Genesis 4:3-17

2006.Jul.25 09:33

Anatomy of a sin

Read Genesis 4:3-17 | Full Chapter

This is your life. Day in day out, you’re working the land, tilling the ground, a farmer making a living off cursed soil. You’re good at it though, and your folks work with you some. Your brother’s a good guy, too. He takes care of the flock. It’s hard work for you both, but you’ve got good vegetables, good meat, clothing on your backs.

Your parents tell you about the God who used to walk with them. You believe them, seeing as how they and your brother are the only sentient beings around, but those times are passed. Your parents screwed up, you pay for it. Now you get to see them fight, you’ve been hurt by their harsh words, but you can tell they want back with God, they want life again. What you have, they tell you sometimes, isn’t life. When you hear God speak, that’s good, but it’s not, they say, what they had. They tell you and your brother to make sacrifices to this God. Maybe, someday…

Abel, he’s your younger brother, brings the first born of his flock, and God accepts that sacrifice. You bring the sweat of your back, the vegetables and fruits you’ve grown. Maybe the difference is you weren’t specific about bringing the first fruits, maybe God has a thing for blood. Whatever the reason, God didn’t accept your sacrifice. This was your work. What does Abel do anyway, just watch the sheep and cattle, make sure they don’t do anything stupid? You work hard, provide for your family, these people God created and then cast out of his magic fairy-land garden! And, what, your sacrifice is not good enough! So, yeah, you’re super pissed. And God has the nerve to ask why.

He tells you, "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 4:7, NASB) . You try a little. You tell what happened to Abel, but that just makes you angrier. Abel, what is he to you? And so, you let it, you let the sin in. You let it master you. And you kill your brother in your anger.

Your sin, suddenly, seems greater than your parents. You try to deceive God when he asks after your brother. He casts you out, to be a traveller. Your hard work will produce barely enough for you. And you cry out "My punishment is too great to bear" (Genesis 4:13) ! And God has mercy on you. Though the curse is not removed, he provides you grace, that you will not be slain. And you wander and settle many years later. You have a family. You have sinned greatly, but so much greater has been God’s mercy on you.

Cain sinned. He sinned in thinking his sacrifice should be worthy before God. He was too proud to replace his rejected sacrifice with a pleasing one, and instead chose to be angry with his brother, to the point of murdering Abel. He then went so far as to try to deceive God directly. That’s sin, that’s what’s in all of us. We talk a lot about God’s grace through Christ, but God’s grace has always existed. Cain deserved to die, but God granted him mercy. And Jehovah’s grace can always be included in the story of a sin.

And law came in, that the offence might abound, and where the sin did abound, the grace did overabound, that even as the sin did reign in the death, so also the grace may reign, through righteousness, to life age-during, through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Romans 5:20-21, Young)

That’s the lesson I take from Cain’s, the ease with which we are deceived into sin. And how much easier it is to accept God’s grace. Well, easier, when we recognize our sin and are humble before the Lord.