THE SINNER
The first recorded instance of a person falling into this sin is the story
of Cain and Abel:
"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I
have acquired a man from the LORD.' Then she bore again, this time his brother
Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And
in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the
fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his
flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He
did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his
countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has
your countenance fallen? If you do well will you not be accepted? And if you
do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should
rule over it." Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when
they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed
him." (Genesis 4:1-8)
There is no prior record of offerings being made or of any rules regarding
these offerings. Many have theorized on why one offering was accepted and the
other was not. Some have claimed only a blood sacrifice would be acceptable,
but the Bible never says this. What we do know is each man brought an offering
to God. God respected Abel and his offering, but did not respect Cain and his
offering.
It is possible that Cain should have known better than to offer veggies to a
God who demanded blood, but the Word does not say this. What it does tell us is
that Cain became very angry and it was written all over his face. I believe
Cain had embraced the temptation to be jealous. I believe he had judged God as
unfair and his brother as a twerp who was responsible for these feelings he was
having. Possibly he had the big-brother syndrome-he needed to be first, best,
and most. In his mind, little brother had upstaged him and taken his rightful
place of honor, and God was unfair. Not only was He unfair, but He was limited
in the amount of attention He had for His people-or so Cain assumed.
In truth God had and has enough attention for both Cain and Abel, and more
besides. He gave Cain sound instruction in dealing with the temptation to be
jealous. He encouraged him to rule over the sin, and not to let the sin rule
over him. Unfortunately for both Cain and Abel, Cain did not take God's
advice. He let jealousy have its way with him.
Can you identify with how Cain felt? I know this isn't something we like to
admit. It is a very unattractive sin. Have you ever done something in your
church and someone else who had not put in as much time and effort as you
received praise for doing it differently or better? Did you hear the father of
lies whisper, "How unfair!"? Did you think to yourself that person had a lot of
nerve to upstage you like that?
It isn't a sin to have thoughts like these. God told Cain, "If you do well,
will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And
its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." When these thoughts enter
our head, the sin of jealousy is lying at the door. We will decide whether we
rule over it, or it rules over us.
An experience I had taught me a tactic to use against the enemy. I was a
member of an intercessory prayer group that consisted entirely of women. It
peaked at around twenty members, but was now at an exciting stage with between
six and ten attending every Tuesday morning. Most of us had not experienced
prophetic intercession before, so we were all on an equal footing at our
meetings. We would pray and share revelations as the Spirit of God gave them to
us.
Then, an older woman began coming. She had been a leader in an earlier
prayer group at the church and was considered to be an authority on prayer. She
began to share scripture and strategies at the beginning of our meetings. I
could see other ladies backing up and not sharing as freely. I began to think,
"Who does she think she is?" or even, "Who died and made you king?" Very
spiritual, eh?
Thank God, I recognized these thoughts and the feelings that accompanied
them as temptations to become jealous. I knew it was not the Holy Spirit who
was inspiring these thoughts. I decided to counteract them. I began to pray
for this woman: "LORD, give her more. Bless her with revelation knowledge.
Pour into her and bless this prayer group through my sister."
Shortly, she began to open up to me, and I learned that she only wanted an
equal footing in the group. She had no desire to be elevated. She was happy to
share from her years of experience in prayer, but was not prideful of her
abilities. She became a valuable source of wisdom and encouragement for me and
the other women in our group.
Another woman came into the group who also had been involved with this
ministry before. She wanted recognition and was very offended when she did not
receive it. Like Cain, she fell into the sin of jealousy. She brought death to
the group and tried to bring death to one of the members in particular. I don't
refer to physical death, of course. What did happen was most of the group
stopped coming and the object of her jealousy was very wounded and left the
church.
Remember the acrostic for jealousy? In both our examples, judgments were
offered. In one it was rejected, in the other, it was accepted. Envy was
rejected in one and fed in the other. In one example animosity was rejected in
favor of praying blessings. In the other example it was fed and grew larger and
larger. The license to mutter, backbite, and curse was issued with full
privileges to cause any hurt or havoc in our second example. The same license
was rescinded in our first example.
The dictionary defines obstinacy as "stubbornly adhering to an opinion or
purpose, stubbornly refusing to concede to reasonable arguments." I think you
can see how obstinacy gets a foothold when you give yourself license to embrace
jealousy. Once you've given yourself license to judge, envy, and carry
animosity in your heart, obstinacy makes it very hard to repent or even admit
there is any need to repent.
Can you see how this leads a person to become increasingly unbalanced? Like
every other sin, the deeper you go into it, the farther you are from being in
God's perfect will. An unbalanced man or woman is unable to walk in love and
truth. The person caught in this bondage moves almost entirely in his or her
own strength and wisdom.
Selfishness is a very subtle outflow of this sin. It comes in the form of
not sharing revelations, not sharing the love of God, not sharing in the trials
of others who are deemed unworthy of the jealous person's time. The jealous
person begins to withdraw more and more.
Finally, jealousy becomes a yoke. This yoke is much too heavy for a person
to bear, and it will eventually begin to affect a person's relationships with
others until it completely chokes out joy and peace. It brings weariness and
prevents victorious living. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light
(Matt 11:30). The yoke of jealousy is harsh and ruthless. The enemy wants to
use it to weigh God's people down. AMEN.
Read:
Part 1
Part 3 Part 4
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