Exodus 3-4: “Go!”

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 June 2012 (15 June 2014) by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click here to read 15 June 2014 version:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/06/exodus-31-416-go.html

We have just had Fathers’ Day (last weekend) and I have certainly been blessed with three of the greatest children for whom a father could ask. On Father’s Day two of my girls made me nice cards. One of them gave me this great coffee cup reading “World’s Greatest Dad” and she gave me a Mars Bar to go along with it. The two oldest girls then came and helped out at the Soapbox Derby as per The Salvation Army’s tradition here in Swift Current. We topped off the evening watching an old 1930s movie and eating homemade ice cream sundaes. It was a good day and I have good daughters.

Sometimes, however, I must admit that my children listen better than they do at other times. I can remember the other week: I remember telling them that we would have to walk home when they arrived at my office. I told them that we would have to walk home because mom couldn’t come pick us up. I told them to make sure to put their coats on because it was raining and we would be walking home. I told them not to bring too many things home from the office because we would be walking home. We then head outside and immediately one of the children asks, where’s the car?

My girls can do so much and can be at times quite confident in their abilities. Rebecca, I remember, even as a three year-old, sang this amazing impromptu solo at a talent show (or something like that) in front of maybe hundreds of people that was absolutely captivating for all who were present. Sarah-Grace played the villain in the school play just this year and she did a spectacular job. Many people have commented on her performance. And this past fall and the one previous she won a prize for her confident ability to sell chocolates for her school. My children, they can be quite confident in their abilities at times.

Moses, in our pericope today, may lack some of this confidence that my girls have at times displayed but Moses appears to listen in very much the same manner as my girls did this past week. Moses, in our story today, as he stands before God, sounds a little like a scared child and as the reader nears end of the pericope, he actually sounds a lot like an obnoxious child as he keeps refusing to just do what he’s told.[1] Here is a brief paraphrase of the text we read earlier today.

Exodus 3:8: The LORD says to Moses, “I have come down to rescue the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians…” 3:10, “Now go, Moses, because I am sending you to Pharaoh.”

Moses: Exodus 3:11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:12: the LORD speaks. It’s not about you. “I will be with you. I have sent you…”

Exodus 3:13, Moses: “Well … suppose I go and…? If I go, who should I say sent me?”

Exodus 3:14-17, the LORD: “I am who I am! Tell them I am sending you! Go and tell them that I am the one who will deliver them.” Exodus 3:16, the LORD says: “I have watched over you…” Exodus 3:17, the LORD says: “I have promised to bring you up out of your misery…” Exodus 3:18 and so on, God says: “I will strike the Egyptians” God says, “I will perform wonders among them…” God says, “I will make the Egyptians favourably disposed to My people…” God says, “I will do it!”

Moses, Exodus 4:1: “But what if they do not believe me…”

God then provides Moses with all kinds of signs, wonders and miracles that God performs… Exodus 4:2-3:

Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

God then turns it back into a staff and then the LORD gives Moses leprosy and cures it and then He tells Moses that He, God, will do all this and more for him in front of Pharaoh. God will even turn the Nile River to blood, He says.

Then, Exodus 4:10, Moses says to God: “I can’t do that…I am slow of tongue…I can’t…. I can’t”

Exodus 4:11, the LORD, who might be getting a little ticked off at this point, I know I would be, He says: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or who makes him mute? Who gives him sight and who makes him blind…” In essence the LORD is asking, “Who? Moses, who? Who’s the one who does all of this? I am!”, He says. Exodus 4:12, God says: “Just go! I will do the rest! I will tell you what to say. Just Go! ^[2]

Exodus 4:13, Moses: “No, Please send somebody else…”

By Exodus 4:14 God is getting really upset by this disobedient adult child. Exodus records that, ‘Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses… “Get Aaron to help you; he can speak; I will help you both speak and teach you what to do.” God does it (cf. Genesis 26:3, 24; 31:3; Exodus 4:12, 15; Deuteronomy 31:23; Joshua 1:5; 3:7; Judges 6:16).

