Observations as I follow God through the Chronological Bible.

Read Genesis 4

Adam and Eve were not the first to die. Abel, their son, paid the price for sin before they did. A 128 years had elapsed when they found Abel’s lifeless body lying in a pool of blood. I wonder how many children Adam buried before he joined them in death. I wonder how many times he felt like a fool for believing God lied to him?

Using God’s perception of time, a day as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day, three hours after God judged Adam and Eve’s sin, a church quarrel ended in premeditated murder. Cain sought to do a good thing–worship God by bringing him an offering. God favored both Abel and his offering but not Cain. Cain walked out of the worship service seething with anger.

God loved Cain just as much as he loved Abel and sought to make peace. He 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.”[1]

Cain wanted what Abel had – God’s favor. But God does not show favoritism. Abel had God’s favor because he did what was right in God’s eyes. The solution to Cain’s problem was simple. Embrace the faith in God that Abel possessed.

Cain’s response to God’s effort at reconciliation revealed why both Cain and his offering were unacceptable to God. He invited his brother to take a walk in the field, so he could kill him. The first pre-mediated murder.

As I have followed God through the Chronological Bible, I have seen him deal with three sins. Each of those sins sprang from the same root. Lucifer wanted God to exalt him above his equals. Adam and Eve wanted God to give them something that God knew would not be good. Cain wanted God’s favor without changing his ways.

The root of sin is our problem with the way God conducts his affairs.

[1] Genesis 4:6-7