What’s up Cain?

One of the strangest things in the Bible. Why did Cain kill Abel?

Cain was the oldest of the two sons and learned to toil the land with his father. Abel comes along and they have to find a job for him to do and the make him the tender of the flocks. Someone had to do it, so why not Abel? Doesn’t seem anything to be jealous about? Cain is working with his dad! That’s pretty special in itself, learning and working with dad.  So we have one child working with dad and the other son working under dad’s watchful eye.

So why was Cain so angry  (Gen 4:5). From the first verses of Chapter 4 we don’t see Adam or Eve noticing Cain as being angry? So what’s up Cain?

In Genesis Chapter 4 Verse 3 “And so it time that Cain brought the fruits of the earth as a sacrifice to The Lord . Then in Verse 4 Abel brings his offering; the first born of his sheep and his fatlings and God looked favorably upon Abel and his gifts. But in in verse 5 , God did not look favorably on Cain’s sacrifices and Cain was exceedingly sorrowful and his countenance fell! The Lord said to Cain, “why are you so sorrowful and why has your countenance fallen? ” If you do well , will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Reading the Septuagint what Cain did was he did not rightly divide the offering. He wasn’t straight with God right from the get go. And God knows everything. So God knew why Cain was angry!

Cain showed no remorse, he was angry, he was jealous, he had deception, he had self pity, evil  desired to have him and he was already plotting to kill his brother Abel.

So in the next verse, Cain says to Abel, God didn’t care for my offering! I can imagine that some conversation between the brothers took place like Abel asking why? What did you present to The Lord ? And if the The Lord could see his countenance was fallen, then I  would imagine that Abel could see that his older brother was not in the best of moods. He probably better than anyone else could see that cain was not right and hasn’t been himself for some time. We all have been around people like this? Some thing is bothering them, “sin” has gotten a hold of them. Next thing you learn is Cain kills Abel? Why?

God knows everything and He asks Cain; “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain said to The Lord , “I don’t know, I an not my brothers keeper” Then God says something that would rattle anyones soul’ “What have you done? The voice of your brothers blood is crying to me from the ground”!

Cain committed the first murder in the Bible, a monstrous act of killing his brother. He becomes a homeless wanderer, a man without a wife, a home, is unreliable, and restless, wandering from place to place.

Solomon would say “Cain’s soul has extirpated from itself, the principle of love virtue, the love of God and has died to the love of virtue.”

Then we have a huge jump with a lot of unknowns. Cain finds a wife and she conceives and gives birth to Enoch! Cain builds a city and names it after his son Enoch. Not knowing the age of Enoch, Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

I have read some theologians and they would say it was all about the offering; I would have to disagree. Remember that when Abel presented his offering it still had its fat? The  Law of removing the fat didn’t come along until Lev 4:6-8 and it was in  Ex 24:19; that you shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of The Lord your God.

So Cain was a bad seed from the fall. God knew it from the beginning, tried to change his ways to no avail. The Devil (evil) had gotten a hold of him and he became a wanderer protected by God! God had a plan! That plan included Enoch!

Later my fiends, Peace out

 

Do you love Me, then do as I commanded you.

Picture if you will Jesus is reclining at the Last Supper with His disciples. During this time with His Disciples he instructs them “If you Love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14:15) And if you do keep me commandments I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, and he will be with you forever. (John 14:16) Note that Jesus was “asking” the Father if who? Another Helper could be sent  to us and that unlike Jesus, this new helper will be with them (us) forever. You have to wonder if the disciples were perplexed at this time? Who was coming to take Jesus’ place since Jesus was leaving them? During this time in history there were many false Messiahs, ones that laid claimed to be the Messiah but were not, so who was Jesus referring to? Perhaps the disciples were scholars or very familiar with the Hebrew Bible or the Scrolls. They had to be wondering and Jesus was not clear as to who He was asking the father to send.   If you recall from the Old Testament the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God/Lord was only sent on special occasions, now Jesus is asking the Father to send Him to live with us forever! The Holy Spirit!! 

