God's Mercy Through Our Sin

As I amble through Genesis, as my current Bible study, the mercy of God is highlighted in the story of Cain and Abel in Chapter 4 of the story of beginnings. There are many summaries people make of the details in this story of two brothers and how God accepted one's offering while rejecting the other's. Then, the first murder was because of uncontrolled anger.

God would warn Cain before he murders his brother of the changes needed to redirect himself. God's words are reflective of what is said in James 1:19 " Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which can save your souls."

God's admonition to Cain was, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?" This pointed back to his and his brother Abel's sacrifice. The chapter opens with the birth of these brothers and their occupations. Time passed, and they each brought a sacrifice to the Lord. The passage tells us God "accepted" or "regarded" Abel's sacrifice, but he "had no regard" or did not accept Cain's." After rejecting Cain's sacrifice, God recognized the anger fomenting in his soul. God's mercy was demonstrated at that moment.

For some reason, though the Scripture demonstrates a complete difference, folks believe God's go-to emotion is wrath and anger. While the love so frequently described of God is not how the Bible describes God, tolerant of sin and accepting of rebellion, this passage is the perfect rendering of God's attitude towards mankind: Lamentations 3:22 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” Mercy is what Cain runs into when his offering is not regarded, another opportunity for acceptance. That demonstrates the balance of God's character: he does not accept just anything we offer him, but he does offer us the chance to overcome that moment through his mercy. He looks for repentance and change.

He goes on to challenge Cain, "... and if you do not do well..." God is offering Cain the choice to repent and come back to him the right way. God would not force him, nor does he force us. Romans 1 tells us God demonstrates his character through creation, and Hebrews tells us he speaks to us through His Son. We have all the evidence we need to be accepted by God and to be regarded through His Son's sacrifice. His mercy is meeting us this very moment. Thank God for that, because he could destroy us; instead, he offers mercy because he is a faithful God. He is not looking to destroy us, but that we would not perish through our repentance.

Abel understood "The Lord is my portion." He offered the firstborn of his flock. Abel understood God's mercy and regarded God as LORD. God offered Cain the opportunity even after an epic fail. That is mercy present in sin. God went on to warn Cain what an unchanged attitude would bring: "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you." In my words, "Here is the battle, Son. My mercy and I, or Sin and its death and control, decide?" And if God was offering Cain a choice, then a choice was his to make. For some reason, there is a belief that making these kinds of choices takes away the Sovereignty of God; yet God is demonstrating the Sovereign he is by letting Cain choose to change his situation and, through repentance, to change his heart. This is not working for salvation; it is a condition God puts before Cain, and eventually before us.

God's words are a clear choice for Cain to make. God put before him the battle he faced and the two outcomes for each choice. He ended by directing Cain of the work of winning the fight to be accepted, as his brother was, "... but you must rule over it." The choice was Cain's, but mercy was not absent, waiting for what Cain would do. God left him to think this through. The ending, we all know. Cain killed his brother Abel. With all the information before him, he went against his best interest in God to follow his own understanding. Anger blinds us to sanity and righteousness. But that does not eliminate responsibility. Mercy does not allow us to abdicate responsibility; it offers us time through consequences to repent and return.

When God confronted Cain next, his brother would have been murdered by Cain's hands. And instead of Cain facing death that was promised with sin, mercy was offered. Yes, Cain would become a "fugitive and a wanderer on the earth," those are consequences, but God would mark Cain in such a way that anyone who wanted to kill him would be warned that they would die, and six of those closest to them, also. Everything in future passages would show us that murder had harsh consequences, but here we see mercy, not death. Cain did not even repent, but he did beg for mercy, "My punishment is greater than I can bear... whoever finds me will kill me." That is when God's mercy communicated that anyone who tries will suffer sevenfold. Rejoice in this story of God's visibly displayed mercy. It should bring us to a place of humbled gratitude for the God who is King and Lord.

This is the second time in three short chapters in the book of Genesis that God's mercy is introduced and demonstrated to us. It is our introduction to the heart of God for His creation made in his image. We see boundaries made, commands given, instructions spoken, and orders to heed, yet when these were broken, God met each with consequences and mercy. He did not forfeit his Word; he did not break the consequences laid out. Adam and Eve should have been met with death. Still, God offered a substitutionary death in the animal he killed on their behalf, covering their sin with another's death—a foreshadowing of the Law and then of the death of Jesus, His divine Son. God is no pushover, and his love is not incapacitated from holding us accountable. In each story, there were consequences, but we read of God's mercy and don't always recognize how those consequences are carried out. Remember, God is not a man that he should lie. He must do what he said he would do.

Taking God seriously is necessary because God does hold us accountable for our choices. That can be seen through the sin of Adam and Eve, and in the story of their sons Cain and Abel. His mercy is also seen practically in each story. Matthew 18 tells us a story about what God requires of us because of his mercy toward us. Jesus tells the parable of a man who begs for mercy and is granted it for a large debt he owes. This man, who was given mercy, turned around and showed himself merciless to another for whom he was trying to collect a smaller debt. This ungrateful man was put in prison by the one who had shown him mercy, because his heart was merciless toward another. Mercy is not given to let us get over; it is given to make us humble and grateful.

This parable teaches that while God is so vastly merciful, it comes at a cost to those who experience it. Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy." God's mercy is new every morning, demonstrated in each of these historical narratives, not so we can oh and ah, but that we might "do well..." and in return for God's mercy in our lives, we will offer it to others. We learn that mercy is not a ticket out of trouble; it is an invitation to display the desire of God's heart to others. Sin may be met with mercy, but mercy must be met with mercy too, and without that, we will face the consequences of the original sin. That is what we see in Matthew 18. We will die the death sin requires for ourselves. For those who demonstrate mercy due to what has been given to them, live because of the death Jesus died for us, in our place.

In Genesis 4, Cain was not let off the hook for his sin. Mercy met him and offered him the opportunity for repentance. Sadly, the Scriptures only speak of Cain negatively, so we can conclude he did not meet mercy with mercy, so the consequences of his original sin came back to bite him, death. We have the opportunity to learn and live!