Genesis 4 – 7
We go from the first children of Adam to the great flood in a few short chapters. Genesis is one of those books that everyone knows because many of the stories told are from this book. It also provides the “set up” for Jesus appearing some 1500 to 3000 years later. Verse 4:9 is Cain’s response after God confronts him:
Eternal One (to Cain): Where’s your brother Abel?
Cain: I have no idea. Am I supposed to be responsible for where he goes and what he does?
Before we get into the nuts and bolts about this, I wanted to notice how The Voice handles conversations. It’s actually written to be performed and not just read. It helps in some ways and makes it more difficult to read in others.
Now this verse in other translations is well known, with Cain asking “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (NKJV). That quote may be on the top ten list of most quoted verses in the Bible, since it has become part of our vernacular. This version actually is clearer, but the famous quote is gone. Cain was chastised for his offering, took offense, became jealous of Abel’s offering and then killed him. Not even 1 generation into the Bible and we have a murder.
So much could be said about this but I think the key point is the “jealousy” part that caused the rage. We tend to get messed up when we start looking at the grass on the other side of the fence. Granted most are not driven to kill, but it can easily snowball into a very predictable series of events to get your share.
As you read you will notice how old this generation gets, Adam was 930 years old, Seth was 912 years old and Noah was 500 before he had his sons. Notice God realizes that with our reproductive capacity and the resources available He needed to do something. In verse 6:3 he “will put a limit on their lifespan of about 120 years.” Some may say that was God’s plan to populate the earth, while I on the other hand some may say he was correcting an “oops”. I can say either way there, but it’s something to think about.
Now Noah and the flood is one of the more well-known stories that is often dismissed as a tale. But as you know Noah was told about the flood and he made an Ark to save his family and a pair of all the animals to repopulate the earth after the waters recedes. Verse 7:17 talks about the rain fall:
The deluge continued for 40 days on the earth. 18 The waters kept rising until they lifted up the ark so it floated safely over the land;
Now I can take days to give the facts of the “flood” but the easiest thing to look at is the Grand Canyon. Each of those layers of strata you see is nice and flat with this giant river that cut it over millions of years. Or so science says! First look at the even layers, where do you see undisturbed even layers of sediment? Only under water do we see this, rain and wind disturb those layers on the surface. The canyon is a nice “V” shaped canyon, which we only see when a fast moving torrent cuts a soft surface. Otherwise “old” canyons have more of a “U” shape with undercuts. Just these two facts alone imply we need to relook at science and the Bible to determine who is right and who is wrong.