Cain and Abel

Entry - Four

Hello, Again, I hope you found my last entry helpful. This week I’ll talk about Cain and Abel. Here it goes:

GENESIS
... Now that Adam and Eve are out of the garden; they now understood how to be “fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” they also learned how to work the land to provide food and shelter. It seems logical that the Lord taught them how to do it before he sent them out of the garden. He for sure showed them how to make clothing for themselves. Here is yet another scripture that indicates that God is not a mist or energy.. He made clothes. He didn’t give them a pattern; he didn’t draw them a picture of how to make clothes... He made them clothes and dressed them. Plain and simple: Genesis 3:21 “... Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” ...Then he sent them out of the garden. He didn’t sent them out naked. Unprepared. Genesis 2:23 “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.” See how personal and loving the Lord was with Adam and Eve? Just like any good parent; He didn’t sent them out unprepared. He first told them what they would be dealing with- out of the garden: He defined each of their roles and told them the consequences of partaking of the fruit: And caused them to council with each other from then on before any decisions were taken: Then HE made them clothes. So, Heavenly Father is just like any good parent... with the exception that he is perfect... But his actions are no different than any good loving parent. If your children are to progress you must first teach them, and give them the tools to learn and grow; to know right from wrong; good and evil... Then at the appropriate time allow them to go on, on their own. Right? We all know that. Why am I pointing this out???... Because I’m trying to show you through the scriptures that God is like us on a much higher plane or scale. That he is (for lack of words) caring, and loving, and real, and he feels deeply. Loves deeply. He can also get upset, and jealous like any other parent that has a disobedient child. Or one that rejects his love for someone else... I will show you all these kinds of emotions that he shows, and the Whys.... but remember, he can control them much, much, much better than us. He is beyond our level. Never the less his emotions and feelings are like ours: Ours, being on a much, much, much smaller scale. Have you ever thought that perhaps these things are written in the scriptures to show us that aside from being our creator he was foremost our FATHER??? And to let us know and teach us about him.. His personality, his character, his sense of humor (Oh yes, I will show you his sense of humor later on, as we go), the type of parent he is; how personal he can be with each and everyone of us and so forth if.... we only let him. IF we simply read the scriptures as they are with no prejudice as to try to interpret them; we can see the stories of these people and God’s dealing with them: .. With love, sternness, patience, jealousy and all those other emotions that parents feel as they raise their children. Don’t you think that through our experience of parenthood he might be trying to show us how he feels about us: That we may see a little bit through his eyes???

Now, going back to Adam and Eve: We don’t know how soon after leaving the garden did they start having children. We don’t know if Cain and Abel were their first children either..(at least not from Genesis). We do know that Cain was born first and Abel second: But this lack of information doesn’t and shouldn’t take away from what is going on... “Cain was a tiller of the ground (farmer???)”, “And Abel was a keeper of sheep,” Genesis 4:1-2 “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain,..... And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.” Now remember, If Satan was able to get into the garden, then he was definitely outside of the garden, right??? Okay. The story of Cain and Abel is pretty straight through: Abel offered the firstlings of his flock; Cain didn’t. He just gave “an offering unto the LORD”... Remember the Lord has always asked for the FIRST of everything. Doesn’t settle for less. He doesn’t say it here, but in later chapters he makes it clear... That would make sense that he would first established this ritual with Adam and Eve; that they would then teach their children to offer offerings unto the Lord, don’t you think??? Anyway, the Lord doesn’t accept Cain’s offerings. Cain is mad and it shows. The Lord questions him about his attitude and lets him know in form of a question that if he had done right, wouldn’t he be accepted? (Of course he would ). He also gave him a warning that if he doesn’t get his act together “sin lieth at the door.” (Satan is always at the door waiting for us to let our guard down; don’t you think??.) Genesis 4:3-7 “And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? An Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” Some people think that Cain will rule over Satan in the end.... if that’s the case? Then this sentence would make sense. Satan was behind the murder... Moving along, Cain did not listen to the Lord.. He went and killed his brother out of jealousy. Murder is now introduced into the world. The Lord had warned Cain about his attitude and consequences (remember, English was not the language the Bible was first written in; so we may not have the complete translation of these books.. Keep that in mind. There might be more to the story than what we see here in Genesis.) Cain knew perfectly well what he was doing and that there would be consequences; And he thought he could hide it... Now look back; the Lord is very consistent.. from Adam’s time in the garden: The Lord always warned his children about certain things and the consequences if they disobeyed... His punishment were not punishment, BUT consequences of those particular actions...example: Fire burns; you are told that if you place your hand in the fire, you will be burn. Right? Well, if you don’t take heed to that information, than, you get burn... is that punishment??? NO, it is the consequence tied to that action that made you suffer. Did the Lord punish you? NO, you chose to be burned, by not obeying that information. I know, you might still not agree.. It’s okay, there will be plenty of examples in these books to see what I mean. This is only the beginning of the stories, so there will be plenty of repetitious actions in these books for you to read. Okay. The Lord makes sure that every consequence is connected to the sin. Look at this: After Cain killed Abel out of jealousy because of Abel’s better offering, and tries to hide it. Look at what the Lord says to him: Genesis 4:10-15 “.... What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.” Now, the murder was based on jealousy over a righteous offering; the offering was based on the labor they performed: Cain was a tiller of the earth. He was now banned from farming the earth. The earth would not help him in his tilling anymore. He would now be cast out from tilling the earth, and his family.. He would now be a wanderer and will hide from the Lord... It seemed that Cain loved to till the earth; you can see his pain in verse13 “And Cain said unto the LORD, my punishment is greater than I can bear” He goes on to break down what hurts him: “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.” He never says he is sorry for killing his brother... He is in pain for being caught, and now, not to be able to labor in what he loves, to not be able to talk to God: to not be able to be with his parents, or have a home: be on the run, and last but not least... afraid that his other siblings might look for him and kill him for what he had done. Adam and Eve might have been horribly broken hearted and sad, but they probably wouldn’t kill him. By this time, it is apparent that Adam and Eve have had a lot more children. And Satan was on the loose.. He is not loyal to anyone. Not even Cain. Cain knew that his siblings would look for him and kill him.. And with good reason.

