Bible Studies - Genesis 4

TW: MENTIONS OF MURDER

First a preface. I'm not trying to push my religion onto others, so if this doesn't interest or you have religious then you don't have to read it. I'm just doing this to further my own understanding of these Bible stories and I want to present that to readers. I also think I have a fresh perspective, I'm not an old head, conservative, Christian so I'm a lot more progressive leaning. Anyway, let's begin.

We will be looking at the story of Abel and Cain. I recently went back and read it and there's actually a lot of subtext here. There's so much to look at. I regarded it as a simple story but some aspects confused me, I think I have a better understanding of it now though. 

Cain and Abel are the two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is the older one and Abel is younger. Cain works the land much like his father, Adam and Abel was a Shepard. So, as the story goes, both Cain and Abel provide offerings to God, Cain gives him the fruits of his labors and Abel provides the firstborn of his flock. Abel's offer is accepted but not Cain's. Cain becomes envious and murders Abel. When God asks Cain about Abel, he lies to cover his own skin. 

Seems straightforward but there's actually a lot to dig into. Let's start with the two brothers. Cain is obviously the older one and in that time period, the older was usually given more favor and so I think that fueled his jealousy towards his brother. When Cain made his offering, he expected favor because he is older but it also speaks to God's nature, he does not abide by human customs and accepts Abel's offering through his own criteria. 

One thing perplexed me though, why did God accept Abel's offering and reject Cain's but I thought about and discussed it with some friends and Abel offered his firstborn to God but Cain just offered his produce. Not produce of quality or his first harvest but just produce. Which meant that he put God 2nd when he collected his first harvest. 

Cain murdering Abel is the big thing that people mention but what often gets brushed aside is that after killing Abel, he lies. Cain claims that he doesn't know what happened to his brother which touches on something else that is prevalent in Genesis (so far as I am reading it), humanity moving further away from God. When Adam and Eve sinned, they didn't lie but when Cain sinned he lied and then further down the bloodline, came boasting of one's sins. 

After God learns of Cain's sin he places a marker on him so that nobody may murder him because he didn't want Cain's sin to lead to anymore bloodshed and that was the very last thing that he wanted, more bloodshed. 

This comes from the notes I made on Genesis 4 which I basically just expanded upon in a way that makes it more comprehensible to someone who isn't me because only I can understand my own notes. I do want to inject my opinion in here slightly. I don't think humanity is degrading or moving further from the Lord. Most Christians, especially the old head ones seem to think that humanity is going downhill but I don't think so at all. We can cherry pick cases all we want but as a whole it has become more accessible for everyone to express themselves however they want and many more people have the freedom to explore their relationship with God nowadays. Some churches are becoming more progressive and I've seen various tiktok accounts that welcome lgbt members while also being Christian accounts. If we look at someone like Wendigoon who feels that he is confident in his religion and does not spread hate towards those different from him. 

The thing is, the people who are moving away from the Lord are those who hate others for being different, those old head Christians who hate lgbt people and other religions and perpetuate and foster hateful thoughts, those are the people who are moving further from the Lord. They claim that humanity is degrading because of their various scapegoats yet through their persecution of those different from them, they perpetuate the Degradation that they speak of. 

Thank you for reading this, I would like to make more. Maybe every Sunday. Next week, you're in for a fun one. If you're a fan of Wendigoon, you're gonna love it. So stay tuned.