Genesis: Chapter 4
Your offering is really the way you live your life.
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.
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