What is the significance of God telling Cain, “Sin is crouching at your door” (Genesis 4:7)?
What is the significance of God telling Cain, “Sin is crouching at your door” (Genesis 4:7)? Genesis 4:6–7 is a challenging Bible passage to make sense of: “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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.’” To appreciate the significance of God telling Cain , “Sin is crouching at your door,” we must first consider the context of the larger story. Cain was angry because God had accepted his brother Abel’s offering and not his own ( Genesis 4:3–5 ). Some say it was because Abel offered a blood sacrifice and Cain did not. Others believe Cain’s offering was rejected because, unlike Abel’s, it was not the best and the first of his crop. The Bible doesn’t explicitly spell out the answer. Yet we can be sure that there was something about Cain’s attitude, mot...