Bible Story Lessons

After Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden, they had two sons.  Their first son was called Cain and the second was called Abel.  Cain was a farmer and grew wheat and vegetables, while Abel was a shepherd who looked after the family's sheep and cattle.

Adam had told Cain and Abel that they needed to offer a sacrifice to God to show that they were sorry whenever they did wrong.  A sacrifice was where you needed to kill a lamb and burn it up in a fire.

Cain must have thought his younger brother was foolish to sacrifice his best lamb.  "I'm sure," he boasted, "That God will be happy with some of my plants that I have grown!"  So he laid his vegetables and wheat on the fire, but to his dismay they just smoldered and never burnt up, and the smoke just swirled around making his eyes water!

That could mean only one thing!  God had rejected his offering while accepting Abel's.  Cain was filled with jealousy and anger!   "Come with me," he said to Abel, "Let's take a walk in the fields."  When they were hidden from the house, Cain hit Abel and knocked him to the ground and killed him!

Cain looked around and sighed with relief.  No one had seen him and he was safe!  But just then God spoke to him and asked, "Cain, where is your brother?"  Cain shrugged and carelessly answered, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

God replied, "Cain, what have you done?  You will no longer be your family's farmer and you will be driven away and you will live as a wanderer.  Cain finally realised the horror of what he'd done in murdering his brother, and for the rest of his life lived in fear.

Abel gave his best and that's what was important to God.  He also offered his sacrifice trusting that it would please God.  Cain didn't sacrifice anything valuable and gave God something he didn't really need or care about.

God showed Cain that his offering was not acceptable.  Instead of taking God's words as a loving correction, Cain became extremely angry and plotted how he could kill his only brother.

Cain was very jealous of Abel and his jealousy grew into bad feelings of anger and hate.  These are sins that will also grow in our lives if we don't ask God's forgiveness.  They will grow until they control our words, feelings and actions.

Remember, God sees and hears us all the time.  He knows who makes you angry, or if you are jealous of someone, stop now!  If you have bad feeling of anger and hate, ask Jesus to forgive you and to take away all your anger and hate!

God bless.