Warning! This post covers religious topics. If you wish to skip it, no hard feelings. I’ll see you tomorrow.
First off, let’s define grace in the religious sense. Grace is often defined as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. So, it isn’t something we deserve or can earn. God grants it to us freely of his own accord. No matter how badly we sin, God can still extend his grace to us and save us.
Now, on with the rest of the story.
The Pastor at Church started a new series this week called “Little Monsters”. No, he’s not talking about 4th graders. What he means by the term “little monsters” are small sins, that may seem totally insignificant on their own, but they grow into large problems quickly.
As an example, he brought up the story of Cain and Abel, two brothers and the sons of Adam and Eve. I’ve taken the text from the New International Version of the Bible ad posted it below.
Genesis 4:1-16
1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
The Pastor went through the whole story, line by line. First off, we have Cain and Abel makin a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord is pleased with Abel’s sacrifice because he offered the first and best lambs from his flock. We aren’t really told why the Lord doesn’t like Cain’s sacrifice in Genesis, but using other verses in Hebrews the Pastor explained that Cain waited util the end of the growing season, kept the best produce for himself, gathered up all the seeds he’d need for the next season, and gave what was left to the Lord.
OK, I can see where this might displease the Lord, and it is a relatively small transgression. A “little monster” as the Pastor would say.
Cain was taken aback that the Lord didn’t like his sacrifice. Hey, growing crops ain’t easy. It is a lot of hard work over a long period of time. Now, Cain was self-centered when choosing what to give the Lord, but I can understand his wanting to be secure in having good food for his family, and seed for the next growing season. This is how he supports himself. I suppose the lesson here is that Cain should have trusted the Lord to take care of him and by sacrificing the best part of his crops to Him, Cain would still be prosperous in the years to come.
Cain starts compounding his troubles by getting mad that his sacrifice is displeasing to the Lord. God asks Cain why he is angry and tries to impart a lesson – do the right thing (i.e., make better sacrifices) and you’ll be watched over.
Then we get to the next level of compounding the problem. Cain took Abel out to the field and killed him, because he was jealous that Abel won favor from the Lord and he didn’t. I can imagine Cain saying “I spent nearly a year getting those crops to grow, doing back breaking labor! Do you know how hard it is to plow a field? And collect the harvest? And all you had to do was watch over some stupid sheep!” Then he whacked his brother in the head with a big rock and killed him.
So, the rest of the story is God shows up and asks Cain where his brother is. Cain’s famous response is “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
God already knows what has happened. He curses Cain to wander the earth and takes away his livelihood by not allowing anything to grow that Cain tries to farm. Cain says tis is too much to bear, and is afraid that he’s going to be killed out of revenge for Abel’s death. God places a mark on Cain so no one will kill him and in addition says that anyone killing Cain will suffer vengeance sevenfold. That’s harsh.
So, now we come to the point of the sermon I don’t get. The Pastor said that God offered Cain grace by asking him where his brother was.
No. No, he didn’t.
He didn’t forgive Cain. He didn’t ask Cain to atone for his sin. He didn’t even try to correct Cain. God went straight to cursing Cain. He took His favor from Cain, made it so Cain couldn’t grow anything, made him a wanderer (which also affects Cain’s family – he can no longer support them), and seemingly wants to extend Cain’s misery by making sure no one ends his life early.
Is it that God asked Cain where his brother was, already knowing the answer, so that Cain had a chance to come clean? (Which Cain failed to do.) I still don’t see how that is extending grace to Cain. Why didn’t God forgive Cain? If there is any case where someone needs undeserved favor I would think it is Cain’s. If He wants to show us how grace works, it seems to me that this would have been a golden opportunity.
I fail to understand this. How is God showing grace to Cain in this story? If you can explain it to me, my Hordeling, leave a comment and let me know.
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