God still does everything that God says God is going to do. God delivers Israel;[3] He does it but He is angry with Moses. Actually, a few verses later, Exodus 4:24, it says that God is more than a little upset with Moses. God, it records, is even going to kill Moses but Moses’ wife – who isn’t even an Israelite – she knows how satisfy the LORD and she saves her husband life and/or possibly even her own son’s life.

Now Moses ultimately, we know, does wind up forfeiting his right to enter the Promised Land and he does die on the outside looking in. After a later display of his lack of faith in God, Moses earns this consequence and maybe even more than that. The Biblical story cares a lot about one’s descendants and we don’t know much about what happened to Moses’ sons at all (1 Chronicles 23:14). God may have even effectively ended Moses’ family line (Numbers 3:1, 27:21 but cf. 1 Chronicles 23:14; see also Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 11).[4] At any rate, God certainly removes them from any prominence in posterity. The priesthood descends through Aaron’s line – not through Moses’ or his sons. The next political leader is Joshua, not one of Moses’ sons. Moses dies on the outside of the Promised Land looking in and in our pericope today, Exodus 3:1-4:31, Moses angers God through his lack of faith and faithfulness and he really is blessed simply to escape with his life.

How about us? Jesus asks the same thing, in essence, of us that He asks here of Moses. Just like God, from the bush, asks Moses to point His people to the salvation that He has provided for them from slavery, if we flip in our Bibles to Matthew 28:18-20, you will notice that Jesus asks us to do the very same sort of thing. Jesus asks us to point everyone to eternal salvation. Jesus says, Matthew 28:19-20a: “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you….”

Just like with Moses, God wants to bless us as instruments of His salvation. Do we ever think of reasons why we can’t do that? Do we ever relentlessly question God –ignoring His repeated responses- like Moses does in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever doubt God in our ignorance like it appears that Moses is doubting God here in Exodus Chapter 3? Do we ever ignore God when He is telling us that He will do something through us? Do we ever argue instead that we can’t possibly live up to what God wants us to do? If so, then, like Moses, we have probably angered God. And if this is the case then we will be blessed to simply escape with our lives.

God has asked each and every one of us to point people to the salvation that is available for everyone through Christ Jesus, our Lord (Matthew 28:18-20; cf. TSA docs 6, 10,11). Do we do that or do we argue with God -refusing to lead others to salvation- as if it is us that need to die for their sins? Do we ever, like Moses, offer to God and ourselves a litany of excuses and reasons why we can’t obey Him in pointing everyone we meet to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses, come up with lame excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Do we ever, like Moses, say that we are not good enough speakers to lead people to salvation? Do we ever, like Moses say, “What if they don’t believe us?” Do we ever, like Moses say, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Do we ever like Moses say, “Please God, send someone else?” Do we ever decline the opportunity; do we ever decline the command and do we ever decline the commission to lead people to the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ?

I have told the story before of a friend of mine who was a car salesman. He felt the prompting of the Lord to lead a friend to Christ - as I believe each of us will who serve the Lord. He felt that the LORD was telling him to tell an employee or a co-worker about the Lord. He felt that he was supposed to point someone to salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. He knew that the Lord was commissioning him to share the gospel. He didn’t do it. The very next day -I believe- he found out that his employee, his co-worker, his friend had died.

Today, all of us here worshipping the Lord together are like Moses standing before God at that burning bush. God has asked us to point others to His salvation. The question is, will we do it?

