A True But Sad, Sad Story

“So Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod -(wandering).” (Genesis 4:16)

Part of my Bible reading yesterday was the story of Cain and Able. I had read this story many times before but in this reading the pathos I felt touched me as never before, because this could be the story of any of our lives - “But for the mercy and grace of God there go I.” This could very well be the story of my or your child or grandchild.

This is a story of Cain who was “continuing in the wrong direction.” It is a story of how taking one step of disobedience can lead us down a path of destruction. It is a story of blatant willfulness against the will of the loving heavenly Father. It is a story of an unrepentant heart to the end. It is a story of reaping what you sow. How very, very sad!

It is also a story of the mercy of a loving heavenly Father Who would have saved, but Cain would not repent and accept the offered salvation. This story reminds me of the incident when Jesus’ life was being threatened by the very ones He had come to save. Their hearts were hardened and their minds twisted with hatred and self will. He responded to their hatred and threats with, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who continue to kill the prophets and to stone those who are sent to you! How often I have desired and yearned to gather your children together around Me, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not!” (Luke 3:14)

The Prodigal Son is another story of one who chose to “continue in the wrong direction,” but his ending was different because he “came to himself” and turned from his willful ways and returned to the Father who was waiting to forgive and restore. Cain never repented but chose to suffer the consequences of his disobedience – to be cursed by God, (read all of the fourth chapter of Genesis). How very, very sad!

Cain found there were steps of digression taken by “continuing in the wrong direction” - by following his disobedient choices to the point of the final consequences of those choices. This digression started in Genesis 4:3 when Cain, who was a “tiller of the ground” – (a farmer), brought the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground.

Seth, Cain’s younger brother, was a shepherd and brought the firstborn of his flock as an offering to the Lord. It doesn’t say in this story, but evidently the Lord had already set down the “ground rules” for bringing a sin offering to the Lord. It had to be a “blood offering,” if available (Hebrews 9:22), with the exception in the Old Testament if a blood sacrifice was not available a sin offering specifically should be an “ephah of fine flour,” (ephah is a Hebrew measure of grain) - (Leviticus 5:6-12).

Genesis 4:3 tells us Cain “brought an offering of the ground.” This could have been vegetables or maybe even grain, but the instructions were to bring a measure of “fine flour.” God wanted Cain to obey because he wanted to obey and please God, but Cain’s heart was filled with willfulness and sin, so instead of obeying what God had commanded for an offering to have his sins forgiven, Cain chose to “make a showing” of an offering by doing it his way, not a sacrifice of love to the Lord, but by offering God some of his surplus “stuff.”

Because of the hearts’ condition of these two men, Cain and Abel, God “regarded” Abel’s offering as acceptable, but Cain’s offering as unacceptable because it was offered with a disobedient and willful heart. In II Corinthians 9:7 it says that God loves a cheerful giver. If anything given to God is not given cheerfully, it is not considered a love gift. Love and obedience goes hand-in-hand (see I John 5:2-3). You maybe can obey without loving (obeying out of duty); but you cannot love God without obeying Him. Cain had the first problem. He was giving lip-service to God’s Command by just giving an offering of any kind, but inwardly it was all his will & his way – it was rebellion.

But God saw the true heart of each and therefore, when God did not accept Cain’s offering, he became angry and looked sad and depressed (Gen.4:5). This is the next step of his “continuing in the wrong direction.” Anger always comes when sin is found out and guilt and rationalization show up. This is the time when Cain should have confessed his sin and received God’s forgiveness, but instead the stronghold of rebellion and pride, which had set itself up in Cain’s heart, took even a stronger grip. Even in verses 6&7 when God tries to reason with and warn Cain by asking, “Why are you angry and sad? Don’t you know if you do well and obey Me you will be accepted? But if you do not do well and disobey, sin crouches at the door and desires to master you, but you must master it. You must take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ (II Cor.10:4-5). You must submit your self to God and resist the devil, who is waiting to devour you, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).” But Cain “would not.”

Because of his jealousy of Abel’s offering being “accepted” by God, Cain enticed Abel to go out into the field and he killed his brother, Abel. This was his next step of digression – murder. Why did Cain kill his brother? - I John 3:12 tells us why, “Because he took his motivation from the evil one and his deeds were malicious but his brother’s were righteous and virtuous.” Even at this point, God would have forgiven and accepted Cain if he would only repent and ask for forgiveness, but Cain would not. That was so very, very sad!

This has all been such a sad digression into sin, but what is, to me, the saddest step of digression is the step Cain took in Genesis 4:16. In verses 9-15, God discloses His knowledge of Abel’s murder and made Cain own up to it. Because of Cain’s steps of “continuing in the wrong direction,” God cursed Cain in verse 12 – “When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth in perpetual exile, a degrading outcast.” In verses 13-14 Cain cries out in anguish to God (but not in repentance). God still would have accepted Cain – but he would not!!

The saddest step of Cain's digression - “So Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod (wandering)”(Genesis 4:16). Why is this so sad to me? Because in God’s presence there is fullness of joy, peace, safety, mercy, grace, comfort and everything we need to have a fulfilling life, and Cain was willing to give up all those benefits to "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."

Let’s choose “the road less traveled”- the road of love and obedience- the road Abel chose that leads straight into the presence of our Father! That is a happy story!

Trust and Obey
John H. Sammis

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.