CAIN AND ABEL
In this section we continue to look at the destructiveness of Cain's selfishness. We will examine the true meaning of envy and note how this affected Cain's actions towards his brother.
We then move on to contrast humility and pride and explore the effects of these on those around us, as well as ourselves. True freedom comes from submitting to the One who knows the best way to live, our Heavenly Father.
1. Before commencing the session, try to answer the following questions:
2. How does selfishness destroy lives?
3. What is envy and why does it rob people of their joy and peace?
4. What do the proverbs have to say about pride and humility?
Cain Did Not Want To Listen
God does not question Cain because He didn't know what Cain is thinking. He was reaching out to Cain in grace and mercy. Cain did not really listen to the heart behind the words spoken to him. The goal of listening is to understand - not to justify oneself or win an argument. God saw into Cain's heart.
Cain did not heed God's warning, he was wrapped up in his own pride and vulnerability. Cain may well have become over-familiar with God. Perhaps Cain was beginning to make God in Cain's image, and what God said didn't fit in with his expectations. To actively listen we must create space in the cluttered corridors of our minds in order to allow communication to take place. Cain simply had too much of self on his hands. He was a selfish man.
We need to make time to step away from the hustle and bustle of life, as well as our own thinking, if we are really going to engage with God at times.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Mat 6:6-8
After murdering Abel we still find that Cain is preoccupied with himself and his own concerns. He continues to ignore God and play the part of the victim instead of the transgressor.
Cain is selfish, with no thought of his family, the life that had been taken, or the grief his parents would have felt in losing two sons.
Cain was wrapped up in self.
"Personal selfishness - most of all, it is shown by a lack of feeling for our children - a lack which is indicated by the guilt it generates. This guilt is part of our fabric of life: it is the elaborate toys that we buy rather than build, the expensive educations that we do not participate in, and the "positive experiences" that we design but do not share. Our egos have made us all surrogate parents, and our children orphans - every one.
What other sort of society would at every opportunity choose "jobs" and pollution rather than a healthy and sane environment for their own posterity? We prattle a good deal about the future, but most of this is egotistical cover for the indulgences of the present."
Dr D. Ehrenfeld, 'The Arrogance of Humanism', page P240.
Cain experienced sorrow (Gen 4:13,14), but only because of the penalty that fell upon him; not because of any real repentance for the wrong he had done.
Later in the history of Genesis we find Esau being sorrowful about the loss of his blessing (Gen 27:38)
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears. Heb 12:16-17
Like Cain, Esau's conduct and attitude to life reveals a man who is interested in looking after and preserving self. In doing so, he completely ignores the ways of God - the only one who can really help him find his true self.
Cain was envious of his brother.
ENVY - "To feel displeasure and ill-will at the superiority of (another person) in happiness, success, reputation, or the provision of anything desirable; to regard with discontent another's possessions."
Oxford English Dictionary.
Envy robs a person of peace and contentment.
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30
Envy - 'Qunaah' = "Zeal for that which another has"
Envy is congenitally incapable of enjoyment! The more its appetite increases, the more it drives its perpetrator to torment.
A Jewish parable about an envious man and a greedy man goes like this:
"One of you," said the king, "may ask something of me and I will grant it, provided that I give twice as much to the other." This put the two men in a quandary. The envious man did not want to ask first for he was envious of his companion who would receive twice as much. But nor did the greedy man since he wanted everything there was to be had. Finally the greedy man prevailed on the envious man to be the first to make his request. So the envious man asked the king to pluck out one of his eyes, knowing that his companion would then have them both plucked out.'
Envy drives people to chase after things which will not satisfy and in the process causes harm to themselves and others.
And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbour. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.Ecclesiastes 4:4
Envy has sometimes been called, 'the revenge of failure'.
Dr Henry Fairlie in his book "The Seven Deadly Sins", wrote these words about envy.
"The legend of our times, it has been suggested, might be "The Revenge of Failure." This is what Envy has done for us. If we cannot paint well, we will destroy the canons of painting and pass ourselves off as painters. If we will not take the trouble to write poetry, we will destroy the rules of prosody and pass ourselves off as poets. If we are not inclined to the rigours of an academic discipline we will destroy the standards of that discipline and pass ourselves off as graduates. If we cannot or will not read, we will say that, "linear thought is now irrelevant," and so dispense with reading. If we cannot make music we will simply make a noise and persuade others that it is music. If we can do nothing at all, why! We will strum a guitar all day and call it self-expression."
Envying what others have is not the same as coveting what others have. This is because an envier wants, first of all, not what another has, but for that person not to have it at all.
HUMILITY
Cain was not a humble man. There was no humility in him.
"Dealing with complex conflict requires humility, openness, and a persistent desire for wisdom. If the yearning is genuine, like Solomon's it will grow into wisdom. The solutions will become evident - though perhaps only in time."
'Making Peace With Conflict', p 108 (ed: C. Shrock-Shenk & L. Ressler).
What is humility?
Humility - "The quality of being humble or having a lowly opinion of oneself, meekness, lowliness, humbleness, the opposite of pride or haughtiness."
Humble - "To render humble or meek in spirit, to cause to think more lowly of oneself." (OED).