Moses did. God is a loving God and God is a patient God. God waited for Moses. God waited 400 or more years actually (Cf. Genesis 15:14).[5] God waited those many years to use Moses to point God’s people to salvation. God did not give up on Moses. Even though Moses tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and God used even Moses – taking Moses from this position of a doubting coward who was seemingly afraid more of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where Moses is remembered today as the great lawgiver whom God used to lead a whole nation out of slavery and into a life for service to the LORD (cf. also Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Judges 21:25, Ps 56:13, Proverbs 11:19, 13:14, 14:27, 18:21, Jeremiah 21:8, John 5:24, Hebrews 13:6, Romans 2:1-16, 6:13, 1 John 3:14).[6]

My friend, the car salesperson: He never forgot the lesson God taught him that day. He went on to be an evangelist, a pastor, and a preacher – probably the best preacher that I have ever heard actually. God did not give up on him (Romans 3:3,4; cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). Even though he may have tried God’s patience, pushing God seemingly to the limit, God persisted and he used even my friend – taking him from this position of a doubting coward who was seemingly afraid more of pointing people to salvation than of defying God (Matthew 10:28), to the point where he is remembered today by me as great preacher whom God has used to lead many people out of slavery to sin and into a life of service to the LORD. It was in my time knowing this man that the Lord drew even me towards Officership in The Salvation Army.

It can be the same with all of us here today. We are all standing before God, like Moses at the burning bush. God is asking us to point others out of slavery to sin and towards this glorious salvation in Christ Jesus. The question for us today is will we invent excuses as to why we can’t obey God’s great commission? Will we tell our Lord that we are not good enough speakers or that we don’t know enough to lead people to salvation? Will we doubt God and ask, “What if they don’t believe us?” Will we question God saying, “Who am I that I should be the one to do it?” Will we plead, “Please God send someone else?” Or will we – like Moses eventually does – follow God in leading our friends and our family to salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord?

In just a few minutes we are going to join the Baptists in a community barbeque. Their youth and our youth handed out flyers to the homes in the neighbourhood in preparation for this event. There may be some people that we are going to meet in the next hour or so that have never met Jesus; so I encourage us to ask anyone we don’t recognize if they attend the Community Baptist Church or some other church in town. If they don’t (or even if they do), pray silently, then ask them if they know the Lord - and who knows, if they don’t yet, maybe in our obedience to God, maybe even this afternoon, maybe God will use even us to lead someone to salvation.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] But cf. Kathy Beach-Verhey, "Exodus 3:1-12," Interpretation 59, no. 2 (April 1, 2005):180-182. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20,2012). 181.

^[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 74: Moses, unlike his early days in Egypt, has learnt to distrust himself so thoroughly that he will incur God’s anger (Exod. 4:14). Self-distrust is good, but only if it leads to trust in God. Otherwise it ends as spiritual paralysis, inability and unwillingness to undertake any course of action. Moses, like Elijah (1 Kgs 19), is a picture of a man who has had a ‘nervous breakdown’, and is now unwilling to work for God at all.

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Book of Exodus, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 712.

[4] Cf. Rabbi Menachem Posner, Ask the Rabbi @ The Judaism Website, “Do we know anything about Moses’ descendants? Did they enter the Land of Israel with everyone else?” On-line at http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1530929/jewish/What-Happened-to-Moses-Descendants.htm (viewed 19 June 2012)

[5] Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/B. Preparations for Deliverance (2:1-4:26)/5. Answering inadequate objections (3:11-4:17)/b. What if they ask what your name is? (3:13-22), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] Cf. Fredrick Carlson Holmgren, "Exodus 2:11-3:15," Interpretation 56, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 73-76. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20, 2012), 76.
[7] Cf. Dr. Angus Patterson, "Turning the World Upside down," The Expository Times 122, no. 10 (July, 2011), 497-500. She uses the bush as an object lesson explaining how the divinity of Christ and the humanity of Christ are intertwined.

Genesis 6:5-7: This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 10 June 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

In the old days, spanking used to be a common way of disciplining – not so much any more. Though it was banned in BC public schools before I ever earned the right to receive a backside blessing, I remember friends of mine who attended other places recalling their displeasure at the strap. In that regard it was a real blessing growing up when I did that I lived in British Columbia: did you know that BC was the first province to ban corporal punishment; they did so in the early 1970s, 16 years before the next province or territory. It was the only place in Canada where I could possibly grow up where I was guaranteed not to get the strap. Saskatchewan here only banned corporal punishment in 2005.

