CAIN AND ABEL
Out of the few chapters I have read so far, this one must be the most chaotic in terms of the topics and themes, and the events occurring.
We start with quite a significant event: ‘Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain’ [Genesis 4:1]. According to the ESV Bible, Cain sounds like the Hebrew word for “gotten”. This is related to Eve saying: ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.’ [Genesis 4:1]
Very quickly in the story, Eve falls pregnant again. This time she gives birth to Abel. Abel is ‘a keeper of sheep’ and Cain is ‘a worker of the ground’ – therefore I assume they are shepherd and farmer respectively.
This is where the story becomes a little confusing and, possibly, where God starts to show his true colours. Cain brings to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground. Then Abel brings an offering of the firstborn of his flock of sheep. When God looks upon both gifts he has ‘regard’ for Abel but ‘no regard’ for Cain. Both brothers offered some sort of food which, incidentally, was something they worked hard to produce. God, however, seems to prefer animal sacrifice more than fruit. Is God so arrogant that he presumes he is worthy of any gift at all and can be outwardly ungrateful to those whose gift he did not like?
Cain is understandably annoyed by this triggering a chain of events which go from bad to worse. God speaks to Cain and asks: ‘Why are you angry?’ [Genesis 4:6] This seems like a Star Wars moment (fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate etc.) – God is trying to make Cain realise that his anger will lead to sin, as indeed it does. Cain and Abel converse, although what they say isn’t written. When they are together in the field Cain kills Abel – I assume out of jealousy.
God then curses Cain: ‘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 4:10 – 4:11] The curse God lays upon Cain is that the ground will no longer ‘yield to you its strength’ which seems like Cain will no longer be able to grow crops from the ground (not really a problem as I’m guessing he could just become a shepherd instead – a slight irony there). God also makes him a fugitive and wanderer on the earth (perfect for a new career as a shepherd!).
The issue I have with these events is they all stem from God himself. In some ways God is allowing the people he has created to exercise their own free will (while also requiring offerings from them), but he also knows what is going to happen and has the power to prevent the tragedy. So now Adam and Eve have lost two sons. One at the hands of his own brother and the other now essentially exiled by God. Is God willing to let his creation get killed just to teach a lesson or prove a point? I suppose that’s what the New Testament is about.
Cain seems to think the punishment is ‘greater than [he] can bear’ [Genesis 4:13] and says that whoever finds him will kill him. To which God says: ‘Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ [Genesis 4:15] Cain then ‘went away from the presence of God’ and settled in the land of Nod (I wonder if this has anything to do with the phrase Nodding off to sleep) that is ‘east of Eden.’ Regarding the vengeance on anyone who kills Cain, I wonder if that is because God doesn’t want Cain to have an easy way out of his punishment, or perhaps it is God’s way of making sure the killing ends.
Cain then has a son named Enoch whom he names the city he built after. Amazing that Cain can build a whole city considering he is supposed to be a wandering fugitive. After that there is a series of verses with various people being born – essentially just showing the family tree of Cain.
A very strange aside occurs during this family tree section. The Bible singles out Lamech to provide a little more detail for seemingly no reason. Lamech says to his wives: ‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice… I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.’ [Genesis 4:23-4:24] Why the Bible chooses to provide this information I really don’t understand, perhaps it becomes more relevant in the following chapters. It also seems strange how Lamech just decides that his revenge would be seventy-sevenfold. Also, who is the man who struck (or wounded) Lamech? Hopefully more on this will be covered later as, currently, this seems like an irrelevant piece of information. I wonder if God is going to punish Lamech for killing the man?
Finally in the chapter, Eve has another child whom she calls Seth. It then says that Seth had a son called Enosh. And lastly: ‘At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.’ Which I assume means they were worshipping Him or praying to Him.
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I am reading the English Standard Version (ESV).
Published by Crossway in Illinois, USA.
This edition printed 2016.
Visually Interesting 
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