A devotional thought presented originally to River Street Cafe, Regent Park Toronto, Friday 17 June 2016
Read
Genesis 4:3-8
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 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 Sin 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 focusing on a worm or some other prey below, he is so
focused 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 - take your eyes off that worm
- 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 focused 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
focused 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 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.
So, let us remember when we are tempted to
walk out on that porch of selfishness, superiority, self-pity, retribution and
spite; 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.
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