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Patriarchs and Prophets
Through an angel messenger the divine warning was conveyed: “If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door.” The choice lay with Cain himself. If he
would trust to the merits of the promised Saviour, and would obey
God’s requirements, he would enjoy His favor. But should he persist
in unbelief and transgression, he would have no ground for complaint
because he was rejected by the Lord.
But instead of acknowledging his sin, Cain continued to complain
of the injustice of God and to cherish jealousy and hatred of Abel.
He angrily reproached his brother, and attempted to draw him into
controversy concerning God’s dealings with them. In meekness, yet
fearlessly and firmly, Abel defended the justice and goodness of God.
He pointed out Cain’s error, and tried to convince him that the wrong
was in himself. He pointed to the compassion of God in sparing the
life of their parents when He might have punished them with instant
death, and urged that God loved them, or He would not have given His
Son, innocent and holy, to suffer the penalty which they had incurred.
All this caused Cain’s anger to burn the hotter. Reason and conscience
told him that Abel was in the right; but he was enraged that one who
had been wont to heed his counsel should now presume to disagree
with him, and that he could gain no sympathy in his rebellion. In the
fury of his passion he slew his brother.
Cain hated and killed his brother, not for any wrong that Abel
had done, but “because his own works were evil, and his brother’s
righteous.”
1 John 3:12
. So in all ages the wicked have hated those who
were better than themselves. Abel’s life of obedience and unswerving
faith was to Cain a perpetual reproof. “Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
John 3:20
. The brighter the heavenly light that is reflected from the
character of God’s faithful servants, the more clearly the sins of the
ungodly are revealed, and the more determined will be their efforts to
destroy those who disturb their peace.
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The murder of Abel was the first example of the enmity that God
had declared would exist between the serpent and the seed of the
woman—between Satan and his subjects and Christ and His followers.
Through man’s sin, Satan had gained control of the human race, but
Christ would enable them to cast off his yoke. Whenever, through faith
in the Lamb of God, a soul renounces the service of sin, Satan’s wrath