From John

A Family Story
We continue our journey through the early chapters of Genesis – the book of beginnings.
In the past two weeks we have seen how Adam and Eve made a disastrous mistake when they disobeyed God (Genesis 3). So with relief we leave them behind and move forward to the next generations. Surely things can only get better…..?

Please read Genesis 4.

This is a strange and a very dark story. The story of Cain and Abel raises many questions:
What sort of story is it? How should we read it – as history, or myth, or picture-language?
Why did God favour Abel’s offering, not Cain’s? (vv4-5)
What was the mark on Cain?  How populated was the world then? (vv14-15)

But, as one theologian put it, “This age-old story of Cain and Abel is the pattern for everything that we can see in ourselves and all around us.”
God wants us to know Him and his purposes for us. God also wants us to know ourselves. Through this story we can know ourselves better.
At heart, this is a story about acceptance – or the lack of it.

1) GOD ACCEPTS (vv1-5)
Some people seem “out of luck”. Perhaps they have poor health, or unhappy relationships, or their car is always going wrong.
Cain seemed “out of luck”. Why didn’t he find favour with God? Why did God accept Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s? Various possible reasons have been put forward: was animal sacrifice more acceptable than cereal sacrifice? Or was it that Abel brought the best, whereas Cain just brought “some of the fruits”, i.e. any old stuff?
The fact is that these verses in Genesis 4 do not clearly answer our question. But there are two New Testament references which do shed light. In Hebrews 11: 4 we read “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.” In other words, Abel’s faith was decisive.  
The other relevant N.T. reference is 1 John 3:12, where we read that Cain murdered Abel because “his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous”: i.e. Cain’s life did not match his offerings.
God accepts Abel’s offering, and Cain’s reaction is to be angry and sullen (v5): his body-language indicates the state of his heart.

2) CAIN DOES NOT ACCEPT (vv6-14)
Why did Cain find it hard to accept God’s verdict on his and his brother’s offerings?
Remember – Cain is the older brother. He is the first-born son. He is the chosen one. So he expects to be number one: it’s his right.
So when God accepts his younger brother’s offering but not his, Cain’s smug sense of superiority is shattered. He will not accept what God has done. He hates God, so he hates Abel. His envy and jealousy lead to, not “road rage” but “field rage” – the first act of murder recorded in the Bible.
And when the Lord asks him “Where is your brother?”, Cain’s truculent response shows a callous hardening of heart. “Am I my brother’s keeper” are words of uncaring arrogance.

God’s judgement of Cain is terrible (vv10-14). But we should note the grace of God in his provision of a sort of “safe-conduct” sign for Cain (v15). That is “the utmost that mercy can do for the unrepentant” (Derek Kidner writes). God is concerned for the innocent and for the sinner.

3) DO WE ACCEPT?
Let this story throw a spotlight on us. We might not dare to say to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, but is it a deep-down attitude? Do we (secretly) resent God’s grace shown in his accepting our “younger brother/sister” and overturning our supposed “rights”?
Perhaps we think “I would never do what Cain did”? But is there a Cain within us?

The apostle John warned Christian believers like you and me, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother…..Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” (1 John 3:12,15).
Oswald Chambers wrote, “Look for these things inside yourself; if you don’t find them there, you are a humbug to find them outside you.”   
God grant us such a knowledge of ourselves that we won’t be able to say “But I could never do that.”


Prayer
Holy God, you know the disorder of our sinful lives:
set straight our crooked hearts,
and bend our wills to love your goodness and your glory
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Category: The Bridge , Thought for the week