Musings on Cain and Abel....

Disclaimer: this post is comprised completely of my musings on the story of Cain and Abel....it's totally falls into the category of RELIGION, so if you don't want to read my 'religious musings', you won't offend me, just please pick a different post!

So, I'm doing a Bible study called Fatal Distractions. I, first of all, must admit that I just completed the entire last weeks worth of 'homework' in one sitting b/c I didn't attend the study on Friday so I just didn't do it throughout the week. One part talked about Cain and Able. That story fascinates me. Really - it does. There are these 2 brothers: one cultivates the land, the other works with the animals. One day they both bring an offering to the Lord. Cain, the farmer brings 'an offering of the fruit of the land.' His brother, Abel, brings an offering of the firstlings of the flock and of their fat. First of all, how did they know to bring an offering? What compeled the 3rd and 4th human being to bring a gift to their creator? If it was so inherint in them to bring such an offering, why isn't it inherint in us?! Why do we struggle so much over a 10th of our earnings?!

So, they both bring offerings and God accepts Able's firstlings and fat, but rejects Cain's fruit. And now, for the age old question....WHY? I've heard different reasons different people give:
*Abel's was the firstlings (the firstfruits), Cain's was just part of his crop
*Abel's involved blood, and from the beginning blood was required in all offerings and sacrifices until the ultimate blood sacrifice was made (His Son).

Now...here's where I start to wonder....
At this point God hasn't given the command for anyone to bring in their firstfruits. Nor have the people been directed in what kinds of sacrifices and offerings are acceptable. Additionally, why would the firstfruits of the fields not be accepted when one of the offerings was for the firstfruits of the fields (once the specific offerings were put into place...YEARS later in the wilderness). So what was the real reason? Was it the condition of the heart? Was it really that Cain just brought some part of his crop and God wasn't pleased with it? Was it that Abel's involved blood? Whatever it was...the rejection hurt Cain more than words could express - it made his countenance (his face) fall....just like it does us today. Imagine the last time someone uttered some small insult which truly cut you to the quick. Now compare that with how Cain felt...THE GOD of All rejected his gift. Gah! The hurt! The deep, heartfelt pain and sorrow....Then Cain got ANGRY. How often is this our reaction too?! Someone rejects or hurts us and we get MAD. 'Hopping mad'....we spew, we spit, we give the cold shoulder....I imagine Cain did the same.

But even then, God is gracious enough to meet with Cain and talk to him. He tells him (in Leanne's paraphrase) if you do a good job next time, won't you smile more?! That's like getting in trouble at work and getting fired but the boss saying, "If you do good at your next job, I bet they'll keep you." But then, he gets the warning of a lifetime - a chance to escape what's to come! God tells him that if he doesn't do a good job, sin is waiting for him. It's crouching at the door and it desires him. Wow! Visualize that! Sin is CROUCHING at the door, waiting for him, DESIRING him. God tells him to master it. (I'm pretty sure my next words would have been, "Oh yeah -- how?!" but that's me.)

The next verse says, "Cain told his brother." Um...told him what? That he was mad? That sin was waiting for him? That he had to do a better job? What did he tell him?! Then it says that while they were in the field Cain rose up against Abel and killed him. (Now someone please please please correct me if my thinking is off...but...) So Cain goes to Abel and something happens that causes him to want to kill his brother. The more I think about it, the more I think Cain may have gone to Abel to try to reconcile. To confess and apologize. If this is the case, did Abel have a "I'm better than you attitude" or did he say, "yeah, yeah, yeah - now let me tell you what you need to do better?" or, when it came down to it - did the anger stemming from rejection just overpower him? Additionally, that brings to mind something else I recently heard in context of a different story - "Sometimes we confess our sins, we just confess them to the wrong person." Should Cain have taken it up with God first and repented before trying to reconcile? I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I think that as I dig in, I'm either getting way toooo deep, or I just really want to understand it!

Anyway, he kills his brother and then God comes and asks where his brother is. I can hear the sarcasm and resentment and anger dripping from the statement, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" Or in more 'hip' language: "How should I know? Am I in charge of him - of where he goes and what he does. Go ask him yourself." Um, so even if he went out with good intentions - whatever happened that caused him to kill his brother also seems to have quadrupled the anger issue. God, of course, hands out a punishment as murder never has been and never will be ok. He tells Cain he is cursed from the ground - it will no longer be easily and will cultivated by him. God takes away the thing that he loved so much it caused a problem.

(Wow - that was kinda profound...God took away from Cain that which he loved so much it created the problem...maybe therein lies the reason for the rejection...he really loved the ground and the time spent cultivating more than he loved God....what do we love more than we love God? Reminds me of a saying I heard long ago - what you comprimise to keep, you will loose in the end...wow...)

Then, I don't know if he realized he the error of his way as he cried out in the next part of the story - or if he had the same kind of self centered moment we all do when punishment is given: but that's too hard to bear! Based on the words - I think he was having a bit of a pity party. But again, God is abounding in loving-kindness and he promises Cain that anyone who hurts him would incur a greater punishment. It reminds me of when he kicked out Adam and Eve...he gave them a promise that the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent that decieved them. In this moment of great sin he makes a promise that no one will harm him.

Then it says that Cain departed from the presence of the Lord. Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, but it doesn't say that they were driven from his presence...just from the perfection of the garden. Here it says Cain left God's presence. Wow. That's hard to imagine! And that makes me ask -- is Cain in Heaven!?

Anyway - that's all for now -- I seem to have hit a wall of tired -- enjoy, feel free to comment, or just read, pray, and search the word yourself.......

Good night all!