The first generation has now brought forth a second generation—children who were made in Adam’s own image, just as Adam was made in God’s image. Mankind (the word “Adam”) was already keeping track of years and speaking in full sentences. And sinning, every one of them. It didn’t take long, did it? Like father, like sons.
The first two sons were named Cain and Abel. Abel kept flocks. Cain worked the soil. It must be emphasized here that working the soil was no sin, any more than keeping flocks was a sin. Adam before the fall was charged with taking care of the Garden (2:15), so working the soil was doing the same, only after the earth had been cursed so as to make it difficult to bring forth food from the soil (3:17-19). So Cain was doing what he was supposed to do. This is important to understand, in light of what happens next.
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
Those offerings seem to make sense, don’t they? Each brother came with, let us assume, an equally generous offering.
Pause for a moment before we move on. How did these two men know to bring an offering to God in the first place?
The way that most anthropologists assume that the relationship with God developed was this: Slowly, as homo sapiens evolved, they developed a larger frontal cortex and their imaginations were able to invent a being who is in some way an explanation for all that is—weather and circumstance and morality and disease and harvest and love—somehow humans began to invent such a concept. And once they did, a sort of superstition arose about what will bring about good things. Maybe if I placate this god or that one, things will go well for me. Anecdotal evidence corroborated these superstitions in each of the various iterations of homo sapiens around the world, and in that way each society developed its own culture of what came to be known as worship. It was the eventual invention of religion.
But for the moment, let’s go with the biblical account that it was at most decades, not millions, of years old, that led to sacrifices and offerings. As with Adam and Eve, recognition of sin, and making atonement for it, is a pretty essential part of the equation of God and man.
The question still begs an answer: How did they know to do this? We have no record of God asking for it, up to this point.
How did God communicate at this point in history?
Adam had walked in the Garden with God, and they had somehow spoken together every evening. God searched for Adam after he and Eve fell into sin, and again, even fallen Adam had a two-way conversation with God, as unhappy as that conversation was. Now his two sons somehow know to bring an offering to God. Did God need these offerings, whether plant or animal? Of course He didn’t need them. But it seems He wanted them. Later in the Bible, God says that the smell of the fat portions of an animal rise to bring God pleasure. God had killed an animal to clothe the man and his wife, and later in the Bible we see that spilling innocent blood is, in fact, necessary for forgiveness.
So at this moment in the story, prior to the Law of Moses, which clearly outlines exactly what to do or not do. But how much inborn instinct, or how much of the Holy Spirit, was involved in developing a theology of sacrifice? I could imagine that Adam had started a family tradition each year on the anniversary of the Fall, to celebrate the fact that Adam had not, in fact, yet died. So each year he would bring an animal and sacrifice it. Maybe the skin of the animal then served as clothing for that person for the year. Adam trained his sons in this important and very solemn ceremony.
But Cain decided on his own self-styled routine.
In the end, it doesn’t matter HOW God communicated His standards. It only matters that Cain did not meet them. In the end, we find that God was communicating verbally and clearly with Cain (though there’s no record of God speaking with Abel at this point). God communicated His reaction to the two offerings clearly that day. It says,
The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
One offering was good, and another was bad, and somehow the two boys both knew which was which.
Here’s my theory: God had said that He wants a blood sacrifice, life for life, the innocent for the guilty. The death of an animal was to be a model of Christ, as it turns out. And Jesus was obviously not a carrot or a tomato. But He was a Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
Needless to say, somewhere hidden between the lines in this account, is an essential piece to the puzzle of how people can encounter God.
Somehow these two men knew before they offered their gifts what it was that God was requiring. But Cain held back and gave a self-styled offering instead. God said blood and Cain replied corn; God said to bring an animal, and Cain said to his wife, “Honey, do we have any truly sickly animals? If so, I’ll bring one of them, since it will die soon anyway. That way we seem generous, but we are giving at a discounted rate, you might say. . . . What? We have no sick animals? Well, I’m not going to offer a healthy one, that’s for sure. Let’s just bring a bushel full of the vegetables we have harvested.”
Remember how we said that two elements are essential in Plan B worship? Confession and Atonement. Cain came with neither one, and then he seems surprised that God was unhappy with him. Then the Lord said to Cain,
Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.