Leaving the schools aside as well as what discipline I may or may not have deserved in elementary grades especially. I have a question for you pertaining to parents and spanking their children: Now I am not going to ask how many of us here have ever earned a backside blessing from Mom or Dad but there is the classic phrase that a parent would stereotypically utter before striking her child; does anyone recall what that might be? …”This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” Has anyone uttered or heard this before? I saw one comic along those lines that I thought was particularly amusing; here it is:

In preparation for today’s talk, I was listening to one speaker recount an episode from her own childhood where her mother was about to strike her and was uttering just those words, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” To which the girl responded, either in fact or fantasy, “No, I’m pretty sure it’s going to hurt me more… but, if you disagree, I think have a solution that would help us both…”

Now, of course, there is some truth to the saying: “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you” as far as parental discipline is concerned. I can remember in my own experience as a parent around discipline, not spanking in this case, but discipline nonetheless. There was a sporting event - a Broncos game - that I was really looking forward to going to with one of my daughters. She had already received a warning about a particular behaviour earlier in the evening and that should she repeat that behaviour, missing this event would be the consequence; she then immediately acted out again and she missed the hockey game. That was a consequence of her actions; she missed the game but – as the truth is known – I doubt that she even remembers that now. I do. I was really looking forward to spending some special daddy-daughter time with her but because of her actions and her blatant defiance, that just couldn’t happen and the consequence -I can tell you- hurt me a lot more than it did her. I still remember it.

“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” That, I believe, sums up God’s sentiment behind the whole flood narrative in the scriptures.[1] Genesis 6:5-7:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

The Lord is grieved, it says.[2] The Lord is pained, it says. The Lord created the earth and everything in it and it was good (Genesis 1:1-2:3). Now His creation’s heart is ‘only evil all the time’ (Genesis 6:5). God is not going to withhold his children’s well-earned consequence but in delivering it, He might just be saying, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you.”

God loves us. We remember the creation story, right? On the first day, God the Father makes day and night and then on the fourth day He lovingly places the sun, moon and stars and in the day and the night that He created. Then on the second day He makes the sky and the sea and on the fifth day He places sea creatures, every bird, and winged creature in this environment that He has lovingly prepared for them. On the third day He creates the ground. Then on the sixth day He creates every animal that walks upon the ground. And our Heavenly Father creates humankind in His own image and He places us in the world that He has lovingly prepared for us. God loves His creation. He loves us. Creation is then finished and it is good. [3] God blesses this day, making it holy and then He rests (cf. also Psalm 33:6, Psalm 93; Isaiah 45:12; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 11:3). God makes this beautiful world, that He loves and it is good and He creates good people –Adam and Eve- to look after it, but sin creeps in and breaks God’s heart; so He needs to remove people from the land He put us in.[4] In giving us this time-out, the saddened Father might here say, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you,” for even as He is disciplining humankind, He gives Adam and Eve new clothes and a new start. But again, humankind hurts her Heavenly Father.

This time Cain falls prey to sin, killing his brother and becoming further removed from the Lord and the land he is working (Genesis 4). God loves us so much that He even warns Cain before Cain succumbs to sin. He tells him, 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.” Humanity nonetheless defies God and falls prey to sin again and so God might very well say, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you,” as again humanity needs to be removed from the land that was entrusted to us. God still loves His creation. He gave us, His children, this responsibility to look after His creation for Him and twice now, with Adam and Eve and with Cain, He has had to give us a time-out and twice now He has removed us from the land that He had asked us to look after on His behalf.

