Whenever I'm trying to make sense of human behavior I often take matters back to THE GARDEN where the variables are few and ask the same question with the Garden as the back drop. Murder was a recent meditation of mine. The recent murders of these young co-eds has really upset me. I have four daughters and so I was a bit shaken at the randomness of these killings. Why do people murder?
Instead of looking to society for the answers I looked at the Garden and the first murder. Why did Cain kill Abel? We can remove a myriad of layers of cultural influence right away because culture was very primitive. We know it wasn't his parent's fault (as far as nurturing goes, that is), or television, The Matrix, the internet or alcohol and drugs. So why?
The most obvious reason seems that it was for jealousy. Cain was jealous of Abel. But that doesn't work for me. Lots of folks get jealous and they don't kill someone because of it. If every jealous sentiment ended in murder then I would conclude that Cain killed Abel because he was jealous.
I believe the key is verse 7b of Gen. 4 - "And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
We know that as a result of the fall, both men were totally ruined and totally without ability to come to the Creator. Their 'hearts' were no more or no less acceptable than they are in history. Abel was not more acceptable because he listened to his heart, his heart was deceitfully wicked. Cain and Abel each shared the capacity to murder, as do we.
God said that sin crouched at the door and sought to rule. He speaks of sin as something that has a desire. It is a positive force for destruction and evil. Cain and Abel's only protection against this force is to control it. But how do we control sin. Sin's power is broken only by atonement. This is a creation ordinance. God killed animals and covered Adam and Eve. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Though we don't read the specific command to offer a blood sacrifice I believe that it is strongly implied because the principle of blood atonement is universal through out all of redemptive history.
We all sin and we all suffer the condition of sin. We all have within us the ability to murder. Some, however, are more successful in struggling against sin. There are two reasons for this: the first, the constraint of the Holy Spirit and second, the blood atonement of Christ.
Abel's sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice, looking forward to Christ's work on the cross. Cain's sacrifice was a sacrifice of thanksgiving which is ONLY appropriate AFTER sin has been atoned for. Those are my ruminations on the topic.