Without a blood sacrifice, there had been no atonement. And based on how Cain responds with anger, it’s pretty clear that there was no contrition or repentance, either. Already, this story is not going well. And for the purposes of talking about encountering God, it seems clear that Cain’s heart was in the wrong place. He has not confessed. He has not pursued atonement. And now he seems jealous and angry. He is in rebellion against God, even while he worships!
Surely that does not happen with anyone today, right?
Well, I know this one worship leader guy who follows his own definition of worship. He doesn’t lead others in confession and doesn’t center his songlist on atonement. Instead, he seems to think that worship is an emotion, and that it consists of psychologically manipulating people on a musical journey. He treats worship as if it were a concert all about him, a place to show off his talents and be a rock star with a built-in audience week after week. I can tell that his heart has been wrong from the beginning, because I see his jealous reaction to other worship leaders, who are in bigger venues and whose songs get more traction. He enters to worship and leaves proud and angry and with a downcast face! Can you believe it? Trust me. I know that guy well.
It gets worse. It does. Cain’s worship priorities are so completely backwards that he does not repent, even when questioned by God Himself about it. God tells Cain to watch out, because his heart is leading him toward worse sin, but Cain does not change. He plots to kill his brother. He invites him out to the field (his home turf, and away from witnesses, no doubt). Then he violently attacks and kills him. What?! Over worship!?!?
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
But it still doesn’t stop there! Sin was crouching at his door, and it has completely taken over his life now. Cain gets surly with God and cynically answers a question with a lie and an accusation. We seem to have come a long way from death-for-fruit. Cain is acting like a rebellious fool who blames everyone but himself for his trouble. He sounds like an adolescent when God asks him,
“Where is your brother Abel?”
What kind of tone of voice can you imagine in Cain’s answer:
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground."
It seems that life is in the blood, and that innocent blood must be spilled, after all. But because Cain is so turned around in his worldview by this point, he makes a victim of his own brother, and still won’t repent or confess. God puts him under a curse to make farming even more difficult for him. Not only does he work the land by the sweat of his brow, but the ground will no longer yield its crops for him, and he is forced to restlessly wander the earth, trying to find fertile soil.
Now comes the question: After just a few chapters of Genesis (there will be more!), has human behavior affected climate change? You bet it has! Global warming took place, the earth became much less friendly to farmers, and it wasn’t because of human pollution destroying the ozone layer or leaving a carbon footprint. It was disobedient worship! Warning! Warning! If you do not worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, all of this could happen to you! Sin leads to more sin and rebellion leads to more rebellion, and death leads to more death. What is the solution? One word:
Repent!
You might say that Cain’s problem was having a hard heart. He heard what God had said and simply didn’t agree, and what’s more, he didn’t care about it. Centuries later, God offered to the nation of Israel a cure:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:25-26
This is the essence of what we all need from God. We need to get to the place of wanting to hear and obey the voice of God in the first place. You might say that all of us need a spiritual heart transplant. Or, as Jesus said, that we need to be born again.
YOUR ENCOUNTER
How can you and I worship without falling into the error of Cain?
We can begin by asking God to soften our heart, or to replace our heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Begin by asking God to show us the height of His glory and the depths of our sin and shame. Maybe you and I are both prone to some adolescent rebellion.
Think of your heart as an old dry sponge, hard and brittle, pretty rough around the edges. Squeeze that sponge all you want, and nothing happens, and nothing comes out of it. Now ask Him to sprinkle clean water on you, and to soak you in His pure presence. Let it soak into that rock-hard heart of yours to soften and fill it. Now if you squeeze that same sponge, after saturating it with water, it is soft and pliable, and water comes gushing forth from within it. Lord, that’s what I want my heart to be: soft and pliable, filled to overflowing.
“Give me a glimpse of heavenly day
and take my stubborn heart away
Lord send your sun of love to shine
and melt and change this hard heart of mine.
The rocks will rend, the earth will quake
the billows roll, the mountains shake
Creation heeds your call each time
but nothing moves this hard heart of mine.
Here’s my heart, Jesus
Let me see what you see
Melt my heart, Oh, Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
To see the sorrows you have felt
should make the hardest heart to melt
but I have read each touching line
Yet nothing touched this hard heart of mine
Your power divine can do the deed
and Lord that power I greatly need
Your Spirit can my gold refine
and melt, and change this hard heart of mine
Here’s my heart, Jesus
Let me see what you see
Show me the heights of Your glory
the depths of my shame
the lostness of fallen humanity
You alone can take this heart of stone
Give me a heart of flesh,
like Your own.”
