1And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. 2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
I am trying to go through Genesis and discuss it in a manner that will show others how to read the bible, not like a novel; but, with critical thinking. I am trying to show people how to read for greater understanding and it is my intent to go through all of the book of Genesis. I don't think I have the time to do this for the whole bible and it is not my intent to do so. After completing Genesis I intend to discuss different issues and the world around us and how it relates to the bible.
Adam and Eve became one and had their first child, Cain. Eve does not credit Adam with helping to have a baby, she says the Lord has given her a man. Adam takes credit for Eve's existence when he called her "woman" (which means to have come from man) and she takes credit for Cain as she saw him come from her. Did Eve know that the child came from the two of them? We don't know. We don't know if Eve knew how babies were made. She then has Abel.
Cain and Abel are the first two children that we know of. There are some that believe there may have been other children; but, we have no evidence that there was anyone children prior to Cain and Abel. In fact, in Genesis 5, we are told of all of the children born to Adam and Eve and it begins with Seth and it is clear at the end of Chapter 4 that Seth was born after Cain and Abel.
The name Cain is believed to mean "from the evil one". I don't know if that is an accurate translation; but, it is certainly an interesting possibility. If Eve believed that the Lord had given her Cain then she probably would not have named him such. In fact, the person who was given authority to name things was Adam. Is it possible that Adam would have named Cain because he was jealous of Eve's ability to do what he did, have others come from his essence?
We really don't have much information to go on regarding what Adam and Eve were like. I don't think we can really say that we know them well from just reading the book. In either case, they had their first two children and the elder became a farmer and the younger raised sheep. Cain decides to bring God a gift of what he has grown and Abel brings God the fat of the first sheep. Abel brought the best parts of his first animals to God. God appreciated the gift that Abel brought; but, not the gift that Abel brought and Abel brought the gift first. It does not appear that either was told to bring the gift nor are we told of Adam and Eve bringing God any gifts. so we must ask ourselves why Cain brought a gift to God.
I have heard it said that God liked Abel's gift because it was the best that he had to offer and that Cain had just brought God any of his produce, I am not convinced of this and it does not say that in the bible, so , we are left to wonder. Perhaps, it was Cain's reason from bringing God a gift in the first place, God certainly did not need it and it does not say that he asked for it. Perhaps Cain brought it to God to get in his good graces, a bribe if you will. Abel, being younger may have believed that it was what you were supposed to do because he had just seen his older brother bring a gift. If that was Abel's reason and he brought the best of what he had then he was denying himself the best of his work in honor of God. Let us assume for a moment that it was the intent that differed.
Well, God liked Abel's gift and and did not care about Cain's gift. Think of it like when your cat brings you a mouse, you appreciate the effort; but, not the gift. Cain did not take it well, his gift did not have the desired result, it had the opposite result. The result is that Cain pouts, he is put out and annoyed. God asks Cain why he is so unhappy and says that if Cain does good he will be accepted by God. Accepted, in what way? How about in the way of being worthy of having a personal relationship with God that involves God thinking well of him, of appreciating his attempts to please others. Of being of service to others.
God tells Cain that if he does not care to do nice, if he does not try to make things better and chooses to be ruled by his urges that he will not do well. He says that sin will be what he desires. If we do not care about others and attempt to cheat everyone, to bribe them to give us things then we will also be controlled by our desires and our sins will define us and determine what we become, it is a choice. The way to avoid sin is to seek to do good rather than seeking our pleasures, which rules your life?
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