"Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." Genesis4:8-12
Sin afflicts us all. That’s a fact that we can’t escape. How sin manifests itself in our lives depends on how we let sin master us. We all have the potential to be as good or as bad as we want to be. Spiritually, we can say that we all have the potential to be as holy or evil as we want to be. In Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 7, God warned Cain by telling him that "sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you but master it." As we can see in the scripture above, Cain did not master his sin but was consumed by it. The rage, jealousy and envy he felt for his brother led him to commit what would be creation’s first case of premeditated murder.
Luring Abel out into the field, Cain kills him and thinks he’ll get away with it. The Lord asks Cain about the whereabouts of Abel and Cain tells him he doesn’t know. Then, as if lying is not enough, he gets smart with God saying, "Am I my brother’s keeper?" Obviously, Cain was oblivious to the vision and power of his all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful Almighty Father.
God could have said to Cain, "No…you’re not your brother’s keeper but you ARE your brother’s killer" but it doesn’t need to be said. Both God and Cain know what has happened here and God let’s Cain know He’s onto him by saying, "What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground." We should always remember that there is nothing that can be hidden from God. We should also remember, as we have already seen in earlier parts of the bible’s first book, that God does not tolerate disobedience or knowingly doing wrong. Cain will no longer be able to ply his trade as it will never yield another crop for him. God then makes him a "restless wanderer on the earth."
Question: Do you let anger, jealousy, envy, or any other destructive emotion reign in your heart and mind? Please note where this led Cain and think again if you think it couldn’t happen to anyone. And keep in mind you don’t have to kill someone to damage them in some way.
Question 2: Have you done something you knew was wrong and thought you got away from it? The truth of the matter is that God sees EVERYTHING. Nothing is hidden from His sight. So think again if you think you’ll ever get away with something. No one will escape God’ judgment if they refuse to repent and turn away from their sinfulness.
At the heart of the Abel and Cain account, we find sin…crouching…lurking…inviting…and accepting as Cain invites it into his heart and mind. As sin takes root in him, Cain turns from an angry man to a murderer. If his brother was more favored than him, then all Cain had to do was get rid of him. Problem solved. Unfortunately, sin never takes us toward reconciliation and repair but rather toward resentment and destruction. We can’t master it or control it on our own. We can only overcome it by accepting God’s power and strength within us…every minute of every hour of every day. We can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of Cain.
In Christ,
Mark
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