11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have given themselves up to the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 2020), Jud 11.
There is a removing that is taking place if you try to make your right standing to be a result of your elevation of yourself by yourself and if you will not make a correction to the great expanse of this offense and it’s subsequent penalty you are resting in reaching out and dependency on your elevation of yourself. And you will surely rule your life by it. (Gen 4:7 paraphrased)
This paraphrase of Gen 4:7 was done by Aaron Budgen in his teachings on Your Identity in Christ. In the third recording, he presents this and explains why it would have been difficult to translate this thought into English, hence what we have in our English translations. I would recommend starting with the first recording in the series because more background information is provided, including a different interpretation of Gen 4:1, which shows that Eve may have applied the prophecy of the promised savior to herself and her firstborn son, whom she named “here he is”. More scriptures indicate the same truth represented in this interpretation of Genesis 4:7, that is, the God who exists will only relate to persons based on His grace and mercy. A consistent theme in scripture, it is only by His grace and mercy that we are accepted; our own works of righteousness make us unacceptable. It’s amazing to see it right here at the beginning. Cain’s religious attitude is exposed as the reason why he was rejected; we cannot reach God by our own efforts; He must come to us. The way he has chosen to do so is by His son, Hebrews 1:2.
Staying with the issue of the way of Cain, this is a way that is to be avoided if one is to see life. Hence, we discover enemies who would want to make sure as many take this way and perish. There are other gods in this world, specifically, there is a god of this world who has a following of other spiritual beings that are like-minded to him, Satan and his angels, who are dedicated enemies of man. Their work is to influence the world, keeping folks occupied and blinded from the reality of the way things really are, walking in the way of Cain or Esau or in the rebellion of Korah or in the error of Balaam, who went after money. How this looks varies from person to person, but the general philosophy is the same. Encouragement in the direction of whatever fantasy suits one. By fantasy, I mean just whatever lie one will fall for as a way to live their time on this earth. From the verse-by-verse study of Romans, perhaps around Chapter 9, the general idea is that people can be categorized into three broad categories, with variations between the first two categories. I will summarize these as best as I can remember.
Those who live for the indulgence of the flesh
These deny or ignore the existence of God, or a God, and they make up the largest group of people in existence at any given point. Many philosophies of the world fall in line with this; some explicitly require a denial of the existence of a god, for example, most of science is backed up by theories like the “big bang”, where it is believed that an explosion resulted in the creation of the world. This flies in the face of reality, where nothing has ever been observed to explode that resulted in creation, but rather, destruction. Or the belief that, because in the end we all die, we should just make the best of what we have and enjoy life, not giving any thought to things like death and a “possible” afterlife. You only live once, Yolo! So enjoy and be happy, don’t think so much about ____. This philosophy aligns with the attitude of Esau, who despised his inheritance and exchanged it for some food. His brother, on the other hand, was willing to scheme and use deception to gain the same inheritance; he did not care for just the here and now but saw further ahead. This is the kind of person who would be interested in God’s promise of eternal life, which has to do with much further out than just the here and now, a different city, a different age – those who had faith like Abraham are commended for this, “seeing and looking for another city”, Hebrews 11:10. Jacob’s attitude was pleasing to God, and He is pleased to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but he is not the God of Esau. This man, after taking his bowl of soup, is now referred to as a godless and profane person who sold his birthright for a single meal (Hebrews 12:16). So will all who will not repent but continue in the same attitude. The reality is that we will not live forever. A day is coming when we will be old, when we cannot enjoy what we currently do; for these reasons, we should be concerned for more than just the here and now. The way of Esau is a way to be rejected.
Those who live for the restraint of the flesh
These acknowledge the existence of some God, restrain their flesh, get rid of sin, do good, avoid evil, and may even view heaven as some form of debt collection exercise, as Aaron would put it. This is the way of Cain. Many religions support this philosophy, including apostate or cultural Christianity in various forms. Not to mention other religions out there based on the same “elevation of yourself by yourself” philosophy. These individuals may know a lot about the God of the bible, even memorize a lot of what he has already had to say, yet not know him as a person, or even worse, deny (in creative ways) that he is a person. Through pagan beliefs that crept into the church, thanks to some famous philosophers, men of renown, there exist very academic ways of basically saying that the God who exists isn’t a person at all. Or if he is a person, then he’s a very big one. The focus then shifts to studying him and defining him as the opposite of ourselves: we’re small, he is big, weak, he is strong. I am not willing to say these things are false, but I am saying that knowing these has nothing to do with knowing Him. This is important because eternal life is defined as knowing God, John 17:3. So then we can recognize these pursuits as a distraction meant to keep one from actually knowing him and easily suggest that perhaps these are alternatives designed by the god of this world targeting those who are religiously or intellectually bent. This god has a poison for all kinds of people. “You want to reject the existence of God? I got you.”, “You want to be bad? Okay, that works for me, too”. “You want to be good? Here’s some stuff for you.” Only as long as you don’t recognize what’s really going on, which is that you do not know Him. “Actually, here’s eternal life in a smoothie and some anti-aging cream. Why don’t we just pretend you will live here forever?”.
