Envy Series

Disclaimer: Over the years I have been impacted by much reading and study. So there is probably nothing original expect thought and organization.

Envy: The Sin of the Heart

What happened here, what made Cain the first child born into the world kill his brother. Well let us look at it. Cain was born of Eve. Verse 1 says that whenever Cain was born she proclaimed,"I have gotten a man from the Lord." She was expecting Cain to be the serpent bruiser that God had promised early in chapter 3. She expected Cain to come in and deliver Adam and her of all their sins against God. They could finally get back to their relationship with God.

But as we know God was not talking about Cain when he said this but he was talking about Jesus. We also know that it wouldn't happen for another 6000 yrs. Eve figured this out and now Cain was in one sense a disappointment. He wasn't the great hero.

We also see that not to long after his birth there came along another child. The baby of the family. No longer was the attention given to him but now he had to share the attention with his brother Abel. He was no longer the center of attention but now he was second. Most of us had this experience especially if you have brothers or sisters.

So this was all brewing in the mind of Cain. Soon Adam shows his sons how to give a sacrifice unto God. Then it was time for Cain and Abel as grown men to start giving sacrifice. Cain probably worked hard to try to impress God with his sacrifice. He wanted to give God his best fruit of ground. Time came for the sacrifice and Cain brings his fruit and he notices Abel brings his flock. Cain probably looked at his fruit and said," God will surly be impressed with what I brought. Boy look at this, this is the best."

But what happens. God accepted the offering of Abel but not the offering of Cain. Not only did he not accept his offering but it says that he had no respect for it he would not accept it.

Cain worked hard for this sacrifice he did it by the sweat of his brow and what happens God rejects it and turns it away. So he got mad. It says,"And Cain was very wroth." He was furious. He was probably burning up with anger. In one way Cain probably said who does God think he is to not accept my sacrifice. Who does God think he is to say that he has sinned with his sacrifice? And who does Abel think he is to offer a better sacrifice. I believe that Cain was just full of jealously with his brother because of his sacrifice.

So then we see that Cain says," I will fix him, I will fix God and Abel." So he began to plan his revenge. Let see I will get Abel to come out to the field with me. He loves the field and the woods he won't mind. I will just tell him that I want to talk to him. And when I have him in the woods I will kill him. No one will know. I will just bury his body and tell everyone that I haven't seen him. I will fix them. I don't need God and his sacrifices anyway I will do it my way.

And so that is what happened. Cain kills his brother and offers God no explanation nor repentance. But what did it? What made the first child to be born into the world become the first murder of this world? I believe our answer is found in jealously. Jealously which led to envy which led to the death of Abel.

This is a very powerful sin in the lives of people. This is the reason we are told in the last of the ten commandments.

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.

So we must be careful in our lives about this sin. It affects every walk of life. And it is an easy sin to take up.

So let us tonight look at envy. I want us to look at it three ways. 1. Where does it begin 2. Some of the results of envy 3. What we can do about it.

I. When does it begin?

A. It begins with lust

Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,

deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice

and envy, hateful, [and] hating one another.