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Cain's Story: The value of being honest in the midst of your own failure

"Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? If you do what is right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."  Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel? " "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's guardian? "  Then He said, "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground! So now you are cursed, alienated, from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed. If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."  But Cain answered the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me."  Then the LORD replied to him, "In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." And He placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him. Then Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden." [Gen 4:6-16 HCSB]

Observations:

  • Who said what? 
    • God asked Cain: 
      • "Why are you furious?"
      • "Why do you look despondent?" 
      • "If you do what is right, won't you be accepted?" 
    • God warned Cain: 
      • "If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." 
    • Cain said to his brother, "Let's go out to the field." 
    • God asked Cain: 
      • "Where is your brother Abel?"
      • Comparing this to God's question for Adam after Adam sinned is interesting. 
    • Cain responded (with his own question!):
      • I don't know
      • Am I my brother's guardian? 
        • Is there a sense of accusation towards God here? Wasn't God his brother's guardian? 
      • Comparing Cain's answer to God's question with Adam's response to God's question is also interesting. 
    • God responded with a question: 
      • What have you done? 
    • God proclaimed: "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground! So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed. If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." 
    • Cain responded: "My punishment is too great to bear! Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me."
    • The Lord replied, "In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." 
  • What does this show us about them spiritually? 
    • God likes questions! God uses questions a lot! 
    • I believe comparing Cain's response to God's questions and Adam's response to God's questions (which are similar after both men have sinned) might reveal some interesting truths. 
      • When God asked Adam, "Where are you?" Adam responded honestly: “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” (Genesis 3:9-10). It seems like by responding to God's question honestly Adam is showing God that he still very much values his connection with God even though he has very obviously messed up. 
      • When God asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain responded dishonestly and shirked responsibility: "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's guardian?" It seems like by responding this way Cain is: 
        • Forgetting that God already knows the truth. 
        • Trying to get some distance from God. 
        • Trying to hide his guilt. 
        • Communicating that he doesn't really value his connection with God.
      • God responds to Adam and Cain differently. 
        • With Adam, He continues to pursue connection and allows Adam to explain his side of the story. He explores the excuses that Adams gives and still hands out just consequences. 
        • With Cain, He stops listening and just gives a pretty severe consequence: Going to bed without dinner for the rest of his life (if I can put it in kid terms).
    • Cain's response to God's punishment is interesting. He adds that he will have to hide himself from God's presence. God says nothing about Cain hiding himself from God's presence. I'm not sure what there is to learn here... but I feel like it's interesting. 
Applications:

  • Today, can asking guilty parties questions still empower them to make a right choice? I would say absolutely! Capturing Kid's Heart plug right here... in my own classroom when a student makes a poor choice, I have a series of four questions that I ask them: What are you doing? What should you be doing? Are you doing it? What are you going to do about it? This gives them the opportunity to acknowledge what they were doing that was wrong and to choose to do differently. I feel like incorporating the following question at the beginning: "Student's name, where are you right now?" might be fun, a little over the top, and extra biblical... especially for student's who can't stay in their seats! ;)
    • On a completely different note, I feel like I've been noticing lately that I might be able to start asking a series of questions similar to this to my daughter when she misbehaves. I probably need to put some more thought into that. 
  • Today, do guilty parties still shirk responsibility and run from their connection with God and/or with authority? All the time. I feel like guilt is a funny thing. We want to hide from it, deny it, destroy it... anything but embrace it. People who embrace in small ways make us laugh because it's so counter-intuitive. This is where I feel like there is so much to learn from Adam's response versus Cain's response. Adam may not have embraced the guilt, but he was honest about it. Cain was dishonest about. Adam's honesty led him closer to God in the midst of his failure. Cain's dishonesty led him to the belief that he had to hide from God's presence for the rest of his life... it set him to wallow in his failure. There is seriously so much value in being honest when I fail. I find that people (not to mention, God) tend to be so much more gracious when I am honest about my failures. There's a lot here! 
  • And lastly, today, does God still value the lives of horrible sinners like Cain??? I think we all know the answer to that one :). I am so incredibly thankful for God's love! 
Other thoughts, ideas, observations or applications? 

Much love!
-Jordan
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