Right or Angry?

Genesis 4
When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.  “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

Of Interest:
• Think about this phrase: “Why are you so angry?”

My Thoughts:
We recognize and point to Cain as the first murderer but can’t quite comprehend why he was so angry.  It’s like one finger of our hand pointing at Cain when there are three pointing back at us.  Anger is an emotional word that is more easily denied in ourselves. We want to attribute to that emotion the higher level of violence of Cain’s sin.  But how about these words: irritated; testy; grumpy, frustrated or even jealous?  There’s the rub.  How often does your emotional thermometer go THOSE places in a day?

How about when the cars turning left in front of you poke along and you get caught at the next red light; or there’s all those things spouses do that cause a surge, maybe only mental, of one of those emotions? It’s just so much easier to be shocked by Cain’s action than to think about, and name, the moments in our life and faith that we’ve been “irritated; testy; grumpy, frustrated or even jealous” because WE just didn’t want to do what’s right.  Ouch! Every one of those moments in every day needs this reminder…”We will be victims of sin if we do not subdue it.”  There’s an enormous difference between being “not Godless, but not Godly either.”  It’s the difference between knowing faith facts and applying them.  That difference makes all the difference in a life of faith.