Crouching At The Door

When a cheating husband or wife is confronted with the affair, they often say, "It just happened."  When someone injures another, the excuse their action saying, "I just lost my temper."  We act as if we are puppets on a string, responding to a pull here and a tug there without the slightest indication of what is about to happen.  Really?  We just step into one mess after another with no warning?  Not!

The truth of how bad behavior comes about it found in Genesis chapter four where Cain kills able (vv. 1ff).  Cain was jealous of Able whose sacrifice was pleasing to the Lord while his offering was not.  Jealousy was brewing up inside him.  The Lord warned him, "If you do 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" (v. 7).

Cain didn't just kill Able in a fit of rage.  Oh, the fit of rage was present and accounted for, but the ragge came after a season of boiling. The sin of killing his brother had been crouching at his door, ready to strike, Cain let it fester until it controlled him instead of dealing with it bringing it under his control and ruling over it as the Lord instructed.

It is no different for you and I today.  Sin doesn't just happen, we don't fall into bad behavior, we take a long path down to a cliff and jump off.  Jesus' brother, James put it this way, "When tempted, no one shoud say, 'God is tempting me.'  For...each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death" (Js 1:13-15).

The point is that we cannot allow sin the opportunity to rule over us.  Instead, we must deal with the temptation before sin erupts, thereby gaining control over it.  When temptation is allowed to fester, sin is crouching at the door and you are the prey this lion intends to destroy.  Jus' Sayn.