 "Wiregrass Rush Hour." 2020 Brian Braden Photography I was going to write a blog this morning either about the function of faith in civilization or how left-lane drivers really irritate me. Guess which topic won?
(Sung to the tune of “Life in the Fast Lane” by the Eagles) He was a slow-driving man He was brutally oblivious, and she was terminally texting, She held them up, and he braked for no reason In the heart of the slow, slow traffic. They had one thing in common. They didn’t know how to use a turn signal "Slower, Slower the lights are turnin' red!” Life in the left lane, surely make you lose your mind. Bad lyrics and kidding aside, left-lane drivers drive me nuts. I suspect I’m not alone . There are many more eloquent than I who have commented on those who park in the left lane and don’t move over. I try not to let them annoy me anymore, because nothing is going to change the fact they will always be with us. You see, left-lane driving is proof of the existence of original sin. (stay with me here) When Jesus said “The poor will always be with you” I think he also meant a lot of things people do will always be with us. You see, in most cases we humans are taught what’s right. Logically, we know what is good and bad. Wash your hands before you eat. Don’t mix beer and wine. Watch what you eat. Murder is bad. Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Don’t hang out in the left lane. Yet, we do it all anyway. When one hangs out in the left lane, and people start resorting to passing on the right it’s a clue you’re doing something wrong. But I'm not not really just talking about left-lane driving, its about following rules. When I say "follow rules", I’m not referring to high-minded concepts like civil disobedience and rebelling against tyranny. I’m talking about following speed limits, not littering, flushing the toilet and putting the twisty tie back on the bread bag. I'm referring to responsible civic-mindedness. The simple stuff and the blatantly obvious. Most people see the wisdom in following traffic rules, or most civic rules. However, some people think rules are for other people. This attitude is neither malicious nor uncommon. It’s just being human. What isn’t discussed much about this phenomenon is that people who think this way often think consequences are for other people, too. This is at the heart of what I’m trying to get across. A few years back I took my three young children to the park. A ring of signs clearly stated pets were not allowed in the playground areas, and 99% of the greater park was open to pets including two dedicated dog parks. While my children played, a woman strolled right into the playground area with a Great Dane on a leash, sat on a bench, and stuck her face in her phone. The horse-dog then proceeded to urinate and defecate where the children played. She thought the rules didn’t apply to her, nor did the consequences. The kids stepping the animal waste paid the price, not her. I’m not judging her, because I’ve been her before in regards to other infractions. I think we all have, to some degree or another. We’ve all bent, ignored, or consciously blown-off common sense rules put in place to protect others and ourselves. Sometimes the consequences may be something smelly and squishy between our toes, and sometimes it’s far worse. A few weeks ago I witnessed an accident where a young woman decided to pass on a two-lane blacktop in a no-passing zone. She was approaching a limited-sight hilltop at full highway speeds and decided to pass a the vehicle in front of her. And pass she did, and immediately collided head-on with an automobile pulling out onto the highway. The no passing zone was clearly marked. Common sense says passing when approaching a hilltop is a bad idea. Yet, she did it anyway, and horror resulted. Why do we do it? We want rules. We elect politicians to make laws. We hire bureaucrats to regulate us. We want our police to enforce them. Yet, as individuals we often brush rules aside, sometimes cavalierly, like it’s cool. When we step in dog crap in the playground, or get stuck behind the guy driving five miles an hour under the speed limit in the left lane, we shake our fists and wonder why people can’t follow the rules. Then there are those times when tragedy strikes because someone decided the rules didn’t apply to them. All of us take a bite of Eve’s apple from time to time and end up hanging out in the left lane. It’s in our DNA. It’s a flaw in our programming at the deepest level. This inherent flaw, dare I say sin, of willful disobedience is fundamental human nature. No number of laws, rules or regulations or screaming at the car in front of you will change it. So stop screaming at the guy in the left lane, or you’ll surely end up losing your mind. You're not going to change him. Maybe we need to work harder on changing our own behavior. In life, the only driver you can control is yourself. #traffic #essay #orginalsin #sin #culture #society #issue #faith #religion *** If you enjoyed this blog, please like the post and leave a comment or if you're feeling brave, share it on social media. This platform is my entire advertising budget and is how I share the word on my books. Also visit my Facebook, my author page and check out my photography book from America Through Time, "Abandoned Wiregrass: The Deepest South's Lost and Forgotten Places."
