the Biblical story about two brothers – Cain and Abel – would remain a tragedy, buried by the dust of millennia, if not one “but”: everyone admits to himself the adverse sense, has a chance to repeat the path of the first villain. And the Bible doesn’t just warn about it, showing the penetration mechanism of hatred in the human heart. She offers a kind of test allowing to diagnose: if my soul is infected with the insidious Bacillus of malice or not.
so, the first story of envy. After the fall and expulsion from Paradise, Adam and eve, a boy was born. Said eve: “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” The name Cain means “acquisition”. Most likely eve thought that her child is a gift from God, she hoped that Cain will be the one who would be able to crush the power of the devil: remember, after the fall, God promised that from the “seed of the woman” will be the One Who will strike the head of the serpent-tempter? Eve, of course, these words could not forget, and Cain were all her hopes to return to his former life in the garden of Eden. But the second son, Abel, hoping that she had pinned. Because they called him Abel, which in Hebrew means “vapor, breath of wind, or… nothing, and vanity”. Perhaps Cain from the very beginning our expectations of a mother – it happens! – so about Abel’s illusions have not built.
And Abel was a shepherd and Cain a farmer. One day the brothers decided to make a sacrifice to God. Cain brought “of the fruit of the ground”, and Abel, sheep from his flock, the best of sheep. It is clear that the Lord needs neither fruits nor sheep, even the best. The meaning of sacrifice, offered to God, that our hearts, realizing their sinfulness, and their connection with the Creator, demonstrates this on the physical level – after all, we are material. It is we, not God, needed and excellent fruits, and fine-wooled sheep, and many other things, but for the love of the Lord we open the pressing myself. Giving the best, not on the principle: “For you, o God, that we worthless!”
Cain over the choice not soared – given, as noted. But it turns out God is wrong. Insincerity, hypocrisy in relations with the all-seeing pass. Not in the sense that the Lord does not forgive. No, He’s Merciful, so we’ll see. The fact that the worm of arrogance: “why are you tense!”- too quickly turns into a serpent-destroyer. The negligence with which Cain brought his sacrifice, testified: he did not consider that relationship with God are worth special attention and effort. If according to conscience, not for us to condemn Cain for this.
And said that he had taken the Lord of Abel’s gift, but the gift of Cain – no. Why? First, it is the right of God to accept the sacrifice or reject. And secondly, the sacrifices of God are a broken and humble heart. But this Cain and is not presented.
Seeing that the victim’s brother is adopted and he’s upset Cain, Pont��Clos his face. So we are frequently doing things for God or for others, waiting for a reward. And, not receiving it, become sad and angry – at this point, and it turns out, what was our efforts: for the promotion or for the sake of the joy to be a part of the good and of the Lord.
And the Lord appeared to Cain: surprisingly, God was not Abel – the righteous with pure, open soul, and his brother, in whose heart has crept envy, and his face distorted into anger. Yes, the Lord appeared to the sinner, to stop, to reason: God comes to save not the righteous, sinners. And God said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is thy countenance fallen? If you do well, don’t you raise to heaven thy face? And if you do not do well, sin lieth at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it”.
See, God gives Cain the opportunity to see what happens with him! To stop, to repent! And then we hear from the mouth of the Lord the most important law of spiritual life: “If you do not do well, sin lies at the door – that is, if you are not able to do good with a pure heart, not formally, but sincerely, it means that sin is near, even at the doors! Its desire is for you, but you must master it!” – God warns.
Useless, literally the next sentence of Genesis, which tells about the consequences originated in the soul of Cain’s anger, is: “And Cain said to Abel his brother, let us go into the field. And when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”
Please note, Genesis does not stop to the perfidy of Cain, nor on the purity of the unsuspecting Abel, as well as on the details of the first murder on earth. The details are not important. An important spiritual law that is open to us by the Creator: “If we do good, so we are still with God if we are not capable of doing a good deed, then the sin is near, at the threshold of our soul. But you can still stop! He, the sin that we are attracted to, but we have power to dominate it! And if we at this stage do not come to their senses, if not listen to God, and our conscience is the voice of God in us, the finale will be terrible!” Cain is not able to sincerely do good and his heart becomes a vessel that seeks the devil: this is an objective law fixing, as a man gives his heart either to God or the enemy of the human race. Evil entails, and if you’re passive, if you are not able to become a co-worker with God in the doing of good, then, whether you want it, I don’t, sin will take you to the abyss of hell. By the way, envy quicker than other passion opens the gate of our soul to the devil.
And more. Told teaches: “If you begin to serve God, if you do well, get ready for temptation, testing – what you did that out of love you?” The law, explained by the activity of Satan and the mechanics of sin. However, if after good things follow ��considerable testing, know that you really brought the good.
But back to the hater. And God said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” – God gives Cain another chance to think again, to repent. But what do we hear? The bold and the equally silly: “I do Not know; am I my brother’s Keeper?” Cain is trying to fool the all-Knowing: sin always blinds, so that the person loses the ability to perceive God. Blinded starting to think that he can fool the Creator. And then God raises his voice. And the Lord said, “What did you do? Your brother’s blood cries unto Me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the earth which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand! And when you till the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you. Thou shalt be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth!” It is here that the thunder of God’s wrath reached to the heart of fratricide, and realized he was guilty, and repented, and begged for forgiveness.
“Confession is sufficient, but not blagovremeno, – writes St. John Chrysostom. And he adds: – there is No sin, no matter how he was great, winning the benevolence of God, if we in due time bring repentance.” But time was lost. Judge for yourself, sin is always an instrument of death – both physical and spiritual. Through sin death enters our world, because God made not death, He made people immortal. Abel was the first dead on earth. But Cain, the first murderer, having committed the crime, have lost their souls. And if Adam and eve for their sin in Heaven God is not cursing, He curses them the serpent-tempter and the earth, then the Lord gives Cain a curse. What? The earth – bearing in this world ceases to be a rock of reliability. They say she trembled, starting to shake and rumble everywhere, where to set the envier.
