Is it my job to take care of my brother? (NCV, Genesis 4:9) A while back, my family took a train trip to our nation's capital. We lived for a time in suburban D.C. on the Maryland side, but it had been awhile since we'd visited.
We were surprised to encounter so many homeless. On a cold and rainy Sunday morning there were large numbers of impoverished people bundled in dirty blankets sheltered against the elements. At least three people came up to us asking for money, and that's not counting the wonderful street musicians. I found myself very uncomfortable and avoiding eye contact, as if that made me less responsible to help.
Cain's question was my question. I was seeking plausible deniability, as if by not seeing, I was absolved of my responsibilities.
Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? We avoided eye contact to limit our liability! Okay, I added that last part... but you get the point, right?
In the coming days, you will have to make a choice. Sooner or later you're going to come into contact with a brother or sister who needs help. You will choose to either 1) avoid eye contact, or 2) intentionally connect with one of God's precious children. Will you go for plausible deniability, or will you let God touch someone through you?
How have you touched someone's life this week?
Tim, Your story of the homeless just gave met he chills. I had an annoying task of getting my car to the shop last Friday for a flat tire repair and I had to walk a few blocks to Fred Meyer to get some groceries. I noted a man in a wheelchair panhandling at the south exit of the with an able bodied companion. It was pretty easy to avoid them as I was on the sidewalk. When I left the store I was lugging a couple of heavy bags of groceries so I decided to pull a dollar out of my purse in case they were there still. For the first time in my life I decided to give to a panhandler. I had to leave my full bags on the sidewalk behind me while i made the way to the median where they were. When I approached them I asked the person in the wheelchair his name. He told me it was Bryan and I introduced myself and told him that we would pray for him that night. Sometimes we don't have much to give, sometimes we assume our money will go towards items that will hinder rather than help, but I walked away feel God's grace as I saw that Bryan's day was lifted by the attention we can provide for one another. I am glad that I could relate to your devotion Tim. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGenesis 4: 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.” 15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so[e]; 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,[f] east of Eden. 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.
ReplyDeleteI have always found this confusing. It sounds like there was just Adam, Eve, Abel, and Cain. Yet Cain was afraid someone would kill him when he was sent away. He moved to the land of Nod and had a wife (where did she comes from) and built a city for his son Enoch. Where did all these people come from? The land already had a name, Nod, and evidently there were enough people to build a city (which I would think would need to be bigger than a handful of people)? Did God perhaps create other people coinciding with the time of Adam and Eve - not born of them? But it says that Adam and Eve were the parents of all mankind? Yet where did these other people come from that lived in the land of Nod. It sounds like there were multiple people around since Lamech even married 2 women.
This is looking at the Bible critically, which is a good thing. If the Bible cannot stand up to difficult questions, then what are we supposed to do? Many people have asked this question, mostly in this form: Where did Cain's wife come from? Those who look at the biblical account as literal history would probably say Adam and Eve had daughters who were unnamed and it was so early in genetic history that it didn't cause any problems for them to mate and produce offspring. Then again, that brings up the question: God didn't like Cain bringing an offering of produce but he was fine with incest?
ReplyDeleteThen again, maybe this part of the Bible is not meant to be taken as literal history. That opens up lots of possibilities, which would be too involved to go into here. The question about the city is really the same question, just extended out a few steps. Maybe we can talk more about this one.
Okay so I was a little behind already. Am caught up now. As I was reading and listening to chapter 4 I was struck with a thought I never had before regarding the offering Cain brought. Was it rejected because it was produce, or was it because it was "created" from man's ( Cain's) efforts? Thus making it not capable of being the offering that would cover sin. While Ables offering came from what God had created.
ReplyDeleteGenesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
ReplyDeleteWho were the Nephilim? Were they angels? Were they something else? If they were angels, why did God allow them to mate with women if that was something he did not want to happen?
Leslie, The biblical writer doesn't really tell us why Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's was not. It focuses on Cain's reaction. However, one important thing to notice is that it's not only the offering that is accepted or not: "The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor." Could the writer be telling us that there was something else about their lives that made their offering acceptable or not?
ReplyDeleteMerry, We cannot say definitively what's going on here. Some authorities do claim that angels had sex with human women and sired children who were giants. Seems kind of far-fetched, but I wasn't there. Others believe the sons of God were Seth's godly offspring(Seth was Adam and Eve's son born after the death of Abel) and the daughter's of men were Ham's ungodly offspring. Could be.
ReplyDeleteThen we have to ask the question: "Do we need the specifics (which we're probably never going to get) or can we learn some general principles here?" Many critical Bible scholars would suggest that Genesis 1-11 is not literal history, but more figurative or imagined history. Like, "Where do giants come from?" "I don't know, but what if angels had babies with humans? Could that be where they come from?" "Must be." "Well then, it's settled."
Correction: In my above reply, I should have said the daughters of men were thought by some to be the ungodly offspring of Cain, not Ham.
ReplyDelete