What is the Story Behind the Story of Cain & Abel?

    It didn’t take long after Adam and Eve’s first two kids grew up before another heartache hit the family.  Doesn't the story of Cain and Abel surprise you? Didn't they both grew up hearing the same garden story?  They knew all about how a talking serpent tricked their mom, and how they had lost their garden home because of their parent's disobedience. 

From a beach walk with family on September 29

   But from my reading of the Bible it's obvious that these kids didn't really get what had happened  when their parents ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The nature of Satan actually got inside of their flesh.  We can see this fact in God's own word to Cain:

Sin is couching at the door and its desire is for you. Genesis 4:7

    When they grew up both brothers chose different occupations.  Cain grew a garden, and Abel took care of sheep.  I learned in the Life-Study that during this time period nobody ate sheep. In Genesis chapter 4 we hear about what happened when they both brought their offerings to God.  Cain was first, and he brought some of his garden vegetables, and then Abel gave God a lamb.   God didn’t particularly like Cain’s offering, but He accepted Abel’s.  This might seem a bit baffling, why would God not accept vegetables, but take  a lamb? 

   Actually there’s something more here than God’s personal preference, and Witness Lee even admits that at first he didn’t understand it either.  And this is the excerpt that helped me get what was going on here.  It's on page 305 from chapter 23 of the Life-Study of Genesis:

Cain offered the fruit of his own labor to God (Gen. 4:3). He brought the fruit of the ground with no blood for shedding.  This means that he had rejected God’s way of redemption which he had heard from his parents.  God’s way of redemption as revealed to Cain’s parents was that of a sacrifice in which the blood was shed, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). Man was fallen, ruined, sinful, and polluted in the eyes of God. He needed the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. Although Cain’s parents surely spoke to him of God’s way of redemption, he rejected it, casting it aside.  Cain did not care for God’s way; he invented his own way according to his concept (Lee. Witness. Life-Study of Genesis. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1974, Print).

    What I never would have picked up here is that what displeased God so much was Cain’s inventing his own way of worshipping God.  He points out in this chapter that  this might not seem so bad because  he wasn’t doing what we would call evil.  but God knew that His enemy was behind this offering.  The Bible tells us that God’s reaction caused  Cain to scowl,  and God came and told him that sin was crouching at his door trying to have him. 

  I really appreciated it how Witness Lee clearly shares  that when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit from the tree of knowledge something fundamental happened to their being—sin came into them.  (You can check out Romans 5:19.) And with it came jealousy, anger, murder, and lying—all the things we see in Cain.   This is a truth not all Christians see—although you are regenerated, you still have the fallen nature of Satan within you until your body is transfigured at the Lord’s coming.  To me this is the battle between God and Satan brought down into our very being.  ( Romans 7 is all about this.) And it matters what we choose.  The story of Cain and Abel  profoundly shows us that.  

You can  also listen to live excerpts from these messages on  Genesis on Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.  

Other Posts on the Life-Study of Genesis:

From the Life-Study of Genesis - What is the Focus of the Bible?
What Happened Between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?
Why Did God Create Man in Genesis 1:26?
Why Did God Create Man With 3 Parts in Genesis 2:7?
Why Did God Put Man in Front of the Two Trees in Genesis 2?
Seeing God's Purpose of Life & Building in the Book of Genesis
What is the Story Behind the Story of Cain & Abel?
What Did Enosh Learn to Do in Genesis 4:26?
How Did Enoch Escape Death in Genesis 5:24?
Why Did Noah Need to Find Grace in Genesis 6:8?
What Does the Rainbow Symbolize in Genesis 9:13?
How Did God Call Abraham in Genesis 12:1?
How Did God Fulfill the Birth of Isaac in Genesis 12:7?
What Does the Marriage of Isaac & Rebekah Show in Genesis 24?
How Does the Story of Jacob Show God's Selection in Genesis 25?
Why Did Jacob Dream About a Ladder in Genesis 28:12?
Seeing Our Spiritual Journey in the Lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, & Joseph
Why Did Jacob Call theTwo Altars in Genesis 33 & 35 By Different Names?
How Do the Stories of Jacob & Joseph Mirror God's Purpose in Genesis 1:26?
How Did Joseph's Dreams Really Get Fulfilled in Genesis 41?