By Captain Michael Ramsay
Genesis 4:7b: ‘But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ According to a number of prominent Biblical scholars, this verse is the key to the whole short story of Cain and Abel;[1] as such I thought that it would be a good one to focus on today. First, however, the text mentions a sibling rivalry for their Heavenly Father’s attention, so I thought I would share a couple of comics about sibling rivalry.
In my own life growing up, I had a sister who was one year younger than I was and I remember a few times that we had some challenges. Like Cain and Abel had some differences in the way their Heavenly Father accepted their offerings, my parents sometimes treated my sister and I a little differently. I can remember my sister’s protests at times and they were often met with the same response: How come Michael has a later curfew than I do? (Because he’s older and he’s a boy.) How come Michael is allowed to go to that event tonight but I can’t? (Because he’s older and he’s a boy.) How come Michael is allowed to use the car tonight and I can’t? (Because he’s older and he’s a boy.) It also worked the other way around. I can remember one evening when I was supposed to bring my little sister along with me to church group and I could go out again afterwards as long as she was home on time. I made sure she arrived close to home – down the street - but I didn’t take her directly in (I was in a hurry) and so she didn’t actually bother to go inside the house until after her curfew. When I arrived home much later that night, my mom grounded me because my sister was late. When I asked why I was grounded because she didn’t come home on time, the answer was, ‘because you’re older and you’re a boy.’ It worked both ways; my protests weren’t accepted any more than my sister’s were.
In the pericope before us today Cain is older and he’s a boy and Cain’s offerings aren’t accepted either. The two brothers here make offerings to the Lord. Genesis offers no specific reason why Cain’s offering is not accepted (but cf. Hebrews 11:4, 1 John 3:12; Jude 11). People like to guess as to why his offering was not acceptable but the Bible here just says, Genesis 4:4b-5a, “The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favour.”
Cain’s feelings are hurt as his offering is not acceptable to the Lord. Genesis 5b records, “So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast (NIV), his countenance fell (NRSV).” Terence E. Fretheim tells us, “Cain’s response – the downcast face (the external manifestation of the inner feeling) – reveals the idea more of dejection, feelings associated with rejection, rather than anger. Cain must care about what God thinks of him and his offering. But the basic issue becomes not that Cain acts in a dejected fashion, but how he responds to God’s interaction with him about his dejection.”[2]
Cain feels dejected and even angry that God accepts his brother’s offering but not his. How do we feel when it seems that someone else is accepted and we’re not? How do we feel do if we think (rightly or wrongly) that our brother or sister is getting preferential treatment over us? Anyone who is a parent: how many times have you heard the complaint that “That’s not fair!” or “She started it!” How do we feel, any of us that are employed, if our boss always notices what our co-worker is doing right but never seems to notice us? Or if he does notice us at all, he only seems to notice us when we really mess things up? How do we feel if we work really hard and we want to be thanked but someone else always gets the credit? How do we feel if, in our opinion, we invest all of our time and energy into a project for the church or the community and the pastor/officer and/or person in charge never seems to notice? Have you ever been to an awards ceremony where your colleague or your sibling is being honoured and you wonder, ‘why not me?’ Have you ever wondered why your friend, your boss, your pastor or your officer appears to like someone else more than he like you? Have you ever wondered why someone in particular is always asked to help with things but you never are? Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt left out, dejected, rejected, angry? Do you ever feel like this? Cain does. If we ever feel like this, God is warning us, Genesis 4:7, that sin is crouching at our door, just like it was at Cain’s door; sin desires to have us, but we must master it.
I remember once at a science fair when I was in elementary school and probably no older than the eldest of my children are now. I had spent a lot of time working on my project for the fair and I thought it was pretty good. Well, the night before my sister had just thrown something together and – in my opinion – it looked like it. I remember when they were announcing the awards by grade, they announced my grade and I did not win anything. I was feeling a little dejected and rejected and sin was crouching at my door and I said to my friends around me, “well, as long as my sister doesn’t win; if she wins I’ll, I’ll…” Looking around for something, I spot my friend Craig and I say, “If she wins, I’ll… beat up Craig.” You can probably guess the rest of the story. The next name called is my sister’s and I spend the next 5 or 10 minutes chasing Craig around the gym; he really isn’t all that eager to help me fulfill my pledge to beat him up. Does anyone else here ever feel frustrated; sometimes maybe even saying ill-advised things, ready to boil over like that?
