Who Me?

 The way of Cain is ever absent of personal accountability and personal responsibility. Those who journey upon it either never fess up to anything or are never remorseful about their actions, and the notion of repentance is a bitter taste on their lips. They are masters of obfuscation and deflection, somehow always managing to blame another for their words and actions.

I’ve met a few such folks, so I know they exist. Nothing is ever their fault, no matter how much of a hand they had in their downfall. It was always someone else, some nefarious force, some unseen nemesis that forced them to make the choices that led to their predicament. Sin is always at the door, but men choose to let it in.

Perhaps they let it in because they don’t see it as the destructive force that it is. They make allowances and compromises for sin, thinking they have it under control until, one day, they wake up to find that it controls them.

You can’t open your door to a pack of wolves and expect them to be congenial and not tear you to shreds. You can’t open your heart to sin and expect it not to destroy you utterly. God warned Cain, and Cain disregarded God’s warning.

Genesis 4:8-9, “Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’”

Even when caught red-handed, Cain was defiant. His reply had no remorse or repentance, only obfuscation and deflection. Did he know so little of God that he believed God didn’t already know what had occurred? Did he think no one would notice a quarter of the population go missing? When there are a few billion, it’s easy for one to slip through the cracks unnoticed. When there are only four people, and one doesn’t show up for dinner, people notice.

That’s the thing about sin; it’s irrational. It will excuse any collateral damage, no matter how horrid, as long as it continues being catered to. People lose jobs, homes, families, teeth, and the ability to speak clearly or coherently, and somehow, there’s still an excuse and justification that has nothing to do with the sin they’re surrendered to. It’s not the crack; it’s the fluoride. It’s not the pornography; it’s the chemicals in the water. It’s not murder; it’s preemptive self-defense. People will always try to find an excuse for their actions, but even though they might be able to fool themselves, they’ll never be able to fool God.

Cain planned and executed the murder of his little brother. Some say it was a crime of passion, but there seems to be too much premeditation to allow for the possibility. In either case, Cain was guilty, knowing what he’d done, but when God asked him about his brother’s whereabouts, his answer was flippant and put off.

It takes some kind of moxy to lie to God straight to His face, but Cain did it, seemingly unperturbed. He ought to have known God already knew the entire drama and how it played out. He had warned Cain as much when He told him that sin was at the door of his heart, but once you go down the road of ruin and rebellion, once lies and deceit become so ingrained that you lie even when you don’t have to, who you’re lying to becomes as irrelevant as the people you hurt with your lies.

If you can bring yourself to kill your own brother, what’s a lie or two? If you can stand in a field with your brother’s corpse at your feet, hands still bloody from having done the deed, what’s the harm in pretending you have no clue what God is talking about?

Have you ever met someone who knows exactly why their life has turned to shambles, but they won’t admit it no matter what? It’s always someone else’s fault, some other external force that brought them to the place they find themselves in; always someone at hand that they can point and shift the blame to.

Maybe Cain learned from his father, Adam. He tried the same thing when God discovered them in the garden. When confronted about having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of God and evil, Adam was quick to throw Eve under the bus and blame her for his choice. Having been married almost a quarter century myself, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that evening’s dinner. Could you imagine?

God honors humility, repentance, and taking personal accountability for one’s actions because it’s so unnatural to the flesh. Every cell in your body is screaming to pass the buck, blame someone else for your actions, try to justify and explain it away, and you go against the grain of the flesh and fall at the mercy seat. You could have attempted to obfuscate, but you didn’t. You could have tried to pass the buck, but you chose to own your actions and repent of your ways instead.

There is healing in repentance that finding scapegoats for your actions will never bring about. There is a reconciliation between God and man when the way of repentance is pursued, and in humility, you begin your journey toward eternity with Him. 

Cain chose differently. He did not own up to what he did, he did not repent or seek forgiveness, and God passed a sentence on him based on what he’d done and his reaction at being called out for what he did.

Genesis 4:10-11, “And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”

God is righteous and just. This generation seems to have forgotten these truths, and so they live as though the day of judgment will never come. It will. It always does.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.