Only recently I realized that there is a lot more wisdom
than I thought hidden away in the story of Cain and Abel. Who would have thought
a brother would kill his brother so easily and remain unrepentant? The story
also reveals the extent of God’s love for man. God’s love for us is truly
immeasurable; it is so much that even when Cain had disobeyed Him, God whose
nature makes disobedience intolerable to Him because it is sin, still went on
to talk to Cain giving Him an opportunity to make good His wrong but Cain would
not. God even knowing that Cain was sulking ignored all his bad behavior to
provide him with the help he needed to come to repentance revealing His
longsuffering nature. God endures so long with man, that we take Him for granted and deceive ourselves that sin has no consequence.
Romans 6: 23 “For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Unfortunately, great as His love is for us, He would not
accept us without repentance. God is definitely not interested in our wrong, neither does He desire to build a case around it; but He is interested in us making right
our wrongs. His entire discussion with Cain was about making right his wrong.
He was reminding him that He still had an opportunity
to make things right and all his wrong would be forgotten. God does not use emotional
blackmail either. He did not try to lure Cain into doing what He wanted but let
Cain make the decision which is the same way He deals with us. He never forces
anyone to repentance. It is always our decision. The devil tries to lure us
working on our emotions but it is not so with God. God gave us a brain and
wants us to use it so He works with truth which He puts before us that we may
then make the right decision. Decisions made on His truth are enduring for they
will stand the test of time because they are based on God’s truth which is unchanging
reality.
Hebrews 12: 5b –
6 “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when
he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each
one he accepts as his child.”
Another lesson is that a bad attitude can ruin a life.
When Cain was corrected, if he had a good attitude and was humble, he would
have accepted correction and his life would have ended differently. His bad
attitude finally made him bitter and envious of his brother; for such is the
power of bitterness and envy to ruin the life of a person. The envious or
bitter person begins to feel and act like all their life's problems is caused by
the person they envy. They tell themselves that if that person did not exist
they won't have challenges which is all not true. They forget that God made
different paths to success for each person and that their own very negative
emotion is what hinders them from going forward. The ill feeling makes them
wish that the person they envy does not exist and unfortunately, like Cain,
some actually go out of their way to ensure the person ceases to exist and then
find that their problem remains unresolved.
John 12: 24 “I
tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies,
it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels – a plentiful
harvest of new lives.”
The falling to the ground and death of seed speaks of
humility. The seed falls and is buried in earth, hidden from all eyes and in
that dirt, it begins to increase and to expand until its expansion can no
longer be hidden. You don't need to announce your blessings; when it can no
longer be hidden, it will be seen. If you have to tell them for
them to see it, then you are moving ahead of your time. Pride finally led Cain
to kill Abel rewriting his own destiny; he became a fugitive. His
attitude was so bad that even when he realized that in the course of wandering
on earth he might be killed, he did not repent; instead he lamented to
God who then put a mark on him so that no one would kill him so he could
wander – what a terrible destiny. He ended up worse than Abel whom he thought
he had shut out of his life forever so that he could no longer be compared with
him but till this very day Abel is still remembered and worse still, he is
still described as the better brother. It is best to deal with ourselves. In
dealing with ourselves, we give God room to make the changes that will
facilitate our going forward into God's plan for our lives. Destroying some
other person, whether physically or with the words would not bring the much
needed change we need to go forward. It sometimes takes dying to one’s self to enter
into one’s fullness.
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