Tag: Abel

Neither Cain nor Abel

Posted on by jovial_cynic
We always call it the story of “Cain & Abel,” but this ignores a critical part of the story.

Eve assumes God will use Cain – she says as much when she first speaks. And we, seeing Abel’s sacrifice, assume God will use the younger son to fulfill the blessing of “be fruitful and multiply.” But our assumptions are dashed by murder. Cain leaves the scene, and Abel dies. What will God do to solve this problem?

Perhaps the right name of the story should be “Not Cain, not Abel, but through Seth.”

Seth’s name means “appointed.” As in, selected by God to be used for a specific purpose. God’s purpose.

This is the nature of things.

What’s in a Name?

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Perhaps there is a story in the name and lives of the sons of Adam and Eve:

Cain means acquired
Abel means a breath; vanity
Seth means appointed

“By the work of my hands, I attempt to acquire a name for myself. But this, too, is vanity, a grasping for the wind.
But God appoints another way. God’s way.

Brother’s Keeper

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Genesis 4:9 (NIV)

Cain’s question, “am I my brother’s keeper” is quite tragic. The word “keeper” is means to protect, to guard, to celebrate over, to watch for.

to keep, have charge of
to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life
watch, watchman (participle)
to watch for, wait for
to watch, observe
to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory)
to keep (within bounds), restrain
to observe, celebrate, keep (sabbath or covenant or commands), perform (vow)
to keep, preserve, protect
to keep, reserve
H8104: שָׁמַר (šāmar)

It’s what God does for us, and what we are commanded to do for one another.

Yes. You are your brother’s keeper.

Amazed by His Faith

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Do you remember the stories in the Gospels where Jesus is amazed at the faith of certain people? The Centurion, the Canaanite woman, etc.

When God saw Abel’s sacrifice in Genesis 4:4, this is the word used to describe God seeing his offering.

שָׁעָה shâʻâh, shaw-aw’; a primitive root; to gaze at or about (properly, for help); by implication, to inspect, consider, compassionate, be nonplussed (as looking around in amazement) or bewildered:—depart, be dim, be dismayed, look (away), regard, have respect, spare, turn.
H8159: שָׁעָה (šāʿâ)

An Appropriate Sacrifice

Posted on by jovial_cynic
What did Cain do wrong? People have pointed to Abel’s “appropriate” animal sacrifice, pointing to God’s covering of Adam/Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3… but I think there’s something else going on here.

We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)

It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)

What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?

Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”

This is death.

God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.

It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.

A Firstborn Son

Posted on by jovial_cynic
In Genesis 4, Eve gives an explanation for naming her first son. Upon careful inspection, the text doesn’t say that she gave Abel the same attention.

In the first 2 verses, I think we’re meant to understand that Eve favored Cain. Perhaps she believed the Promise of Blessing in the instruction to “be fruitful and multiply” was about this first son.

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.”

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Genesis 4:1-2 (NIV)