Why Are You Angry?

Cain and Abel Genesis 4:1-15 NIV

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

I have heard and read many discussions about why God looked with favor on Abel’s offering, but He was not pleased with Cain’s offering. I think people that try to figure this out are missing the point of the story entirely. It does not matter why God favored Abel’s offering, and not Cain’s. God does not have to justify His action’s or motives to man.

There are a lot of angry people in the world. Anger kills. If anger does not drive an angry person to kill another person, as it did in Cain’s case, it kills the person who holds onto the anger. It is usually not an instantaneous death, it is slow death, like a cancer creeping through the body. It drains the life out of those who around he angry person and puts a damper on what could be an atmosphere of joy.

God gave Cain a way out of his anger, and he chose not to take it. God gives each of us, as we live our lives, the way out of the death of anger. It is called forgiveness. God even gave Cain a second chance. He put a mark on him so no one would kill him. In other words, He gave Cain more time to repent.

You may be angry at someone because they did you wrong, or took advantage of you. Your anger may be justifiable. You may blame someone else for a bad situation you find yourself in life, and your blame may be accurate. But in the end, all of that does not matter. If you die with hatred and anger in your heart, and you stand before God in judgement, you are not going to be able to argue your case before God and blame someone else. You chose to hold onto the anger and allow it to eat you up inside.

Look at Cain’s response to God, when God asked him where his brother was: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is a phrase we commonly use for that kind of response. It is called being a smart ass. It is probably not a good idea to be sarcastic with your Creator, the one who holds your very life in His hand.

The interesting thing about anger, unless it leads to violence and/or murder of the one who has caused the anger, (or the one the angry person thinks caused his anger) is that the person who the angry person is mad at is usually not affected at all by the angry person’s anger. They may have forgotten all about it, or not even realized their offence, or the perceived offence. The only person who is affected by it in a negative way is the one who is stewing over it.

This is the first recorded incident of murder in human history, and it holds a valuable lesson for us that we need to heed. Every living person on this earth, and all who have ever lived, are responsible for the condition of their own heart. You can blame all you want to. On judgement day, it is not going to matter if you are placing the blame in the right place or not. The deciding factor in your eternal state, be it glory or judgement and eternal torment, will be how you decided to respond to things that make you angry.

Personally, I have decided that being angry takes far more work, effort, time and energy than forgiving and being at peace. Perhaps I am just lazy and do not want to put forth the effort to remain angry, or perhaps it is more because when I stand before God, forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, because the love of Christ has so filled my heart, that there is no room for anger. All the space in my heart has been filled up.