Genesis Diaries 4:2-7

As is usual in the narrative of Genesis, decades and sometimes centuries pass from one sentence to the next.  Here in verse two we learn what becomes of Cain and Abel as they mature and grow into their occupations.  Abel becomes a shepherd.  Cain chooses to continue in the occupation given man in the garden of Eden, the work of his father.  He works the ground.  

There is a world of difference between these two occupations that we tend to skip over.  For Cain there is constant toil.  He tills the fallow ground, plants seeds, pulls weeds, perhaps irrigates, and does battle with the thorns as his father had.  Able takes a different route than anyone before him.  He gathers sheep, leads them to water and green pastures.  The majority of his time is spent watching the sheep…literally sitting and keeping an eye on them, intervening only if there is danger or injury.  While Cain is out every single day, in the elements, and his work could all be wiped out by locusts, storms, or wildfire making all that effort for naught, I’m sure it seemed like his brother had a far easier life.  

In this narrative of scripture there is a lot of details that are not covered.  Those details are not the point of the story, as infuriating as that can be for modern audiences.  We know that offerings are made to the LORD.  Cain brings his crops to lay before the LORD and Abel brings the firstborn of his flock along with the fat portions.  The LORD has regard for Abel’s offering and disregard for Cain’s offering.  Why?  We don’t know.  

The point of the scripture is not what Cain did wrong or Abel did right in the offering process.  I have heard a ton of exposition that tortures the scripture into saying Cain didn’t offer his first fruits and Abel did.  Others say it’s an important detail that Abel offered the fat portions as well, so that made his offering superior to his brother’s.  Well, there was no fat in the loin of a carrot that Cain could have offered.  There is no “choice part” of a broccoli anyone would hold back selfishly that might more greatly please the LORD in the sacrifice of it.  

What is the important part of the narrative is 1) how quickly small things can escalate form frustrations to a gross sin and 2) how many opportunities Cain was given explicitly by the LORD to change directions; very clear warnings.  So it was with Israel. So it is with us all unto this day.  As Rob Bell once said, “It isn’t that these things happened so much as that they keep happening.”

The key here is Cain’s anger.  Honestly, who can blame him.  Perhaps he believed he had it harder than his brother; that his toil, blood, sweat, and tears poured into the very ground his vegetables and fruits grew in would make the sacrifice more acceptable in the sight of Almighty God.  Every indication here is that Cain made a sacrifice that simply wasn’t as good as his brother’s, and anger consumes him beyond what it should have.

God asks why Cain is angry.  “If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.”  Whenever God asks a question remember that He already knows the answer.  Any question asked is so the individual will have the opportunity to be honest with Him or himself. It’s an opportunity for self-reflection and for a change of direction.  The personal affront Cain feels reaches to a sinful place for satisfaction.  God recognizes this and warns him, “It’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

There are at least a few hundred thoughts that occur to me in just what God says to Cain here.  God admonishes him to do well.  If he does not do well, then there is sin waiting at the door to “have” him.  How do we understand sin and it’s desire to “have” Cain…and us?

Sin is given something of a personality here.  It is not simply a concept or an intellectual category of actions.  It is active.  It has desire.  It doesn’t “have” Cain at this point.  He has yet to actually sin.  He did not “do well”.  He is angry about that, probably feeling shame for not doing as well as he’d hoped, yet sin is crouching at the door.  

The word “crouching” makes us think of a lion ready to pounce, or some other predator preparing themselves to attack and devour their prey.  The original Hebrew word “rabas” does not indicate this at all.  It means that sin is stretching out, lying down, in a lazy kind or repose.  It does this “at the door”.  This refers to the doorway, to the gate, of any house or city.  It means the one place where everything goes in and out.  Specifically here the full sentence can mean, “If you do not do the good, habitual missing the mark (sin) is reclining in the opening of your self.”  

How true is that to our experience?  If you’ve had any kind of life experience you know that the sin you struggle with now was once a small rejection of the Good.  Whether it was done in full double middle fingers blazing rebellion or with a quiet “Who is it going to hurt?  It’s not as bad as some other things I could be doing,” sin set up shop in the doorway of our “opening”.  Every time we go in or out, think in or out, act or react in or out, there it is, tempting us to act or react opposite of the Good we know the Lord calls us to.   If you’ve had a small child or teenager you may have encountered their “hilarious” trick/game of blocking your path so that when you want to do something you have to awkwardly step over them as they make your life difficult.  Perhaps they grab at your ankle, or cling to your leg so that you have to drag them with you until you say, “Enough!  It’s not funny or cute anymore!”  I believe this is the image we are to see with sin crouching at Cain’s/our opening of self.

Sin has a desire.  That desire is given character in the Hebrew word “tesuqa”.  It is specifically the desire a wife has for her husband and a husband has for his wife.  This kind of desire is hard not to see as somewhat sexual.  It’s root word “suq” indicates an overflowing, reaching out arms like a raging flood, or the way water flows stretching grasping plunging toward its object in the application of irrigation.  Sin is not an inactive force without a face, a spiritual concept without an intention.  It wants, it craves, it acts, and we would do well to remember that.  Its desire for Cain is the same as its desire for us.  

God follows up this warning of sin’s overflowing desire with a hopeful phrase.  “…but you must rule over it.” How is that a hopeful phrase? We can rule over it. How? By choice.

As always, God gives humanity as a whole and individual human’s a choice.  Cain did not do what was right and he was angry.  Due to his choosing to not do what was best, sin was lingering in his doorway.  At this point Cain had the ability to tell sin to take a hike and turn around and “do well”.  God had not rejected Cain personally, but his sacrifice.  Cain could have dominion over his sin, rule over it, and stop himself from committing to sin; from embracing and welcoming in the sin that so wanted him like a wife longs for her husband in the night.  

The terrible and most frightening thing about this existence is that the LORD respects the choices of men and women.  He warns.  He shows the better way and encourages us to walk in it to bring Shalom to all those around us.  Choosing is ours to do.  And then He lets us see and experience the full consequences of our actions.  

The blood on the ground.

The rage in the veins.

The screaming, bowel shaking grief of a mother and father as they learn what death is for the first time.

The crippling guilt and shame that will haunt him for all his days, marked as cursed among all men.

As with his parents sinful actions, Cain’s will ripple out affecting humanity for all time even unto this very day.

As always, if you made it this far and appreciated what you’ve read, if it’s touched you, inspired you, or challenged you, please like, subscribe, and share.  

Pax,

W