God says, “But if you not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” I think He is talking about situations just like this. You have heard it said that vengeance is mine says the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19; cf. Genesis 50:19, 1 Samuel 26:10, Psalm 94:1, Jeremiah 51:36) and you have heard it said, ‘in your anger do not sin’ (Psalm 4:4, Ephesians 4:26; cf. Matthew 5:22). This is exactly the kind of thing that God is warning Cain about in this pericope when He says, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
This really does seem to be the key to this whole story of Cain and Abel. The story really does focus on Cain and God and God’s desire for Cain to avoid falling prey to sin, rather than on Abel and his acceptable offering. Abel is sort of a passing character. The name ‘Abel’ actually simply means ‘vapour’ or ‘nothingness’;[3] his time is passing. Cain’s name, on the contrary, seems to point to his significance in this scenario; it means ‘to get’ or ‘to create’. Cain is the first-born child of Adam and Eve and Eve even praises and credits God for his birth (Genesis 4:1). The whole story around the death of Abel is told about Cane from God’s point-of-view making the following point about sin crouching at Cain’s door after God doesn’t accept Cain’s offering, Genesis 4:6-7:
6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 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 master it.”
God is warning Cain; He is giving Cain every opportunity to do what is right and He is warning him as well that there will be natural and logical consequences if he does not do what is right – sin is crouching at his door. Verses 8 and 9:
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” [Actually the ancient Hebrew doesn’t have this phrase where Cain invites Abel into the field; that is in the LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, and Samaritan Pentateuch but it is not in the ancient Hebrew, the MSS].[4] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
In a sad sort of way, this is interesting; it should be familiar to us. This reply is reminiscent of Cain’s parents reply to God when God questions them about eating the forbidden fruit. When that happens Adam blames God and the woman for his sin – he says to the LORD, “the woman YOU gave me made me do it” and the woman in turn blames the serpent (Genesis 3). Cain here knows that God is his brother’s keeper (cf. Genesis 28:15; 2 Samuel 22:44; Psalms 121:3-8, 34:21, 37:28, 97:10, 116:6, 145:20, 146:9; Jeremiah 31:10; cf. also Exodus 23:20 and Psalm 91:11);[5] so when God questions him, like his father before him Cain tries to deflect the blame back on God.[6] When God rhetorically asks Cain where his brother is, Cain in essence says, “I don’t know; why would I know? Aren’t you the one who is supposed be keeping him and looking out for him?”[7] God doesn’t get drawn into this. He informs Cain that since Cain did not heed God’s warning of Verse 7 that ‘… if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door,’ there are consequences, Genesis 4:10-12:
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
This is important. There are consequences for giving into sin. It really is crouching at the door, just like God warns Cain before he strikes his brother. Sin is like a house cat. Has anyone ever had a pet cat? Sin is like a cat patiently hiding in the grass waiting for a bird to land in front of it. If you have ever watched a cat stalk its prey, you will know that as the moment of attack comes closer and closer, the cat becomes more and more excited: her limbs start twitching, her ears press back against her head, her eyes grow wide, and then when she can’t control it any longer, her tail starts to wag and she pounces on her unsuspecting prey.
This is what it is like with Cain. In his anger, he is like that bird landing in the cat’s backyard. God warns him not to stay in his anger or he will be caught by sin but Cain is too blinded by his dejection. Like a bird focussing on a worm or some other prey below, he is so focussed on his anger that he ignores God’s warning not to stay in his anger. He instead defies God. God warns him to take flight from his anger and thoughts of vengeance before it is too late. God tells Cain that the cat is about to pounce. God tells him that ‘… if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ But it is too late; Cain strikes out at Abel and sin grabs a hold of Cain. Cain seems to feel that striking out at Abel will relieve his feelings of dejection from his perceived rejection; he feels that striking out in anger, releasing his rage will satisfy his urges - but alas that is not true. Sin is crouching at his door, Cain steps out onto the front porch of misplaced vengeance and it is already too late; sin springs into action and Cain is caught.
