I love the book of Genesis. I love it because the people in it are about as real as you can get. It seems that often we think the people in the stories of the Bible are to holy or too far removed form our present time and place for us to relate to. But Genesis tells a different story. The problems that people are faced with in Genesis are the same problems that still plague us today, because they are problems of the human condition, which do not change because of time or location. Take for instance the story of Cain and Abel. It is filled with some of the same struggles that many people face today. No, not necessarily murder, but the condition that led to murder.I once had a member of a church that I served a few years ago that knew this problem all too well. He never came to church, but I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times in the gated community that he lived in out in the eastern part of the state. During those couple of meetings, I found out just how well he knew this problem.
Let's take a look at what this passage from Genesis 4 says:
1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
We often hear people try to explain why God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's. Some theorize that it is because Cain did not bring the "first fruits" or that he offered it begrudgingly, but to be honest, we just don't know. The text does not tell us why, just that for whatever reason, God liked Abel's offering and not Cain's. So, Cain gets mad - and understandably so. After all, how many of us haven't become sullen when we don't get recognition, at least the same recognition as others. This is pretty common among the human psyche.
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."
Friends, herein lies the problem - sin is crouching at your door. We need to face the fact that it is an absolute - sin is always there ready to pounce on us and devour us. The question is, are we ready, are we prepared to defend ourselves?
The other day, my oldest daughter's boyfriend decided that he was ready to play a little trick on my wife. He crouched behind a door, ready to pop out and scare her at the first opportunity. As he crouched behind that door, he heard footsteps approaching, so he made his move and jumped out and screamed, which was met with an even higher pitched and terrified scream. Only it wasn't my wife; it was a little girl whom we did not know who had just had the misfortune of coming out before my wife. She did not know and was not prepared for what was crouching behind the door.
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
This is probably one of the great travesties of this story. Cain was mad, but he lashed out his anger at the wrong person. Abel had not done anything wrong against his brother. Cain's anger was toward God whom he felt had slighted him. Because he did not heed God's warning, he allowed his jealousy and anger to cause him to kill his brother. Sin does not know boundaries. Sin always hurts more than just ourselves.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" 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." 13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." 15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Herein lies the grace. Although Cain deliberately went against God and murder his brother, God still loved him. He was punished, but God graciously protected him with a mark from God.
Remember that old member that never came to church I spoke of earlier? I said he lived in a gated community. Well, that was a bit of a misnomer. He is actually in prison - on Death Row. A little over a decade ago, he killed his father and stepmother. He admits to doing it, though he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time. Just after he was arrested, the senior pastor of the church went to visit him in jail. He was not a Christian at that time, but he asked if God could forgive him of this horrible crime. The pastor told him that God's grace is sufficient to cover any and all sin. There, in that jail cell, he was repented of all his sin and was baptized.
At some point in the future, he will be executed for his crime. But, God has forgiven him and he is a different person than the one who murdered his parents.
Many of us have done things of which we are not proud. Many of us have succumbed to the temptation to sin against others and against God. But God's grace is sufficient, if we accept it. Sin is always crouching at our door - are we prepared?
