Friday: Further Thought ~ Cain and His Legacy
Further Thought:
The repeated phrase “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, Genesis 5:24) means intimate and daily companionship with God.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Enoch’s personal relationship with God was so special that “God took him” (Genesis 5:24). This last phrase is, however, unique in the genealogy of Adam and does not support the idea of an immediate afterlife in Paradise for those who “walk with God.” Note that Noah also walked with God (Genesis 6:9), and he died like all the other humans, including Adam and Methuselah. It is also interesting to note that no reason is given to justify this special grace. “Enoch became a preacher of righteousness, making known to the people what God had revealed to him. Those who feared the Lord sought out this holy man, to share his instruction and his prayers. He labored publicly also, bearing God’s messages to all who would hear the words of warning. His labors were not restricted to the Sethites. In the land where Cain had sought to flee from the divine Presence, the prophet of God made known the wonderful scenes that had passed before his vision. ‘Behold,’ he declared, ‘the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.’ Jude 14-15.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 86.
Discussion Questions:
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[I have been in Queensland this week helping Carmel's parents out in their old age, hence my silence on SSNET. Helping 95 and 97-year-olds keep up in the modern technical world is time-consuming.]
Family murder is horrific My grandmother's half-sister was murdered by her husband in the 1950s. It was a pretty horrific murder. The husband had mental issues apparently and he killed his wife and children with an axe. My Grandmother did not know her half-sister all that well but she would have known who she was. She never said a thing about it at the time it happened to the rest of us. I think she was probably too ashamed. She had to bear the burden of this knowledge alone. We only became aware of the second half of Grandma's family after she had died. And we only found the connection to the murder through some ancestral investigation by my cousin. Interestingly, I do remember Grandma giving me some marital advice as a teenager, telling me to check there was no insanity in the family of any potential wife.
It is probably not a coincidence that family murder is the first major crime recorded in the Bible. Right after Eden and the snake's play on words, "...You shall not surely die!" comes the first death. Not just a death by natural means, but a premeditated murder. That cuts right to the heart and emphasises the final result of sin. Any pretence that the snake in the tree was telling the truth was swept away.
Maurice, And what you’re saying about Satan’s twisted lie, “You shall not surely die”, makes me think of how Eve did not “return to dust” in this story. She learned that losing your child to death is more painful than your own death. A part of you dies also (Luke 2:34-35). This was another lesson for Eve and Adam about the gospel story… how God, too, would lose His innocent Son to sin’s insane hate. About how much sin costs. (Many call today Good Friday, but for God it was so painful.) In bereavement we can go deeper into learning selflessness, experiencing through loss how very much others’ lives matter to us.
With reference to Jude 14-15 mentioned in today's quotation by Ellen White, what kind of 'executed judgment' results in those with a hardened heart becoming convicted, even in their hardness, that they have acted in an ungodly manner? Note that though they are genuinely convicted, they remain defiantly non-repentant (irreversibly hardened).
(Hint: consider 1 Corinthians 4:5; John 3:17-20)
How can we be careful, even if we don’t commit murder, not to reflect the attitude of Cain?
Are we more focused on what God hates than on who God loves?
Can hate be our identity, too? Our fuel? What consumes us?
Did Abel love Cain? Did Abel show Cain love? Did love conquer hate here?
What have I learned from Genesis chapters 3&4? The LORD's desire for me is to be righteous like Him and the only way is to allow Him to control/lead/guide my life. When Adam, Eve and Cain followed their own desires it lead to negative consequences and that was only the beginning, we will see it got worse and worse. Note Jesus says as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in these last days.
What is sin? I believe it is D.I.Y. - doing it yourself, choosing to follow your own desires. It is not a power outside of ones self it a desire, a choice, an action one takes to do the opposite of God's instructions. "Sin" does not cause death, it is ones choice to reject the source of Life that results in death.
I believe the core message of the Word of the LORD is to show us the result of choosing to "know" evil instead of the goodness of the LORD's Principles of Eternal Life.
However in keeping with His promise I am looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where only righteousness dwells.
Rom 8:1-11
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Gal 5:16-25
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Psalm 45:7, Hebrews 1:9,
Even though King David sinned, his heart was in the right place.
He loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
The free will, cognitive, rational mind is exposed to God who created it.
Hebrews 4:13
It was because of those minds that loved righteousness and hated the evil in themselves, God sent his redeemer in the person of Jesus to overcome Satan, Sin and death and subsequently be BOTH JUST (to his own divine nature) and JUSTIFIER to offer them Sonship in Christ's inheritance.
Ephesians 1:9-14
2 Corinthians 5:1-19, Colossians 1:19-28, Romans 3:26,
May you be blessed in the *pearl of great price* aka the indwelling Holy Spirit in greater measure. 2 Peter 1:2-12
Truth commingled with deceitfulness is deceitfulness. Like zero multiplied by any number is zero. God the Creator of man declared that sin leads to death. I surmise that ‘death’ started when the uncorrupted became corrupt through disobedience. Death is evidenced again, when Adam/Eve’s relationship with God began to wane because sin had entered that space - they were banished. Man was estranged from his life source. Death is evidenced again in Cain’s hate toward his brother and then the murder.
Death was not instantaneous but it was sure. The knock-on effect of sin has perpetuated in the genetics of mankind - shapen in iniquity. A little yeast has worked through the whole dough……ye shall surely die if ye die without Jesus Christ saving grace
There are some interesting parallels and contrasts in the story of Cain and Abel. In Genesis 3:15, the Lord God promises enmity between offspring of the Serpent and the offspring of the Woman. Genesis 4 shows the operation of this enmity. Two lines of offspring come from the Woman: those of Seth and of Cain—those whose faith is focused on the Lord and those whose perception of God aligns with the Serpent.
Both Cain and Abel bring the first fruits of their increase to the Lord, as an act of worship. Worship is a reflection of the worshiper’s view of God—it is an outworking of his thoughts in the words and actions of living life. Cain’s concept of God, although religious, did not reflect God’s character and was not acceptable. The writer of Hebrews (11:4) observes that because he was trusting in the Lord, Abel offered a greater sacrifice than Cain. Abel was completely dedicated to the Lord, but Cain was not.
God knows the heart and he obviously loves Cain because he pleads with him to turn back to him. (Genesis 4:6-7.) Even after Cain’s murder of Abel, God’s grace extends devine protection against retribution, in apparent hope of a change in his heart. Unfortunately, this change never comes and Cain’s legacy ultimately results in great and increasing wickedness that severely grieves the heart of God (Genesis 6:5-8).
As a religious person, I find in Genesis 4 a warning that is echoed in Jesus' words to the scribes and Pharisees where he identifies them as "offspring of vipers." (Matthew 23:33.) The lesson is that religious behaviour does not equate to godliness, and it underlines the prophetic trajectory of Genesis 3:15; these two lines of offspring run to the end of time and ultimately to the resolution of the great controversy between the Lord and the Serpent.
Just some thoughts.