It is my belief that the god of this world is more active in the way of Cain than he is in the way of Esau. Over in that group, things seem to take care of themselves out of apathy or denial of the existence of God. You can’t find without seeking, and you can’t seek what you either believe does not exist or have no interest in. We are told that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and has “ministers of righteousness”- 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. Why would he bother appearing to the Esau club in any form? All they want is a bowl of soup. Hello! These guys just want to live and enjoy life, like this world is all there is to it. It is unnecessary to bother them with concepts like spiritual life or ideas that might involve actual exertion. Now, for the religious, more work is needed. These ministers will need to creep into places or even set up decorated places of worship where the religious can have “community” and participate in a lot of activity. To put it simply, they institute new sacrificial systems that others can participate in. At best, one achieves some temporary peace with God, until next time, then they need to come back and engage in some way and have some peace with god for a short while. Also, don’t forget you must give a portion of your income to God (really to perpetuate the system), otherwise, He will find a way to intervene and hurt you. Malachi 3:8-12 is often abused in this way. Listen to the recordings on tithing if you are interested in this topic. I am not suggesting that genuine congregations and teachers do not exist, or that there is something wrong with supporting those who teach the truth, but that they are the exception and not the norm. In conclusion, what we really need is God and his acceptance; with his acceptance, we can endure the rejection of men. And of course, the sin issue is really done and the new covenant is in place; Jeremiah 31:34, so He will not curse me if I do not give a portion of my income to some organization. Also, He does not set us free so that we may indulge our flesh, Galatians 5:13, but so that we may receive His love and acceptance and live by the inheritance. This inheritance is by His will that went into effect when he died on the cross for the sin of the world; His children get an inheritance, and He inherits the saints, Ephesians 1:18. Living by the inheritance is something that I first learned from Aaron’s through his expansive teachings which you can find in the radio archive. If you have felt the weight of trying to earn your way to God, perhaps there is another way – one that begins not with striving but with trust. This leads us to the last group of people.
Those who live by the inheritance
This is the smallest group of people, described throughout the bible as a remnant. These are those being prepared for glory by God, they are being transformed in the spirit of their mind, they have all things for life and godliness. Notice the difference, God does the work, here we present ourselves to him. We have nothing, we are nothing, we receive from him what we give to others. We relate to him as a person, not as if he exists for us as a tool, to spare us the troubles of this life through his great power; we just need to convince him through much prayer. In fact, He says that in this world we will have tribulation, but He has overcome the world. Despite these troubles, we have peace in Christ. John 16:33. Living by the inheritance is a life of discovering the things that God has for us through his new covenant, I am learning this now and I expect that I will continue learning to the end of my physical life at which point I will see him as he is and we’ll move on to the next age.
For now, we should be content with the forgiveness that we have, with which we can forgive others; he doesn’t hold my sins against me, so when others sin against me, I require no payment for it. There is no need to deny reality, but rather acknowledge it. This is not heaven. This is the earth under a curse – Romans 8:21, I will sin against others, and they will sin against me, every day, some days worse than others. We live with the acceptance of God, not looking for acceptance from the world. The acceptance of men is based on a common belief, which already separates this group from the religious world and “church circles” as commonly known in the culture. We believe that the new covenant is unlike the old, so that automatically separates us from those who are still transitioning to the new covenant, and those who still want to hold on to the old for various reasons.
At some point in my journey, I knew that Jesus is the Christ, but something seemed off in religion and “church,” but I didn’t know exactly what, and it wasn’t until I was challenged in a way that I could not ignore that I really looked into the salvation issue. I really wanted to know what the truth was and how I could have a real experience with God that someone told me I could have. With hindsight, I lacked peace! After much searching and reading, including a second baptism (maybe that’ll do it?), it didn’t, I came to find an actual person. That did it! Now I could know what my problem had been. I had not known God. I definitely knew a lot about him. After this, it then took me a while before I learned that some things that I was taught as truth are indeed doctrines of devils. Devils want us to see God in the worst possible way, an impersonal God that has determined and chosen everything, is one extremely popular view of God that I struggled with. I did not believe that we had no say on anything when the clear words of scripture seemed to suggest that we do. This was confusing! You’re telling me we just get to execute the actions this god chose for us to the end that he already determined for us before the foundation of the world? Even worse, it seemed like nobody could really know for sure if they are one of the ones he had chosen for life or if they were chosen for hell, this god seemed to enjoy fooling people that he had selected them only for them to discover at last that he had not granted them the perseverance he gives his saints. These are things that people actually believe and teach as doctrine. And these things shook me to the core.
Now I know the God who exists and know he is nothing like what these people say he is. He did not already make all the choices, and we are not merely executing his choices to our determined end. Instead, God has made each one of us with the ability to choose what we will value, how we will utilize our resources. We all have personal responsibility, and he does not interfere with our will and choices. It is on us to seek and want to know; we get to choose how we will walk, the way of Cain, the way of Esau, the rebellion of Korah, the error of Balaam, or the faith of Abraham. You choose! He did not choose for these people; he will not choose for you either. We indeed live according to what we hold to be true. Those of us who know Him can only encourage and point others in the right direction. In the direction of the God who exists. He is the one who opens the eyes of the blind and makes the deaf hear. It starts with Jesus. He is the God who made himself man to live in this world for a time and resolve sin and death for humanity so that he would have for himself a people who willingly want to be with him.