Notice the wording over him. This is a masculine pronoun indicating a malignant living power within us. There are two ways of interpreting what God said to Cain here. The first and most common application is that God is showing a major purpose He intends for man, which purpose is to be accomplished by overcoming or mastering sin's desire to be in control and do its own thing. He shows here that sin's desire is always at the threshold of man's moral and ethical choices. We need to be aware of this, but we need to have the drive to conquer it.
The second application is that this is a warning contained within a prophecy to any and all who read it, but given specifically to Cain. God understood. He knew Cain's character. He knew Cain's personality. God saw in Cain a strong proclivity to sin, and God was prophesying that Cain was going to become a master at sinning. We would say today that Cain was going to become a real pro at sinning. So the warning to all is: Do not allow yourself to do as Cain did. Cain nurtured sin within him. It has become a proverb in the Bible: The way of Cain.
Actually these two interpretations of these verses are really very similar. If we let ourselves go the way Cain did, we will become a pro at sinning. We will become very skilled and adept at it, because sin - this malignant power within us - knows how to break out and exercise its authority over us. Human nature is quite sneaky that way, so we can see then that it is always going to be at the threshold of our moral and ethical choices. We are going to have to master it, conquer it.
Paul understood. He said, I will not be a slave of any practice that might corrupt my mind or destroy my liberty. It is almost like it is a reflection on Genesis 4.6: You shall master it! Overcome it! Rule it! Dominate it!
We know that God's real purpose here has something to do with the material things of life, but God is looking upon something that is much greater than that, and that is the spiritual. And He is indicating to you and me that the things that are spiritual in our lives are also going to have to be embellished, added to, dressed; and they too are going to have to be kept from deteriorating. And so they are going to have to be guarded, and there is work involved in those things. There is work in the proper management, or dominion, over the things that God has put within the scope of our authority. So both of these are indicating work.
Or, it could say, You shall master it. Or, it could say, You shall overcome it. This is a vivid metaphor in which sin is pictured as a wild beast, eager to be at us and to consume us, and it needs to be tamed. Now, I think that you would agree that, if you were faced with a wild animal, there would be a great deal of effort expended, first of all, in anxiety. The very emotion of the thing would drain you of a great deal of your energy. And you know it would be pretty hard work just to keep control of yourself in such a situation. If you were going to bring that animal under your dominion, you would have to be working with that thing, would you not?
God uses very vivid metaphors. But what I want to get across to us is this concept that, right at the beginning of the Book, God is laying down principles by which His purpose is going to be guided. And anybody who becomes a part of that purpose is going to know and understand that this purpose that He is bringing him or her into is going to require hard work to fulfill it.
Adam and Eve could not even keep the simple commandment that He gave in its letter. I want you to notice: He informed. They sinned. And He judged. There is the pattern. God always follows that pattern. He always informs people. As we are going to see, even the heathen are informed. Those He has called into His own church are informed better than anybody else, but everybody on earth is informed enough for God to judge.
From these verses it is very clear that they were instructed regarding the offerings. Abel simply followed God's instructions. Cain did not. Look at verse 7 again, and then we are going to look at verse 13 because we want to see Cain's reaction.
How can good and bad be judged unless He instructed them? They knew what was good. They knew what was bad. Abel did what was good, but Cain, like his mother before him, shifted gears a little bit and substituted his own thinking regarding what would be acceptable to God. Verse 13 gives Cain's reaction. He was angry.
Again, God informed. Cain disobeyed. God judged. The pattern is followed. So it was Cain then, representing mankind, who was unjustly angry at God's judgment. In his eyes, he had become victimized by God. Thus we already see two patterns developing. First, God lets mankind know what He expects. His expectation is not even to the level of the New Covenant. At most it is the level of the Old Covenant. Secondly, mankind disobeys, and then feels unjustly treated in God's judgment.
God did not ask questions because He did not know the answers. He was not trying to figure out whether Adam was hiding in one or another of the trees. Later in the account of Cain and Abel when Cain was displeased that his offering was rejected, God asked him a series of questions.
So in both those incidences God asked a lot of questions.
In II Samuel 12:9, God asked David through Nathan, Why did you despise the word of the Lord? by doing what is evil in His eyes. In Isaiah 6:8, God asked Isaiah, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? And in Matthew 16:15, the Lord asked, Who do you say I am? The apostle John recorded many of Christ's questions as well. God asks questions to get us to face the situation. He asks us, we have to answer, and whatever we answer better be the truth. And then even if we answer the truth, often we have condemned ourselves, but that is one of the main reasons God asks questions - to get us to face the situation ourselves to more deeply realize what we have done.
This is what Jesus asks us when we have been trying to go it on our own, Have you been successful? Are you satisfied? Questions like that. He asks these questions through His inspired written Word so that we might recognize our hunger, need, failure, and need to turn to Him.
We could tie into Hebrews 11:4, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice, and see that Cain's sacrifice lacked the essential quality of faith and obedience to God's instruction. Picking up now, Genesis 4:5 as we build on the story.
So God accepted Abel's offering. He rejected Cain's, and this led to Cain being furious. The underlying Hebrew here makes it clear he was not just angry. He blazed up. He was hot in jealousy. Cain's messiah complex could not accept that his younger brother had done something better than him. He simply could not take correction of any kind. God sees Cain's heart, and He warns, Sin is at [your] door.
And this is the first biblical example of human conflict. We see the underlying attitude that drives conflict between two people: prideful jealousy, envy, and self-seeking. If in our heart and mind we have any ill will towards anyone else in the church, the root is Satan's spirit of envy, pride, and jealousy. Behind every single thought or negative word spoken about someone else is a desire to elevate ourselves. We want more position, we want more recognition, we want more possessions.
Cain fell victim to this all-or-nothing thinking distortion.
It was not a matter of Daddy or Momma likes my brother more than me. It was a matter of variable conditions over which Cain did have some control. As John Ritenbaugh stated on Trumpets, Cain knew the preconditions. There was a wide spectrum of choices Cain could use, rather than the simple, He likes me/He does not like me.
