Fri.’s Devo - Cain’s Punishment

Read Gen. 4:9-14a

What amazes me about the beginning of the Old Testament is the open communication man had with God. We have that through the Holy Spirit! Yesterday, Cain killed his brother and wouldn’t take responsibility for it. Instead he lied to God and gave God a rather smart-aleck answer. He told God he didn’t know where Abel was and that he was not his protector. (I guess not, he had just killed him.) I can’t fathom killing your own brother and not having any remorse. God nailed him. He said, “what have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.” Did you know our blood can talk? I didn’t. The Bible says that life is in the blood. We can live without a leg, but we can’t do without blood. All our DNA is in our blood which determines our characteristics and everything about us. Abel’s DNA was crying out from the ground. Once again the ground gets cursed because Abel is buried there. That is the second time the earth is cursed. All of creation is alive in some way. Ps. 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. Romans 8:22 says, “ For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” What Adam did in the garden and what Cain did in the field affected the earth for all of us. Both men got the reward of hard work in the earth. The earth would not work with them, but against them. I can relate when I decide to do my spring gardening. It is a contest between me and the weeds. This is all a result of the curses man brought upon the earth. Cain was also cursed to be a wanderer and never feel at home anywhere on the earth. Adam was sent out of Eden to find a home in the earth, Cain would find no home in the earth. No wonder Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”

Lord, let today’s devotion be a reminder to us that our decisions affect generations. May we leave a blessing and not a curse to our posterity.