If we imagine the believer’s life to be like a house (Matthew 12:43-45) with a large front door. This door which opens and closes at the behest of one’s will. The man cannot control who knocks on it, but he most certainly can control whom he lets into his house (Revelation 3:20). And he alone bears the responsibility for his choice. In Genesis 4:7, as God warns Cain of sin – He uses this ‘door’ metaphor.

…And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

To add context to the above verse is to paint the story of Cain and Abel – the first ever humans to be born on earth. The Hebrew name Cain means possession or gotten one. His mother and the first woman, Eve, had thought that God’s promise of triumph and victory in Genesis 3:15…He shall [crush] bruise you on the head, was to be possessed through her very first seed – Cain. Eve reacted like most of us when we receive a promise from God. That which we desire to see fulfilled at the earliest instance possible. Though this is the very first prophecy which was pointing towards Jesus Christ and would be fulfilled some 4000 years later (Romans 16:20). So like most of us, Eve then despaired of the promise of God and this is reflected in the naming of Abel. Abel meaning breath, vanity or vapor. The same word incidentally that Solomon also uses throughout in his wisdom literature – Ecclesiastes – a total of 30 times!

But Abel would not let this weigh down his devotion to the Lord. For it says, the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering (Genesis 4:4). And note the distinction here – Abel and his offering. The story of Cain and Abel is often thought of as a battle of the “best” offering to the Lord. And that in my opinion largely diminishes how God views this. The word regard used here means to gaze at or to behold. This word when used of an omnivident (all-seeing) God (Proverbs 15:3, Hebrews 4:13) places a great honor on Abel and his offering. In human terms, this is like the greatest Renaissance painter and sculptor, Michelangelo, coming to the local art-show and gazing the longest at your painting among a sea of other paintings. Without even a word being said, you would have been the proudest to walk out of there! Again what caught God’s precious gaze, was not the blemish-lessness or fatness of Abel’s sacrifice. And equally in Cain’s sacrifice, it was not that he had brought only fruits or the produce of the ground (he was only a farmer, Genesis 4:2). If you have heard before that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice solely because he did not bring any animals or the best of his fruits, know that this is not what Scripture tells us. The God who created the herbs and the many plants of the ground and then called them good, is also the same God who created the animals and called them good. And if we learn anything from what Jesus teaches us about all our offerings is this – it is the heart that matters (Luke 21:1-4). The omnividence of God extends beyond that which is in the realm of the seen and obvious into the very depths of the human heart (1 Samuel 16:7). And see into Cain and Abel’s heart is what God did in the account of Genesis 4. God regarded Abel’s offering because He regarded what was in Abel’s heart. God did not regard Cain’s offering because He did not regard what was in Cain’s heart.

But how do we know what was in Cain and Abel’s heart? Well the Scripture opens Cain’s heart to us and by implication we can say that Abel’s heart was the exact opposite of his brother’s. There were two things that were wrong in Cain’s heart.

Firstly, in Genesis 4:7 it says If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? Or alternatively, If you do well, surely you will be accepted. The crux in God’s exhortation to Cain here is “If you do well.” The word well here means to be pleasing, to do good or to be joyful (glad). Cain might have given the best of his fruits and produce of the ground, but he did not do so with a heart that was fully set on pleasing God. Rather, his responses of anger and dejection (Genesis 4:6) is a similitude to the prophet Jonah’s response in Jonah 4, to the 120,000 or so lives being saved (Jonah 4:11). Jonah might have obeyed and preached God’s message to the Ninevites, but that did not mean he wanted them to be saved (Jonah 4:2). God asks a very similar question, as He did to Cain, to Jonah in Jonah 4:4. In Cain’s case his obedience came without truly knowing God. His offering was one that religion dictated to him (probably his parent’s who passed it down in oral traditions). You could say, Cain was the very first religious man to walk the earth! And God’s response is clear to all such external traditions that religion births in us – not regarded. God instead wants children who love Him with all their heart, mind and soul (Deuteronomy 6:5).

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

Secondly, we jump to the first epistle of John in 1 John 3:11-12 as quoted above. Here two things are being said about Cain – the first is that he did not love his brother because he was of the evil one. John writes this just a little later in 1 John 4:20, If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. Cain never loved God – because he did not even love his brother Abel. The second thing about Cain’s deeds was that they were evil. This is used in the literal sense of bad nature or of annoyances and hardships. And these are all the deeds that are birthed apart from faith in God, since Abel’s deeds in contrast are being called righteous and being from faith (Hebrews 11:4). So, Cain’s offering was not accepted, because he did not first love his brother and he did not come in faith.

Now we go back to Genesis 4:7, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. As the doorkeepers of our heart it is our responsibility to not fall into the same pattern of sin as Cain did. But to master it. The very first sin outside of Eden was birthed as a result of lovelessness in a man’s heart. A lack of true devotion in the heart masked with external deeds and efforts. Obedience that became drudgery and drudgery that paved the path to entitlement. Jealous comparison that fueled a murderous rage. And even today, sin insidiously crouches outside the doors of the heart where the lights of love are flickering. Pay attention not to your offering on the altar, but to your heart. For only one thing that catches God’s gaze – a heart of love.

What is time given to an eternal God?

What is effort expended to a God for whom all things are effortless?

What is 2 or 5 talents multiplied to a God of limitless inheritance?

What then does God behold in Abel’s sacrifice or the widow’s two mites?

A heart that seeks to please.