Cain and Abel

For our regular bible study hour (8/5/07) we started our siblings series after the monstrous interest shown a week earlier. So what better place to start than the very first siblings in the Bible- Cain and Abel, found in Genesis 4.

By accepting the fruit from the serpent, Adam and Eve brought sin to all human beings (Gen 3, Rom 5:12). Therefore, it should be no surprise that Cain and Abel would not get along perfectly. The sad thing is that it resulted in murder. Siblings will always fight, but this was extreme. So how did this come about?

"Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil" (vs. 2). When they brought their sacrifices to the Lord, God accepted Abel's but not Cain's. Why? It's not that grains or agricultural offerings were not accepted. Leviticus 2 tells us that amongst other passages. So it must be something else. Something inside Cain that God did not find acceptable with his sacrifice. Whatever happened with Cain's attitude, he just gave some of the fruits of his soil as an offering. Abel gave the fat portions of the firstborn of his flock (vs. 3-4). God's favor for one brother and not the other sparks jealousy that goes beyond what anyone could have imagined.

It started with jealousy. "God likes you more than he likes me," kind of thing. The most applicable verse to today would be verse 7. If we don't take care of the sin controlling our lives, then it will wait to tempt and consume us. Basically it will get worse. Jealousy led to anger. From anger it led to murder. And not even on impulse, but premeditated murder. In verse 8, Cain suggests that he and Abel go out to the field, and he kills him out there. But it doesn't stop there.

Five generations down the road, it gets worse. After Cain, we get Enoch, then Irad, then Mehujael, then Methushael, then Lamech. It is Lamech who will murder again for a young man wounding him, and reference God's words to Cain, found in verses 23-24. Cain was not necessarily overwhelmed by guilt for killing Abel, but atleast he had some negative feelings, if only for the punishment God gave him (vs. 11-14). But Lamech? He takes revenge into his own hands and boasts about it. "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."

My prayer- to be willing to let God mend our hearts to be more holy. To take care of the sin in our lives before it manifest itself into something worse through prayer and accountability.

blessings