Crouching Sin

13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Lessons

For our lesson, go back to verses 6 and 7.

The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Consider the question that the Lord asks Cain. Why is Cain angry? What has happened? His offering is rejected, while his brother’s is accepted. Because Cain is one of us – a fellow human being – we can easily understand how his feelings would be hurt by God. Indeed, many have puzzled over God’s rejection, which on the surface seems arbitrary. Is God playing favorites?

No, God is not playing favorites. God explains to Cain that if he had done well, he and his offering would have been accepted. We do not have the details to know exactly the issue with Cain’s offering, but Cain himself does not seem to pondering the problem of his offering, which is a problem in itself.

Isn’t the logical step for Cain to ask God where he went wrong with his offering? Should he have offered a lamb like Abel? Was there a heart issue he needed to deal with? Instead, Cain gets angry with Abel! What is that about? Was Abel being an annoying little brother bragging about his offering?

The source of Cain’s trouble lies not with Abel nor with God. It lies crouching at his door. Cain’s trouble is entry of sin – sin that came through the actions of his parents. That sin is now infecting Adam and Eve’s descendants. Already it has taken root in Cain. That is why he fails to present an acceptable offering in the first place. Then we see it in his response to God’s rejection of the offering. He is personally offended instead of chastened.

God now alerts Cain to the corrupting infection taking place. Sin is crouching at the door. Sin is not content with mildly influencing Cain. Sin wants to rule Cain. And if Cain does not get hold of himself, if Cain allows bitterness to grow, sin will do just that; sin will take control of Cain, leading him to become a murderer, even a murderer of his own kin.

There is a chilling scene in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The boys stranded on an island believe that there is a beast in the jungle. The climactic scene is that of one boy Simon, who is standing before the head of a slain wild pig and hallucinates that the head is speaking to him.

“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?”