Adam and Eve do the love dance and have their first child, Cain. Eve says, "With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man." I am thinking to myself, "You are darn right, 'with the help of the Lord', Eve! Childbirth hurts like the dickens!" Then, like so many of us mothers do, she must have forgotten how much it hurt the first time, because they have their second son, Abel.
Cain works the soil and Abel takes care of the flocks. Over time, they each bring offerings to the Lord. Abel brings the best of what he had, which was some fat. It says that God was happy with his offering. Cains offering of fruit however, wasn't what it could have been, leaving God displeased.
Cain got angry that he had been 'called out' on his weak offering. God asked him;
"Why are you upset? If you do what is right you will be accepted but if you do not, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
God hears Abel's blood cry out from the ground and asks Cain what he has done, where is Abel? Cain, like a bratty child if you ask me, replies, "I don't know. Am I my brothers keeper?"
Because of committing murder, he is cursed and the ground will no longer yield crops to him. He is told he will spend his days wandering the earth.
Cain cries out, "My punishment is more than I can bare! I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me!"
Although the eye for an eye rule of thumb would say that Cain being killed is fair, our God is not fair, He is just. Praise the Lord for that! He puts a mark on Cain and says if anyone kills him they will suffer a worse fate.
So Cain goes out and lives in Nod, where he gets married and has children, who have children and so on as follows: Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael. Methushael, Lamech... and so on.
Lamech like Cain, also commits murder. This guy has three sons, one that is the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock, one who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron and the last who is the father of those who play harp and flute.
Meanwhile, Adam and Eve have their third son, Seth, father of Enosh.
At this time men began to call on the Lord.
Favorite part:
In this chapter I love seeing how God never tried to make Cain feel guilty. He simply says, "Don't be upset because you made a mistake, just correct it. Learn from your failures so that you can figure out how to overcome temptation and sin next time."
I think so often we mistake the emotion of guilt to be from God, when in fact it is far from a trait of his character. God is love, therefore He wants to always be our help and our strength. His goal is to take us from wherever we are mind body and soul, and guide us to an even better place. God has no desire throw our failures back in our faces or keep track of our wrongs. Our Lord rather, is one that is not easily angered and always hopes. When hardships come into our lives it is so easy to blame God for the pain we feel. We forget that He is on our team. So the next time you stumble and start to feel depressed, shake it off and run to God for some unconditional love and constructive feedback.
"For I know that plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11
Cool side note!- Abel is also mentioned in Matthew 3:35;Luke 11:51;Hebrew 11:4 and 12:24
"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."
Hebrews 11:4
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