Dealing with Cain's Login Errors

Suggested Reading: Genesis 4:1-16

Not long ago I had one of those frustrating computer moments. I was trying to login to one of my online accounts and I kept getting the error message that my user ID and password didn't match. So I kept trying different passwords in an attempt to get something to work. Nothing did. I just kept getting that same error message. After about 15 attempts I finally stopped long enough to look at my user ID and noticed that I had left out a letter in the ID. After that, I tried the very first password again and within seconds I had logged in. I felt rather embarrassed that I had gotten so frustrated about forgetting my password only to discover that something else had been the problem all along.

In the story of Cain and Abel we see a similar dynamic in Cain's descent to murder. He and his brother had both brought offerings to the Lord but only Abel's had been accepted, probably because Abel had offered the first fruits, the first-born of his herds, while Cain had just brought some of the produce the ground had produced, not the first fruits of his crops. Whatever the reason, God had a conversation with Cain about the rejection of his offering, asking "Why are you so angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" (Genesis 4:6-7, NIV). The fact that Cain then went out and murdered his brother Abel would seem to indicate that his anger was directed in the wrong place. He either murdered Abel because his brother had made him angry by showing him up (not an uncommon emotional response) or in order to get back at God for accepting Abel's offering but not his own. In either case, Cain directed his anger and probably the blame for his failure somewhere other than where it should have been: on himself.

Quite often, as sinful human beings, we find ourselves doing horrible things we never would have imagined doing beforehand: killing people, having affairs, cheating on our taxes, lying. And quite often the first step along the path to those unimaginable deeds is blaming someone else for our own failures. Affairs often start because one spouse blames the other for not meeting his or her unrealistic expectations. Cheating on taxes or stealing from the office is justified because we manage our money poorly and then blame the government for taking too much or our bosses for not paying us enough. The first step on the road to unimaginable deeds is frequently placing the blame for our failures anywhere but on ourselves, which, apparently, is exactly what Cain did.

Have you experienced anger so deep that you feel tempted to do things you know are wrong? Have you felt so cheated or under-appreciated that you consider doing things that would previously have been unfathomable? If our reaction to those feelings is the temptation to knowingly do something wrong, we have a problem. Instead of placing blame on other people for our own failures, lets take good long looks at ourselves. Just like when trying a dozen different passwords instead of checking the user ID, putting the blame in the right place will help us fix our problems a whole lot faster than laying our failures at someone else's feet.

If You're Going To Sin, At Least Don't Be Stupid

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 6:20-35

The other day I was reading my daily dose of Proverbs when I stumbled across this verse: "For a prostitute's fee is only a loaf of bread but an adulteress goes after a precious life" (Proverbs 6:26, HCSB). And I thought, Wait, is scripture seriously telling us that it is better to go to a prostitute than to have an affair? Thinking that was odd, I kept reading. A few versus later, another sin was compared to having an affair. "People don't despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry. Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much; he must give up all the wealth in his house. The one who commits adultery lacks sense; whoever does so destroys himself" (Proverbs 6:30-32, HCSB).

For a minute, I wrestled with the question: But aren't all sins the same in the eyes of God? Doesn't God hold us just as accountable for any one sin as for any other sin? Even though that is what I've been taught most of my life, I'm not entirely convinced that is the case, but that concept doesn’t even enter into the picture with these verses. These verses aren't about which sins God counts as worse than others. These verses are about which sins are going to get us into the most trouble here on earth.

The author of these proverbs is trying to tell us, in rather pithy terms, that going to a prostitute only costs you money but having an affair can cost you your life; stealing, if you have a legitimate need, will be punished but understood, while having an affair is just stupid. Talking about having an affair, the proverbist (I may have just made up that word) asks, "Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? Can a man walk on burning coals without scorching his feet?" (Proverbs 6:27-28, HCSB). Now, aside from the obvious masters of mystical arts, the answers to both of these questions is "NO!" If I were to write a summary of this passage, I would probably write, "If you're going to sin, at least don't be stupid!"

We live in a society where people almost expect to see affairs take place. One movie I saw recently tried to convince the audience that having an affair could actually strengthen a marriage by giving one's spouse a boost of confidence that would improve the relationship between husband and wife. Media is constantly produced that manipulates audiences into rooting for an affair to take place because "they really love each other" or because "they deserve to be happy" or because "their spouse is an insensitive jerk." We have websites designed to help people have affairs behind their spouse's back. Everywhere we look, people are telling us that affairs are natural, that they are expected, that they really don't do that much harm, that they may lead to a purer love than the marriage itself. To all of these ideas, the author of Proverbs calls "BS."

Why is it that ancient societies often extended the death penalty to adultery? Why is it that the only excuse Jesus gave for divorce was infidelity? Why does the author of Proverbs even suggest that going to a prostitute is better than having an affair? Why is it that country songs about affairs always end in a semi-truck plowing through the local hotel? Secularists and some academics today will tell you that affairs were not tolerated as a symptom of a male-dominated society trying to imprison its woman to a set of rules that held them down. The real reason? Extra-marital affairs destroy lives.

Even more sobering is Jesus' assertion that if a man looks at a woman in order to lust after her, he "has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28, NIV). This one statement of Jesus should cause us to see pornography in any form in a new light and to lump it in with these warnings that the author of Proverbs is giving us.

All sin is wrong, although some sins are understandable. Committing adultery, however, shows a lack of sense, whether it involves an actual physical act or only occurs in our hearts. We all fall into sin, but we don't have to be stupid about it.

Knowing You're About to Be Eaten

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 30:15-20

In the classic family movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the climax of the movie occurs in a bowl of cereal. The kids, who had been shrunk and then accidentally tossed out with the garbage, have managed to work their way all the way back to the house and one boy, helped out by the family dog, somehow ends up in the father's cereal bowl. The boy didn't mean to end up in the father's cereal, but he did. So he, and all the other shrunken kids, begin yelling and screaming, trying to get their subjectively giant father figure to notice them, while the boy simultaneously tries to avoid getting scooped up by the spoon.  Finally, as the boy is in the spoon headed toward dad's mouth, the dog bites dad in the leg, saving the kid from being consumed, and allowing them all to be seen and restored to normal size.

I was reminded of that movie while reading Proverbs 30:20, "An adulterous woman consumes a man, then wipes her mouth and says, "What's wrong with that?"" (NLT). Certainly, the adulterous woman is more aware of what she is doing than Rick Moranis was when he nearly consumed his movie son, but in both cases, the person being consumed should be perfectly aware of what is going on.

Often, we want to think of infidelity much like a frog in a pot of boiling water, slowly getting in deeper and deeper without realizing what is going on. But we all know that is not true. All along the way in those illicit relationships there are warnings and red flags - those little thoughts that remind us we shouldn't be talking about such personal things with this particular person, the twinge of guilt when we imagine ourselves in a situation we know should never exist, the justification that we deserve a little bit of happiness because we simply aren't getting it at home, the attempt to assure ourselves that no one ever has to know. All of those little things, and lots of others, serve as warnings that we are about to be consumed by something that will destroy us.

The choice we face is not whether or not to finally give in to temptation and be consumed but whether or not to walk away when that first warning sign appears. When we see ourselves driving over a cliff, we cannot wait until we reach the ledge to hit the breaks. We know that certain activities will consume us. We know that. And we normally know when we are slipping into that behavior. The adulterous woman (or man) may consume us, but it is entirely our own fault if we let it happen.

What sinful activity are you inching towards? What red flags are you ignoring?  Are you willing to do what you have to to avoid being consumed or can you just not bear to give up your sIn?