Cain and Abel: Sin at the Door

Two brothers walk out into a field. Only one of them walks back. And then a voice asks the question Cain was hoping no one would ask. “Where is your brother?”

Outside the garden, life goes on. Adam and Eve have a son, and Eve names him Cain. “With the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man,” she says. Then a second son is born, Abel. The boys grow up and choose different kinds of work. Abel keeps flocks of sheep and goats. Cain works the ground, planting and harvesting, the same ground that now grows thorns and thistles. Two brothers, two ways of life, one family trying to make a home east of Eden.

In the course of time, both brothers bring an offering to the Lord. Cain brings some of the fruit of the ground. Abel brings some of the firstborn of his flock, and the best portions. And the Lord looks with favour on Abel and his offering. But on Cain and his offering, he does not. Genesis does not stop to explain why, and people have wondered ever since. Some point out that Abel brought the very first and the very best. The New Testament letter to the Hebrews says Abel offered his sacrifice by faith. What Genesis does show us clearly is Cain’s reaction. He is furious, and his face falls.

Then the Lord speaks to Cain, gently and directly. “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It wants to have you, but you must rule over it.” Picture it. Sin, like a wild animal, waiting just outside the door, ready to pounce. God is not giving up on Cain. He is giving him a warning and a choice. There is still time to turn around.

But Cain does not listen. He speaks to his brother Abel. And when they are out in the field, Cain rises up against his brother and kills him. The Bible tells it in a single sentence, and so will we. Then the Lord asks, “Where is Abel your brother?” And Cain answers with a lie, and something like a shrug. “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

“What have you done?” says the Lord. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” The ground that Cain worked so hard will no longer give him its strength. He will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Now Cain is afraid. “My punishment is more than I can bear. Whoever finds me will kill me.” And here the story surprises us. God does not abandon him. He puts a mark on Cain, so that no one who finds him will kill him, and he declares that anyone who harms Cain will suffer for it seven times over. Even for Cain, God sets a boundary of mercy. Then Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord, and settles in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

There’s a small detail in the Hebrew that English hides. God tells Cain he will be a nad, a wanderer. And where does Cain end up? In the land of Nod. The place name sounds just like the word for wandering. Cain settles down in the Land of Wandering. He tries to put down roots, but the wordplay hints that he never truly finds rest. Scholars of Genesis have long pointed out this play on words, one of many in these early chapters.

Cain and Abel. You’ll find it in Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 to 16. Cain asked if he was his brother’s keeper, and the rest of the Bible keeps answering, yes, we are meant to care for one another. But before anything happened, God warned Cain that sin was crouching at the door, and that he could master it. So here’s the question to carry with you. When anger is waiting at your door, what will help you rule over it?