Week 5 Genesis LG
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Ok: God created the earth
On the 6th day he makes man
The whole story shows that God calms the chaos he does a work of separation and filing
In just the same way of our own lives he separates us out and fills us with his spirit
God forms man on the 6th day and on the very first full day of humanity God rested from his work
So the first full day of humanity was rest
Then God plants a garden in Eden
He then plants Adam in the garden…
two weeks ago we learned that there is no Hebrew word for Rib so God halved adam and made eve from the other half.
God gave humanity access to everything and only asked us not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
They were naked and unashamed and then
This crafty serpent came into the picture Deceived eve, Eve Eats first then Adam and everything is thrown into chaos…
God curses these three primary relationships
By the way…I forgot to put this in my notes that there are three relationships that are broken due to the fall
So the fall breaks Man and God’s relationship = Exile from the garden
The Fall Breaks the relationship between man and women = The desire to rule over one another
The fall estranges man with creation= Obviously the relationship between the woman and the serpent is estranged but just covering for the sin of man Animals had to die to literally cover adam and eve
So these relationships are all broken but as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross we have access to the father again
We can love one another with God’s love and we can be at peace with creation again..>Realizing its all God’s gift to us
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.”
So Adam Layed (YADA) with his wife eve.
Genesis 1–11:26 (1) Cain and Abel’s Birth (4:1–2)
But “knew” in its conjugal sense is limited to chap. 4 in the early history (chaps. 1–11), where it is found three times (4:1, 17, 25; cp. 4:9)
It is not the same word for the tree of knowledge of good and evil but when the serpent says
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
It is the same root word but a couple of letters off but it sounds exactly the same when you say it
(Yode)
Some commentators think that Adam laying with eve is a reminder to the reader that now they are outside of the garden because they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
That using this word serves as a reminder of sin and its consequences.
This does not mean at all that sex is seen as sinful in scripture.
In genesis 1 the charge to humanity is be fruitful and multiply.
It is simply a reminder: Adam and eve ate from the tree
On the other hand this word is not universally used to remind the reader of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For example in the book of proverbs it is the same word for searching and obtaining knowledge but it is used in a positive sense.
The name cain is a play on the phrase “Brought fourth” normally The name means gained or acquired
But the name cain is also a deeper rabbit hole than this. All of the letters from his name are the same letters arranged to make the word metalsmith
And when we look at Cain’s decedents we will find people who are metal smiths and city builders
I mean if you are a farmer you need to be a kind of a metal smith right? You need tools and so you need to make them…
Ok lets keep going
Notice how she says, “With the hep of the Lord”
Eve’s commentary on the birth of the child reflects her renewed dependence on the Lord.
Eve had a rekindled faith in the goodness of God and the veracity of his word promised in 3:15
What I like about this is that here we see the first birth of the bible and Eve attributes conception and life to the Lord
Bringing fourth life is done by the help and the grace of the lord
Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Verse two is keeping the narrative on Cain, it is clear from the way the author is writing that Cain is the focus of the story
Able means Breath or Vapor: Here in one minute, gone the next
But Able could have significance to the brevity of life after the fall
Introducing the two sons and their occupation is important for the later story
Also…This will be the first in many Brother stories in the Bible… Lots of stories of brothers
But there were other stories like this at the time
The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.
Some view this as a parallel motif to the Cain-Abel rivalry or see the substratum of the biblical account as mythological, but the dissimilarities are so great as to render such an analogy or dependence unwarranted
But one of the major points here in the narrative is that the setting is worship
Maybe Cain and Able grew up hearing the stories of being kicked out of the garden but also hearing about the grace of this creator God. Who Didn’t kill them but simply banished them…
So they bring an offering to the Lord
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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.”
There is a Jewish commentator , Umburto Cassuto…Writes that the phrase “In the course of time” Which is a phrase that also means, in the end of days or at the end of a year.
This is a phrase that is sort of an ambitious amount of time
Cassutto says that it signifies the telling of a parable
But here we have the setting of the first act of worship in the Bible.
We have no indication that God asked for an act of worship
We have no indication of what might be better a gift of flesh and blood or a gift of grain
Certainly in the book of Leviticus both gifts are honorable
But to bring the fatty portions of the firstborn…its almost like Able had the book of Leviticus at his disposal…
But the text is also unclear as to why God looked on favor with one but not the other…
I have to confess that In the very first week of the worship series I preached this text in a sloppy manner
I used the phrase in the course of time to insinuate that cain waited to bring some of the fruits of his crops…But this is not the way the author is using it, so at one point I will have to go back and correct myself
So Cain brings some of the fruit and able brings some of the fat portions of his flock
There are theories that when this was written Blood offerings were seen as a more honorable offering than grain offerings
But the reality is that both are valid
In some ways I love this story and in some ways I really dislike this story because it makes God look capricious from a human perspective…It makes God look unpredictable or subjecting to changing his mind on a whim
Cain is not rejected by God it just says that God looked with favor on Able and his offering rather that Cain and his offering he did not look with favor
I think that the guys over at the Bible Project Podcast, Tim Mackie and John Collins, do a better job in explaingng this passage than the commentaries do.
