GONNA GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER (Genesis 3:23 – 4:17)

As they fled the garden and the presence of the Lord, everything became colder, darker, sharper, duller. The world became a hostile place. Oh, it was still full of joys and beauties, but things were not so simple, so transparent now. What lay behind the joys they could not know; and beauty camouflages many things. They had each other for warmth and comfort and reassurance, but now uneasily.

Adam looks away incessantly, she thought. His eyes flit here and there. How long before he finds another to comfort him? And will I know?

We logically object, “There are no others, what are you afraid of?” But fear has little to do with logic, and maybe she knows something we don’t know.

She’s beautiful! he exclaimed, but he said this in his mind. Somehow he was reluctant to proclaim it to her now. What if she laughs at me, or sees she has me at a disadvantage?

In love and fear they cling to one another. He enters into her and she to him. Again, though only fleetingly, they are two-in-one and one-in-two; like God, a oneness and a manyness. And from this precarious, blighted unity there issues forth another mystery; the two of them in one.

“God has given me a man-child!” Eve cried in anguish, and she thought, This must be what he meant when he warned me that my children would bring pain. And she called him Cain, which means “my possession”. A dubious beginning I’m afraid, but this was the first child; how could she know? – And Adam sighed and saw another hungry mouth to feed. – The second time it happened she called her child Abel, which means “transitory vapour”. We learn so much from our children. – And Adam sighed again.

Adam and Eve had many more children, so they must have been getting along tolerably well. The boys, however, were another story. Abel went into shepherding and Cain into farming, And, like herders and farmers forever, they never got along. They were brothers but that didn’t help. And one being called, to paraphrase “my very own”, and the other “passing through” probably didn’t help much either. And eventually that many-headed beast, religion, reared an ugly head. Cain brought grain to offer God and Abel brought a lamb. Somehow Cain felt his offering wasn’t good enough and, given the conflict he was having with his brother, he was surely right. So he murdered Abel. It must have seemed a good idea at the time, but it only made things worse. – Eve wept, and realized that this is what he meant.

Strange, but this is the prototypical murder, even today: usually domestic or among “loved ones”, generally male, and often territorial (economic, religious, political). Perhaps this is really what this story is about. This is what murder is, and how it works. And what happens next is also very instructive.

God showed up quite unexpectedly and asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” Cain retorted famously, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This is a witty response; Abel was the keeper of flocks, not Cain. But it’s not a serious reply; it’s an evasion. God doesn’t take it seriously and neither should we. Cain had not failed to be his brother’s keeper, but his brother’s brother. And now Cain was “on the run” not just from God, from everyone.

But God set Cain apart, and somehow indicated that this murderer should not be executed for his crime. – God has always been full of surprises. – And he commanded Cain to flee from society and wander forever. But, instead, Cain went out and began to build the first city. – People have always been full of surprises.

If we just take this story at face value it’s very confusing. This is the first family on earth and, even if Adam and Eve had had a hundred kids, how could the first child be a farmer and the second a herder? Who were these people Cain would fear wherever he went? And how could he build a city? Obviously there is something more going on here than history. This is a reflection on the mystery of human life; its wonder and its brokenness. It’s a poetic discourse about the damage we do when, in our sin, we run and hide from God and one another. And it’s a prophetic declaration of the faithfulness of the one who follows us and just keeps showing up in the midst of our dysfunctional, beautiful, tragic, magnificent lives.

And he does keep showing up. And often uses dysfunctional, beautiful people just like us, to do it. Check out this link Messiah in the Mall. I think you’ll love it!!!

Next... love finds a way