…but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.
Genesis 2:17

Free choice is one of the greatest gifts that God gave us as human beings from the beginning. Adam and Eve were free to obey God and enjoy what He had given them, including access to the tree of life, or to disobey His command and eat from the one tree from which He had told them not to eat.

From the beginning, we see the choice between obedience, which leads to life, and disobedience, which is sin and leads to death. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, and the consequences of their choice were immediate. Sin entered the world, and with sin came death.

Genesis begins with God looking at His creation and declaring it good:

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:31

Yet, by the time we reach Genesis 6, we read:

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Genesis 6:11

In only a few chapters, we go from God declaring His creation “very good” to an earth filled with corruption and violence.

In the very next generation after Adam and Eve, we see another choice being made. This time it is Cain. Just as God had clearly warned Adam about the consequence of disobedience, God also warned Cain about what was taking place within his heart and where it could lead:

Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.’
Genesis 4:6-7

Cain was angry because the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Yet, God did not leave Cain without a warning. He spoke directly to him before Cain acted upon the anger and jealousy that were within him.

Cain had a choice. He could listen to God, deal with what was taking place in his heart, and turn away from sin, or he could allow his anger and jealousy to control what he did next.

Cain chose not to listen:

Cain talked to his brother Abel; and it happened that when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Genesis 4:8

James describes the progression from desire to sin and from sin to death:

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
James 1:14-15

What began within Cain eventually resulted in the death of his own brother.

As I was reading these words, I thought about something I experienced last Sunday. I attended a memorial for a young man who was murdered on October 7. I saw the pain and sorrow that his family still carries three years later. I also saw some of the young people who were there who still carry physical scars from that terrible day.

As I stood there, I thought about the result of hatred and where it can lead. When the memorial ended, I noticed that another memorial was beginning in the same cemetery. This time it was for a young woman who was also murdered on October 7.

Two young people were murdered on the same day, and three years later, two families were gathering in the same cemetery to remember the ones they lost. I thought about the words God spoke after Cain murdered Abel:

What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
Genesis 4:10

We have just commemorated three years since October 7, and we continue to see the terrible consequences of hatred. We see them in the lives that were taken, in the families who continue to mourn, and in the physical and emotional scars that so many still carry.

The reading from 1 Samuel 20 gives us another example of what jealousy and hatred can produce, but it also gives us a very different example of the choices we can make.

By this point in Saul’s life, his jealousy of David had already grown into hatred. After David killed Goliath and the women of Israel sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” Saul became angry and jealous of David. First Samuel 18:9 tells us:

And Saul eyed David with suspicion from that day on.

That jealousy did not remain only in Saul’s thoughts; he repeatedly tried to kill David.

In 1 Samuel 20, Jonathan was forced to face the reality that his father truly intended to kill his friend. Jonathan could have viewed David as a threat. David had been anointed by God, and Jonathan was Saul’s son and the natural heir to his father’s throne. Yet, Jonathan made a very different choice from his father.

Instead of allowing jealousy to determine how he viewed David, Jonathan loved him and remained faithful to the covenant he had made with him. He warned David of the danger and helped him escape from Saul.

In Cain, we see a man who allowed jealousy and anger to turn against his own brother. In Saul, we see jealousy grow until he repeatedly sought the life of David. In Jonathan, however, we see someone who could have had every human reason to be jealous of David, yet chose love and faithfulness instead.

Each one made a choice.

The problem of sin is not limited to Cain or Saul. Yeshua taught that the things we eventually see on the outside have their beginning within the human heart:

But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies, and slanderous statements.
Matthew 15:18-19

It is easy to recognize hatred, jealousy, pride, and anger in someone else. It is much more difficult to examine our own hearts and ask whether we have allowed any of these things to grow within us.

John takes us back to the account of Cain when he writes:

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we are to love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.
1 John 3:11-12

My dear brothers and sisters, God has given us the freedom to choose. From the Garden of Eden, to Cain, to Saul and Jonathan, Scripture repeatedly shows us people faced with choices and the consequences that followed.

We cannot control the choices that others make, but we are responsible before God for our own.

Is there anger that we have allowed to remain in our hearts? Is there jealousy toward someone else? Is pride preventing us from receiving correction? Have we allowed bitterness toward someone to grow into hatred?

David prayed:

Search me, God, and know my heart; put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23-24

May we also be willing to ask God to search our hearts. May we choose obedience over sin, humility over pride, love over hatred, and life over death.

God warned Cain that sin was lurking at the door. Cain had a choice about what he would do with that warning.

So do we.

Shabbat Shalom,

Moran