Cain's offering of disobedience

Most of us can retell the story of Cain and Abel with little trouble. And even if we can't name the specifics we can certainly recall the Bible story from Sunday school where Adam and Eve had twin sons and one killed the other.

While usually the focus of this story is on Cain's jealousy of his brother Abel, there is much more depth and substance to this situation than simple sibling rivalry.

If we stop to take the time to look into the life of Cain we find a man who by the world's view would be a very hard worker. He was mostly likely up with the sun and out in his fields all day through working. He was a gardener; a farmer. There were no machines or workers to help him or aide his efforts. This was the sweat and toil of his very own hands. If he was not out in the field working his crops would fail.

When asked to bring a sacrifice to offer God the request was specific and it was one he knew by his heart. If nothing else his parents had instilled in him that the sacrifice was to be an unblemished lamb. It was as second nature to him as *** would be to you and I. He decided that he would offer something else. Something he felt like was better. So he offered his work. He took things he had labored to grow and tend and harvest. He offered fruits and vegetables from his fields.

But instead of receiving praise as he had hoped, he received God's disapproval. For God does not desire our sacrifice. He requires our obedience. Cain was full of sacrifice, but he lacked obedience.

However, it's an easy trap to fall into. Men do it with their work. Women do it with their homes and children. This is not to say that it's wrong to be successful or to have well mannered children. The point is more that that is not worshipping God. God does not desire the works of your hands to be offered at His feet. The only offering He desires and more importantly the only offering He will accept is your heart...your obedience.

And there is a simple test for obedience or more aptly your willingness to be obedient. Examine your life. Is there anything you would not give up if God asked you to? Have you made an idol of your job, your home, your sports, your nights out? If you would hesitate to give any of those things up if God led you to then you are making an idol of that in your life.

Cain made an idol out of his work; out of his own abilities and efforts and the earthly rewards that he gained from those efforts. And so it was a logical conclusion that he would bring what he held in the highest regard as his sacrifice to God.

His brother, Abel, however, is the example God desires us all to emulate. He worshipped God. He held God as first in his life and everything else was a byproduct of his worship. What he said, where he went, his work...everything was done in worship to God. So when instructed to bring a sacrifice he was obedient. He literally worshipped God through his sacrifice by bringing an unblemished lamb and sacrificing it. Even his sacrifice was designed to worship and glorify God. No part of his sacrifice was meant to bring praise or glory to himself.

Abel's life's motto could very easily have been - simple obedience. More often than not obedience is the simplest thing in the world to understand, but the most difficult to carry out. But time and time again God shows us that obedience will reap blessings and rewards and disobedience of even the smallest proportion can lead to devastating consequences.
Abel's single act of disobedience to follow the directions for a burnt offering led to his brother's death and Abel spending the rest of his life struggling to provide for even his own needs, running from people who would do him harm, and never again being able to call anyplace home.

Let us remember Abel as we go through our days. When God speaks let us listen and obey. Let us get to the end of our life and be able to look back and see a life of obedience and blessings and not a life of disobedience and consequences for that disobedience. For our Father waits so anxiously to pour out His blessings upon Him children. Blessings He tells us we can't even fathom. And all He asks of us in order to receive His outpouring of love is "simple obedience".