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Man and Sin

CHILDREN AND MURDER

Chapter 3

        Eve has a child named Cain, then a second named Abel. As they grow to manhood, Cain becomes a farmer, and Abel a rancher, he raises sheep while Cain raises vegetables. There must have been some sort of sacrificial element in the family, and Abel brings the first born of his flock to sacrifice to the Lord. Cain brings some of his crops, In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. (Genesis 4:3-5 ESV)

         “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”

(Genesis 4:8-11 ESV)

        That is like the religion of today, many of our people bring what is left over after they have used their resources for their own pleasure. Some of course still bring of the first fruits of their labor. I am always amazed when people say, God doesn’t want me to sacrifice, that was the Old Testament, they had to tithe of their sustenance. We don’t have to and, of course that is true, we do not have to give the best to God, because we are free to make the choice of what, if anything, we will give to God. Yet, reading the story we see that God, Gen 4:4  “and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, “ So God accepts the offering of Abel but not of Cain. Now it is true that Tithing was an Old Testament requirement. However, this was not a tithe it was an offering to God in gratitude for that which God has provided. The idea of tithing comes much later in the story.

        Cain, brought the leftovers, as so many of today’s religionists, God was not pleased with Cain, and there we see the sin of Cain against the rightness of Abel. Sin, not so much because of his offering, but because he wanted the best for himself, and so God gets second best. I have to admit, I too have been guilty of giving second best at times in my life. The sad part of this story is that Cain gets upset and instead of listening to God he goes and kills his brother.

        After this, we find that Adam and Eve have another son named Seth, and it is through this line that we now follow the time to the Flood and another New Beginning. It will take 1,656 years from the time that Adam and Eve leave Eden to the time of the worldwide Flood of Noah. We move now to Chapter 6 of Genesis, in Chapter 5 we see the genealogy of the line of Seth down to Noah. In that 5th Chapter in verses 21-24  we find Enoch son of Jared, Enoch is the 7th in the line from Adam and he walked with God, in walking with God, he was taken out of the world before the sins of mankind reached the stage of God’s wrath.

        In Genesis the 6th Chapter we find that God looks upon the actions of mankind and sees that there is great evil, that the inhabitants of the earth seek to do evil deeds instead of acting in accord with His will. Mankind has been calling upon the name of God since the time of Seth and his son Enosh, Enosh was born to Seth in his 105th year and the scriptures say that people began to call upon the name of the Lord at that time. So Enosh was the second generation after Adam. Let us pause for a moment here, it is important for us to note that although Adam was made in the image of God, his son was born in the image of his father Adam. The image of God had become marred by the sin in Adam after the exile from Eden.

        Gen 5:3 ESV  When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

        There is a lot of talk about mankind being in the image of God, but the scripture says it is not so, we are born in the image of mankind, sinful mankind, not the image of God. For those who have been saved by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the image of God is gradually being restored to our lives as we surrender more and more of ourselves to Him.

        God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupted:

        Gen 6:9-12 ESV  These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.  (10)  And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  (11)  Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.  (12)  And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

        We see that Noah was a righteous man, he walked with God. The people around Noah and his family however, were corrupt and they were causing others to act as they did, the whole of mankind except for Noah and his family had become corrupted, and God was about to act against this situation.

        Noah builds the Ark as God instructed him to do, they pack in provisions for themselves and the animals that will go with them and we read in Chapter 7 of Genesis: Gen 7:11-15 ESV  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.  (12)  And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.  (13)  On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,  (14)  they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature.  (15)  They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

        This is the end of this beginning and the end of this chapter.

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