Thank God Anyway

Genesis 4:3-5  "In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell."

The timeless tale of Cain and Abel may not seem a self-evident lesson for Thanksgiving Day, but at the heart of this passage is, indeed, an act of gratitude. Both brothers give offerings to the Lord, an action surely motivated, at least at the beginning, by thanks for the blessings of their herds and harvests. The tragedy of Cain and Abel begins as a thanksgiving story.

And what a story it is, a tale that has been retold so many times and with so many lessons; a classic tale of brotherly strife, of envy, of sin, of consequence. Yet we know so little about the setting of the story; we are provided so few details by the author. Whether we think of that author as Moses, or as the elusive "J" of the Higher Criticism's divines, he, or she, tells us precious little. Questions arise immediately. How did Cain and Abel learn to sacrifice to God?  Had Adam and Eve done the same? Was this required by God or was it simply a spontaneous act? Did the brothers make their sacrifice together, or separately? What did these sacrifices mean to them?

Finally, the ultimate enigma arises: why did God accept Abel's gift but reject Cain's? Indeed, that remains a true question for the ages, because the writer of the passage simply does not tell us.

Ultimately, students of scripture have come up with two points of view on this question. Most of us will have heard what I might call the traditional viewpoint, which places the blame upon Cain.  This view tends to say that since we know Cain immediately turned toward murderous rage after God rejected his offering, we can surmise that Cain's heart was impure and, at the very least, ungrateful to begin with. God, recognizing this, rejects Cain's gift, while accepting that of his brother.

But there is a flaw with this view, and the flaw is that the Bible simply doesn't say this. Nothing about Cain's attitude or state of mind at the time of his offering is recorded. This reality brings about the second viewpoint, which I might call the modernist view. The modernist view starts by pointing out that if we are to take scripture seriously, we cannot make up something about the character of Cain that simply isn't there. Blaming Cain, the modernist view tells us, is an easy cop out.

Yet the modernists often go too far, switching the blame from Cain to God himself.  Take, for instance, the words of Walter Brueggemann:

The trouble comes not from Cain, but from Yahweh, the strange God of Israel.... Conventional interpretation is too hard on Cain and too easy on Yahweh. It is Yahweh who transforms a normal report into a life/death story for us and about us. Essential to the plot is the capricious freedom of Yahweh. (Genesis, 1982, p. 56)

So to the modernist scholar, God is capricious, fickle, and thus unfairly and unkindly rejects Cain and his offering in favor of his younger brother.

Both of these conclusions have a grain of truth, but both are also too simple in many ways.  After struggling with this passage, I would submit that it is in fact, ultimately, a story about giving thanks in a broken world.

We don't know what Cain's attitude was as he made his offering.  All we can do is guess at his frame of mind. We can only assume that for some reason, whatever it might have been, God did not like the gift Cain brought and rejected it,while accepting Abel's gift.  Remember, this is the fourth chapter of Genesis: That unpredictability is the reality of a world caught up in sin. That unfairness was the brothers' inheritance from Adam and Eve.

And yet...God holds forth grace.  Think about the words of verses 6-7:

The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it."

Is this not the same tone that a parent or teacher, a coach or a mentor, might take when telling a young person,"I know you made a mistake, I know you missed the mark, [maybe even] I know that you failed. But try again, and you will do better. Don't let this defeat you."

What God wanted Cain to do was to remain thankful even when things went badly for him.  In a work of fiction Cain might have learned his lesson and taken a different path.  However, this story was not destined to be wrapped up with a bow; instead, the scripture plainly admits the truth. Cain fails at the task God has set before him and instead goes on to become our ultimate counter-example - the first murderer in human history.

It would be up to another ancient man in the Old Testament to  persevere and be an example of thankfulness in the midst of a broken world.  That man was Job.  

After losing his flocks, his herdsmen and servants, his sons and daughters, Job still managed to utter these words: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

There are few words in the Bible harder than that to say, but many of us have had to learn to say them.  In our broken world, a world of violence, injustice, pain, and death, we are still called to thank God for what we have, and for what He promises us we will have.

Many Christians are familiar with the classic devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, by Scottish minister Oswald Chambers (1874-1917).  One line of that book has impressed itself upon me throughout the years: "If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart."  How many of us have seen a new day dawn, or a new path open, because of (or despite) something in life which did indeed break our heart?  Yet how often did we remember to thank God for the journey?

Cain did not understand the bigger picture of which he was a part.  But Job did.  And more than that, Jesus did.  In this broken world, in our broken lives, hearts are broken, in many, many ways.  But thank God anyway.  Because He loves you.  And someday, He will bind the wounds, mend the scars, and accept your gift.  He will accept you, forever.