CAIN AND ABEL OFFER SACRIFICES
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
GENESIS 4 : 1-16
Key Verse
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will you face not be cheerful?
And if you do not well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it”.
Genesis 4: 6-7
INTRODUCTION
This is a story of two brothers who lived at the earliest times when men lived. They had a mother named Eve and a father named Adam. Their parents taught them about God and what God wanted for all human beings. Their parents taught them that they were in the Garden of Eden, a paradise, and there they had been tempted by Satan to disobey God and do what was forbidden. Unfortunately they made the mistake of not believing the warnings God had been them and foolishly trusted Satan and his encouragement to sin. Sin came into the world as a result and everything crashed. They were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and life went downwards.
But after this they had a son named Cain and they seemed to think things would change for the better. But instead sin affected mankind and the world so very badly that they had to offer sacrifices to God and worship God most likely at the gate of the Garden of Eden. Cain and Abel knew they had to sacrifice to God and offer a lamb they had slain, for only the blood of an animal sacrifice could lead to the forgiveness of sin. Cain was a farmer and so he brought some of the crops from his field as a sacrifice. Abel however was a shepherd and he brought the best portion of a lamb he had slain as a sacrifice to God.
God knew Cain did not really love Him and so he brought what he thought would satisfy God. He had no faith, and so the Bible told us he was an evil person. It was not that God would not accept sacrifice of crops from the ground if it was offered from a willing heart that trusted in God. But Cain was evil and had no faith in God. He was in the sin of unbelief. This is the basic sin and it leads to all the other sins you can name On the other hand Abel had faith in God and so brought the best of what he had to sacrifice to God. The Bible told us that his faith in God made him a righteous person and his heart was right. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but did not accept Cain’s sacrifice.
Cain was bitter. He was jealous of his brother and decided to take revenge on his brother though his brother had not done him any wrong.
The evil inside Cain overpowered Cain and he told Abel to meet him in the field. There at the meeting place Cain killed Abel. Everyone was upset including God, Cain’s family, and the very earth itself. God confronted Cain and asked him where his brother was. God knew Cain had killed his brother but God seemed to want to give Cain a chance to repent of his gross sin. But Cain rudely told God he was not his brother’s keeper and so he did not care where his brother was. God then made Cain know his brother’s blood was crying from the ground for God to take revenge on him for his dastardly act.
Bur Cain did not care for God, his brother, or his family. He did not care about the effect what he had done would have on Adam and Eve and his other brothers, his sisters, or his family. When God told Cain his punishment would be that he would wander from place to place like a vagabond and that when he planted anything the earth would not allow his crops to grow, Cain did not repent but complained his punishment was too great. People who saw him would remember what he had done to his brother and they would kill him. Cain did not care. He was not afraid to sin. He was only afraid of the punishment. He thought no one would know he had killed Abel.
We learn that when you sin you must remember that God sees everything. He watches and does not like people to do wrong thing and break His commandments. He will always act to punish evildoers in due time. God will always act to protect His children and they can be sure that no matter what happens to them they will be with God in Paradise.
But amazingly God did not take the maximum revenge on Cain. He put a mark on him so that people would not kill him when they saw him. We do not know what this mark was and many different people speculate what it was, using their theory to falsely accuse others that they have the mark of Cain. These people are simply bad. They are like the evil Cain who hate others.
We learn that sin is a terrible thing. When it came into the world the downward slide started and sin and evil doings multiplied. From then on people would hate each other, hurt each other, and kill each other when they were jealous of others, and wanted what others had. The world since the time of Cain had gotten steadily worse. So do not be surprised t what people, nations, and their leaders do because they are led by sin and love to disobey God.
But we know from Genesis 3 that God promised to send a Saviour to do the work to end the reign of sin. So Jesus came and died on the Cross to bear the sins of men and destroy the power that Satan has over people. So remember you do not have to sin when Satan tempts you. He has no real power over you. When tempted to sin call on God for help. He is right there in you and beside you and will give you the power to resist Satan.
So remember you are children of God. God is always there for you. Things might look tough sometimes but do not let that fool you. It is an illusion created by Satan to make you believe God is not watching over you and is not there for you all the time.
Do not do like the evil Cain. Be like Abel who had faith in God and did what God wanted him to do. You offer spiritual sacrifices to God by loving Him and loving others.