Angry As Cain Genesis 4

 

Genesis 4 – Angry As Cain?

 

Cain had a problem with anger.  It wasn’t that he got angry.  God didn’t warn him because he got angry; God warned him because he stayed angry.  The incident that provoked Cain’s anger occurred during a worship service.  The brothers met to offer sacrifices to God.  Cain brought an assortment of farm goods as an offering; Abel presented an offering of special value.  Cain did his duty; Abel gave his best.  God was pleased with Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s.  The older brother was furious.

Cain’s original anger represented a positive response.  But the anger missed its target.  Cain should have been furious with himself.  Instead, Cain’s anger became a deadly weapon looking for a new target.  At that point, God intervened.  He corrected Cain’s misplaced anger and offered him another opportunity: “if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it”.

Adam’s firstborn opened the door for sin.  Cain got angry at God and took it out on his younger brother Abel.  Anger became murderous jealousy.  Soon, Abel lay dead in a field.  Killing his brother did little for Cain’s anger.  When God approached him, Cain denied knowing or caring where his brother might be.  He represented the consequences of sin.  Cain displayed no remorse or repentance.  He became stuck in his anger.

As Cain demonstrates, anger must be ruled or it will rule.  Uncontrolled anger quickly becomes a destructive tyrant. When we invite God to help us identify the causes of our anger and take corrective measures, anger can become a servant rather than a master in our lives.  God’s word give powerful counsel when it says in Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin”.

 

 

 

Taken from J. Vernon Magee Commentary and “Why I Believe” by D. James Kennedy.                    https://sherrysouthard.blogsopot.com