They haver a podcast series on the theme of the firstborn in the Bible. Now I have not listened to it all but the stuff they pull out of the text is impressive..
I would say if you don’t listen to the Bible project that they are a great podcast to listen to
So here is some stuff from the Bible Project guys,
First we have to understand that in the ancient world. There is something called a birthright…
You see the birth right in another famous brother story right? Jacob and Esau…And by the way, you should be thinking about cain and able when you read that story
The birthright is the right of the firstborn…They are to inherit a double portion from their father and become the head of the household.
There is an extreamley common cultural idea that the first born is more powerful and more important
But when you look at the story of scripture you will basically see that is almost never true with God…
I mean look at the sons of Jacob..>There are 12 of them…and really the most we hear about is the youngest of the 12 ,Joseph…
I mean Saul has a son Jonathan and they are from high satus but after Saul the kingdom goes to David..>A shepherd family and David is the runt of the litter
So lets look at how God favors the second born
First: in order to understand this story in the theme of the first born you have to look back at creation
Remember how we talked about how in Day 4 God made the stars…He made sky rulers…the stars had the function of ruling over the skys.
Then in Day 6 he made the humans, but they get to rule over all of creation…
Its sort of like…What’s up with that we were created first?! We should be in charge…
It might cause a little bit of pride and anger…Like Lord why would you use these stupid humans?
And maybe one of the stars rebells….
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
And that rebellious creature is the serpent in the garden…
And remember the mandate to humans is to rule over creation…But then creation ends up ruling over them…
It’s that serpent…Who by the way was created before the humans
The serpent is now setting the stage for a big test.
Will the humans obey God or will they obey the serpent…
And as soon as they disobey this animal the serpent…The serpent then is wrapped around the hearts of man
See in the earliest readers eyes there is a cultural norm that they would simply understand.
Satan may have seen himself as the “firstborn” or just created before these humans
But now we get back into our story
Lets read Genesis 4:3-7 again
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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.”
There is another theme embedded in here and that is the theme of scarcity and generosity
You know the idea of scarcity…There is not enough to go around
The problem of the scarcity mentality is the fear that others are getting things that you are not getting
Lets think back to Adam and eve
The serpent tapped into this mentality with Eve.
God know that when you eat of this your eyes will be open…and you will know good and evil.
So here is Adam and Eve living in crazy abundance…And the serpent introduces this fear that God is somehow holding back on you…There is even more that you don’t have access to…and in order to get more you have to eat of this fruit
Its the same fear that you have as a child…My kids still do this…They ask…Who is your favorite kid?
Which one of us do you look with favor on…
And my answer is always the same…Tillman! My dog
Because its a dubm question, it assumes that I can’t look on all of them with favor…
Their assumption is that my favor is limited…That my love has limits, KLike I only have a finite amount and that if I give some to one I won’t have enough left for the other
And we all know thats crazy right, love doesn’t work that way
But this is what Cain is assuming of God.
That God’s love has limits and because of this the hebrew text literally says that Cain burned with anger and his face fell…
You know this disposition when people are mad but also hurt…
I could picture this right now in my son Jacob
His face does this probably every day…he huffs off but then in his face..it just falls he gets upset
becuase the text doesn’t say that God won’t eventually show his favor
It just says he looked on one with favor and on the other he did not look with favor
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part I, From Adam to Noah (Genesis I–VI 8) Second Paragraph the Story of the Murder (4:3–8)
How did the two brothers know that the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard? According to the Greek translation of Theodotion, ἐνεπύρισεν, fire descended from heaven and consumed Abel’s offering but not Cain’s; a similar explanation is found in late haggadic Midrashim and in a number of medieval commentaries. Others think that the Bible implies that the Lord manifested himself to the two brothers (Skinner, Jacob). Gunkel supposes that the text alludes to a sign that was given in the sacrifices themselves, for instance the appearance of the liver or the like. It is better, however, to understand the verse in accordance with Brock-Utne’s suggestion, op. cit., pp. 210–211, to wit, that after the offerings had been made, the Lord bestowed blessing and fertility upon Abel’s flocks but not upon the field of Cain.
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.”
“God's response is a riddle. If you do good, won't there be exaltation?
Let's stop there, because that's what we're talking about.
Cain did something good. He brought a good offering. He wasn't exalted.
