“Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess.” – Deuteronomy 30.15-16

We started our series on Bible study methods with an introduction called “Love of Scripture” in which we asked a question: Do you delight in God’s law? The question isn’t one that is to be answered mentally, but from the heart. The Bible study methods we have examined are to aid us in understanding the Scriptures with our mind, but to delight in them requires something different; it requires a response from the heart. Responding to God’s instruction isn’t something we do from pure reason, it is something we do out of relationship. Specifically, our relationship with God. Perhaps an illustration would be helpful.

In Genesis chapter four we find the account of Cain and Able. God is pleased with Able’s sacrifice, and not so much with Cain’s. You have probably heard that God was not pleased with Cain’s sacrifice because it is not a blood sacrifice, but Cain was a farmer of wheat and grain, not livestock. His sacrifice was appropriate for the kind of work he performed. So what was the issue? I believe the answers can be found in verses three through five.

At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock – even the fattest of them. And the Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, but with Cain and his offering he was not pleased. So Cain became very angry, and his expression was downcast.

I believe the problem was with how Cain selected his offering to the most high God. How did he decide what to offer? He grabbed what was at hand. Compare this to Able’s method. First, Able selected the first born of the flock, then paired that down with a second process – he chose the fattest of them. Able put thought into his sacrifice because to him sacrifice wasn’t just a requirement; it was a gift to the Almighty. On the other hand, Cain may have fulfilled the letter of the law but he did so thoughtlessly. Able presented God with a gift, Cain was paying a tax. The difference is the inclination of the heart.

If we study the Bible out of obligation, God is not well pleased. Reading Scripture is not a duty, it is a pleasure. We have before us the very words of our Creator, his testimony to all humankind. It’s not a textbook to be used to defeat evolution or a manual to justify a pro-life position. It is God revealing himself and his mission to us and it may surprise us that his mission isn’t our happiness but rather our holiness. As holiness grows inside, God’s word turns from a chore into something sweet, something sweeter than the finest honey from the honeycomb. Until then, we are all Cain.