Now, think logical...if you had a son that committed murder; would you want another child of yours to do like wise??? Neither did the Lord... He did not want any more of his children to commit that sin. Maybe he multiplied the consequences to prevent them from doing so, and gave Cain a mark to prevent others from finding him. Wouldn’t you do the same??? Wouldn’t you also, make the consequences greater to make it harder for them to want to do it??? “... And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” Well, you could say that the Lord was being kind to Cain and protected him from his other siblings by setting a mark upon him... Maybe, but it would make more sense to want to prevent his other children from making the same mistake as Cain... The Lord did show kindness to him though; he could have vanish him somehow; instead he allow him to walk away with his wife and have a posterity. The Lord knew that Cain would never be happy with himself; no matter how hard he tried to make a family of his own. He took a life; the Lord made him paid with the same token sort of thing. He shut him out from the life he could have had.. never to till the earth, or see his parents and especially not be able to see the face of God again... How do I know that? Common sense... how would you feel to be fired from THE JOB of a life time, the job that you love? You have been kicked out of your home, and know that your own siblings could kill you if they find you? That your parents are heartbroken, that you can never see your parents again, nor be able to see God’s face and communicate with Him, the creator of all things??? That’s pretty hard to bear. Sometimes it is easier to die than to live with the consequences of your bad actions; don’t you think?

After Cain left, he built a city with his posterity, but we don’t hear any more about him after that: ..could he have walked away from his family; trying to hide from his own misery of what he could have had, and therefore become a vagabond??? ... Just wondering; after all, there are people that are wanderers and vagabonds roaming around because they are running away from their past, whatever it may be. Cain wouldn’t seem any different from these men. The pain can be so intense that it can make you bitter, miserable and not want to be around others. Anyway, just food for thought. Moving on... From his posterity we can see that none were tillers of the earth. They dwell in tents, raised cattle, some handle the harp and organ (there was music from instruments even back then). Others, instructors “of every artificer in brass and iron” I ask you: were did some people get the notion that in the beginning the human race was ignorant, barbaric or came from Apes??? From the beginning all these people seem very smart, and civil in many ways. Genesis 4:20-22 “And Asah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. ... Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. ...Tuval-cain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron:” Sadly enough, some of Cain’s children wanted to out do his evil act.. More accurately his great, great, great grandson Lamech He sounded like he was bragging. Apparently everyone new the story of Cain, and what he did to his brother ...Genesis 4:23-24 “And Lamech said unto his wives..... hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.” Isn’t that what happens sometimes when we set a bad example to our children or posterity: they want to out do the bad actions?

Meanwhile, Adam and Eve were comforted by a new son Seth: Genesis 4:25 “And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” She seemed to be saying that in gratitude to God for giving her another son as good as Abel.

This is a bitter sweet story I think. It is important to ponder these stories because it will help you understand how consistent and just is God. The more we understand the beginning the more the rest of the stories make sense as to the actions of God towards man (by man, I mean all the human race. In the American Heritage Dictionary it says: Man.. Any human being, regardless of sex or age; a member of the human race; a person. The human race; mankind.” A lot of people think the Bible is sexist because of the word “MAN” well, if we use the dictionary’s definition, then we know the Bible is NOT sexist. The LORD is not sexist... on the contrary we are all equal in his sight with different roles to play, but none less important; as you will continue to see through out the scriptures.

Well, this is all for now. Again, I hope you find this intriguing enough to go back and check out this chapter. Thank you.

JC