Do we ever get caught in this trap? Do we ever get so selfish, do we ever get so focussed on our own emotions, do we ever get so focussed on our own feelings of hurt that we have the proverbial blinders on? Do we ever get so focussed on our own selfish feelings that we do not notice that that is exactly what the devil and sin want us to do? Do we ever get so focussed on our perceived rights, rather than our God-given responsibilities; do we ever get so caught up in our own world, becoming angry with others and striking out at them, that in the process we leave ourselves vulnerable to the devil and sin?
This passage, Genesis 4, is warning us about taking our eyes off of our Lord and instead focusing on our own selfish feelings and it is warning us against over-reacting and striking out against our brothers and sisters. Look: Whatever you think she did to you, whatever has really happened to you, even though she said that and even though he didn’t do that -before it is too late, resist the temptation strike out at him. This is what God is telling us. This is what God is telling Cain. Cain feels dejected and Cain feels anger and God loves Cain so much that even knowing what Cain is going to do, God still gives him every opportunity to do something different. God tells him that ‘… if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ Cain doesn’t and Cain suffers the consequences. Sin grabs a hold of him.
It is exactly the same with us. If we walk out onto the front porch of selfishness, stewing in our own juices about perceived or even real affronts that we have suffered; if we do not do what is right, sin is crouching at our door. It desires to have us but we can and we must master it. This is called holiness. God calls us to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15; Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7; cf TSA Doctrine # 10). That means that we don’t have to blindly fly into sin’s path like an unsuspecting bird focusing only on its own prey. Instead we can open our eyes, pray to God, and master sin rather than being mastered by it.
This passage is warning us against over-reacting and striking out against people – Sin is crouching at our door. This passage is telling us that there are consequences for our actions. This passage is telling us also that with contrite repentance there can be forgiveness.[8] Cain calls on the Lord after falling prey to sin and the Lord spares him a death sentence and even gives him protection as Cain lives with the consequences of his actions.[9] That forgiveness is important and worth celebrating but also important is the fact that Cain did not need to kill Abel. Cain did not need to fall prey to sin.
We don’t need to fall prey to sin (1 Peter 1:15; Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7; cf. Luke 4, Matthew 4:1-11, 2 Corinthians 13, Colossians 1:28, Hebrews 11,12; cf. also TSA Doctrine # 10). Just as the LORD warned Cain, the Lord warns us and will help us to be aware of the sin that is crouching at our door. He will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). So then, let us remember when we leave here and when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of selfishness, when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of self-pity, when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of retribution and spite, when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of feeling sorry for ourselves, and when we are tempted to walk out on that porch of jealousy and rage, let us remember that sin is crouching at our door and it desires to have us but we don’t need to blindly fly into its path like an unsuspecting bird focusing only on its own prey. Instead we can open our eyes, pray to God, and master sin rather than being mastered by it.
Let us pray.
---
[2] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 373.
[3] Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, p. 56.
[4] Zondervan, NIV Study Bible. Full ref. ed. Kenneth L. Barker, gen. ed. Grand Rapids,MI: Zondervan, 2002. Translation note on Genesis 4:8.
[5] Cf. Paul A. Riemann, "Am I my brother's keeper." Interpretation 24, no. 4 (October 1, 1970): 482-491. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed May 29, 2012).
[6] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, p. 60.
[7] But cf. Kristin M. Swenson, "Care and keeping east of Eden: Gen 4:1-16 in light of Gen 2-3." Interpretation 60, no. 4 (October 1, 2006): 373-384. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed May 29, 2012) for a different opinion. She argues that, on the contrary, this could be a legitimate question.
[8] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/C. Life in Exile (4:1-26), Book Version: 4.0.2
[9] Cf. Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 82
Posts
