in his heart …and tried to help him understand that these thoughts of evil were trying to take over his heart….but Cain did not listen.

And so it starts with most of us…we have a thought…we know it is bad…we know God will not be pleased with it when we have it...but instead of asking God to cleanse our heart from the thought we know will be hurtful if it manifests itself into actuality …we allow the thought to fester.  The thought builds in importance in our mind…and before we know it…we have forgotten God altogether and gone out on our own to make the sin a reality.  The sin has mastered us …it has taken over our heart and replaced the love of God with the hate of Satan. I know…I walked in Cain’s shoes for a while….I never let the sin enable me to murder anyone…but the hate was there…doing damage to my heart.  I let anger rule many times in my life…the hate of Satan quickly pushing out the love of God I had….and I fell into all kinds of sin.  It really doesn’t matter what the sin was…it was wrong…and it hurt God to see me abandon him that way.

That is not the end of the story folks.  God allowed Cain to live…he suffered some pretty intense punishments…but God loved him still.  He even put a mark on him to tell others to leave him alone.  God knew that he could use Cain…even though he had messed up.  God knew that the damage the sin had done to his heart was fixable…and from Cain’s seed he populated the earth with farmers…. ranchers… metal workers…and musicians.  And just as God dealt with Cain…he will deal with all of us when our sin is found out. We can try to hide it…but eventually God will come to us and ask us, “what have you done?” The punishments for our sin might be pretty harsh…but he will still love us.  He will always hate the sin…but he will always restore us to love him again.  He will cleanse our hearts from all the evil that Satan tricked us into putting in there…and he will fill our hearts once more with his love. …a love that burns within our soul…to share this wonder…to share how it changed our lives.

Father…you are so amazing.  Thank you for not killing Cain…for giving him a second chance…for using his seed to bring many talents and especially music into the world.  I thank you Lord …for forgiving me…and restoring me…and placing so much love in my heart that I cannot help but share it somehow with others. Help me Lord to recognize the hate when it creeps into my world…give me courage to rebuke it …and tell it that there is no room for it in my heart.  Fill me with so much love that any hate and evil that comes close is revealed quickly…so I can tell it to go back to the dark where it came from….so that anger never appears in my voice and heart again. Amen.