The aftermath of failure; the anatomy of the sin of Cain part 1

Cain Kills Abel

It is a matter of “when” and not “if” when we talk failure, pain or distress. Sometimes it’s due forces and circumstances beyond our grasp but often times it is our own actions that bring about sin. It is interesting and skeptical at the same time to use word the sin but am deliberate about it. The word “sin” in Hebrew is transliterated “khata” meaning to fail or to miss the goal.

This revelation makes the whole affair of the sin of Cain interesting because if you are familiar with biblical scriptures you will notice that after the fall God does not give man any other law he just states what will befall them. There is no explicit law which tells them to sacrifice( No mention of Adam and Eve doing it). It is a point to underline because people do all sorts of things( and they equally condemn a lot of other things) on the basis that there is not explicit scripture where God says you should or should not do this.

Back to our subject when we fail because of our own mistakes we have missed the mark due to a lot of factors ranging from ignorance, lack of skill, not listening to advice, inadequate preparation, false assumptions, stupid motives, overreach , and outright ignorance in some cases. But as said in the introduction pain and failure are almost inevitable and knowing you contributed to it does not make it any better if not just exacerbate the pain. An important thing that we learn in the Cain and Abel story is that how you handle your setbacks is really important and God is really interested in that.

Foregoing revelations about foreshadows and other theological concepts the difference between the sacrifices of Cain and Abel lies in the quality and not the material offered. Personally I don’t think God expected Cain to offer lambs which he did not have( he says if you did good would you not be praised). Abel gave the best portions of the firstborn while Cain just gave herbs(nothing special about them). This goes on to show why we sometimes fail we just do things for the sake of doing them and we expect to have the same rewards as the people whose blood and sweat mix while they do theirs. And it is being bitter about the results that stages the for cataclysm that follows.

Cain’s sadness is understandable especially just after the experience and we all can have room for sadness after a failure, breakup, bad business deal or loosing money to gambling. But unlike Cain we should not dwell on this step for too long because it is at this point that sin lies at the door waiting to take us at any point.

Here are a few steps we can take

1. Try to find out were we went wrong

It’s much easier to just say the system favours certain people( and it always does) and not examine ourselves to see were we went wrong. It is the same thing that Adam does he blames the woman given to him instead of his own shortcomings to correct her. It is the easier route but doesn’t bring growth. Imagine the courage it can take after being cheated on or swindled to examine how we contributed to the whole affair. But it is a necessary step which requires a lot of grace.

2. Learning instead envying

Sometimes like Cain there is someone in our vicinity for whom things are going well. So instead of envy, jealous and cynicism ( Fikapwa (bemba word meaning “it will end” : a common comment by some people whenever when they see a good relationship) we can take it as chance and learn from these people. Apart from learning from people you can equally research so that you get more information. People are getting scammed for no other reason of some level of assumption.

3. Have Faith in God

Most people double down and do all sorts of thing because they think the world is not fair so why try to do things diligently or faithfully. Human systems too work but often fail us at one point but knowing their is a superordinate being who cares about us is important. The first sacrifices are to God for reason because he is the most accurate system of judgment and though we may have failed by easily corrupted standards God stays faithful and if he condemns our work not amount vanity and praise will make it worthy.

But some say some situations will definitely change you and it is okay if leave caution and wreck mayhem on everything. We’ll explore the explore the question in part 2.

Note: this texts has some of it’s inspiration from the book WE WHO WRESTLE WITH GOD but the interpretations are personal opinions.

I wish you a happy 2025.