Cain and Abel

[lftc]

12 hours ago, Melinda12 said:

I am reading Genesis. Chapter 4 verse verse 7. 

I just do not understand it. 

I feel God was unfair to Cain anyway. Please someone unpack this for me. Especially 'and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him'. Who? 

As always i want the meaning and what lesson is it here for me and my attitude to God and to people?

I find the Old Testament hard. But i accept every word as truth and of great value. Always.

Hello Melinda12.

The Old Testament is hard.  Pursuing understanding is the best thing to do, so I applaud you for posting your honest question.

Have the answers provided so far helped with your understanding? 

[Guest]

That's brilliant. Thanks all for helping me to understand. 

[Adstar]

On 9/24/2019 at 3:57 PM, Melinda12 said:

I am reading Genesis. Chapter 4 verse verse 7. 

I just do not understand it. 

I feel God was unfair to Cain anyway. Please someone unpack this for me. Especially 'and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him'. Who? 

As always i want the meaning and what lesson is it here for me and my attitude to God and to people?

I find the Old Testament hard. But i accept every word as truth and of great value. Always. 

 

God was using the situation to establish that the shedding of blood was necessary for the forgiveness of sin.. This was later confirmed in the Law of Moses and the sacrifices that it entailed and all of these symbolic examples pointed to the final blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God, our LORD Jesus Christ..

God was not angry with Cain, but Cain seemed to think God was rejecting his sacrifice because God was rejecting him.. But this was not the case.. God tried to reassure Cain when He said to him:

Genesis 4: KJV

6 "And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? {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."

 

So God was not rejecting Cain.. It was Cain who misinterpreted the situation and this misinterpretation lead him to become jealous of Able for no good reason..

[breathoflife]

Hi, the o.t. Can be difficult and some books darn near impossible because of how dry they are but when you find the key extraordinary things can pop up.the story of Cain and Abel is amazing and I think when you have it you will see our God in a whole new light. Adam and Eve fell in the Garden and. If left to themselvesthemselves they would die. The Good Shepherd Jesus Christ came looking for His lost sheep. Because of sin they fled and hid while they  tried to cover themselves.. no amount of work could cover their sin and they were going to die. But the Good Shepherd had Good News He would slay an innocent sacrifice in place of the guilty, Adam and zEve. So the Innocent was slain and they were covered with the bloody skin. The things we learn after the Garden are what we really want to look at. We learn that they knew where the offering had to be made, on the east side of Eden. They also knew when to bring the sacrifice in the fullness of time. And most of all they knew what animal, the .Lamb. This would much later be the Passover. Part of the Passover is the telling of the story.and I am sure they had told their sons would have to make their own offering. Abel wasn’t just a better guesser. Both boys would know what was required but Cain rejected the Lamb. Cain was sent to live in the Land of Nod. Nod means Wandering and if Cain had humbled himself to the Lord’s Will the only way he could make a living would be as a shepherd At cain’s Door was a sin-offering a picture of the Lord standing outside knocking. Cain rejected the Lamb again and as far as we know is lost.

the Lord 

‘s strange work is Judgment and he did all He could to save Cain. Hope this helps

[Blood Bought 1953]

 

The longer I am a Christian the more I realize God Why God had this story told right up front. Nothing has changed in all of these centuries.The sin of self- righteousness is still everywhere.God made it clear what He wanted— the Blood of an innocent one, the Shed Blood to pay the Price for what you deserve!  A symbolic picture of Jesus and the Gospel Of Grace hundreds of years in the future.No works from Abel we’re required-Nothing that he performed other than rely on the Blood Shed by an innocent to take away his sins.Cain thought he knew better than God.His Pride and self- righteousness said that he would do it HIS way.Surely God would put as much, if not more ,value in a sacrifice that he had to work for! Something that represented the hard work and sweat that had been put into all the produce that Cain tried to give to God.Nothing that pointed to Jesus — the whole point of what God demanded- it made no difference if  the two understood the underlying picture that God was attempting to illustrate.God demands things be done HIS WAY.

Nothing has changed- God says “ Nothing But The Blood”. Lost religionists still insist on doing it “Their Way”. “ Look what WE did, God!”No mention of The Blood.God would not have it then.He won’t have it now. “ Depart from me, I never knew you”........ All those that can’t stand before God and confidently reply to God’s inquiry as to why He should Let you into His Glorious Heaven without a hearty “ Nothing But The Blood”reply is going to have a bad day.....count on it....All that add to the Gospel with their works are “ fallen from Grace” and “ severed from the Cross Of Christ” . Wow! Not a place one wants to find himself.If those two phrases mean “ Lost”, that “ Narrow Road” Jesus discussed really “ I S” going to be Narrow.NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD”

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Tampered With said:

G_d was teaching man that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. That is why G_d demanded animal sacrifice as it was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the Lamb of G_d Jesus.

 

Hebrews 9:22 King James Version (KJV)

²² And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Hi

Can i ask- why do you and some others hyphenate the word God? I am just curious. 

[breathoflife]

the belief is God's name is too holy to write. Unfortunately this is one off the holdovers from the Law. Law when its in our life and not written on our hearts separates us from God. There is only one Ground man can stand on before the Lord and that is Grace. Law is Mount Sinai nothing not even an animal may touch the Mount. The Grace is like an unidentified Mount where His people can come right up and sit down and hear Him give the Royal Law of Love. 

[Guest]

I don't understand any of that! But no doubt it makes sense to those who do this. 

[breathoflife]

hi Melinda12, this was the Lord revealing what would become many years later the Feast of Passover. Adam and Eve knew where to offer the sacrifice, when to offer it and what to offer. Adam and Eve would have told the story of how God saved them just as the story of the release from Egypt every Passover. So Cain and Abel would have heard the story each year as their family made the Lamb their offering. When Cain and Abel, they were twins, came to full age they would now be liable for making the offering. Abel brought the Lamb Cain said I will bring what I want. But the Lord did not just give up on Cain the Lord kept trying to reason with Cain that he might be saved. The first thing was sending Cain to live in Nod or Wandering. Cain was to become a pilgrim and an alien. Cain refused to live the life of a shepherd and promptly settled down building a city, must have been expecting a lot of company. Cain had one more way the Lord gave to Him to try and save him. The Lord put the sin-offering outside Cain's heart. Some will say this was sin that the Lord placed outside his door but God would have been tempting Cain if it were sin and God does not tempt men. This is the sin-offering the Passover Lamb of God who Cain needs to shepherd and learn how it is used to cover uncovered sin and men may Passover from death to life. These actions by Cain produce an entire way that unbelievers have taken its called The Way of Cain and it is always the Rejection of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ.

 

I hope I was able to explain it better this time. Sorry