However, the OED does not really go far enough in seeking to portray the ideas conveyed in these words, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2.
For us humility speaks of refusing to live outside of God's will - the refusal to live a life that is not dependent on the Lord.
"Humility is both the source of spiritual peace and also a means of union with powers higher than our own, nor has it any connection with that slavish submission that comes from the absence of peace and unity and the experience of division and estrangement to subdue our wills is to experience the greatest freedom and to liberate them from influences of a lower kind."
Dr N. Berdyaev, 'Freedom and the Spirit', page 150.
Going back to Prov 11:2, we note that the verb form of the word 'humility' used there is found in Micah6:8 where we see what God requires of His people, "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8.
A humble person is one who does not pretend to be more important than he or she is; they do not overestimate themselves.
"A little child is not interested in place and prestige and rank; he is not interested in getting the seat of honour at a feast or the first place at a king's court. He would not be in the least worried if he did not get a seat on the platform at some public function or if he did not get what people call "their place" on some public occasion.
He just does not think of these things at all because he does not think of himself. It is only people who have a
high idea of their own importance who speak and act like that; and a little child does not think himself
important."
Dr W. Barclay, 'The King and the Kingdom', p 130.
Think of what Cain could have avoided if he had been willing to humble himself. Look at Solomon's prayer in 2 Kings 3:7ff. Think of what he could have avoided if only he had remained with God in all things.
Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours? 1 Kings 3:7-9
When man seeks God's ways he experiences the freedom God intended for him. Sadly, all too often man experiences bondage to sin as he seeks to live by his own ideology.
"Humility means the abandonment of self-centredness for God-centredness. The autonomy of ethics, science, art, law and economics asserted by modern history is not the autonomy of man himself. In fact it means freedom for everything but man, who thus becomes the slave of autonomous ethics, science, law, and economics."
'Making Peace with Conflict', p151 (ed: C. Shrock-Shenk & L. Ressler)
Solomon did not leave a good legacy behind him when he died. The nation split into Israel and Judah and relied upon external action rather than a humbling of self before the Lord. Time and time again the prophets spoke of the need to rend hearts and not garments.
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:13
Cain was a Proud Man
One of Cain's descendents (Lamech) became the first known polygamist, and was a proud and boastful man.
Pride has always been a problem for fallen man
"The historical fact of the exile and the sifting out of the remnant that it served to accomplish were divinely ordained to teach men that it is God who does all things (Ezek 17:24; 12:16). Daniel's visions and miracles likewise drove home this one great truth of divine monergism. They demonstrated in history the victory that lies in store for the submissive, but the folly of human pride that seeks to oppose God's decree (Dan 4:24; 30-32)
Dr J. Barton Payne, 'Theology of the Old Testament', p 240
God extended his gracious invitation to Cain to put things right and embrace God's goodness. Cain rejected this invitation. He was proud and a proud person is one who refuses to live in the sphere of God's blessing. Such a person cannot accept the offer of help and guidance due to a hardened heart.
"The Bible describes pride (self-regarding love and self-satisfaction with one's person, status, behaviour; reputation and traits) as sin."
Encyclopaedia of Psychology and Counselling, p 907
Scripture states that pride goes before destruction (Prov 16:18) and puts us in an undesirable relationship with God. "Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'." 1 Peter 5:5.
Note the words of Nebuchadnezzar:
"Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" Daniel 4:30.
Note also the pride of Lucifer (Ezek 28:17)
- N.T. words for pride are (hubris, hubrizein and hubristes), they speak of insolence and all that sets itself up against God and fellow man.
- Pride is not a fair or true estimate of self - it is an overestimation.
- Pride is mingled with cruelty as it elevates self and puts others down.
- Pride does nothing apart from facilitate destruction and total ruin.
- In his pride, Cain was forgetting his humanity and effectively making himself equal with God.
- Pride will come out in an attitude towards God, self and others.
"It is easy to think that we can handle life ourselves. But the way to find the miracles of the grace of God is to pocket our pride and humbly to confess our need and ask. Ask, and you will receive - but there is no receiving without asking."
Dr W. Barclay, 'An Alphabet of Barclay', page 116.
Asking involves a willingness to admit that a person is not self -sufficient, this involves humility, but blessing always follows those who seek God.
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you . For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10
How can we seek the Lord if we are too proud or self-confident to ask?
Dr Barclay relates the following famous story illustrating the danger of pride. "In the court of Charlemagne (a Roman Emperor) there was a famous knight called Roland. He was in charge of the rearguard of the army when the Saracens at Roncesvalles caught up with it.
Roland had a horn called Olivant, which he'd taken from the giant Jatmund. Its blast could be heard 30 miles away and birds were said to fall dead when its blast tore through the air.
Oliver, Roland's friend, asked him to blow the horn so that Charlemagne would hear and come back to help. But Roland was too proud. One by one his men fell fighting till only he was left. With his dying breath he blew the horn and Charlemagne headed back towards him. But it was too late. Roland was dead because he was too proud to ask for help."
How much unnecessary suffering do people put themselves through simply because of their pride? How much suffering do they put others through?
What does this session tell us about God and his ways? Why does man believe he knows better than God?
Now go back to the set of questions you answered at the beginning of this session and see if you can add to them.