Genesis 4:3-8

Cain and Abel

To paraphrase the words of Ron Burgundy: “That escalated quickly. Cain killed a guy.” Oh my, oh my, oh my… How did we go from a disregarded offering to Cain killing his brother? Seems like a bit of an overreaction if you ask me. But here’s where we are. What should we make of it?

As has been our practice over the last few weeks, we will not speculate as to why God holds Abel’s offering in regard while having no regard for Cain’s offering. The text doesn’t say why, so that is not the point of the story. What Cain does in response to the rejected offering is important. Cain becomes angry and despondent. He becomes so angry that even when God tries to warn Cain about what is about to happen, Cain ignores God. Cain does not master his anger, and he takes out his wrath on his brother.

I am disappointed every time I read this story. I’m disappointed because the first brotherly relationship on this earth ends in murder. Worse than that, I feel the murder is because Cain could not deal with his brother’s offering being accepted and his being turned away. Instead of trying to do better next time to satisfy God, Cain decides he’s just going to get revenge against his brother. 

I wish we were different, but we aren’t. We are chastised by God or convicted of sin, and our reaction is to take it out on someone else instead of confronting our problems. When God rejects what we are offering, we can either look in the mirror and do better next time, or we can blame others. I hope we choose differently from Cain.