Scripture Notes: The Trouble with Cain (Genesis 4)

Humanity is still very young when Abel and Cain bring their sacrifices to God, but already sin has crept into worship and distorted it. Abel brings the very best of his flock, the firstlings and their fat. He does not hold back. He places the highest before the Highest and at the same time offers himself. But Cain brings some of the fruits of the ground. We are not told what those fruits are, but apparently they are not the best or the highest. Cain is holding back.

Not surprisingly, God accepts Abel’s offering but not Cain’s, and Cain is angry, not with himself for skimping on God’s worship but with God and with his brother. He pouts. He sulks. He complains. God tells him that if he does well, then he will be accepted. In other words, shape up, Cain. But He also warns Cain that sin is lurking at his door, and Cain must master it.

Cain does not. Instead, he opens the door wide and lets sin walk right in. He allows his anger to take hold of him and his envy to flare up. If he cannot have God’s favor, then he does not want anyone else to have it either. So he invites his brother out into the field and strikes him down in cold blood. Here is envy taken to its extreme and in only the second generation of humanity. 

Cain never shows any sign of repentance. He tries to cover up his crime, thinking he can pull a fast one on God. But he ends up in exile, separated from the earth and from his family, sent to wander far from home, marked with a sign of his crime. Indeed, Cain has brought sin to a new level, and his self-centered violence passes to his descendants and spreads to the whole human race.

Scripture Notes: Do Not Covet (Exodus 20)

God makes it very clear in His covenant commandments to His people: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex 20:17). But what does it mean to covet? 

We all look at things that other people have and say, “Wow! That’s great! I would sure like to have that, too.” That is not coveting. That is merely appreciating the goods of this world, which are truly good. 

But when we start thinking things like, “I want that, and I don’t want that person to have it, too,” then we enter into the realm of coveting. Essentially to covet something (or someone) is to have a disordered desire for it (or him or her). It is to turn that thing or person into an idol, to put it first in the order of longings, to want it so badly that it becomes an obsession, and to want it exclusively for oneself. This is the kind of attitude that breaks God’s commandment. 

What is so wrong with coveting? First, it disobeys God’s will for us. We must put Him first in our lives, far before any worldly good. Second, it disrespects other people by wanting to deny them the goods they rightfully have. Third, when we covet, we put ourselves and our longings front and center and end up thinking and behaving like small children who want what they want when they want it and throw tantrums when they do not get it. 

So we should all take some time to examine our consciences in this area and make sure we are not falling into patterns that violate God’s very reasonable command of “Do not covet.”

Scripture Notes: God Was Grieved (Genesis 6)

Not all that many generations had passed since the time of creation and the time of the first human sin, but the world had steadily grown worse and worse. People were consumed by hatred and lust and greed. Their sin expanded exponentially, and wickedness reigned over the whole world. 

Genesis 6 tells us that for each human being “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). In other words, people had drifted (perhaps run?) far away from God. They had allowed evil to get into their hearts and minds and control them from the inside out. They stopped listening to God, stopped obeying Him, stopped even trying to know His will. Instead, they focused on what they wanted, whether it was good for them or not, and it was not good.

All of this grieved God “to His heart,” and He “was sorry that He had made man on the earth” (Gen 6:6). We have to be careful, of course, when we attribute human emotions like this to God, for He is not subject to them as we are. But God allows this kind of description as an accommodation to help us understand Him just a little bit in a way we can grasp. 

So what does it mean that God was grieved and sorry? The verb translated here as “was sorry” can indeed mean exactly that, but it also carries nuances of being moved to pity and having compassion and suffering grief. God, of course, does not regret having made the world or human beings because He made everything out of His great love, and that great love does not change. But He wants us to know that human wickedness and sin sadden Him as well as offend Him. Human beings have fallen from the state of grace and innocence, and this grieves God all the way to His heart. 

After all, God wants only the very best for us. That is love. We humans have a knack for choosing exactly what is worst for us. But God has a plan, right from the very beginning, to redeem the human race. Our job is to enter into that plan and do our part to ease the grief in God’s heart.