Like God didn't even pay attention to it.
There's a puzzle here of like, would God eventually gaze upon Cain too?
It's the question from before if my parents love Jacob will they have enough left over for me…That’s the test
Does God's generosity have an exclusive limit?
And what God says is, listen, I gave my attention to the offering of your younger brother.
He offered the firstborn. And for sure, that's a little kind of narrative hint to the dynamics here, the firstborn and the fat. So my attention went to him first.”
“But if you do good, isn't there exaltation for you too?
So first of all, Cain is forced with a choice, a test now, of whether he will do good or not good.
And this is a part of how the narrative, the vocabulary is setting up this test of Cain's decision as a parallel or as an analogy to his parents' choice before the tree of doing good and not good, or knowing good and not good.
From the garden of Eden: doubt of God's generosity extending further than the original narrative…
This doubt is the same doubt that the snake was trying to introduce to Adam and Eve.
Can God be trusted? Is he really good?
Yeah, did God really say? And no, actually, you won't die. It's that God has more to give, but that he doesn't want to give you.
That's what the snake's after.
Which is also kind of true, like God has more to give that he isn't giving them yet.
But the question is, does that mean he's never going to give them more? I mean, this has been our long-term puzzle about the Eden narrative, is humans need the ability to discern good and bad to have responsibility and rule the world.”
Really the question becomes, do you trust God’s method and timing of His generosity?
“And so now you've got a choice whether you will do good or not do good. Based on this moment. And be careful, because there's an animal at the door.
Sin is a croucher, that's what you mean? Yeah, it's a crouching animal, but it's sin, which is the word for moral failure. Moral failure is like an animal.
Is a beast. Once you. But just like I called your parents to rule over the animals, and they didn't.
They let an animal rule them. You have a chance to rule this inner animal that's crouching. And what are you going to do?
Well, it's interesting because sin, this is a grammar thing. Sin is a feminine noun, grammatically in Hebrew, but the word croucher is a masculine participle. It's not a verb.
Sin is crouching. It's in most of our translations. Sin is a thing crouching.
It's a croucher. It is a picture of something that is hidden but ready to spring up at any time
I actually like this definition because it is the first time we see the word sin in the Bible. and it defines Sin in really what is a picture… is a croucher.
So the point is that there is a bit of parallellism between Cain and his parents and the choices they both make
And here it's sin and this anger of envy that becomes the snake whispering in his ear.”
Notice How God says sin desires to have you but you must rule over it.
This is a reminder of the vocation of all of humanity
We have to rule over the animals!
Not let this animal of sin rule over us.
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Genesis 1–11:26 (3) Cain’s Murder of Abel (4:8–16)
Cain lured Abel into the fields, where he assassinated him. This is reminiscent of crimes stipulated in the later Mosaic period that were punishable by death (
The Phrase “His brother” underscores the hideousness of the act that he had just done. He had killed a man…But not just any man, his brother
Genesis 4:8 and Genesis 3:6 parallell one another
Genesis 1–11:26 (3) Cain’s Murder of Abel (4:8–16)
The virus of sin has infected the parent’s children; Adam and Eve do not have to await their own death to experience the devastating effects of their rebellion in the garden. They witness the murder of their youngest and the exile of their firstborn.
I wonder if as a parent you look at Cain and you see yourself
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Now God’s question to Cain will echo God’s question to, Adam Where are you
Cain’s crime to early Hebrew readers would have been rendered particularly heinous due to the fact that he killed his own kinsman
I find it interesting that even though they are outside the garden probably still in the region of Eden, that the lord still spoke to Cain face to face it would appear
Cain responds with
I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper.
There is a difference between Adam and Eve’s response to God and now Cain’s response
When God questioned Adam: Adam replied Genesis 3:10
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
I mean Adam answered honestly…He knew that he did wrong and he knew he was naked due to his sin and then he hid
Cain replies with a rhetorical question…”Am I my brother’s keeper?”
This is cain’s desperate attempt to silence the accusation of the Lord
I find it interesting that whenever you directly question someone, and they don’t want to tell you the truth they want to hide something, usually there is a response in the rhetorical…
But the reality that we know in ancient culture is that Ancient brothers while they have no authority over the younger brothers, if the father were to die would assume the patriorchical responsibility over the entire family…
So in a way, Cain is his brother’s keeper…or at one point he should be
So now Cain adds to his own sin and condemnation by lying about what he has done
But the rhetorical question is a dead give away…
A clear answer when someone asks you a question is a sign of innocence
where as a deflective answer is a sign of deception
When Cain says am I my brother’s “Keeper”
It is pointing back to Adam’s job as a keeper of the garden
You could also say, worker or steward
The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
What have you done?