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 Figures de la Bible - by Gerard Hoet 1728 (Note: I'm back from vacation with another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here.) I originally come from an unchurched family. We never went to church, even on Easter and Christmas, though my mother expressed a vague belief in God. You could say I rode the first wave of post-Christianity in America. Oh sure, I went to church with friends once in a while, but those where social events, not a spiritual ones. To put it bluntly, I never really got it until much later in my life. It really came down to the fact that when I tried to read the Bible when I was younger it was the King James version. By the time I got to Genesis 5, my eyes glazed over when I hit the first set of “begots.” It wasn’t until I was much older, and had a New International Version (NIV) in my hands, that I could make sense of the Old Testament’s long periods of concentrating strictly on genealogy. The NIV doesn’t use the word “begot”, since it is a fresh translation into modern English, but even in the NIV wading into all “who’s who” of the Old Testament can be daunting. Genesis 5 describes the line from Adam to Noah’s sons. I read this one closely, not glazing over and rushing through, and actually learned a few things. Before I get into the meat of the scripture, there are a few points I need to cover. Up to now, Genesis can be described as transforming from poetic to parable. Now, in Genesis 5, it makes the leap to historical. Time as we know it becomes important as the cast of characters grow exponentially. With this in mind, some people begin this historical journey by counting the years, from birth to death, from Adam onward in order to calculate the exact age of the universe. This is a bad idea for three important reasons. Reason One: Adam’s existence straddles two different ways of marking time – God’s way and mortal’s way. Recall in Episode 2, where I cover Genesis 1 and the 6 Days of Creation. In Genesis 1:14 God said on Day 4, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years…” The human concept of time, based on celestial movements, isn’t created until God’s Day 4. Logically, the first 6 days are on a completely different scale, and “counting backward” from God Day 1 won’t work. The Six Days of Creation could be six days or six billion years. I don’t know and will never know. The timeline and physics of the universe’s creation are questions better left to science. Therefore, we have no good beginning “anchor point" for the Genesis 5 genealogy. Reason Two: Adam wasn’t born of woman like the rest of humanity, he was created from dust and the breath of God. He doesn’t have a birthday as we know it with which to begin the count of years. Reason Three: Genesis 2 infers Adam and Eve were immortal until they took a bite of the forbidden fruit. They were, therefore, timeless until that point. In my previous episodes, I break with tradition and place Adam’s creation on God Day 3, not 6, based on the clear description of the world surrounding the Garden of Eden at the time of his creation. As I stated earlier, a way to track time celestially wasn’t possible until God Day 4. One day or a billion years, perhaps it all felt like a single warm afternoon to Adam, who may have not had ANY sense of time. How does one, therefore, calculate a “birthday” for Adam between two time-scales, with no birthday, and when for the first portion of his existence, he didn’t age? You can’t. Don’t try, because the universe isn’t 6000 years old. Genesis isn’t designed for that, and using it that way won’t work. What starting point could one safely use, then? Only one will work…the moment Adam and Eve took their fatal bite. First, the Bible now provides an accurate time reference using the common solar year. Second, at that moment, Adam and Eve were essentially “born again,” but this time into sin (New Testament foreshadowing, huh?). Third, Adam and Eve are no longer immortal; time actually means something to them now. Everything before this time passed as if in a dream. With that said, we shall begin our historical journey from the “bite” forward. 5 This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. When I see ideas and concepts rehashed and repeated, but slightly differently, like Genesis 5:1, it leads me to think parts of the Old Testament might be compilations of different ancient manuscripts, with different authors, loosely edited together. Like I said, I’m not a Bible scholar, so don’t take anything I say with any authority. I’m just musing. Now to the heart of Genesis 5, the lineage. .There is actually a methodology to this genealogy, all of which is paternal, which I call the “three sentence” structure. I’m sure experts call it something else. Each generational paragraph begins with the “had lived” sentence, which is how long the patriarch lived before having their first son. That is followed with the “was born” sentence, which states how long they lived after their first son was born and if they had any other children. The end of the paragraph is the “lived a total “sentence, which gives the total number of years the patriarch lived. With this, one can mark the passage of time in the Old Testament. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. As stated earlier, I make the assumption Adam’s timeline begins at the moment his long immortality comes to and end and he begins the long road to physical death, 930 years later. This brings to mind a very important question, why did all these patriarchs live so long? There is no forensic archeological evidence of anyone living even nearly this long, though there are several of myths and legends across the ancient world about unique races of long-lived humans. (Feel free to buy my novel BLACK SEA GODS, as my fans know I’ve done quite a bit of research into these myths. Don’t worry, I’ll wait until you get back. Did you buy it? Good. I’ll continue.) Its logical to speculate this is a residual effect of Adam’s previous immortality, the afterglow of eternity, now passed down to his descendants. I am also going to speculate this long life was unique to the line of Adam. SPOILER ALERT: The farther the line of Adam drifts from the Garden, the shorter their life spans get. BEGET ABOUT IT ALREADY!: Genesis 5:6-21 repeats this methodology for the generations of Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, and Enoch. And that’s about all there is to that. Things get interesting again in Genesis 5:21 with Enoch. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years.24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. This is commonly interpreted as Enoch being taken by God without actually dying. I read it that way, too. For one thing, it doesn’t end like the other paragraphs with “…and he died.” Why doesn’t the Bible talk more about him? There is a non-canonized (i.e. it didn’t make the official cut to get into the Bible) book of scripture called The Book of Enoch, supposedly written by the man himself, but I’m not going to talk to that. Bottom line, the official version of scripture gives this guy a footnote and moves right along. Bummer, I’d liked to have learned more about him. SPOILER ALERT: This happens to one other person in the Old Testament, too. 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. Enoch’s son Methuselah didn’t get the e-ticket to heaven, but he did win the “longest lived in the Bible” trophy, at a whopping 969 years. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Using the genealogy of Genesis 5, I count about 1,656 years since Eve handed Adam the fruit and invited him to take a bite. To keep it simple in my simple brain, I’m going to call my timescale “P.E.” – Post-Eden. I was going to call it P.B. – Post-Bite, but it sounded too much like “Peanut Butter.” I’m going to use P.E. until I can find some solid, universally accepted benchmark in the Old Testament to convert to B.C. (please, don’t get me started on “B.C.E.”) The year is 1656 P.E. and a man named Noah is about to embark on perhaps the most important mission ever given to a human being. God’s patience with mankind is about to run out. Brian Braden is the author of THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books. Please support this blog with your patronage.   Cain Flying Before Jehovah's Curse - Fernand Cormon. - 1880 (Note: This is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here. All Bible quote are NIV and cannot be used for commercial purposes. Read copyright information here.) In Part 1 of my look at Genesis 4, I left off asking a few questions: Why does God need sacrifices, or to be worshiped for that matter? What is sin? Did God’s rejection of Cain lead to Abel’s death? Did God fail in his creation of humankind? Tough questions…but honest ones. Seriously, let’s look at God’s track record in the first four chapters of the Bible. Mankind falls from Grace and we get the Bible’s first recorded murder. Everything appears to be going wrong and FAST. I wonder what God is thinking at this point. Let’s pick up where we left off in Genesis 4. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (NIV) 10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” (NIV) This is the first instance of God expressly cursing a human. Imagine, the creator of all existence putting a curse on you, a little mortal. That’s a big burden to bear. Cain is cast into exile from what is left of his family. Not only that, he is separated from the only trade he knows – farming. How will he feed himself? “Restless Wanderer” brings to mind nomad. Cain the Barbarian. You’d think Cain must become a gatherer or a hunter, as if God had cast him backwards down the evolutionary ladder. 