Ezekiel 28:17 – “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”
We have seen the progression of pride from Satan to the human race. In previous BLOGS, we saw how it is pride that moves a person to violate God’s commands. Pride is not just something that comes and goes, but it controls the fallen human being. We can see how Satan deceived Eve and how she was injected, so to speak, with the vile nature of pride. But then we see it coming out in the children of Adam and Eve. Something has gone terribly wrong with the human race. God created human beings good, but they fell and now pride was ruling in them.
Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a man-child with the help of the LORD.” 2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:1-9).
After the fall into sin Adam and Eve had two children (though most likely more). We can imagine this as a drama with tension and dramatic music playing as people wondered if the boys would have this horrible poison of pride in them. We see the pride of jealousy fairly quickly over the issue of bringing offering to the LORD. We see pride in Cain when he was mad and angry with Abel because Abel’s offering was accepted while Cain’s was not. Instead of looking at himself and asking God for what the correct offering would be, Cain was proud of his work and of his offering. There are some things here that should teach us about worship. God will not just accept any worship or offerings that we decide we want to offer. It is sheer arrogance on our part not to follow the ways and commands of God in worship. We can see the pride in Cain when he thought God should accept his offering, but we don’t see the pride in our own hearts when we try to determine what worship is according to our own desires.
The LORD warned Cain that sin was crouching at his door and it desired him. He told Abel, but did not take heed to himself. The LORD had warned Cain and asked him why he was angry. In other words, the LORD was pointing to the pride in Cain’s heart. The problem was not with Abel but with the pride in Cain’s heart. Here we also see the continuance of the pride of Adam and Eve. As soon as the fall occurred, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the devil. One sign of pride in the heart is when a person will not take the blame for sin but instead always blames another. Cain continued that practice of pride by blaming Abel in the issue of the offerings rather than look in his own heart. We then see the pride of Cain in that he was so angry with Abel that he killed him. Cain took the life of Abel which only God has a right to. In this act there was great pride in Cain and he violated all the commandments from his great pride. Murder is a hideous act of pride and demonstrates a self-centered and self-focused person that is more concerned with self than the welfare of other human beings and of the rights and honor of God.
As the story moves on we see the hardening of Cain’s heart. He was mad at Abel, but now he has no one else to blame but God. So he lashes out at God. It is when pride has blinded us and has taken our wisdom away that we think we can lie to God. Maybe this was also being like Adam who tried to hide from God. His answer about not being his brother’s keeper demonstrates much pride since he is talking to God. We began with the birth of Cain and went to the rejected worship of Cain. It shows the pride in Cain’s heart as he blamed Abel and then killed him. He then lied to God and was “smart” with God. The poison of Satan (pride) was now being seen in the children of men. The enmity between the seeds is also between blood brothers. As Satan deceived Eve through a serpent, so he now murders though his children. Satan was the real murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). How awful pride really is, though we see it better in others. It is much easier to see pride in others and blame others rather than self.
God Loves... Himself 
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