Cain, the Sod Buster

When I was a kid I used to watch reruns of "The Rifleman." I loved that show. Seeing now, not so much. What do little kids know? There always seemed to be an angry rancher on the show calling the hero, Lucas McCain, a "sod buster," because there always seemed to be tension between the ranchers and the farmers. Lucas always ended up on top though, because he could either out-shoot or out-think the villain. I wonder how much the program's writers knew about Cain and Abel?

Was there enmity between Cain, the "sod buster" and his little brother Abel, the "rancher" (laughing here) before the murderous account mentioned in Genesis 4? And what was with their offerings anyway? I looked it up and the same term in Hebrew, "minchah" is used for both their offerings. So why was God displease with Cain's offering, yet looked with favor on Abel's?

These two boys had to be a source of joyful prospects for the lives of their parents, but I just have to wonder if the sod buster and the rancher could ever have gotten along. After all, their occupations are prominently defined. I've heard many times, Cain's descendants referred to as an ungodly line, perhaps because his occupation is associated with the fall and the curse of Genesis 3:23, toiling in the soil and all that. Abel on the other hand, (who apparently had no descendants as far as we know,) was a man whose occupation in the field of animal husbandry more closely associates with God's creation mandate to have "dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Both occupations were necessary. Was one more important than the other? I don't know, but if we look closely at the passage in verse 5, I think it reveals something. The Lord did not look with favor upon Cain. The Lord did not look with favor on Cain's offering. It wasn't just the offering. It was on both Cain and his offering. You have to think that something was wrong with Cain's attitude in bringing his sacrifice before God. Later on, when the whole Levitical system of covering sacrifices was explained, we can read time and again about how you don't bring a sacrifice before God with an improper attitude.

I think we can be assured that a correct attitude of faith on the part of the worshipper is very important too. After all, Paul devoted a good deal of 1st Corinthians to telling the readers how they should behave at their fellowships. A lot of those guys were showing up with selfish attitudes. Instead of showing up in an attitude of brotherhood and worship, they were gathering into cliques of social ranking. They were chowing down on grub and carelessly leaving others without food. Paul soundly rebuked them for these practices.

I don't think it was what Cain offered to God. I think his offering probably would have been acceptable to God, had it been made in faith. Cain's reaction to God's disfavor says a lot. He was probably convicted by God, and could see that his little brother's righteous heart should have been something he shared. Instead of changing, he became jealous of and angry with Abel to the point where he exacted his own twisted vengeance. Cain could have been repentant and obedient to a loving God. He chose not to be.

I wonder how Lucas McCain would have handled it? Abel should have had a rifle.