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.