Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”“
(Genesis 4:6-7)

Cain did wrong. He had the wrong heart. It was HIS fault that his offering wasn’t accepted. It was not God’s fault. God has a standard: total righteousness. Anything less falls short. It is up to us to align with Him, not vice versa. If Cain had repented, changing his heart, he could have offered again and been accepted. He didn’t and instead blamed his brother. As if Cain’s offering would have been more acceptable if Abel’s had been less so.

The offering had been rejected, but Cain had NOT BEEN. God was right there SPEAKING to him. Talking to him and coaching him. Warning him not to give into anger. Warning him that the thing or person desired has control over the one who desires. God was trying to lead him into the proper behaviour. The proper heart attitude. And the proper way to deal with the temptations of sin. There is only one place that sin belongs: under our feet. In Jesus, that is the DEFAULT position. If we left it there, it would never bother us. But like Cain, we often choose to open the door and let it out.

The essential point that God was pointing out was that it was not profitable to brood over the past (the offering) when it could so easily be rectified (getting right with God). God was RIGHT THERE speaking this to him, so Cain COULD have engaged with Him. The important lesson God was teaching is that sin is EXTERNAL to human beings. It operates by creating situations in our minds where it is easy for us to CHOOSE it. Our sinful nature made it VERY easy because we were predisposed to selfishness and had no relationship with God to teach us better. Now we are believers, we have Jesus’ nature and a relationship to teach us better. It is harder to get us to sin (or should be) because we are empowered to pull down the strongholds in our minds we had previously built to sinful ideas (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

As the sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘And if you do not do good, remember that sin crouches at the entrance. Beyond the very existence of evil is the concept of sin, which is the introduction of evil into the world through the deeds of man. In this figurative representation, sin is depicted as a living creature that prowls at an entrance and seeks to enter. Behind this verse lies the perception that when a person acts properly, he thereby prevents sin from controlling him, while if he does not, even if he does not actually perform evil, sin crouches at the entrance. And its desire is for you. In contrast to the common perception of man as the one who desires to sin, the verse describes the personified sin as seeking to control man. But you may rule over it. It is within man’s potential to rule over sin. He must keep in mind that sin is ever present, and that it seeks to build itself and grow powerful by attaching itself to him. As long as man is the one in control, and he does not let it conquer him, his existence is assured.’ This is our position in Jesus if we will stay focused on the Lord and rest in Him (1 John 3:9). And when we fail to do that, Jesus has made clear the way of repentance so that we can return with honesty to heart-felt obedience in Him (1 John 1:5-10).