The Murder of Able

03/02/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  The Murder of Able

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 4:8-10

            Message of the verse:  “8 Later Cain suggested to his brother, Abel, ‘Let’s go out into the fields.’ And while they were there, Cain attacked and killed his brother.

9 Afterward the LORD asked Cain, ‘Where is your brother? Where is Abel?’ ‘I don’t know!’ Cain retorted. ‘Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?’

10  But the LORD said, ‘What have you done? Listen—your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!’”  (NLT)

            The NLT seems to make it easier to understand this tragic story of the first murder recorded in the Scriptures, and it was probably the first murder ever to happen.

            Cain entreats his brother to come out into a field in order to kill him, and this was surely done because his sacrifice was rejected by the Lord and Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by the Lord.  After that happened Cain began to get angry to which the Lord came and spoke to him about his anger but Cain did not listen to the Lord and became so angry that he took his brother out to a field and killed him.

            The story gets worse as Cain now lies to the Lord when the Lord again confronts him, this time to give him his punishment because he did not heed the Lord’s warning given to him earlier. 

            Cain denies killing his brother  and then the Lord tells Cain that Abel’s blood was crying out from the ground.  Abel’s blood was crying out for justice because he had been wrongly killed by his brother.  The writer of the book of Hebrews compares the blood of Able with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Abel’s blood cried out from the ground while the Lord Jesus’ blood cries out from heaven.  Abel’s blood cries out for justice, while Jesus’ blood speaks of justice satisfied on the cross.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This story and the way that Dr. Wiersbe wrote about this from his book on Genesis makes me think of the problem between my two sisters and how this problem needs to be taken care of because Kathy is not going to be able to have any type of correct worship of the Lord until this thing gets taken care of.  I need wisdom from the Lord in order to not do the wrong thing, but to do the correct thing concerning this.

The Word of God has brought a challenge to my heart as I read and studied this portion of it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Trust the Lord to give me the strength to apply this passage in the correct manner to help get my two sisters back on speaking terms.  Continue to seek the Lord for direction and contentment in my life.