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” (NIV) Can one truly be hidden from an all-seeing, all knowing divine presence? Is there no hope for Cain’s reconciliation with God? It makes me think. Cain is obviously concerned about being killed by those he encounters during his exile, to which I ask…who exactly is he afraid of? In the widely accepted, classical interpretations of the Bible, Adam, Eve and Cain are presently the ONLY humans on the face of the earth. Yet, Cain hints to other humans who might do him harm. This brings me back to some thoughts I had way back in Episode 2, where I speculated, as written in the Bible, other humans were created by God on the 6th Day outside the Garden, but Adam was specially formed on Day 3. This theory seems to gain credence in Genesis 4 with the implied possibility of other humans being present in significant numbers. 15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (NIV) It almost feels as if Cain wants God to kill him, to put him mercifully out of his misery. God has other plans and sentences Cain to “life without parole”, to be forever tormented by his own conscious. What type of punishment God intends by “seven times over” I cannot fathom, but it doesn’t sound pleasant. I also wonder what kind of mark God placed on Cain that it would be recognized by those outside of Adam’s clan. At this point I would expect the tale of Cain to be over, and we would return to Adam’s family story. Not so, as the story of Cain continues for a little longer. 17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech. 19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. (NIV) Cain found a wife (and love?) and had kids. Okay, I’m going to wholly accept the theory there were other people, other than Adam and Eve, on earth at this time. I’m going to choose to accept this version for two reasons: 1) That’s the way I read it, even if it flies in the face of thousands of years of interpretation. 2) It sounds feasible from where I stand in 2017, while the historical interpretation does not. I’m going forward with that premise and not going to revisit the topic again unless something comes along to shake this theory. To repeat, Cain finds a wife, has kids and establishes a city. It doesn’t seem like a life doomed for “restless wandering” to me. If you ask me, cities are a pretty non-wandering type of lifestyle. In fact, Cain’s life style gets downright sedentary as he fathers five generations and his linage is assured. I’m actually trying to figure out how he was cursed. NOT WHAT I LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL: If you take the Bible as written, Cain has a major influence on human civilization. Unexpectedly, he doesn't go backwards on the "evolutionary ladder", he and his clan move forward. To be blunt, he invents civilization. Cain and his descendants are the first Biblical mentions of 1) cities (metropolitan civilization), 2) musical instruments (arts), and 3) metal working (high tech). Cain is not only the Father of Murder, he and his progeny takes us from the Stone-age to the Iron-age in four generations. Reading on, it becomes clearer the vast majority of humanity can likely call Cain their progenitor. 23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” (NIV) Lamech continues the family tradition. We see the restless descendants of Cain, city dwellers who do not till the soil but somehow manage to eat. They are never happy, never satisfied with what they have, and always envious and full or rage for what they don’t have. Perhaps Lamech’s amplification curse has filtered down to us. We dwell in our cities, surrounded by our man-made wonders and smugly call ourselves wise, all the while we slaughter our fellow man. Perhaps Cain’s mark is still upon us. 25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord. (NIV) Enoch, son of Cain, forges one line, and Enosh, son of Seth forges another, and the people of the land begin to seek out God. We’ll turn the page to Genesis 5 in the next episode. Before I leave Genesis 4, however, I want to revisit the questions I asked in Part 2. Why does God want sacrifices and why does he want to be worshipped? Up to this point, one of God’s primary behaviors is that of concerned parent. Ok, then I will put his behaviors in context of that of a parent. Based on everything up to this point, God cares what happens to humanity. We were created in his image, right? Creation is an act of love, and simply put, God loves us. Here is a question for the moms and dads out there - why do we want our children to be appreciative? Simple, because it is a way they show they love us. Worship is an expression of love AND respect at the highest level. Sacrifice is the physical manifestation of that love, where mortals bring forth the best they have and lay it before their creator. Sacrifice is a symbol of a loving relationship. We don’t know what initiated Cain and Abel’s decision to sacrifice to God, only what they chose to offer. They offered their best. Abel offered his sacrifice with a clean, open heart. Cain did not. As I stated in the