Bible Focus: Genesis 4; 1 John 3:12; Jude1:11; Hebrews 11:4

Every day in life we make choices.  Some of the choices are insignificant while others rank high on the scale of milestones, life defining moments. Some of these life defining moments are known from day one but others we only know in retrospect.

Cain had many life-defining moments.  If he documented them, they would have probably sounded like this:

• First human being to be born to Adam and Eve
• Brought pain to my mother during birth
• Mother noted that with God’s help she brought forth a man
• Grew up outside of paradise and heard all the grand stories about it from Mom and Dad and yet could not go in to experience it
• Worked the cursed soil as my occupation in contrast to my brother who became a shepherd
• Working the soil was painful and I had to toil hard and sweat in order to get the cursed ground to produce
• My farming focus was  fruit bearing trees which took hard work
• After some time I picked some of the fruits and brought them to God as an offering while Abel brought the fat portions from some of his first born of his flock
• After all that hard work, God was did not look with favour on my fruits
• I was very angry and downcast as God did not appreciate the offering I brought yet He accepted with favour Abel’s
• God told me that I would be accepted if I did what was right. He wanted too much I thought.
• God also told me that sin was crouching at my door and desires to have me and I must master it.
• This made me even more angry and murderous in my thoughts as I was my own master not sin.
• I invited my brother to come out to the field with me and as we talked about the offerings, I exploded with anger, attacked him and killed him right there
• When God asked me for Abel, this almost made me insane. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, I angrily answered
• How was I to know that Abel’s blood cried out to God and accused me of murder?
• Killing Abel brought a curse on me and my entire family line
• I was now cursed, driven from the land and would be unable to even get crops from the very ground I toiled so hard
• I was transformed into a restless wanderer living in Nod east of Eden
• Most importantly, I would be hidden from God’s presence
• God had to put a special mark of covering on me to prevent me from being killed
• I created a family outside of God’s presence and five generations later my descendant commits murder of a youngster for wounding him, as a memorial to me.

Questions to Ponder

What are life defining moments are you creating daily? What type of offerings are you giving to God? Is the Lord looking on these offerings with favour or not? Is sin crouching at your door desiring to master you and you are giving it footholds and strongholds in your life? Have you repented of your past actions or are they crying out to God accusing you? Are you under an unbroken curse which has affected other generations? Are you restlessly wandering the earth in the limitless east away from God’s presence and home?

The way of Cain does not have to be our life defining moment.  God in Jesus Christ has broken the curse of Cain and is ready with open arms to redeem our past.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  We can repent and come to the Jesus’ way from the east like the Magi and know that as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Are you ready today to take the way of Jesus instead of your way or Cain’s?  Come today.

Prayer

Father we often take the way of Cain, those life defining moments that change the course of our lives.  Lord forgive us for all these moments when we have succumbed to sin crouching at our door and it has mastered us.  God we ask you to break every curse in our lives whether from our own actions or generational actions by our ancestors. Remove every stronghold of the enemy and filled our entire being with your Holy Spirit. May we hear your voice saying this is the way walk in it (Jeremiah 6:16 & Isaiah 30:21). In Jesus name. Amen