One day when my daughter was around five years old, she came into my office with a face full of chocolate. We both knew she had not asked for permission to eat candy.
Fully knowing the answer, I asked her, “Did you just eat a Milky Way?”
“No,” she answered, very seriously. I could see she was holding the wrapper and the uneaten portion of the candy bar in her little hands.
“Then where did you get that?” I asked as I pointed toward the candy in her hand.
Without missing a beat, she looked down incredulously at her hand and replied in a shocked voice, “How did that get there?”
Even now I am laughing as I remember this story. Her disobedience began by eating the chocolate and continued on with a lie to try and cover it up.
There’s a similar situation in Genesis 4. Cain, a farmer, presented some of his crops as a gift to God when he should have given the best of his crops. In comparison, Cain’s brother Able, a shepherd, brought the best of his firstborn lambs to offer God.
The LORD accepted Able’s gift, but He did not accept Cain’s gift. This made Cain so frustrated that he attacked his brother and killed him. When God asked Cain where Able was, Cain lied by pretending he didn’t know. What had started out with the sin of disobedience had turned into murder and lying.
My daughter was foolish to think I wouldn’t see the chocolate evidence “written” all over her face and Cain was foolish to think the Lord wouldn’t know he offered God a cheap gift, murdered his brother and then lied about it. Genesis 4:7 says, “Sin is crouching at your door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” If we don’t subdue the first sin, other sins will start to control us.
Don’t take that first bite of the Milky Way. God can see the chocolate on your face!
Scripture: Genesis 4:1-12
Prayer: Lord, after reading this passage in Genesis, we can see how one sin breeds other sins. After we fall into sin, it can easily control us and become our master. We want to say “no” to each sin and temptation in our lives. We want to be aware of sin so that we can stop it before it even begins.
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