previous episode, I don’t think it was the type of offering, but how it was offered, that God made is decision whether to accept or not accept the sacrifices. The lesson here is you can offer everything to God, but if you do it with deception and evil in your heart he won’t accept it. What is sin? As stated in the previous episode, its mentioned for the first time in Genesis 4, but not defined. Well, up to this point these are the things God has expressed disfavor about: disobedience (Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit), anger and jealousy and murder (Cain). In each case, the results have been detrimental to the people who performed these behaviors. Also, after each act God and mankind become more separated from one another. Sin hurts the person who chooses to do it, and those he or she loves. Sin is a self-inflicted wound of the heart that separates us from God. Sin is spiritual suicide. Next question, did God set up Cain to murder by rejecting his sacrifice? I’ll answer that with another question…what if God accepted Cain’s sacrifice? He would have accepted, and legitimized, Cain’s behavior. That act would have been a lie and against God’s inherent nature as a loving parent and, in the long run, would have hurt Cain. So, because of God’s nature and his love for Cain, he owed Cain the truth. Remember, mankind had partaken from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, so Cain knew his behavior was wrong and he was aware of his choice to do right. With the truth, God gave him an avenue back to redemption. After receiving God’s solid advice, Cain still chose sin and entered into a state of deeper rebellion against God. So, no, God did not set up Cain for failure. Cain set up Cain for failure. Did God fail in his attempt to create a race in his image? I’ll answer that with a question, too…who am I to judge God’s success or failure? Like a cliché, you haven’t failed until you quit. God hasn’t quit. As of Genesis 4, God hasn’t wiped out humanity and started over. SPOILER ALERT: That comes later. See you next episode. (Programming note…I’m stepping away from the computer for a few days, so it will be about a week before the next installment.)  Brian Braden is the author the book THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books.
 The First Mourning by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1888 (Note: This is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible. You can read my series introduction here.) Cain and Abel One reason I began this journey was to try to understand the nature of God. That’s kind of silly, considering I haven’t even begun to understand the nature of women. At least God comes with an instruction manual called the Bible. Even if women came with instructions, they would just keep changing the rules. So, even though this might be an overwhelming quest, what has Genesis 1-3 told me about God so far? He is spirit, but alludes to appearing in a physical form. We are made in his image. He is a creator. He establishes rules and enforces them. He is stern, but merciful. Mostly, he is like a concerned parent. In Genesis 4, we see God again take on the role of father to the loved and lost race of humanity, and we see this relationship take a new, and darker twist. Genesis 4 offers several first, in addition to the Bible’s well know first murder. It is the first mention of sacrifices to God, which invites the question: Why does God demand sacrifices? I mean, he is the creator of ALL the universe, so what does a little animal fat mean to him? For that matter, why does God need to be worshiped at all? I mean, humans are so insignificant in the great, grand scheme of things what value does our adulation mean to an entity that came up with the idea of black holes? I don’t know, but I’m going to attempt a guess by the time my journey into Genesis 4 is over. Let’s get started. 4 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. Now Adam and Eve get busy and begin obeying God’s first decree, to be fruitful and multiply. Cain was the oldest and followed in his father’s sandals as a farmer. Abel, however, became a shepherd. This is another first. This is the first mention of animal husbandry in the Bible, but there is no mention of Clan Adam adapting a meat-based diet to this point. When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden there was no mention of them eating meat, so I don’t know if the family had made the leap to animal-based protein yet. I am thinking these are sheep based on the use of the word “flock.”Abel assesses great value in the animal fat, therefore I deduce they might be eating sheep. