Cain’s Complaint

The first chapters of the book of Genesis are full of snapshots of the first family to ever live on earth. Cain Adamson was the first baby ever to come into the world! His mother, Eve, was tormented by her “mistake”. I’m sure when she and her young husband were expelled from the Garden because of Eve’s disobedience to a direct command from The Presence…and because she had listened to that Snake…both she and Adam were quite sure that they would soon be allowed back to Paradise, to the Garden. Adam had willingly joined Eve in the “disobedience” and therefore he was the more guilty and would forever carry the blame for mankind’s expulsion from the air-conditioned, bug-controlled, sinless, absolutely perfect, garden called Eden. They wanted back. A strange other-world creature called a “cherubim” stood at the one entrance to Paradise and he had a great flame-thrower that effectively kept anyone, or any animal, from entering the Garden again and eating from that tall majestic tree known as “The Tree of Life”. When Cain was born, Eve’s first words were, “He has been born! The “Messiah”, the Savior, has come! Oh, Adam, look at him…isn’t he beautiful? If you had been born a baby you would have looked just like him! He will crush the head of the snake! Soon, Adam, we will be allowed back in to Paradise! I have gotten a man from the Lord!” The uttering of “Lord” is the first instance in Scripture of the use of YAHWEH on the lips of a human being. But the years passed and now Cain Adamson was a young boy of 10 and had a smaller brother named Abel and “Adam and Eve had sons and daughters”. And thus our story begins.
Cain raced Abel down the hill and around the corner into the cleared field. The boys were bringing a few roasted fish to their sweating father. And some of Mom’s delicious bread. Adam hoed and weeded and babied the plants. When he lived in the Garden with his newly created wonder woman, he had never thought much about food…food was abundant everywhere and there was a neverending supply. Now it was thorns and thistles and the sun was hot and he felt thirsty and he often stopped to reflect on their previous bliss and now…THIS! He greeted the boys and a little sister who came late, but was always tagging along. We don’t know what Adam and Eve called their first daughter, but maybe it was “Candy”. She looked just like Eve and she was sweet. Candy loved Cain. The two were almost inseparable. Cain grabbed a hoe and began weeding his own plot of tomatoes and lettuce and carrots and “the fruit of the ground”. Cain loved to work in his garden plot, but he didn’t like tending to those sheep!!
“Children, gather around for a little bit!”, Adam shouted, “We need to discuss the sacrifice! Tomorrow we are going to sacrifice a choice lamb from the flock! Do you understand why we must kill the lamb? Why YAHWEH has told us to do it regularly?” And he explained to them once again about the altar of rocks and why there were blood stains down the side of the altar. The lamb was a substitute for a sin-bearer. Someday YAHWEH would send the One who would forever rid them of their terrible sin and He would be “the Lamb of YAHWEH” to be sacrificed once and for all for our sins. But, until then, they were required to kill a choice lamb as His substitute. “Do you all understand?” he questioned. Abel always seemed to comprehend, but Cain just seemed so disgusted with the whole idea.
“Father”, he said angrily, “it is not fair! It just is not fair that a small innocent lamb should lose his life for something that silly! I feel sorry for the mother ewe seeing her little lamb being killed! I think it would be better to sacrifice a tomato! Let tomato juice run down the altar side! The mother tomato couldn’t care less!” At this his brother and sister giggled, but his father was displeased. “No, son,” Adam explained, “it is the blood that redeems us! Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin!” Cain just scrooged up his face in disgust. Why was YAHWEH so bloody? He would NEVER sacrifice a lamb! The family could if they wanted to, but he determined that he would NEVER comply with this ridiculous demand from the Creator. Besides that it was his mother’s fault…why had she been so dumb to listen to a talking snake?? She needed to be forgiven, not him!
And the next day Adam and Even stood around the stone altar and the children were all there watching curiously. This wasn’t the first “sacrifice” they had attended, indeed there had been many, but it seemed as they grew older that the sacrificing of a lamb was becoming more and more significant, more meaningful. Abel put his hand on the head of the lamb and said, “Please die for my sins! Thank you for being my substitute!” and Cain and little Candy stood off to the side and just watched. Cain found it so repulsive. Adam drew back the sharp knife and it glistened in the sun light for an instant and then with a thrust he slit the throat of the lamb and the bright red blood burst out and ran down the side of the altar! And YAHWEH was there as The Presence and they could feel Him and they knew that He was pleased. But Cain turned and walked away mumbling, “I will NEVER ever sacrifice a lamb! Just forget that idea! NEVER!”
How about you? Do you know that Jesus was the Lamb of God who shed His precious blood on the Cross to save you from your sins? Have you, like Abel, accepted that great sacrifice as your substitute dying for your sin? Or are you stubborn and rebellious and, like Cain, not wanting to submit to “rules” and “religious laws” and the whole idea of blood being shed for the remission of sins? Cain has many followers even until today. Many people complain, as Cain did, that they can save themselves without killing a Lamb. But they can’t. The Bible says that only by faith in the shed blood of the Lamb can we be washed from our sins. What can wash away our sins? NOTHING but the blood of Jesus!