THE PATHOLOGY OF SIN

TODAY'S READING: Gen. 3, 4, 5; Luke 2

SCRIPTURE: Gen. 3:8-13; Gen. 4:2-15
⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” ¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. ⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 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.”⁸ Now 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. ⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” ¹³ Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” ¹⁵ But the LORD said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶ So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

OBSERVATION: Every disease has it's own particular pathology and sin is no different. These passages present a good deal of the typical pathology that humans fall prey to when they engage in sin. In the first example we see "the blame game". When God asks Adam how he know he was naked, he takes no responsibility for his own choice to disobey God. He blames the woman and he also in a roundabout way blames God (the woman you put here with me, Lord; in other words, it's your fault for giving her to me), the woman then blames the serpent. Neither of them wants to take personal responsibility for their bad choices. They both have excuses for their sin. In the second story Cain and Abel both bring an offering to God and Cain's offering is not accepted. He is bitter, resentful, and jealous of his brother Abel because his offering was accepted by God. The Lord even warns Cain that he is in danger of being overcome by sin and tells him he needs to master it by simply doing what is right so that he will be accepted too. As with Adam, Cain finds fault with God for "playing favorites". He adopts the identity of a victim. God was unfair to him and he is angry at Abel for getting a better deal. He ends up murdering his own brother to assuage his anger and when God brings his actions to light and decrees a punishment, does Cain have sorrow for his sin and confess his wrong? No! He complains that his punishment is too harsh! He still has a "victim" mentality and is upset with God for what he considers to be unfair consequences of his actions. We hear not one word of remorse from Cain.

APPLICATION: What does this teach me? If I see any of the following symptoms I can be sure that I must somewhere have an infection of sin in my life that I need to confess and repent of:
1) Making excuses for my choices; blaming others
2) bitterness toward God or others
3) feeling others are getting a "better deal" from God than I am
4) lack of remorse when someone confronts me with a wrong I have done
5) feeling like a victim in life

PRAYER: Father, it's so much easier to see the symptoms of sin in others than it is to see them in myself. I am often blind to the beginnings of the sin infection in me. I pray you would reveal to me by your Spirit when the first signs of any such infection show up in my life so that I may go through a cleansing process before it gets a strong hold on me. I so want to have a clear conscience and a clean heart before you. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, my Lord and my God. In Jesus' Name, Amen.