The Cain Mutiny – Genesis 4:1-16

Introduction

Our lesson title comes from a book by Herman Wouk, published in 1951, chronicling the mutiny aboard the USS Caine, a Navy minesweeper in the Pacific during WWII.  This is not to be confused with Mutiny on the Bounty with Mr. Christian and Captain Bligh.

As you might expect we will not be arguing the merits of Captain Philip Francis Queeg or the actions taken by Steve Maryk.  We will be examining a mutiny of sorts that took place by Cain, son of Adam and Eve.

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A Sin Autopsy – Genesis 3:1-24

Introduction
When we hear the word autopsy we think of one thing, examining a body, internal and external, to answer one or more questions: how did they die, when did death occur, etc.  If you look the word up Merriam-Webster agrees and lists this as the 1st definition.  The second definition reads as follows…” a critical examination, evaluation, or assessment of someone or something past”.  What we are going to do today is more closely related to definition number two.

The thought of watching an autopsy, definition number one, would not be a pleasant thing.  An autopsy of sin isn’t going to be pretty either.  We know that sin has consequences. Unfortunately we have made bad choices and suffered the consequences for it.  In our critical examination we want to answer some questions as well: What was the sin, who did it, why did they do it and what were the consequences?  Our “something past” occurs all the way back in Genesis chapter three. The bible describes a temptation, the choice that was made and the consequences for that choice.

 

In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. (Genesis 22:14)

It is Christmas again and we are busy trying to buy those gifts and filling our event calendars with family and church fellowship gatherings.  But we as Christians need to remember that Jesus truly is the reason for the season.  Christ came to Bethlehem to die for the sins of whosoever will.  As I was pondering that thought, I began thinking of one of the first references to the coming and sacrifice of Jesus in Genesis 22.  Abraham was told to carry Isaac to the ‘land of Moriah’ to a mountain ‘I will tell thee of’…  Isaac was likely in his thirties as his mother dies soon after in the next chapter at the age of 127 and she bore Isaac at age 90.  So Isaac, like Christ, goes willingly at the behest of his father to the place of sacrifice.  And, like Christ, he carries the wood that he would be bound to to that place of sacrifice.  By the way, this is Abraham’s fifth altar.  Five is the number of Grace in God’s Word.

It is at the point of Abraham being fully surrendered to God’s will with his knife in the air, that Jesus, in His pre-incarnate state (a theophany), appears and stops the sacrifice from occurring. Jesus says to Abraham, “…now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me .” This is a powerful glimpse at the wonderful plan of God. In I Chronicles 21, God sends His angel to judge Israel with pestilence for the sin of David in numbering the people. He stops the angel from destroying Jerusalem when David repents of this sin at a spot called the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. Gad the seer tells David to build an altar on that spot and offer up a burnt offering. Just a few chapters forward in II Chronicles 3:1 we see “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.” Did you see that? The threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite is in Mount Moriah.