The downward spiral

I'm sure Cain started off OK. Well, pretty sure. I mean he had almost perfect parents and an almost perfect world. He probably had good looks and good health. As far as we know, Cain was the first baby human ever born on the planet. I'm sure it was something like the scene in Bambie where all the forest creatures are ogling the young prince. All of the talking animals coming to see what exactly came out of Eve's bloated belly probably caused quite a scene. When Eve presented the baby and told them the name, I'm sure they all gasped in adoration and praised Cain for being such an adorable creature. Pretty sure they would have, except for maybe the owl. HE probably knew.

What happened to Cain? He went from the first baby to the first murderer, but how? I'm sure to Adam and Eve this was the turning point since they left the garden. Well, pretty sure, I have a baby at home right now and she can be extremely loud at about 3 AM. I think Adam and Eve were able to overlook this in Cain, though. He was adorable and had incredible potential. I can see Adam teaching Cain about cultivation and Eve telling him stories at night about the time in the garden. They doted over him, they must have.

Cain was the center of the universe as far as he knew. Numero Uno. Then came Able. His world probably turned upside down as Cain realized that he wasn't everything. Cain may have been living a life that focused on his own pleasure up to that point. Until Able came along, everyone else may have been complicit in that with him. Cain seems to have made a wrong choice back in those early days when Able first arrived. Cain chose to focus on his own happiness, chose to perhaps obsess over the loss of happiness that Able brought, and little things started happening.

It got to a point where God asks Cain why he was burning with anger, why his face was down in depression and rage instead of up in praise. Read Genesis 4:5-7:

4:5b So Cain became very angry, and his expression was downcast. 4:6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast? 4:7 Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.”

For Cain, focus on himself and his own happiness led him to stop doing what was right at some point. Somewhere along the line, Cain cared so much about him self that he stopped doing some of the things he knew he should be doing. Cain got to a point where his gift to God was unacceptable. The depressed him further. Cain needed to simply start doing the right thing and forget about his own happiness. Righteous living is the only way to subdue sin. Cain deided not to do right, and sin subdued him. How many children do you know named Cain? He was the first baby ever born on our planet and he ends up a curse.

Read James 1:22-25:

1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. 1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.

Cain didn't know himself, perhaps. Perhaps he thought he was a good enough guy, but Able had ruined things. Cain forgot what sort of a person he was. Cain was gradually doing worse and worse things until one day, God doesn't accept his offering. One day Cain is standing over the body of his brother with a bloody stone in his hand, perhaps even feeling a little justified in what he's done. After all, Able had ruined his happiness, so now he's ruined every one else's. Now they'll all know how he feels.

Look into the mirror and see that you are self centered, see that it's wrong for your heart to be that way. Know that the end of that road is a lonely one, as Cain discovered. You'll be an outcast and cursed if you allow yourself to think you deserve better than you have, better than what some people are giving you.

Think rather how to please God and others. Live the law of liberty, let it dominate your life, or sin will subdue you. Sin waits to pounce, but if we live out of self sacrifice instead of self service, we will be blessed in what we do.