Genesis 4:7

New International Version (NIV)

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 rule over it.”

For meditation

I had finished cooking my stew meant for the week. As I cleaned up and got ready to pack everything into the refrigerator for the night, I took a look at the sumptuously looking stew; and something moved in me. A spring of cold saliva showered my mouth and my face lit up. I knew I did not have to pick the chicken thigh that was sticking out in my face, but desire had me by the throat. I had no space in my stomach for it; and besides, it was about eleven O’clock. I quickly searched for a, “Thou shall not touch your own food,” scripture in my mind, but got zero results. The struggle heightened as the flavor filled my nostrils; and I knew I was in trouble.

God told Cain that if he did not do the right thing, sin was crouching at his door, “it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7). In other words, “Cain, be the master that you are and rule over that desire in your heart.”

We all face various temptations of different intensity every day. It is instructive to always go to the genesis of our problems in Eden. There, our first parents failed to “subdue” and “rule” as God commanded them to (1:28), and so they sold their birthright and ours to the devil (3:6-7). But the command of God to Cain still stands for all of us, as it stood for Jesus in His temptation (Lk. 4:1-13). It says, “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7).

Cain did not listen to God because he was angry with Him for accepting Abel’s offering over his. Jealousy and hatred, therefore, filled his heart (4-5). I am so glad that Jesus ruled over the confrontation with the devil by the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk. 4:1; 22:39-44). By the same power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; Eph. 1:19-20), we too can overcome every temptation, if we allow Him to fill us (Eph. 5:18). The real issue is who we choose as our master in every situation and the voice we listen to when tempted.

I pray we remember who we are in Christ and the authority He has given us to “overcome all the power of the enemy” when tempted (Lk. 10:19).

May we allow Christ our Lord to rule over us, as we yield to the Holy Spirit; and may our enemy, the devil, who is the source of all sin, flee as we resist him in Christ (1 Pt. 5:8-9).

Shalom