This is an echo of Genesis 3:13
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
In every point along the way and we will even see in Cain’s punishment that Cain is just repeating the sin of his parents
He just lives it out over and over again
Then Able’s blood cries out from the ground!
God hears the cries of the oppressed…In the earliest chapters of the Bible..>God hears the cries!
In the same way he will hear the cry of the Israelites in Egypt, in the same way he will hear israel’s cries when they are oppressed by Midian and others
The book of hebrews will talk about Able…And the best commentary for the Bible is the Bible
Genesis 1–11:26 (3) Cain’s Murder of Abel (4:8–16)
Ironically, though Abel never talks in Genesis, his testimony of faith continues to speak, and his voice cries out for revenge against the unrighteous who oppose God’s work among the saints (
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
This is the first time that a man is cursed…
Just the same way that Adam and eve were Exiled from the garden of Eden, now Cain is driven from the ground…So if you are a farmer you obviously need to invest in your ground, with water and tilling and planting but now he is driven from that land
Because the land has his brother’s boday in it
The land will no longer be fruitful and you will have to really rely on the generosity of creation…You will be a restless wanderer
So what is interisting about this whole story is we don’t see a serpent in this story that is doing the decieving….I mean the chocice to do evil is an anmimal like character that is crouching…But now sin is twisted around the heart of cain
That serpent has embeded its life around cain’s heart
Remember last week when we talked about how the serpent has offspring? Well Cain is that first offspring
Cain’s punishment is signifcant because in Adam we have a punishment of making working the ground hard work but in Cain, he can’t even work the ground
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
The commentaries are split on whether or not cain receives divine forgiveness
One commentary says: Cain expresses no inkling of remorse, only self-pity and resentment. That Cain does not receive divine forgiveness is shown by his expulsion “from the LORD’S presence”
But Cain is shown Mercy
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
In the old testament Murders deserve murder
But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Seven times or complete vengeance
The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament 4:1-16: Cain and Abel
It best compares to the mark of divine protection placed on the foreheads of the innocents in Jerusalem in
Genesis 1–11:26 (3) Cain’s Murder of Abel (4:8–16)
Why does God preserve the life of this murderer? This is particularly perplexing since Torah requires capital punishment for murder. No substitute for this crime, such as monetary penalty, was acceptable (e.g.,
The Land of Nod
Nod is a play on the word wonderer Nadad
So he is going to live in the land where people wonder
Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
Cain made love to his wife? All the sudden cain has a wife…The text doesnt say who and from where
Cain built a city…Now Building cities means civilization and when you look forward in the Bible there will be the tower of Babel
Another city
Cities were centered on human values and you needed to rely on other humans to survive…it is almost a nod to not trusting in the Lord.
The genealogy ends with Lamech
Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
Genesis 1–11:26 Excursus: The Origin of Civilization in ANE Mythology
Lamech is the seventh from Adam in his genealogy, and his children, who instigate major advances in urban life, are listed in the seventh position from Cain. The first alarming evidence of Lamech’s moral decline is his inauguration of polygamy, a dismal departure from the divine norm (2:23–24). Although Genesis does not condemn the patriarchs for their practice of polygamy, it is transparent from Genesis itself that such practices resulted in painful consequences. In Mosaic legislation it was assumed that polygamy produced troubling home life (
Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Lemech goes against God's image of God, design of a man and a woman, the two become one and in that way partner as an image of God. And Lemech gets greedy and he takes two wives, Adat and Zilla, and then they have all these kids. And then Lemech sings this poem where he sings about this man that he murdered for wounding him.
And he says, you know, my ancestor, Cain, God forgave, exalted him, even though he murdered him. So I'm gonna claim God's mercy for myself. If Cain was protected by God seven times over than me, Lemech, 77 times.
So here now is somebody who's rewriting God's mercy into like self, what do you say, self advantage.
A license of revenge and power. This is interesting.
It is part of the problem of evil is that we can't handle God's generosity when it's given to people we don't think deserve it.
chapter four is tracing Cain's genealogy, that like culminates in this.
It's the genealogy of the disgruntled, envious, murderous, firstborn. And that leads to Lemic.
The king who's now just like a murderous, polygamous.
City of blood, murderous, a distorted image of God's generosity. Chapter five comes back, and it reboots, and it reminds us that Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. And then the lineage starts going through Seth.”
Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.
Eve interprets the birth of Seth as a replacement son for the loss of Able.
Seth will be the family line of which God chooses to crush the serpent with
After this there are a number of stories choosing who gets the blessing
Its it Jacob or Esau
Joseph or his brothers
David or his brothers
And every choice of a person who gets the blessing will eventually lead to Jesus
So to recap
Cain’s line leads to Lamech and to eventually the flood and evil ruining the earth
Seth’s line leads to Jesus
