Genesis 4: 8-27 Cain & Abel

Two Sons

One will credit the Lord

The other will spin fable.   

One will praise God

The other will honor Babel.

One will live by faith 

The other will kill to reign.

One will offer righteous sacrifice

The other will demand selfish gain.

One will teach God’s Holy way

The other will learn anger’s wrath.

One will follow his Father’s plan

The other will walk a worn path.

One will find peace from mother earth

The other will war in spiritual dearth.

One will reap God's blessings of love

We will call him  ….. Abel.

One will plot Mahan's curse of Cain. 

We will call him ....marked by his own label.   

                         Linda Conkey Shaw & Mark E. Shaw

Copyright May 5, 2011

Mark and I had a fun time writing this poem together. It is a deeper poem about the sons of Adam, Cain and Abel and it is about each of us. 

Abel was:  obedient, observant, respectful, favored, a sheepherder, a respecter of the earth, younger than Cain, close to his parents, 

Cain was: the older of the two. There really is no conclusive evidence to suggest that he was Eve's first born. In Moses we are told that Adam and Eve had both sons and daughters so that there was most likely a family. 

As I read through this several times, I was struck with how the story is really about the family of man. This story in many respects represents the first family feud, the first trial of anger, the first jealousy, the first temptation by Satan (outside of the GArden), so the first real trial of choice with a real understanding of all that was taught and without the constant companionship of the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. It was a trial of the Holy Ghost. 

We know from the book of Moses that Adam was taught how to find direction from God while outside of the Garden. He was instructed how to offer sacrifice and how to live by faith. He was to teach his children these things. The children were to learn from their parents. 

The first generation:  Here's the catch. Cain and Abel were never in the garden. They could only listen to stories their parents told. They had not experienced the joy, the peace and the desire to return to Father's presence would not have been as profound as it was in Adam's or Eve's life. What I am suggesting is that temptation came easier to those who did not have the experience to remember. And that is where the faith came into play. 

The first faith: Each of us must be born of parents who have lived lives of experience. We can choose to accept their advice or reject it. If we reject it then we must take responsibility for our own choice and the paths we trod. Each of us when we leave our homes are like Adam and Eve, we are cast from a garden where all of our needs have been met: food, clothing, shelter, love. We must learn to not only fend for ourselves with regards to food, shelter and clothing, job, etc, (the physical needs) we must also learn to love one another. 

Cain would have been the oldest. He would have experienced more of Adam and Eve's mistakes as they first left the garden. He would have seen and felt more of his parent's frustrations. His parents needed to make sure they countered these experiences with lessons of love and acceptance. I'm not blaming Adam or Eve.. I'm not blaming anyone. Life is meant to have experience. WE all must have it the experiences we need to grow. Each of our lives are custom created by a loving God to help us grow the most. 

This story of Cain choosing to walk away from all of the love of his mother is one to help us learn about not anger and murder, but rather the reasons anger comes. 

Why does anger come to you? Are you content? Are you frustrated by life's demands? Are you living in fear of not getting all you want or are you putting your faith in God to give you all you need?  

Anger comes to us all. It is part of being human, but anger only becomes a liability, a disability, a curse of mahan, when we allow is to rule our lives. Anger put to good use can be a good catalyst for change... or it can destroy ... relationships (families) , lives(Abel) , livelihoods (Cain lost his sacred trust with the earth and was called to be a vagabond) . It can become our label. or we can choose God and become able. 

First Blackberrys and the First Family. Genesis 4:1-7

     The three girls bounded across my lawn toward me. As I sat on my porch watching them I couldn't help but to marvel at their joy. Their mother held the youngest on her hip while the older two wrapped their long arms around two large round containers that brimmed with blackberries.  

    My neighbor had walked over with her girls to share her family’s harvest with us. I felt is was a gracious and generous gesture and one that God used to teach me a valuable lesson.

“This represents the first of our blackberry harvest." She said.  "We wanted to thank you for not cutting down the blackberry bushes last fall.”

 Her youngest momentarily overcame her shyness and peeked her head out from behind her mother’s legs.  As she did our eyes met and I found myself smiling with her.

   “ Is this true?” I asked the youngest. “Are these the veeeeeery first blackberries?”

Her young eyes widened and as she looked at her mother, she nodded yes.

   "Well then, I will have to make a blackberry cobbler. Or could I eat them with milk and sugar?” As I spoke I searched the girls for a response. They in turn were searching me for my response. As I thanked them I gave them the biggest smile I could and told them to check out my strawberry patch before they left. 

     I tried to explain to their mother that it wasn’t necessary for them to give us the first of their harvest.  But she was adamant. They were very grateful to my husband and son for not mowing down the blackberry bushes. It was about gratitude. 