Now, it is only a few chapters further along in the story, the years have gone on and God has many more children whom He loves and they are still being disobedient, even with the examples of those before them. As a matter of fact, they are worse than ever. They need a time-out or they need a spanking (depending on your societal and/or generational reference point). Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.” This makes our loving God very sad.[5] A parent hopes that at some point His children will learn their lesson but alas that time has not yet arrived for the Lord’s children and God the Father in essence must be saying to the children and all His creation that was good and that He still loves as He is about to send the flood, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you.”

What about us? This side of the cross… what about us? In this country… what about us? Generations and generations later… what about us? Are we any better? In Canada here, God loves us, like He loves people in the world at the time of Noah. God loves us.

Our forefathers when they were founding our nation decided to take a stand in for God, for King, and for country. So, instead of focusing on individualistic liberties and the selfish pursuits of personal happiness at the expense of others, the Canadian Fathers of Confederation focused on peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), order (God is a God of order not disorder), and good government (cf. Isaiah 9:5-7, Psalm 72).

Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72, in the Bible. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, shall have dominion from sea to sea. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country was intentionally founded on the Word of God. God loves us. We loved God.

And even as recently as the 20^th Century, the Christian Reverends JS Woodsworth (of Manitoba) and Tommy Douglas (Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944-61) and many others intentionally sought to bring about peace and justice through distributing the Lord’s provision to the poor and the needy.[6] We loved God. God loves us.

God saw what He created in Genesis 1-2 and said that His creation was good. God loves this world and God loves this country. God has used this country of Canada to do so much good in the world. But we seem to be changing now; I fear that for us not unlike Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.”

In Canada today, because He loves us, I imagine the Lord is grieved, that His heart is filled with pain; the crime rate now is higher than it ever used to be as we do unto our neighbour what we would never ever want done to ourselves (Matthew 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9-10, 15:2, Galatians 15:14, Ephesians 4:25, James 2:8, cf. also Exodus 22, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 5, 19-17, Proverbs). According to the CCVF, crime is so bad right now that many people are losing faith in the authorities abilities to stop it that -in many cases- charges aren’t even being filed anymore.[7] Even economic crime is on the rise in Canada with Reuters reporting that 56 percent of companies surveyed recently (more than half of them) reported falling prey to white-collar crime.[8] And – of course – there is pornography, which horribly is North America’s most lucrative pastime. In the United States, pornography revenue is more than all money made from professional football, baseball and basketball combined. The money made by US pornography exceeds the combined revenues of all their major TV networks (6.2 billion) Child pornography alone generates $3 billion annually.[9]

“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” That, I believe, sums up God’s sentiment and it may be what the Lord is telling us here today as we prepare to meet our much-deserved discipline preceding the echaton. Genesis 6:5-7:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

We can just picture the tears running down the Lord’s face: “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.” We are God’s loved creation. There are consequences for our sins. In Genesis 3, we see that the ground is cursed and Adam and Eve are removed from the garden for their sin. In Genesis Chapter 4, we see that the land is cursed for Cain and he becomes a wanderer. In Genesis Chapters 6-9, we see that the ground is cursed with a flood to cleanse the world of our sin.

In Canada today and probably the rest of the so-called Western World, the so-called First World, too, it seems that every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts is drifting towards that same evil that we have been reading about in Genesis – and we should know better. Our culture looks like it is standing before the Lord, He with paddle in hand or -if you prefer- a time-out chair in the corner saying, “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.” And He is right.

Again I think of my daughter and how much I really wanted to spend some quality time with her at the hockey game. I was longing for that. I was looking forward to that. I really wanted to spend quality time strengthening our relationship and getting to know her better. I love my daughter and I was looking forward to spending that time enjoying her company, but she acted out in a way (even when she was warned not to) that resulted in her losing the privilege – and I lost the privilege. I am not sure if she even remembers the incident but it grieves my heart to this day. “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.”

