Inspiring Example

of Cain.

[Gen 4:3-7 ESV] 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it."

Let's face it.  There are some of us who want to worship God the way we want to worship God instead of the way He says to.  Such was the case with Cain.  When God rejected his offering, he was angry and upset and petulant and pouting and any other adjectives that apply to us strong willed people when people don't love us the way in which we think they should.

God's directions are always pretty clear.  It is us that skew it off into confusion, justifying that we obeyed Him 95% and why isn't that good enough?  God provides the answer in verse 7:

• if you do well = if you follow my guidelines
• will you not be accepted = I won't be forced to reject you
• if you do not do well = if you do things the way you want to
• sin is crouching at the door = you are flirting with disaster
• its desire is contrary to you = sin is a terrible master and will let you down everytime
• you must rule over it = you must choose to do right which is what God says

Well sin won in this case.  Cain did not rule over it.  In his anger, sin ruled him and he killed Abel.  Cain didn't care for his punishment and his descendants seemed to inherit his rebellious attitude (Lamech).  As my pastor says often, "Sin will always take you farther than you want to go."