You have to ask yourself why did Jesus ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit for us to live with us forever? I think perhaps Jesus knew we could not do this walk alone or follow his commandments with help. Check this out; in Matthew 19:26 Jesus says; “With people this is impossible(following the commandments), but with God all things are possible.” Therefore our Triune God lives with us daily through the Holy Spirit and only tells us what Jesus wants us to hear. What are you saying, what Jesus says? Yes when we quiet our hearts and listen to the Holy Spirit talk to us it is actually Jesus Himself (John 16:14). To me, knowing that the Creator of the heavens and the the universe talking to me directly through the Holy Spirit is breath taking!
Living by Jesus’ commandments are not easy. I don’t believe they were meant to be easy. In fact Jesus says to us in Matthew 4:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate that is wide and the way is broad is what leads to destruction, and there are many who will enter through it. For the gate that is small and the way is narrow, that is the path that leads to eternal life, however few will find it. Wow, now that is a tough one to swallow or understand.

Prior to 1986 I was on that wide path and running wildly. It was a wild and what I thought was an incredible ride. While you are on that wide path you aren’t concerned about destruction or anyone else, in fact you really don’t even think about your own mortality! At this time you are thinking about “how can I please myself”, after all it is all about me isn’t it??? Then there was that day when God gets a hold of you! My life turned from a wild ride  into a mustard seed that had just started to grow. Same Scott, but a transformation had begun.  God had gotten my attention and made it abundantly clear that He was much bigger than I was!! During my personal ride He has taken me to the lowest of lows to highs that can only be attributed to Gods blessings.  He showed me the errors of my ways and it was almost like Jesus Himself was saying and now I am paraphrasing; ” Scott, you keep my commandments and love me, you will be loved by My Father and I will make Him known to you” (John 14:21). Little did I know I was in for a wild ride, one that developed an unquenchable thrist for knowledge of Gods Word, the Early Church, The Early Church fathers, He was taking me on a ride that would eventually help a lot of different people. I can recall while I was at the seminary one of my professors asking me what I was doing here at this late stage of my life? I told him that perhaps someday I would like to teach the New Testament much like yourself. The early church? The ones that followed the disciples. Polycarp, Justin Martyr. St. Augustine, Clement, and of course an in depth study of the Apostle Paul.

Like I said, prior to God calling me and me being obedient to that call, I was on that wide path to destruction. I was that person described in Proverbs 6:16-19. (1) Haughty arrogant and proud eyes. Like I said, it was all about me! (2) a lying tongue. This one not so much because I learnt from an early age to tell the truth or you would get a bar of soap in your mouth! The punishment was a lot easier if we told the truth than to be caught in a lie. So lying not so much for me. (3) Hands that shed innocent blood. I wasn’t a murderer but because of my attitude and arrogance, I know I hurt people along the way. I wish there were ways to apologize to all those I hurt but there isn’t. God knows in my heart that I am truly sorry and He has forgiven me for my sins. I can remember my best childhood friend coming up to me after I officiated my own mothers funeral saying to me, “when did this change happen?”(4) A heart that devises wicked plans. Well, wicked might be a little harsh, but yes, I was always scheming, always just on the edge of trouble. (5) Feet that run rapidly to evil. Well, again, define evil? I was a mischievous young man, and looking back at things I thank God that I had people that loved me regardless. They could have possibly saved my life or changed the direction of my life, it wasn’t just luck or coincidence, it was Divine Intervention. God had placed these people in my path to save me because my calling had yet been accomplished. Thanks Tommy Stone! Standing before Judge Swallow as a frighten young man was something I would wish on no one. Thank you for all you did. Dad always said, you get yourself in trouble, you will be doing weekends in jail. Yikes!! Here I am a honorable mention all-state quarterback, a jock, student council president and I could be facing jail time if it wasn’t for Tommy? Thank you God for placing Tommy in my life. There are many many more stories and I know now that if it wasn’t for Gods future plans for me I would of or should have died doing some of the crazy things I did!!

At this point in your life you think you are invincible. However if I would have been killed during that time, before I accepted The Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior, I would have heard the words “Depart from Me, all you who do iniquity”(Ps 6:8) and depart from Me all you evil doers” (Ps 119:115). Yes, I could have been sent to HELL. And my friends Hell is real!! That is a subject all in itself.
So, now that my mustard seed has been planted and growing like a bad weed, I am really no different than the disciples with all the questions. What commandments did Jesus mean when he said “if you LOVE me you will keep my commandments”. Was he referring to all the commandments of God recorded in the Hebrew Bible? Was He referring to the 10 Commandments or the Decalog?(Ex 20:1-17 and Deut 5:6-16), or His own twofold command to Love? Love God and your Neighbor? (Matthew 22:33-40). Or all of His own ethical teachings in general?