It is the same with us in this world today and it is sad but there is good news. After the flood, God makes a covenant with Noah. God blesses Noah and his sons, saying to them, Genesis 9:1, like He told Adam and Eve in the garden in the beginning “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (see Genesis 1:28) and Genesis 9:7, “...be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” (see Genesis 1:28).[10] And Genesis 9:8-10:

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

And we know what the sign of that covenant is, right? The rainbow. And God too makes a covenant with us through the later sending of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever of us believes in Him shall not perish in the eternal floodwaters but shall have everlasting life. Friends, make no mistake: God loves us and the eschaton is coming. The end is near. It is coming soon and Matthew tells us about the end time, that it will be, Matthew 24:37-39 (see Luke 16:26-27):

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

We cannot forget though that God’s story of the flood actually speaks to correction for the purpose of salvation rather than to mere judgment[11] and 2 Peter 2:5,9: “if [God] did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ... if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment” (cf. TSA doc. 11). And this applies to us today. God loves us and has provided for our salvation from the impending crisis.

So today, the end is near; the eschatological flood is coming and if you have not yet boarded that ark of eternal salvation, if you have not yet picked up your ticket for that eternal cruise, if you have not yet walked up that gang plank, look around you: the metaphorical animals are already marching up two by two to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. As this is the case, let us all now hop aboard that ark of eternal salvation. It is easy to do. If you haven’t made that reservation yet, please speak to the Lord and if you would like help booking your spot let me know, we can help; and once you have secured your seat, come tell me and everyone else here so that we can welcome you aboard. And for those of us here who have already made this commitment, for those of us here who already reserved our seats, even if it was a long time ago, please let us invite everyone else we know to come and join us aboard as well. This cruise of eternal salvation is real and I guarantee you it will be the ride of your life.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Suffering of God, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984),112.

[2] Cf. T. Desmond Alexander, “Genesis 6:6-7” in The ESV Study Bible, ed. Lane T. Dennis (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2008), Available on-line: http://esvstudybible.org/

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 74

[4] 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)/D. The Story of Noah (5:1-10:32)/4. The Flood (6:5-9:17)/a. The decree (6:5-12), Book Version: 4.0.2 for a good discussion of the influence of the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil on this story.

[5] Cf. Derek Kidner: Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 91

[6] Cf. Bill Blaikie, The Blaikie Report: An Insider's Look At Faith And Politics (Winnipeg, MB: United Church Publishing House, 2012)

[7] Lorrie Goldstein, Canadian Crime Victim Foundation (Toronto: Oct 25, 2009), cited November 22, 2009. Available on-line:http://www.ccvf.net/articles.cfm?pageID=articles&subpageID=news&viewID=75 : Every five years, Statistics Canada conducts the General Social Survey. It asks a representative sample of Canadians, among other things, whether they have been crime victims. From the last survey in 2004 (the next one is being conducted now, with the findings to be released next year) Statistics Canada reached the following conclusions. First, progressively fewer Canadians who are crime victims are reporting the crime to police -- only 34% in 2004, compared to 37% in 1999. Second, based on the GSS, an estimated 92% of sexual assaults were never reported to police, 46% of break-ins, 51% of motor vehicle/parts thefts, 61% of physical assaults and 54% of robberies.

[8] Economic crime rate rises in Canada, report says (Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:14pm EST) cited November 21, 2009. Available on-line: http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCATRE5AI52E20091119 : "Some 56 percent of companies surveyed reported falling prey to white-collar crime during the period, the 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers' Economic Crime Survey showed. That's a 10 percentage point increase over 2003 and a 4 point increase from two years ago."

[9] Christian Technology Solutions, Pornography Industry Statistics. Cited 21 November, 2009. Available on line: http://christiantechnologysolutions.com/content/view/18/24/

[10] Cf. W. Sibley Towner,  “Genesis 9:8-17.” Interpretation 63, no. 2 (April 1, 2009): 168-171. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 4, 2012).

[11] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994),389.

Genesis 4:7b: Sin is Crouching at Your Door.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 03 June 2012
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.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 373

[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