How God Turns Places of Fear to Places of Blessing

"The Lord said to Cain, 

'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  

If you do well, will you not be accepted? 

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. 

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.''  

Genesis 4:6-7

    These are the words God said to Cain shortly after Cain killed his brother, Abel. This was the first murder, and it was a cold, calculated act against an innocent person. Yet, though God holds Cain responsible for his choice, He does not turn on Cain or abandon him. He speaks to him, offers wise counsel, and even puts a mark of protection on him. God has shown this characteristic before, with Cain's parents, Adam and Eve. Though they suffered the natural consequences of their sin, God did not abandon them, either. He still spoke to them and cared for them by making clothes for them to wear. (Genesis 3:21)

Sin is Crouching At the Door

    But there is something just as valuable to be learned from this passage, and it is an insight that is often overlooked. In fact, I've not heard it taught elsewhere, as it requires an understanding of the cultural significance of the phrase: "...sin is crouching at the door." 

   Moses recorded this tale from the oral traditions of the Hebrew people. At the time Moses lived, among the Mediterranean people groups, there existed a particularly interesting superstition. The pagan people of that region believed that evil spirits congregated at the doors of people's homes--at the threshold--and waited there to attack any who dared linger there. For this reason, Mediterranean peoples considered it bad luck to step on the threshold and, in fact, were very careful to step over it entirely. They moved quickly, so as not to draw the negative attention of any spirits who might be crouching in the shadows.

  The description here of God's words to Adam reflect the ingrained fears of the people who would be reading and meditating on this story. God is meeting Cain at the lowest point of Cain's life, but He is also warning Cain of the dangers in the world--not just evil spirits, but Cain's own evil desires. Moses's description would have been particularly powerful to his hearers--a sound warning to beware of the forces in the world that seek to destroy us. 

The Significance of the Mezuzah

   However, the Bible is not a simple, flat text. One verse or passage cannot encompass all that God is or His entire plan for humankind. It is an unfolding tale of hope and redemptive grace in the face of fear and despair. This passage shows one side of the story. The other side comes much later--also meted out through Hebrew tradition. 

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up. 

Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Genesis 6:4-9 (emphasis added)

    That command to write this promise on their doorframes is something practicing Jews have taken seriously for a millennia. They attach a small, narrow box, called a mezuzah, to their doorframes, within which is a tiny scroll bearing the words: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." I've heard that it's tradition to kiss one's fingertips and then touch the mezuzah upon leaving for the day and upon returning. This small act of reverence indicates that God is central to all they do, both indoors and out.

    God commanded His people to always remember that He is to be first and foremost in their hearts and minds--in their getting up and lying down, in their coming and going. So though the people around them have traditionally feared the threshold of their homes as a place of fear and curses, the Jewish people see it as a place of remembrance of the love and blessings of their Heavenly Father. This is just one more way the Jews have been "set apart" as God's people--to be a witness to those around them of God's goodness. (Deut. 14:2)

   Another biblical example of how God has made the threshold a place of peace and protection is in Exodus, at the time of the first Passover. When the angel of death was passing over the land and putting all the firstborn sons to death, God instructed His people to butcher the sacrifice lamb, dip a hyssop branch in the blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts. When the angel of death saw the blood, he passed over that home and did not harm anyone inside. (Exodus 12:1-30)

   

The Things that Make Us Tremble

    What are the places in your life where you experience the most fear? What is hiding at your door, crouching in the darkness, waiting to leap out at you and destroy you? What are the rooms of your life you're afraid to enter and be fully present? 

Your marriage?

Your relationships with your children?

Your sexual identity or desires?

Your trauma?

Your abuse? 

Your addiction?

Your loneliness?

Your future?

Your finances?

Your grief?

Your health?

Your death?

    What makes you tremble when you think of it? What do you avoid? What places do you move quickly through, refusing to linger? 

God is Not Afraid of the Dark.

   No matter how terrifying certain areas of your life are to you, they do not scare God. He has already conquered them on your behalf, and He wants you to invite Him into those places and learn to dwell in His presence in those places. He wants to help you conquer those scary places and show you, by walking through those "valleys of the shadow of death," that He is bigger and more powerful than the worst things the world throws at us.

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you.
Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

    What was once a place of fear, God can make a place of blessing. When you place the blood of His sacrifice over the threshold of your life, His protection is also yours to claim. He can give you victory and turn the dark, scary places of your life into places of light and peace.

Remember: 

"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all."

I John 1:5

True Hope

 

God is a God of hope. He wants to give us true hope—a hope that lasts and endures, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in.

Hope is a forward-looking idea. The Spanish word for hope is esperanza. It comes from root word esperar, or 'to wait'. In this country we usually think of waiting as a negative thing, like waiting in a line at the supermarket. But hope is the part of waiting that anticipates the blessings to come. Hope is the knowledge that something better is coming. Esperanza is the feeling the groom has as he waits at the altar for his bride to walk down the aisle in her white wedding dress.

Revelation describes the joy and anticipation Christ inspires as He waits for His bride--us, the Church:

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."  Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' "  Revelation 19:7-9 (See also: Rev. 21:1-7)

How else does the Bible describe hope?

1. Hope is a kind of faith—the faith we have in a person we know personally and trust unconditionally.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  Psalm 42:5-6a    

For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth. Psalm 71:5

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1  

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. I Peter 1:21

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. I Timothy 6:17

So, like all faith, hope is based on something else. If your hope is based only in people, then, when those people let you down, your hope will also fail. And you find yourself feeling hopeless. But when you base your hope in Jesus—in His salvation and in His promises—then you will find true hope—a hope that will never prove false—because Jesus can never be false. (Numbers 23:19)

2. Hope is eager anticipation based in certain knowledge of good things to come.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:24-25

3. Hope in Christ has the power to lift us out of our present circumstances, no matter how dire, and set our eyes on what really matters.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. Psalm 130:1-8

A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.  We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:17-22

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.  II Corinthians 1:9-11

4. Hope in Christ provides insight into our present circumstances, wisdom to know how we should respond to them, and certainty within our relationship with Him.

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. II Corinthians 3:12

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

5. We are called to hope in Christ. It is not something we can access on our own strength. It is an invitation from God to us and a gift to all who respond to Him.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19a

There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called...  Ephesians 4:4