Gen 4:3 And in the course of time Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground. (5) But for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. And Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
[Part 1 of 2] Cain was presumptuous and served God according to his own concept. There is not a word in Genesis 3 about offering the fruit of the ground to God. God cares for a sacrifice in which the blood is shed to meet the requirement of God's righteousness, and He cares for the skins of the sacrificial lambs that can cover fallen, naked persons. When Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked, they covered themselves with skirts made of fig leaves, but God had no regard for that kind of covering. God slew some lambs for sin offerings and from the skins of those lambs He made robes to cover the man and the woman. Adam and Eve must have told Cain and Abel about this, and Abel received their word and acted on it. However, Cain considered himself more clever and disregarded God's concern, refusing to take His way. He did not obey God's gospel, but invented his own way, a religion according to his own concept. In Romans 10:3 Paul spoke of the unbelieving Jews, saying, "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, did not submit to the righteousness of God." Cain was their forerunner, setting an example of attempting to establish his own righteousness and of not submitting himself to God's way of taking Christ as his righteousness. Whenever we, outside of Christ, try to do good to please God, in the eyes of God we are following the footsteps of Cain. According to God's revelation, we must recognize that worshipping God in our own way is an insult to Him. [continued tomorrow]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Genesis, 1984, pp. 294, 309. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, either: Send an email to: [email protected] (No subject or message needed; a blank email will work) or visit www.emanna.com and fill out the unsubscribe form there.