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So, Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now we come to the point where God accepts Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. Cain naturally brings portions of his harvest because he is a farmer like his father. Abel, his younger brother, brings fat from a lamb. There are a few points I want to make about this passage before I get to the tragedy at the heart of the story. NOT WHAT I LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL: I was taught God rejected Cain’s offering because it wasn’t an animal sacrifice like Abel’s. I could never understand why God would not look favorably on plants when Adam’s job in the Garden of Eden was essentially a gardener. Reading it again with fresh eyes, a phrase popped out at me: “on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” I deduced that it wasn’t the type of offering, but the conduct of the person who offered it that offended God. At no time did God mention the unsuitability of Cain’s sacrifice, he alludes to the unsuitability of Cain’s behavior with this statement: “7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” It sounds to me like Cain had been doing wrong in God’s eyes. God, however, instructs Cain that if he does right, God will accept him. He gives Cain a way to remedy the situation. Reading this, I imagine Cain as a young man or maybe a teenager, with a heart raging with conflicting emotions. What kind of life had Cain lived up to that point? How much trouble can one boy get into when the world is so empty? Whatever he was up to, God wasn’t pleased. The most important takeaway I get from this passage is God’s portrayal as a caring father. Is God physically there with Cain? I don’t think so based on what I have read so far, but I think God maintained a close, audible presence with Clan Adam for an important and simple reason – Adam and Eve had no idea how to be good parents. They had no example, as they had no earthly parents. I imagine God, peering into the hearts of Clan Adam, and offering counsel to all the family members from time-to-time. As we are about to see, not all that advice was taken to heart. God’s advice to Cain is at the heart of Genesis 4: “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” This is the first use of the word “sin” in the Bible. Webster’s dictionary says sin is “transgression against divine law.” Genesis 4 paints sin as a crouching beast just beyond the door, waiting for you to let it in so it can tear your life apart. From Genesis 1-3, we can deduce disobeying God’s direct edicts is a sin, but what formal edicts has Cain violated to this point? God directly addresses Cain’s anger and jealousy against his younger brother Abel. This is envy. Envy festered just outside the door to Cain’s heart. This sin tainted all Cain did, included his sacrifice to God. God gave Cain the path to redemption, but it was ignored. Instead, Cain finally let the beast in, and death followed. 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Cain ignores God’s counsel and murders Abel. Unlike the Garden, there is no serpent whispering in Cain’s ear. Satan isn’t mentioned or implied in this passage. There is only Cain and his dark emotions, God’s counsel, and a tragic human decision. I must ask some uncomfortable questions: Did God’s rejection of Cain actually lead to Abel’s death? To put it bluntly, did God fail? I will discuss these questions, and the consequences of the First Murder in Part Two of my journey through Genesis 4. Brian Braden is the author the book THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books.  "Adam and Eve Driven out of Eden" by Gustave Doré, 1832 – 1883 (Note: This is another episode in my continuing exploration of the Bible, and the final part of my 3-part look at Genesis 3. Click here to read Part One and Two. You can read my series introduction here. All Bible quote are NIV and cannot be used for commercial purposes. Read copyright information here.)
Today, I wrap up my exploration of Genesis 3. Last week I discussed God’s curse on the serpent. This week I’m going to explore God’s judgement on Adam and Eve and what it means for humanity. It’s important to note that in the case of Eve and Adam, unlike what happened to the serpent, God does not utter the words “Cursed are you…” This is critical, and this fact, upon closer inspection, is absolutely profound to the rest of the Bible and human history. Let’s look at what God said to the woman first. 16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (NIV) These are consequences, not curses. Reading this, one can logically assume the woman had not given birth, as the narrative makes no mention of children or sexual relations. Now that man and woman are doomed to die they must have offspring in order to continue their linage. Why is that even important? Why didn’t God just wipe them out and start over? I’m going to get to that later. Bottom line, the woman must now suffer the natural consequences of procreation. “Your desire will be for your husband…” is also a natural consequence, as without it no one is having kids. This goes back to the pre- and post-puberty analogy of the Fall I discussed in the last episode. As for the man ruling over the woman, I think this is also a natural consequence of the division of family roles in primitive hunter-gatherer or agrarian societies. I can assume a few things from this passage: 1) Adam and Eve didn’t have a sexual relationship prior to them eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 2) Therefore, they had no children. 