The Crouching Master: Genesis 4:6-8
Sin crouches at the door, and its desire is for you. Sin is the brokenness in our relationship with God. Sin is the tempter who looks for an opportunity to cause the broken wound in our relationship with God to grow wider. Sin wants to separate you from God.
God doesn’t let Cain stew in his anger. As any loving parent – or spiritual mentor – would do, God inquires of Cain. God opens the door to conversation. God doesn’t want Cain to dwell in his anger without having the means of getting past it.
Cain doesn’t reply, at least not that we are told here. Given the opportunity to engage with God, Cain opts out. This affirms yesterday’s lesson. Cain wasn’t buying in. He wasn’t sold on the life God wanted him to live. His heart wasn’t in his sacrifice and his heart wasn’t willing to listen to God as God tried to help him out. Cain was walking through the motions of relationship with God, but he wasn’t participating in it.
God cautions Cain to be careful of where his heart is. Cain needs to want it – to do well, if you will – for his sacrifice to be accepted. It isn’t the offering Cain gave that is the issue, it is the status of Cain’s heart that causes the turmoil.
God also cautions Cain that sin is crouching at the door. This is one of my favorite images of sin. Someone crouching at the door is someone waiting to pounce. They take their victim by surprise, using the door to disguise their approach. Someone crouching at the door is lurking and waiting for the perfect opportunity to enter and make an impact.
God tells Cain if he doesn’t do well – if his heart doesn’t want it – sin will take advantage of the opportunity. It is the condition of our heart that determines how easy sin can drive its claws into our soul. A heart that longs for God can resist sin’s taint. A heart that looks away from God waits for a different master to lead it. Sin crouches at the door, waiting for our heart to turn away from the God who created it.
This is exactly what we see in Cain. His heart wasn’t in the sacrifice. His heart wasn’t in the conversation with God. His heart was searching for a new master, which it found the next time Cain and Abel were out in the fields together. Cain succumbs to the desire of sin and kills his brother in anger.
Abel dies without ever being heard from in the Bible. His lasting testimony is a man who desired to give of his firstfruits to God. Abel dies at the hands of a jealous brother who can’t resist the anger dwelling within. Abel did nothing wrong in this story, and Cain made him pay for it. Sin crouches at the door, and its desire is for you.
