Week 1 Genesis 1-24
Genesis 1-3 – what I called Scene One – ended with Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. Scene Two opens with the beginning of their new lives.
They started a family with whatever hopes and dreams they had. I can’t say for sure but I doubt their plan included one of their boys killing his brother. So right away one of the early, practical, real world actions recorded after the fall is murder.
This story weighs on me; it seems so unfair.
Abel is the good brother – he reveres and he obeys the Lord. And he gets killed. His short life comes to an early end. He doesn’t get to live out his days.
Cain is a man who disregards the Lord and he definitely hates his brother. But even though he kills a good man he gets to live. Sure, he’s punished with a curse, and getting cursed isn’t such a great thing to be saddled with. But to me the curse doesn’t seem like vindication enough. Cain gets to live out his life, gets to have a family, his family will go on to be ranchers, musicians, metal-workers. Meanwhile Abel is dead in the ground.
Something isn’t right about this. It just doesn’t seem to be fair.