Entrapment is a legal concept that means law enforcement encouraged or induced the accused to commit a crime they would not have otherwise committed without such inducement. If the accused can prove that law enforcement used entrapment to show them guilty of a crime, it usually results in an acquittal.
This idea appeals to our tilt towards fairness in the justice system. No one should be allowed to set us up for failure. But such rules of fair play do not apply when it comes to the draw of sin and our personal struggle for righteousness. As we have already seen in this series on desire, sin is born when temptation conceives with our own desires. That temptation does not care at all about fairness. As long as our personal desires provide a ready audience, temptation will call again and again, nudging us toward the prospects of sin.
We first find this reality demonstrated in the story of Cain and Abel. The demonstration and God’s speaking in Genesis 4 is so vivid that it feels as if God is telegraphing to us the significant role desire plays in our vulnerability to sin.
We are familiar with the background to this story. Adam and Eve’s two sons, Cain and Abel, are very different kinds of men. One is a man of the field, raising crops. The other is a shepherd raising animals. One is pursuing God, the other seems threatened by God. One day, they both offer individual offerings to the Lord. God finds Abel’s offering pleasing, but He is not pleased with Cain’s offering. As a result of this, an angry bitterness began to fill and dominate Cain’s soul. That is when God intervenes, not violating the free will of Cain in this dangerous situation, but warning the man with His cautionary Word.
So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Genesis 4:6-7
We have a responsibility to master our desires and to rule over the temptation of sin. A contest is taking place even today in our souls. It is a contest for which forces and standards will rule over us.
For Cain, and many of us as well, fear, self-loathing, and the seeds of bitterness govern our souls. Such a state is terribly fertile ground for temptation and sin. Sin is lying at our door, or as another translation says, crouching at the door waiting to pounce. It is a trap, and as long as such an environment persists within our soul, we are vulnerable to the baited trap that sin and darkness have set for us.
God encouraged Cain to do well. This phrase comes from the Hebrew word yatab. It means to be accepted or pleasing. When it comes to finding acceptance before God, we must always start with the heart, not outward actions or works. That is the secret of where Cain went wrong. The man who would become mankind’s first murderer failed, not because of the sacrifice he offered to God but because of the heart behind that sacrifice. The book of Hebrews clarifies this for us.
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. Hebrews 11:4
While Abel presented a faith-based confidence that God would find him and his sacrifice acceptable and pleasing, Cain presented the opposite. He anticipated failure. He predicted displeasure.
The American pop artist Michael Johnson wrote and sang a song in the 1990s called Cain’s Blood. In the first verse, he sang, “Half of my blood is Cain’s blood, half of my blood is Abel, One eye looks to heaven, And one eye looks for trouble.” Most of us carry this split reality and motivation within our souls. We want what is right and good, but we anticipate the worst – much like Cain did. This wrong perspective makes our souls fertile ground for the entrapment of sin.
If we are to be free from the corrupting desires and the snare of sin that destroy us, we must resolve this internally split nature. Resolution is found not only in correct desires but in the healing of the heart and soul. We must recognize that Cain missed what Abel obtained – God has accepted us!
As the book of Hebrews tells us, faith is the pathway for this healing. Recognizing His acceptance through the sacrifice of Christ and then living in that reality, free from our fear of the worst, our dread of failure, our suspicion of God’s displeasure, this is the escape out of the entrapment of corrupt desire and the dangers of sin. It is the beginning of freedom, truth, and a life of peace.
Homework: I highly recommend a reading of Hebrews 11 and 12 this week as you consider these thoughts.
