Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. -Genesis 4:1-11
I like looking at my house on Google Earth. I like to zoom way down to the street level. All the way down till I'm standing in virtual reality in front of my driveway. Then slowly, click by click, I pan out further and further till I'm at the fullest distance of about halfway to the moon looking down on earth as a whole.
And then slowly again I zoom myself back in to street level and start over. All to get the accurate perspective. I see my little home, my little bills, and my little life engulfed in this immense world. And it's perspectives like these that help me to understand myself better.
It's putting something in context to its surroundings. A sort of getting-out in order to get a full view from above rather than fumbling in emotions while stitching together a dozen side-views from within.
With an admitted over-simplification I call it the God Perspective.
It's also one of the secrets I've learned to reading my bible. I try to think about it from God's perspective. For instance, the Cain and Abel story is familiar but it never really hit home with me. I mean, so what if one guy killed his brother. I've never killed my brother. I have no property in that neighborhood; no perspective to relate to this story.
And besides, thousands of people are killed off like ants throughout the Old Testament and even millions more since then. So I figured it was just an example of how murder is a sin and left it at that. You know, for those prison preachers to teach about.
But then I heard the Mark Driscoll sermon on it (posted below) and I began to look at it contextually- Cain was the firstborn son of Adam (father) and Eve (mother). They had sex just like we do and Eve got pregnant with a boy. So Cain must’ve had an unusual childhood to say the least.
He must’ve often heard from his dad (Adam) about being created from dust by God. He would’ve known about the days before “the fall” when his dad named every living creature.
Cain would be aware that God created his mother from his fathers’ rib. He would've heard stories about the beauty and blessings within the Garden of Eden. And Cain would've known how his mother and father were lured by the serpent and eventually expelled from Eden forever.
So using all that as the surroundings to Genesis 4 when Cain and his brother Abel brought their offerings to God, there shouldn't have been much doubt in Cain's heart of: (1.) Who God was (2.) What God expects (3.) That God delivers justice.
So now I’m racking my brain thinking, why then would Cain kill his brother practically right in front of God? Well just speculating but, maybe he didn't know he could kill him. Up until then the bible hasn't mentioned of anyone dying. Maybe they just didn't know what human death was. It’s obvious that Cain was up to no good. Scripture says, “Cain was very angry” and “Cain rose up against his brother.” But murder? The 10 commandments didn't even exist.
I decided to plug this into my Google Earth technique. It's as if God was saying, "Come here John. Sit up here beside me and watch how this unfolds." Kind of like a heavenly view of the Globe theater.
So I try panning out a little further...
Then I notice something. I begin seeing how God continually leaves my side to head down there and interact with Cain. And watching as God returns to his seat then smile while standing up again to head back down I'm starting to think this isn't about a murder. This is about a repentance.
It's about repentance and the persistence of God’s mercy. I think God is showing me how he comes to us and gives us multiple chances to accept our sin, to confess our sin, and to repent.
Let’s play around with the story a little and I’ll show you what I mean.
First off, the Lord said to Cain before the murder even happened- “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
And remember, God already knew Cain would murder Abel. So when God said, “sin is crouching at the door” and “you must rule over it”, he wasn't so much warning Cain. God is preparing Cain for what’s about to happen.
And that helps me start moving the fog around a bit too. Because after the murder God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" When God already knew Abel was dead. God already knew Cain had killed him. God knows everything.
And I could be way off here but I think God allowed all this because he was trying to get Cain to admit what he had done. Because by getting Cain to own up to it, God could then help Cain understand it was wrong and then to repent.
Like a kid who’s drawn on the living room wall with crayons. The parent says, “What have you drawn on?” while staring at both the wall and the child. The parent knows but he wants to get his child to understand. He wants the child (who is plainly guilty) to have the chance to learn about his involvement in and results of his own actions.
Of course Cain just smarted off to God by saying, "I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?" And that would be like the child saying to their parent, “What am I, Picasso?”
So then God says plainly, "What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” And to me that sounds like the parent saying, “There’s crayon all over the wall and you’re the crayon kid.”
So now both Cain and the child are at a point of accepting, admitting and repenting that they have been engaged in a wrongful act.
Now whether or not Cain actually repented is debatable so I'll leave that up to you.
But all this is very important to me. I was raised with very few guidelines being taught about what sin is in God’s eyes. In fact, I was plainly raised to believe God was an inactive God and that I should sin as much as I could get away with.
And now by the grace of God's active love for me (like a father for his son) I have heard God’s voice call when I’m on the edge and say, “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” It is a warning, yes. But I think sometimes it’s also a preparation, knowing I will fall.
And to me at least, the point I get from Cain and Abel is how even in our sin God in his foreknowledge is already calling to us. Not in condemnation but in love. He lovingly holds our sins accountable to us to try to get us to see ourselves through his eyes. And we as his children must have the humility and courage to not deny our sin or hide our sin or even minimize our sin.
No, we must admit our sin even before it occurs- when it first becomes a thought. The way Cain was given the chance to when he first became angry and God came to him saying, "Why are you angry?"
So now I'm ready to start slowly zooming back down onto my life with a proper contextual reference. Through the story of Cain and Abel, God teaches me that as a descendant of Adam I am like Cain and in a continual headlong dive into sin.
And I must call to God now with the desperation of a convicted felon in repentance for my own murderous heart. And pray that in God’s mercy he will, “deliver me from evil” before I do something as awful as killing my own brother.
No comments:
Post a Comment