Genesis 4:1-16 ~ My musings on the story of Cain and Able.
It is so easy to go through the motions when it comes to life and God. How easy and how often do we do things out of obligation and spite? We pretend everything is good on the surface, but inside we are a firey furnace, full of anger, resentment and spite. While this may fool others for a while, it will never fool God. God not only sees our hearts, but He also cares about what is inside them. God wasn’t mad that Cain brought Him a grain offering, both grain and lamb offerings were part of the Levitical Law. God was a upset with Cain’s heart and attitude. Cain had no interest in giving God his best, nor was he giving out of an overflowing love or thankfulness to God, nor even as a humble sacrifice. Rather Cain was giving out of the spite, bitterness and anger already in his heart. As God warns him, “sin is crouching at your door, you must be careful to overcome it or it will rule over (overcome) you”. (my paraphrase). Not only would sin rule over Cain if he was not purposeful in killing it in his own life, it would change the whole course of his life, towards a course away from God.
We must also be careful not to offer things grudgingly to God, giving Him lip service but not giving Him our hearts. It is so easy in our pseudo-christian cultures, to be “christian” because of what it might give us – socially, glory, honour, normality, power, etc. But we must look at the motives of the heart, as we see in this story the consequences of not doing so are too great to bear.
In light of this, let us ponder on these two questions; if or what do we offer grudgingly? And what sin is trying to rule over us? Often are two sides of the same coin or one and the same...
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Musings by Tee 