This week we talked about Genesis 3-11 which covered the topics of Cain & Abel and Noah and the flood. Yet again we’re faced with some pretty dense material in a short amount of space.
Genesis 4 – Cain Abel & Seth
Here we have the first offering mentioned in the Bible. We wondered if God has already made specific requests of them ‘Bring me your first born lambs,’ and if He hasn’t, then it seems unfair to not accept Cain’s offering. It would be like telling your friend to bring desert to a party, and when she shows up with a delicious peach galette you fly into a rage that she didn’t bring you chocolate cake.
When Cain isn’t accepted he rushes out and kills Abel, which seems rash. It’s sad to see how fast things are going down hill for mankind!
We also noticed here how God seems to still come and talk directly with this family. They have been sent out of the Garden of Eden, but God is still coming to meet with them like He has before. Just like in 3:9 when God calls out to A&E “Where are you?” He called out to Cain in 4:9 “Where is your brother?” Obviously if He knows all, He knows both of these times, but it seems winsome to me that He would ask – very much like He desires a conversation and a relationship.
Then the curse on Cain. Some of our group found this harsh of God. It was brought up that it seems to be taking away the free choice of people to kill Cain, and if this is the case why didn’t God take away Cain’s ability to kill Abel in the first place?
Cain complains that God’s being to harsh (sounds like a whiney baby to me and not a repentant man) and God reaches out and tells him that he will be protected from possible revenge.
4:26 “It was during his lifetime that people first began to worship the Lord.” We talked about this and what it might mean. “Maybe God sees the world getting more sinful and He can’t be where sin is so He distances Himself?” But I disagreed because sin was in the Garden, and our world was sinful when Jesus came, so this cannot be true.
One in our group likened this to the distance that happens between parents and children when they move out of the house. The parents didn’t go anywhere but the children need to call and reach out with an effort since they have left. I liked that the woman who talked about this added, ‘I never truly understood the love of God until I had my children and then so much about the whole thing made sense to me.’
Genesis 6 – The Flood
In this chapter we came to all kinds of good discussion points.
Well first we asked if this make God seem exacting? “Don’t follow me? I’m done with the lot of you!” And if there was someone preaching in our town about some natural disaster we’d never heard of would we believe him?
And more importantly, this seems like a band-aid approach to the real problem – sin! Can’t God just solve the real problem? How can we say that He is all knowing and all powerful if He can’t just end what really needs to end – the source of all evil.
But this all brings us back around to the real and true problem – that God desires love and love cannot be commanded. We could wonder about God’s loving nature if He just “woke up one day” and sent a flood with no warning because people weren’t following Him. But it says that he decided on the flood not because people weren’t following Him but because they were violent and evil towards each other. He does create destruction but He also gives a way out to Noah – the specific instruction for the ark and the animals. There is almost a 100 year period where Noah is preparing for the Flood – presumably enough time for people to hear how “crazy” he was and come to some conclusion.
We mentioned Noah’s attitude towards God in 6:9 “…He consistently followed God’s will and enjoyed a close relationship with him.” He and his family may not have understood exactly what rain was but they knew that God had their best interest at heart and that whatever He said to do was probably worth doing.
“But what about the fact that Noah then gets drunk and seems to be kind of a low life right after the flood?” Someone asked. But does God only pick the best and the brightest, or does He work with whomever is willing? God meets us where we’re at, and requires only a right attitude and a desire for relationship with Him – not perfect!
The flood seems to be a preventative measure to protect these people from themselves. Does that seem arbitrary? Perhaps. A lady in our group explained it from her perspective that the God’s decision seems like a parent who doesn’t want their children experimenting with promiscuity because the parent works daily with HIV patients and sees first hand how awful the consequences to some life choices can be. It isn’t that a parent don’t wish the child to “have fun” or live a “full life” but because the parent knows things that the child can’t and also knows that once the decision is made there isn’t always a way to undo those consequences.
In the end we asked a lot of questions, and though we aren’t certain of anything yet, we are beginning to see a view of God. Our picture is still muddled and there are still a lot of loose ends, but we keep the loose threads in hand and keep weaving to see what else will appear in this rich tapestry. God never asks us to believe without evidence and we are only starting to lay His cards out on the table.
Did I leave something out that you found interesting? Please add your thoughts about the evening to the comments below – I try to take notes but there are times when we get so wrapped up in the discussion I lose track of all the interesting points!
Thanks again to everyone who came, it was a splendid evening!
God in the 66 