     Last fall, my son, new and overzealous in his lawn mowing job, had decided that he would also mow the front portion of the vacant lot next to us.  He did not realize the strip was filled with succulent blackberry vines. Our neighbors had asked him to not mow the area where the blackberries flourished. He gladly complied. 

    I didn't think much about their gift until I was contemplating why the Lord became upset with Cain. And what happened that caused Cain's countenance to fall?  Why had our neighbor been so adamant that her girls bring us the first and best of their harvest?  It wouldn't have mattered to me, but it seemed to matter greatly to their mother. Why? 

    I think it has something to do with respect and wanting to be accepted. Cain was a tiller of the ground. His brother Able was a herder of sheep. Although the Lord had given Adam and Eve explicit instructions on how to show their respect to Him and how to offer sacrifices, I don't believe it mattered what you offered as much as how you offered it. God was not going to condemn Cain for his choice of profession, but he did question Cain on the lack of faith he showed when making his offering. 

    When my sweet neighbor girls came to me and offered the first of their blackberries, they searched my face for acceptance. They wanted me to acknowledge not so much the blackberries ( I will greatly enjoy them) but mostly the fact that they offered me a gift that was meant to show respect. We had respected their wishes to not cut the path of land where the berries grew and they expressed their gratitude for the respect we gave them in doing so. 

    Cain didn't do this. How do we know? Because God did not have respect for Cain's offering.(vs5) God loves all his children and is not a respecter of persons but if the offering that Cain offered showed disrespect, then the Lord God would need to correct the standard. 

    My three little friends offered their gift on faith. Faith helped them pick with the belief that I would be pleased with their gift. Faith helped them bound across my lawn in joy. Faith helped them receive the simple reward of neighborly friendship and a jaunt in my strawberry patch. 

    So what was so different about Cain's offering? I believe he offered not the first of his crop and possibly not the best. He did not make his offering in faith.  If you offer a sacrifice in faith you give the first and the best of your efforts. If you yield to Satan's temptations you are not seeking for the Lord's approval but rather for a "Zero Sum Mentality."...I.E. A zero sum mentality says that  if I give to you, the you have to give back full fold to me. If I do all that you ask, I get to choose all that I want. I am in charge. I get what I want and what I want is to have you respect me by giving me what I want not what you choose. 

   ' Zero Sum Mentality' represents selfish desires that put your wants above all else. It does not require faith in a loving greater being, but rather relys on the rules of fairness. Cain not only didn't offer his sacrifice in faith in the Lord but he chose to obey Satan above God. Zero Sum Mentality makes it really hard to find acceptance because the only person that you are really interested in is yourself. When we have faith in others and in God, however we are able to find acceptance in all that God has given us, in the love of community, and above all else in the Lord's commandments. God's love is our reward. 

   The fact that Cain was wroth with the Lord's response surprised the Lord. He had been given a commandment to offer a sacrifice in faith. Cain had offered it out of obligation and out of obedience to Satan's plan of selfishness. He had chosen what he had wanted to give and not given of the first of his fruits nor of the best. 

   I am grateful to the Lord for the many gifts I have. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others and to live in such a way that I might offer my sacrifices to my Lord. I am aware that there are times when my own countenance falls, when the Lord reprimands me and says, "If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted." It is in these times that I go to the Lord in prayer and seek forgiveness for my wanting fairness more than his love. 

Verses. 

1.  The First Family -  Adam knew Eve. The first pregnancy. The first son. Cain. The first gratitude... 

I have gotten a son from the Lord. 

2. The first professions. Able is younger than Cain. The First Family has difficulties in teaching two different spirits. And in Moses we are taught that they also had daughters, so we have the first community springing up. 

4. And he Lord had respect unto Able and to his offering. 

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4) 

 5But unto ^aCain and to his ^boffering he had not ^crespect.  - 

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.( Jude 1:11)

5. The first anger. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Anger actually has a cycle. 

1. Fear 2. Pain 3. Anger 4. Grief 5. Hatred 6. Revenge 7. Atrocity

Cain's anger begain with his fear of losing his crop. He loved his crop more than the Lord. 

6.  Why is thy countenance fallen? When you see someone who is angry, their soul is dark. They hold their head and shoulders low. They walk with a drag to their step. Anger is a heavy load to carry. 

 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be ^aaccepted? and if thou^bdoest not well, ^csin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be ^dhis^edesire, and thou shalt rule over him. What does God mean to doest well? I think he is trying to teach us to live by faith. To Let Go and Let God! To love man more than increase. To practice the discipline of contentment. 

If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be unto thee according to his desire. And thou shalt rule over him; Moses 5:33 

I will ever hold dear to my heart the precious memory of my young neighbors bringing the joy of their gift to me. A gift that was given in faith and in joy.