Abel still speaks

https://odb.org/2023/08/23/witnesses-2

Hebrews 11:4 – By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of his offering. By faith, Abel still speaks even though he is dead. And the writer of today’s ODB added – so do the bones of those long forgotten slaves who perished to the bottom of the sea when the ship carrying them sank centuries ago. They are skeletons still bound in chains at the bottom of the ocean.

Right from Genesis 4, God is telling us that there are consequences to injustice perpetrated by man. Cain was jealous that God favoured Abel’s fat portions from his choice livestock. But if we read Genesis 4:7 carefully, we will see that even though God rebuked Cain for the quality of his offering, God was saying He was being honest. Cain only needed to do what was right. In other words, next time, do better. It didn’t mean that God would favour Abel forever. Instead, Cain attacked and killed Abel. A small thing escalated unnecessarily into something major as Abel’s life was lost in the process. Cain was punished severely. The ground was cursed for Cain. He would become a wanderer as the blood of his brother cries out from the ground.

I feel that the message today is that if we fail, we need to pick ourselves up and try again. Don’t overreact when others are being honest with us. Do better the next time. Don’t overreact as the consequences for our overreaction, like in the case of Cain, might be too great for us to bear. There is divine justice at work in the world, although sometimes, as victims, we do not clearly see it. But we can take comfort in the example of Cain and Abel that when God acts, He does not hesitate, and the consequences are real and severe.

We know that true success is built upon many failures, sometimes personality failures. The way forward is to pick up the pieces and start again. Never overreact and do stupid things in retaliation as the consequences may be swift and severe.