Who Are We - Cain or Abel? What's Your Blood Type?

It's Friday, I look around and observe the patients in the waiting room and wonder who in this room is here because of heart disease. Heart disease is the number 1 killer in the nation I live in. You see, my day job is speaking with medical professionals about heart disease and treatment. But what concerns me more than physical heart disease, is the true condition of a person's heart. The heart that determines a person's attitude.

This week, I have been considering the thought that we have really just 2 blood types. Cain or Abel's.

Consider what is written in Genesis 4: 3-10:

"Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.  In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.  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,  but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  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.” 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. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground."

Mary Fairchild shares these words in her article, Cain - First Human Child to be Born

"When Cain faced disappointment, rather than turning to God for encouragement, he responded with anger and jealousy. When given a clear choice to correct his mistake, Cain chose to disobey and further entangle himself in sin's trap. He let sin become his master and committed murder."

In  Hebrews 11:4 we read, "By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did." When Abel came for worship, it was by faith that he brought his offering" 

 The Lord accepted Abel's offering and looked favorably on his offering/worship because it was done in faith.Faith in what? Abel took God at His word and did what God said to do, even if he did not understand why God said do it God's way.

And then there is Cain. Cain did his own thing. His offering/worship was of his own mind, he devised his own plan to do it his own way-- not what God told him to do. And the Lord did not look with favor on Cain's offering/worship. Cain, wasn't interested in following God's Word. Cain did not come by faith. 

Cain’s offering, while acceptable in his own eyes, was not acceptable to the Lord.

Cain became angry. So much so that he killed his brother.

So I pose a question. Are you angry? Are you angry that you've done what you thought was right according to your own mind, your own way and you don't feel God has looked on your life in favor? Let me ask you (as I ask myself the same question) "have I looked into God's Word to see what it is that Christ teaches us to do? What to do with our time, resources, our offering of our life to God?

Do I feel I am getting the short end of the stick after all the hard work I have done? Work like Cain did is not what God asked of Cain. Cain's works may have been productive or creative but it was not what God told him to do. 

The blood sacrifice that God told Abel and Cain to do, most likely was "not fun or easy". It may have been even heart breaking. But God was teaching them about another innocent life dying for the guilty.This points to a picture of a blood sacrifice being necessary for our redemption. Because it is not "our works" that redeem us. This would be the first foreshadowing of Christ's blood being shed for the redemption of fallen mankind.

 Cain's anger also shows us a picture of what can happen if we let anger rule our hearts. Maybe you resent a brother, a friend, a neighbor who has decided to look in God's word and ask God to teach him what it is that God wants him to do. Maybe you don't quite believe the Bible is a living book of instruction for today and when you see God bless that friend/brother --- anger rises up ---do you feel after all you've done and been through should be enough for God to show you favor?  Do you criticize or have resentment for the brother who in faith goes to God's Word and is trying to seek God and follow His way?

Do you put your brother down or dismiss His faith in God's Word, because you don't think it has to be done this way? Isn't that a killing of sort?  When you try to bury what God tells us to do in His Word isn't that an attempt to put it to death?

Cain wanted to do it his way. Abel trusted God's Word and in faith did what God said.

Anger was the skin Cain lived in. Trust and peace was the skin Abel lived in.  

We all have various struggles, pain, heartaches, loss -- the question is will we seek God's Word  and in faith do what He says or will we  just pull up our boots, do some things that we think sound good and bring it to God and say -- "here's what I did, here's my ideas on why you should favor me." And then we get angry when God does not do what we think He should do for us. 

 The works/offering Cain produced with his labor probably looked awesome maybe even helpful but WAS IT WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO DO?

 Are we doing WHAT GOD  TELLS US TO DO?

He says "the just shall live by faith". We need to bank our hope on God no matter what. We need to trust God's word and actively seek Him to help us do what He says in His Word, this is living faith.

Faith is confident expectation in God's Word...His Way of doing things.

Faith can be described in this way: trusting that God's answers are always wiser than my requests.

Abel 's blood type must have resembled Christ's because even though He may not have found it easy to do God's will/His way - He trusted God completely which showed that he had faith that God knew best.

 Cain's blood type was his own doings/his own way --- Cain did not have faith in God's Word/Way and thought he knew best without consulting the mind of God.

Blood type? Which brother's blood is coursing through your heart? Think about it.

Jessica