Door

Sin is “crouching at the door” (Genesis 4:7).

Washing Feet (Aaron Spong)

Sin is “crouching at the door” (Genesis 4:7).

Those are the words that God uses in speaking with Cain after his offering was not accepted.  Cain is angry and God speaks to him about that and then warns him and his brother, “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.” (Genesis 4:7).

God can see what is happening.  Cain has not yet killed his brother, Abel, but there is something inside him moving in that direction.  The language is very descriptive.  There is something inside crouching…  I can almost imagine a snake waiting to strike or a tiger waiting to pounce.  And the door is the entry point.  What is being allowed in.  Sin is not abstract here.  It is a clear boundary.  It is Cain’s life at a crossroad, ready to move forward, and he chooses to take the step in the wrong direction…

The sin has a desire in this verse, just as the woman is descried as having desire in relation to her husband in Genesis 3:16.  The desire is not mere attraction, but a movement towards control.  Sin seeks to control Cain and God simultaneously warns Cain to “rule over it.” 

And sin grows.  In Genesis 3 sin is disobedience to God, in Genesis 4 it stretches into human relationships with each other.  Cain expresses his anger as a rejection.  But the story in Genesis shows that this outward expression of sin is let in through the inner door of Cain.  The murder does not arise suddenly without warning.  Sin is aggressive and close.  It is not passively waiting to be picked up, but rather crouches like a living thing seeking entry.  And it does not force its way in.  Rather, sin moves towards a weakness and waits…

Cain knows what is at stake and still decides to go ahead.  He knows what is at stake and continues on his path.  He fails to close the door.  Not because he did not know that sin was waiting outside it, but because there is a comfort in sin in the immediacy of it.  There is a soothing feeling that the offences are being heard.  It is only when it is too late and the sin has entered that the corruption of that appearance is revealed.  It is only when the sin strikes that the previous struggle can be made clear. 

And I have been thinking about Cain in this story and the sin crouching at the door, because I have been playing with sin crouched at the door for more time than I care to admit and it worries me tat because of my complacency, I have done such terrible things.  Such terrible terrible things – all because the door is ajar…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.