Note: At one time I would struggle to read X amount of chapters a day, so I could reach some goal… but then I realized that was part of “works”. I get more when I read a smaller amount and focus on the meanings of each verse. Then after doing this, because I’m focusing on a smaller amount, my mind tends to meditate on it. I say meditate, but what I mean is the lesson will be on my mind and my spirit will be communicating with God on the lesson I learned ,without me even deliberately trying. I think this may be how God writes his word on the tables of our hearts…. when each lesson is important, and we allow it to linger in our spirits where God can teach us. Right after I became a Christian, I started gobbling up the word….I was so hungry, I would read the word and then the Lord would try to expand on some things…. my spirit would get it in a flash…like I’d get the understanding, but I refused to sit with the understanding for a bit to fully grasp what the Lord has shown me….instead I would be reading, I’d get the flash of revelation in a verse, briefly allow it to stay in my head…. I’d be so excited that I wanted more so….instead of savoring that morsel, I would seek more… like a starving baby. I’ve slowed down now and plan to savor more and gobble less.

Genesis Chapter 4

¹ And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Instantly, Eve could determine that her new baby was a male child. She didn’t have to wait to see what he thought he was, she knew from the beginning he was a MALE. The reason is that your sex IS determined by your natural genitals….meaning the ones you were born with. There was no confusion…. he was a male child that would grow into a man.

² And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

³ And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

Cain gave some of the fruits he had. His gift was kind of like he dished out a portion for God. In my mind I can see Cain looking over his harvest, munching on an apple as he goes from basket and bags filled with his harvest…. then he fills up a basket with a little of this and a little of that and goes… Here ya go God, these are for you. There was no faith involved in his gift. Imagine a bag of 10 store bought apples…. they’re all the same… there is no one apple that I could give that would come from faith since I have a bag of 9 more just like it….. nothing about that one apple makes it the most special….hard to part with….one of a kind apple.

⁴ And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Abel gave the first of his flock…. and the fat. There is only one firstborn and the fat is the bounty…. so what Abel gave took faith…. he gave the very best he had….hoping the Lord would bless him. His gift was one of a kind….it took thought and commitment. He had to tend that animal, knowing it was being prepared as a gift to the Lord God.

⁵ But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Cain couldn’t see the difference between what he gave and what Abel gave. His feelings were hurt. God, however, sees the hearts of each brother…. he could see Abel investing his heart and soul into a gift he was preparing for God… he’s tending to this task carefully and with love in his heart for God. He could see Cain’s heart too… who harvested and then filled a portion for God…. just some of what he harvested, nothing he cultivated carefully with God in mind. He didn’t give God all but 1 remaining seed of his favorite fruit, which would have been a move of faith. Cains gift was not prepared with the love and care that Abel’s was, but Cain didn’t see that, he did not see what was in Abel’s heart as he prepared his sacrifice. To Cain, he and Abel gave equal gifts. This speaks of where Cain’s heart was, he was equating the equality of the gifts from the fleshly point of view…. that was where his heart was, in the flesh.

⁶ And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

⁷ If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

God pointed out to Cain that he needed to watch himself because his attitude was opening the door for sin to come in…. and Cain had better get a handle on it unless he wanted to be a slave to sin. Ok, so…. Cain was angry and sad…. and God said, “If you had done right, your gift would have been accepted.” This was a reproof from God…. he was telling Cain to look into how to make his gift as acceptable as Abel’s was. God let him know he had no reason to be angry at anyone but himself. At this point, Cain could have repented and tried harder to do what he should have in the first place. Instead, even though God warned Cain that sin was trying to take hold of him (through his jealousy and anger), he continued on giving sin space to grow and take hold of his heart. Anger is a tough one… there is no commanding your anger to stop… primarily because it comes from a primal and untamed part of our spirits… a place where even logic can’t reason with… it’s a BIG flesh experience too… meaning anger can become a huge inflammation of the flesh. So what do we do? I sit there in my anger and hurt….wanting revenge… my mind wants to plot things… because plotting revenge soothe anger for a moment…. so because I’m trying to get my feelings to calm down, plotting feels like relief, but it isn’t. Plotting is soothing the anger because it’s FEEDING it… things that are fed grow bigger! So, I catch my mind trying to plot, and I bring it into captivity to the obedience of Christ…. I cast down that imagination…. I say to God (and myself) I CHOOSE TO WALK IN LOVE….. I CHOOSE TO WALK IN FORGIVENESS….. I pray… GOD, PLEASE HELP ME, I WANT TO ALIGN MY WILL WITH YOUR WILL. I say it… and say it and say it until I no longer need too. This is how my spirit wages war on my flesh.
Ephesians 4:26 -27²⁶ Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:²⁷ Neither give place to the devil.

⁸ And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

⁹ And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?

Cain was in rebellion at this point, he seemed unaware that God sees everything.

¹⁰ And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.

¹¹ And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;

¹² When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

Cain was the first fugitive. His moment of vengeful anger ended up cursing his own life. People who have no control of their anger …or rather, don’t seek out God’s help to get the anger under control can give themselves over to doing things that will bring extreme hardships on themselves….the prisons are filled with people who snapped out of anger….and all of them say pretty much the same thing…. that they wish they had done something differently. It isn’t like we don’t know beforehand that the crimes committed in anger have a price we will pay…. it’s just that at that moment of burning rage, it doesn’t matter. This is why we MUST get anger in check as soon as we can.

¹³ And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

¹⁴ Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

Cain has to leave the place he has lived his whole life, where his family lives…and from the ground he had been cultivating since he was a small child. He isn’t going to have God to speak to anymore either. He will be a social reject now and he knows people are going to avoid him and fears they are going to want to kill him. Cain is now dealing with the results of his sin and he is crying because it’s more than he can take.

¹⁵ And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

God marks him so no one kills him and if they do, then God will avenge the murder himself. What God plans for Cain is to live with his sin…perhaps he wants Cain to repent. In all that was written, Cain never said he was sorry he murdered Abel… maybe his unrepentant behavior is why he was driven out from the presence of God….and perhaps the reason he was allowed to live was to give him time to repent.

¹⁶ And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Out from the presence of the Lord. Wow, that would be the worse place to be on earth.

¹⁷ And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

¹⁸ And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

¹⁹ And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

²⁰ And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.

²¹ And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

²² And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

²³ And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

²⁴ If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

²⁵ And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

²⁶ And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.