Well?

You know how it is. Sometimes, when you’re reading along in the bible, a verse will suddenly develop more significance? I recently came across one of those.
“Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 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." Genesis 4:6&7.

After reading that verse, I got to wondering what exactly the word, “Well” meant.
When I looked it up and began reading its meaning, I was amazed. Even though it’s such a tiny little word, it is packed full of attributes.
Well is translated from the Hebrew word Yatab, (yaw.tab`). It means to be: Good, Well, Beautiful, Pleasant, Lovely, Glad, Cheerful.
On the surface, these are just a collection of nice words. But when I got to thinking about them, I realized that these words hold the key to our countenance being lifted up.
How? Let’s take a closer look into each one of these words.

1. Good. In Acts 10:38, we learn “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” How did Jesus do good? He brought the Kingdom of Light into the kingdom of darkness. We have been mandated to do this as well. When we pray for someone, when we give, when we go the second mile we are giving the Kingdom of Light legal access to the world we walk in that is ruled by the kingdom of darkness. When we bring light to others, we will shine as well.

2. Well. Remember the song, “It is Well with my Soul”? The man who wrote it, Ho¬ra¬tio G. Spaf¬ford, was crossing the ocean and had just passed near the place where all four of his daughters had died in a ship wreak on an earlier voyage. It was during this time that wrote the words to this song. Contentment is good for our countenance. Paul says in Philippians 4:11 that we must learn to be content.
Contentment is being satisfied with God’s will, even if it’s not our will.

3. Beautiful. According to Psalm 149:4 the best beauty treatment we can give ourselves is ‘salvation’ “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people ; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.” Telling others about Jesus is apparently also good. “How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news,” Isaiah 52:7

4. Pleasant. Maintaining unity among believers is crucial in keeping up our countenances—as we learn in Psalm 133:1,
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” Paul says in Phil 1:27 to “stand firm in one spirit and in one mind.” A bit later he admonishes some of his friends to get along, “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.” Phil. 4:2.

5. Lovely. In order to keep our ‘chins’ up, we must maintain our forgiveness. The bride in Song of Solomon understood this when she declared, “I am dark, but lovely. O daughters of Jerusalem.” She understood what we all need to know, that even when we are dark from sin that we can still run to Jesus and He will accept us—He thinks we’re lovely.

6. Glad. Gladness comes from hanging out with the Lord as it says in Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Also, Psalm 68:3 states, “But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.”

7. Cheerful. “A cheerful heart is good medicine,” Proverbs 17:22. Do you think that God just put this in the bible for so that we could have a cute saying for pillows and plaques? No, I think what He meant was, a cheerful heart is good medicine. Our heart and countenance is directly connected, as we read in Proverbs 15:13, “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.”
How do you get a cheerful heart? The Lord gives us two witnesses in Philippans 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”
Now, this doesn’t mean that we have to like or be happy about everything that happens—our rejoicing is in Him. We “count this all joy”, (James 1:2).

Remember back in Genesis 4 when God was talking to Cain? How did God say that He knew Cain was angry? He was looking at his countenance, or face. What did he say? "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” Our only hope is go before the Lord, and ask for His help to do well.

This is our ‘Road Map’ to peace. It will keep us on the right path until we arrive at the place where we hear, ‘Well done…”

Senia Owensby
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