There are 16 occurrences of commandments in the synoptic gospels; we find 6 in Matthew, 6 in Mark and 4 in Luke. 11 of these are in just 3 passages:
1) the debate over ritual defilement (Mark 7:1-23) and (Matt 15: 1:20)
2) the question of the rich man to Jesus (Mark 10:17-22) (Matt 19:16-22) and (Luke 18:18-23).
3) the question about the first or the greatest? (Mark 12:28-34, Matt 22:34-40, Lk 10:25-28)

Going back up to Mark 12:28-34 we find that Jesus is saying that The Lord our God is ONE God, and that you shall love your God with all your heart, all your soul and your mind and strength. You shall also love your neighbor and yourself, and your enemy. And guess what? There are no greater commandments than these. Much like one of my blogs posts about how can you love someone you don’t know? It is  impossible. But we are commanded by our Lord and Savior to Love HIM with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. So how are you doing with these? Not so good? Or ok? As my knowledge of God increases, so does my love. But it takes work my friends, a lot of work, time and passion. Have you gotten to the point where you cry when we sing a song? For me it is the song “It is well with my Soul”. I can’t sing that song without crying!! It is well with my soul now, but back in the day? In my eyes and mind back then it was great, but in Gods eyes I was a mess. My tears are tears of thanks and joy. I am Gods treasured son.

In Mark 12:32 a Scribe is talking to our Lord and he says to Jesus “Teacher by loving God and your neighbor, this is more important than all these burnt offerings and sacrifices?” And in verse 34 Jesus answers him as He realizes that the Scribe answered relatively intelligently and Jesus said to the Scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God”. Not far! That’s not were we want to be now is it? The Scribe hears from Jesus, hey, you are close but not quite there yet. How would you like to hear that when you are standing at the Judgment seat of our Lord? Close, not far, but, ????? Scary thought huh? Close but no cigar!! Depart from Me. And if you are not with the Lord you are where?

I spent over 30 years in business as an executive of one of the largest companies in Western Michigan, while in this position some of those years were before my calling, many of those years were in my growth period, and then the later part of my career I was praying with my employees, they would ask m why I was so happy all the time, and people had noticed a huge transformation in Scott. One of my favorite books of the Bible in fact I call it my cornerstone is a commentary on the book of Matthew. In Matthew we find the Sermon on the Mount where we find more of Jesus’ teachings and commandments. These teachings in Chapters 5-7 are more on our personal relationships. In fact my entire career I was known as a black and white type of person. My yes meant yes and my no meant no. There were no gray areas in my positions and answers. People in my industry I found out later greatly respected that about me. Just so happens to be part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:37, in fact Jesus goes a little further and clarifies it, anything besides that is “EVIL”. So let your yes be yes and your no mean no! 

In the Gospel of John there are 10 more commandments! I especially like John 12:49-50. Remember earlier I mentioned that in John 16:14, Jesus is the person who instructs the Holy Spirit what to say to us. Now check this out; Jesus is saying “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told ME. (John 12:49-50). Full circle my friends, God the Father tells Jesus and Jesus tells the Holy Spirit who lives in us. So when you are hearing from the Holy Spirit you are in fact hearing from God the Father!
It’s not easy to follow all of Jesus’ commands, but it gets easier as you get to know God better! Jesus says “if you love me you will keep my commands”. It’s just  that Narrow Gate or the eye of a needle that cause us trouble,it may be tough but doable.
Just remember this if nothing else; one of the last things Jesus said while here on earth was “Father, I desire also, whom you have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which you have given Me, for you have Loved Me before the foundation of the world”. Jesus wants us to be with Him. He wants us to see Him in His glory!

Jesus is telling His disciples just as He is telling us today; “you can’t do this on your own – but everything I have commanded of you is possible with God”

 .
I personally have come a long way and I am still growing, I am a sinner, far short of the glory of God, but through His mercy and grace I am His beloved son. And one day, a day we all should be looking forward to is when He says to us, “Well done My good and faithful Servant”

Until next time, God Loves you and so do I.

Peace Out