As we all know, Cain committed the first murder, but it should not surprise anyone, because after his parents fell in the garden, everything went downhill from there.

You see, there is a lot of Cain in many of us, whether we want to admit it or not. We allow just about anything set us off. Look what set Cain off;

"In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering - fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not favor. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast."

Was there anything wrong with Cain offering? No, the only problem we see here is that Cain offering was more of an after thought instead of being the first fruit of his crops.

As we saw in chapter 3 of Genesis, once again, the enemy shows how he works. Though scripture does not mention Satan working behind the scenes, he must have been.

Just think what the dialogue might of been;

Awe Cain, look how much God loves your brother and favors him. What makes Abel so special. Blah, Blah, Blah... in other words he worked on Cain disappointed, which led to hi angry and before he actually acted on it, he had could have repented and placed the Lord first in all he did, but that was not to be the case.

Despite the warning God gave Cain, his anger and jealousy got the best of him and he murdered his brother.

From this point on, he continued his rebellious attitude when the Lord confronted him.

The Lord; "Where is your brother Cain?"

Cain; "I don't know. Am I his keeper? Am I responsible for him?

Yes I paraphrased it somewhat, but you get the picture. God knew what happen, and I think He was seeing if Cain would own up and confess, but he remained rebellious.

Now we may never commit murder, but isn't it true, when things don't go our way we fester, become jealous and rebellious. If we examine our lives, and be truthful, the answer would be yes.

That is why it is so important for us to always be alert and on guard with our lives. It is about taking every word from the bible and placing it into practice within our daily lives.

The enemy is always on the look out to find a weak spot in our armor. He found Adams in his wife Eve. He was able to convince Cain, though not spoken of in scripture, to get rid of his brother in order to find favor in God, which back fired.

Satan is always on the prowl, looking for someone to devour and destroy. So take advice from today's passage because as you re-read it below it is great advice and its message is true:

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you...."

Then the Lord finishes the verse with these words; "But you must rule over it."

So how do we rule over it? I mention it above! It learning the word of God and placing His words into practice in your everyday life.

We cannot control this on our own power! We need to lean on the Lord and seek His guidance or we can fall just as Cain did. He listen to the wrong voice because he was upset and angry. Cain was in the wrong and as you see, he never sought forgiveness for his actions.

When you fall or you know you did something wrong, right the wrong and seek forgiveness and learn from it, if not the consequences can be devastating.

Look at Cains response once he received what was due him:

Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment in more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from Your presence."

Was God driving Cain out of the land? No, Cain choose to be removed. Cain did not once seek forgiveness and face the consequences, he was having pity party unto himself and he lost hope of any redemption he might have obtain, if he would have accepted the punishment and sough forgiveness.

Don't allow yourself to be in this position, God is waiting for you to make the first move to Him and it comes by confessing and repenting and accepting the consequences for your actions.

Amen

Tweet