3) Since all of their needs were taken care of by God and daily survival wasn’t an issue, they had no traditional sex-based roles - they were like children and equals. Genesis 3 essentially implies inequality of the sexes, like spiritual death, is a consequence of sin and disobedience to God. Division of family labor, with woman as formally and socially subservient in order to survive, is a natural consequence of a life of toil in a pre-industrial society. This fact has been consistent in almost every human civilization. A funny observation, but only in the 20th and 21st Century in the Western world has modern technology and Western-thought permitted a gradual return to equality between the sexes enjoyed by Adam and Eve. So, what of God’s judgement on Adam? 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (NIV) Why would God curse the ground (earth?) because of Adam? Once again, I think its more like cursed as a consequence, not as a condemnation. Man transforms from gardener to hardscrabble farmer/gatherer. The world turns from gentle and giving to wild and hostile, unwilling to surrender its bounty without a struggle. Man will no longer care for it as much as battle it. I think of the desertification of places like North Africa under the onslaught of mankind, and God’s words make perfect sense. 20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (NIV) Curious that God named the man Adam, but left the woman’s name up to Adam. Its also interesting that she isn’t given a name until after the Fall. Is Eve truly mother of all the living? Or does this mean mother to the linage that would lead to Moses and David and Christ? I don’t know. Remember in Episode 2 God created mankind on Day 6 and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, as opposed to Adam, who is created on what clearly appears to be Day 3. There seems to be a conflict here, which goes back to my statements in previous episodes that the writing in Genesis 3 feels very different from that what comes before. (SPOILER ALERT: It feels different from what follows, too.) I think there may be a deeper meaning to “mother of all the living”. I’m going out on a limb here, but I think Eve’s role is pivotal for mankind’s ultimate redemption. Patience, because I’m going to come back to this point at the end. Its also interesting that it is God, not Adam, that provides clothes for them to venture into the outer world. In my mind, this implies Adam and Even lack most of the basic survival skills, other than perhaps Adam’s possible ability to cultivate. Imagine what terror Adam and Eve must have felt, two children in a man and woman’s body, suddenly being forced to grow up all at once. I think perhaps the best word might be “trauma.” 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (NIV) I really want to know who this “us” is. That is the second time the Bible mentions a divine “us.” Who is with God? This fascinates me. Next point, remember earlier in Genesis 3 when the serpent said, “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This was the truth, and God confirms it. What does that mean for mankind? In Genesis 1, God states humanity is created in his image. Now, in Genesis 3, mankind has attained a level of knowledge regarding the universe previously reserved for God and this mysterious “us” he addresses from time-to-time. This knowledge is powerful, but is corrupting to the flesh and spirit. I’m going to use a line from my novel BLACK SEA GODS…I am too small a cup for what has been poured into me. We are too small of vessels for the power the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has bestowed upon us, and that power eventually kills. Let’s talk about the Two Trees. In the previous episode I theorized the serpent simultaneously exists in this world, and not of this world. In Episode 2, I stated I believe the snake represents Chaos, or perhaps more accurately, possibility. I believe this holds true for the trees as well. They are symbols of powerful natural forces that transcend the tangible universe. I sort of think of them as pillars of creation, like flying arches that lift the great cathedrals of old. I think the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents intellect, or perhaps self-awareness. It is the tangible, the logical, the real. This tree’s branches hold up the sky and its roots anchors the bones of the universe. It is math, both Newtonian and Quantum. It is the atom and the galaxy, all we can see, touch, feel or prove. It is law and morality. It is science and fact. We cling to this tree like a life boat and tap its sap for our mortal strength. It is physical pleasure and mortal suffering. It is DNA without the spirit. Its a gun or a knife, and the terrible choice of how to use it. No matter how big and grand and beautiful, in the end the kingdom of this tree is still finite. Its gatekeeper is the Serpent, Chaos, always lurking in the branches or in the weeds at its roots. Just when we think we are masters of this kingdom, it strikes. Eventually, we come to the end of the math, and yet still cry out “Why?” The fruit of this tree is sweet and terrible and always leaves us unsatisfied. We cannot live by this bread alone. So what of the mysterious Tree of Life? This tree wasn’t forbidden to Adam and Eve, but we have no record of them actually eating of it. For that, let’s look at the last passage of Genesis 3. 