Tag: accepted

Rejected one, Accepted the Other

Posted on by jovial_cynic

After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Genesis 8:6-7 (NIV)

The rabbis note that the Raven is unlike the dove in Genesis 8. For starters, there are only two ravens, because it’s an unclean animal, but there are fourteen doves.

In the Jewish writings, the raven argues that Noah and God hate the raven, for if he dies, we have no ravens.

This is why the raven flies back and forth; it will not leave its mate. Or perhaps it had offspring while on the boat.

But Noah holds out his hand to meet the returning dove.

But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
Genesis 8:9 (NIV)

Cain and Adam’s Curse

Posted on by jovial_cynic
In Genesis 3, Adam is told that the GROUND is cursed, and he will RETURN to it.

In Genesis 4, Cain is told that HE is cursed FROM the ground; the GROUND accepted Abel, but it REJECTS Cain.

Perhaps the ground is humanity, and Cain has cut himself off from it. A vagabond.

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.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:11 (NIV)

More than Merely Accepted

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Every translation injects theology into it.

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:7 (NIV)

“Accepted” gives us a picture of seeking acceptance by God. But the Hebrew word is significantly richer.

The one who does right isn’t merely “accepted.” They are elevated, exalted, dignified…

elevation, exaltation, dignity, swelling, uprising
dignity, exaltation, loftiness
swelling
uprising
H7613: שְׂאֵת (śᵊ’ēṯ)