Genesis Chapters 4 - 6: If Thou Doest Well, Shalt Thou Not be Accepted?
My Journal of Spiritual Growth: The Beginning Genesis
A book that reviews every chapter of Genesis and offers areas for you to share your revelations.
The Bible introduces Cain and Abel into the story. Cain is a “tiller of the ground” and Abel “a keeper of sheep.” Cain eventually brings an offering to the Lord of the “fruit of the ground”, which he had tilled and Able brought an offering from among “the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof.”
Now in the course of your life, what you do is your offering to God; your life and how you live it. There are many ways to provide an offering to God. There are many ways you can ultimately sacrifice to God. There are many ways your life can be a help to others, but the most consistent way is the way in which you live your life.
Cain took what he did for a living, what he did on a day-to-day basis and gave to the Lord, not his best, but his run-of-the-mill fruit. God, of course, did not respect Cain’s offering because he knew Cain was not giving his best (and God deserves your best).
Genesis 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Genesis 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
If you put forth your best life and your best effort in service to God, God will accept it with blessings and peace that you cannot imagine or replicate without it. Cain, just like his father and mother, doesn’t take responsibility for his actions, rather he lashes out at Abel (who did give his best to the Lord) and kills him. Then he complains that the punishment God gives him is too great to bear.
Later on in this chapter, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve had another son, after Abel’s killing, his name was Seth. Seth becomes the ancestor of Noah.
Genesis Chapter 5
In the very beginning of this chapter God reminds us that mankind is created in the divine image of their Creator.
Genesis 5:1 … In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Genesis 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image;…
When you create something in your own image, such as Adam and Eve begetting a child, what you bring forth is of the same substance as you. You have the DNA of your ancestors in you and we, being made in the likeness of God, have the same substance of God in us as divine and miraculous expressions of life.
Genesis Chapter 6
The Bible now turns its attention to Noah and to the destruction of the world. The violence and evil we see in the world comes through us—people who have the ability to choose between right and wrong—as this is a characteristic that separates us from other creations (i.e., animals, vegetation, minerals, etc. don’t have the same ability to choose between doing right and wrong, like we do).
Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Sometimes in your life God may give you commandments that seem ridiculous to other people. They may be ridiculous to them because they are not for them—God sometimes gives YOU SPECIAL commandments. This is what separated Noah from others. Genesis tells us that, “Noah walked with God.”
He had a personal relationship with God, in the way that it was intended to be and he followed God’s commandments.
Genesis 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
This is the way you should live your life, according to how God commands you to live it.