Shut the Door!
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Shut the Door!-------------------------------- Date: 3/23/01
Keywords:
"acceptance" "anger" "door" "master" "sin"
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temptation.
Passage: Genesis 4:6,7*
6. Then The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face
downcast?
7. If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do
what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but
you must master it."
Questions
1. What would have been Cain's answer to God's questions in V6?
2. What is the logical counterpart to the question in V7?
3.How could Cain have responded differently?
Practical help
God likes to use rhetorical questions. In fact, all of his questions are
rhetorical, since he already knows the answers. God wasn't questioning Cain
so that he could get more information. He wanted Cain to think, reflect on
his own heart, and repent of his anger and jealousy. As we'll see in the
next study, that's not the way things went.
In the New Testament age, we know that our acceptance by God doesn't depend
on our success at mastering sin. "But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Our
call to mastery is not based on the need to earn acceptance, but our
response to God's love and acceptance, accomplished at the cross. God's
question to Cain in V7 is not intended to dangle the stick of rejection in
front of him, but rather to urge Cain to consider the self-centeredness of
his jealousy.
Cain elected to ignore God. He didn't offer any answer to the questions. I
can relate. When I'm angry, the last thing I want is to be confronted with
the situation in my own heart. I sulk and I brood, but I don't jump to
repentance.
The curious thing in this passage is that God speaks of sin as an entity
entirely distinct from the human heart. Sin is treated as if it is a beast
waiting outside, looking for the slightest crack to appear in the door so
it can come bounding in. God wasn't so disturbed by Cain's anger as he was
by the vulnerability of Cain to the next step in the downward spiral of
sin. He is urging Cain to close the door.
What doors are open to sin in your heart? Will you ignore God's questions
like Cain, or will you humble yourself before him?
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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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