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (NIV) This final passage of Genesis 3 gives ultimate hope to mankind and sets the rest of the Bible in motion. God could have wiped out humanity right then and there as a spoiled race, unworthy for continued existence. But he didn’t. He could have removed the Tree of Life forever from our reach, and left us to eternal languish without hope and thereby creating a hell on earth. But he didn’t. He removed the Tree of Life from our sight, and placed a guardian to watch over it, offering hope that one day we may again return to its roots and eat of its fruit. What is the Tree of Life? It is the gateway beyond the Kingdom of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Only here can Eve’s question truly be answered. It is laughter and tears, hugs and passion. This tree is conscious and faith. The Tree is compassion, a candle in the darkness, and fireflies on a summer’s evening. The Tree is hope, a gateway eternally facing the east and a new sunrise. The Tree is love, the breath of life that shakes the limbs of the Tree of Knowledge like a mighty wind. Its roots transcend the bones of the earth and its branches burrow beyond the curtain of the heavens. This tree is both eternal love and eternal life, and only under its branches can we once again be one with God. Its fruit is the fruit of the spirit, the antidote to the poison of Chaos. Its gatekeeper is the cherubim and its flaming sword, which I believe symbolizes ultimate truth. Only through truth can one find their way back to the Tree of Life. Without Truth, the tree, and Eden, are forever out of our reach. Is there a path back to the Tree of Life? I believe so. Genesis 3 is the most important passage in the Old Testament not because of the Fall of Man, but because of the hope God offers. Eve is not an accessory in the story, or a villain, or a victim. She is the pathway for the return to salvation. Read Genesis 3:23-24 carefully. It clearly states only Adam is banished from Eden, and makes no mention of Eve. Yes, Eve leaves with Adam, but Eve was never truly banished from the Garden. For Eve, God offers a sliver of Grace and, through her, to Adam as well. Let me explain. “Why?” is a question women are somehow uniquely gifted to ask. Every time a mother witnesses her baby’s eyes flutter open for the first time she glimpses eternity, a universe of unlimited possibilities. She sees Eden before the serpent. She sees Hope. Hope. Husbands understand this inherent nature about the women we love. It is because, and through, our women’s hope that men find our faith. This is why we should cherish them, and why we toil the fields with the sweat of our brow until we eventually return to the dust. Men understand, that as a gardner we may plant the seed and tend the garden, but it is the woman who brings new life into the world. Through his woman’s love, and wonderful children she brings into this world, can man catch the distant fragrance of paradise lost. A Woman’s Hope and a Man’s Faith are joined in Love. Through Love new life is created and another small step is taken back to the Tree of Life. Truth is the gatekeeper of the Tree, keeping the Serpent of Chaos at bay. Hope is a vision of the tree, left to us by God after the Fall. Faith, as revealed through scripture, is the path back to the tree. Love, the child of Hope and Faith, that is the greatest of all gifts and is the fruit of the Tree of Life. Love enables us to transcend this world and step into eternity with our maker. Finally, this brings me back to my earlier point about Eve’s pivotal role in humanity’s ultimate redemption. I believe it is through love, and a woman’s unique gift of bringing new life into the world, why Eve was not forever banished from the Garden. This is why the Tree of Life was not removed from this world, why all women, from Eve to Mary to today, share an unbreakable bond with the Tree of Life. In the moment of birth, when a mother pulls her newborn to her breast and hears her child’s first cry, the mighty cherub lowers his flaming sword for the briefest of moments. Through the veil of her pain and tears, the daughters of Eve are permitted the tiniest glimpse of eternity. In the eyes of her child, women receive the answer to Eve’s question. In the moment of her child’s birth, she walks again, hand-in-hand with God in Eden on the morning of the Seventh Day. Brian Braden is the author the book THE ILLUSION EXOTIC, the historical fantasy novel BLACK SEA GODS and several other exciting books. |
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