I have a belief about Genesis 4 that is hotly controversial. Every time I’ve brought it up, there are folks who acknowledge that my view is absolutely life-giving and hopeful, and folks who think that I’m pushing back against thousands of years of traditional interpretation. It’s fine. It’s just a possible view.
If you have followed me so far, you know that I’m quick to acknowledge my errors, and that my posts aren’t made from a boastful understanding of the Hebrew language, or tied to any claims of moral or theological superiority. I just have a lot of questions. I think we all do.
The question that Genesis 4 presents us with is this horrifying, theologically problematic, guilt-inducing, burden-laying rendering of Genesis 4:7.
Sin is crouching at your door; it’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Almost all of them
Nearly every translation says it similarly (with the notable exception of Youngs Literal Translation (YLT), which is what started me on this journey!)
But let’s think about this statement that God is making to Cain, and how it applies.
SIN is CROUCHING at YOUR DOOR, and it DESIRES YOU, but you must MASTER it.
What is this saying? And why would this message be God’s instruction to Cain?
What doctrine is this?
Now, think about the sin in your life. Think about your own moral failings, and personify them for a second. It says sin desires us. Odd. I mean, I desire it more, but maybe God is telling me that sin is “alive” in some way. It is a thing that crouches and desires me.
So we are given this picture of a creepy, crouching thing that wants to… eat us? Is that what this “desire” is? Are we pointing back to the serpent, with an implied message that the serpent’s intent is to consume us?
Maybe? Sin is bad, so… sure.
But then…
“but you must master it.”
What the works-based-salvation messaging is this? We must MASTER it? Rule over it? I mean, this might point back to “dominion over all the earth,” and include the serpent, but what is this saying? That we must… save ourselves?
For anyone who has wrestled with true spiritual bondage in their own lives, being told “you just need to stop and master your sin” is a death blow. Because it is impossible.
Unfortunately, we KNOW people who defeated addiction and bad behavior. “I did it. Why can’t you?”
But this response from them doesn’t help. It makes it so much worse at times, and it’s often from this pit of despair that we finally cry out to God. We learn that only God can deliver us. And then we read the Exodus and see: only the hand of God could free His people. We learn that it’s only by faith, and not our works that we are saved.
Our entire walk with Jesus teaches us to depend not on ourselves, but on him and what he did on the cross, and through the empty tomb. This is our hope. He is our salvation.
That’s the premise of our entire faith.
So why does God tell Cain that he must “rule over” his sin?
I don’t think God did. Or at least, I think the Hebrew text might be written in a way to understand the message another way. The key is in this word “sin.”
It is translated two different ways in our Bibles:
SIN… and SIN OFFERING
(Sin: 182x; Sin Offering: 116x)
The only way to know which way to translate it is through context. In the next usage of the word, it’s quite clear that it can ONLY mean “sin,” because “sin offering” would make no sense here:
And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Genesis 18:20 (NASB)
In fact, if you ONLY read Genesis, you’d think that the word could only be translated as “sin,” but note that each time, it’s connected to the word “offense” or “outcry.”
And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Genesis 18:20 (NASB)
Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?
Genesis 31:36 (NASB)
‘This is what you shall say to Joseph: “Please forgive, I beg you, the offense of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.”’ And now, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Genesis 50:17 (NASB)
But when you get to Exodus, AFTER Israel’s deliverance, when God teaches Israel how to sacrifice and worship rightly, we have these renderings of the SAME word. The context is what gives you the right meaning.
But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
Exodus 29:14 (NASB)
Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it.
Exodus 29:26 (NASB)
However, Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
Exodus 30:10 (NASB)
So let’s go back to Cain, and see another problematic word. This time, it’s DESIRE.
I said earlier that a serpent desiring to eat you is a fine picture for sin. But that word “desire” is not used to describe the desire of a predator in the scriptures.
It’s longing. It’s love.
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you shall deliver children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NASB)
“I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.
Song of Songs 7:10 (NASB)
So now let me paint this picture for you.
Cain has just been rejected. His heart wasn’t right. He was filled with pride of his own work, and that isn’t an acceptable offering.
So God tells him, “if you do what’s right, you’ll be favored. But if not… ”
“… then see that I have placed a sin-offering at your door. It longs for you. It’s a lamb that knows nothing except love for you, but… you have to grab hold of it. You have to bring it to the altar, as your brother did.”
God tells Cain that a sacrifice is available.
This passage is NOT saying we have to overcome our own wickedness. That is impossible. It’s saying that, just like for Abel, an offering was made available for Cain. An offering he did not work for. He did not earn. It’s there FOR him, just like for Abel.
It is always God who provides. It’s the same message Abraham understands when he tells his son Isaac, “God will provide a lamb.”
That has always been the message. It is the only answer to sin. It is the only thing God requires: a sacrifice HE gives us to offer.
