I'd like to start today's blog by just thanking God publicly for private prayers answered. Not everything needs to be facebooked, twittered, or blogged about. But it is so precious to me that God sometimes grants a very small desire of my heart. A quick prayer uttered that wouldn't be devastating if He responded "No" and He sweetly responds "Yes". I think, even to the point of turning "the heart of a king." (Proverbs 21:1--"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.") So thank you God for blessing me ever so sweetly. I love You.
Now, onto Genesis 4. All my life, I struggle with this passage--always forgetting who gave the appropriate offering--Cain or Abel? Always forgetting who kills who. I think I got it now! Cain offered his good works. Abel offered the blood sacrifice. It is only through Christ's blood that we can be saved. This is a beginning of that picture.
I didn't come up with all that on my own. Once again, the Adrian Rogers Legacy Bible really helped me out. Here's what Pastor Rogers had to say about Cain's offering: "He brought the best fruit of his labor to worship God--the most beautiful flowers, the most fragrant herbs, the most luscious vegetables and ripest fruits. He propped them up before the Lord as His offering. His spread must have looked like a county fair. But Cain represents salvation by works, where he tries to be right with God by what he does. Cain's idea of worship did not come from the revealed word of God. It came out of his own noggin, his own ideas. So here is Cain with his own manmade religion, with his works and rituals. Oh, it was beautiful. It was cultured. It was gorgeous. It was sacrificial, but it was not accepted."
So Cain didn't follow God's way. You know what happens? He was sent packing--listen to what Cain says in Genesis 4:14, "Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me."
But, even then, God amazingly shows His mercy to Cain because after Cain complains, God lovingly at least puts a mark on Cain and says anyone who harms Cain, "vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." (Genesis 4:15)
I have to close today with 2 verses of the hymn "Rock of Ages" --
"Not the labor of my hands can fulfill Thy law's commands;
Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress; helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die."
