Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Genesis 4:8
As time went on, Cain’s anger deepened into hatred. He didn’t speak to Abel. He avoided him whenever he could. Whenever there was a problem, he found a way of seeing it as Abel’s fault.
He began to fantasize about what he would do to his brother if he ever got his hands on him. It became an obsession with him, as if some mysterious power was at work within him.
Then one day, when he couldn’t bear with him any longer, Cain said to Abel: “Let’s go out into the fields,” and when they got there, Cain murdered him (4:8). Then God spoke again. Cain was terrified and immediately went into what we would call denial. “Where is Abel your brother”? (4:9). “I don’t know. He’s not my responsibility.”
But God is never fooled by our denial. He sees all things. “What have you done?… Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (4:10, NIV). And God told Cain that he was under a curse. The field that he had worked so successfully would no longer bear crops for him. “You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (4:12).
However terrible these words may sound to us, the curse was actually a wonderful expression of the mercy of God. Later, as violence and murder increased, God introduced the death penalty as the sentence for murder, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (9:6 NIV).
Are you cultivating anger toward someone and allowing it to fester? Have you thought about where that could lead if you continue down that path?
