Sin

I still have some thought about the video I posted, but I keep getting distracted.

Today I read Genesis 4.  Genesis 4 is the story of Cain and Abel.  The commentary and notes I read highlighted how this chapter parallels Genesis 3 in some ways -- another story of sin and its consequences.

Cain was a farmer.  He cared for the land, as his father had done.  This was a traditional role for the older son.  The younger son also had a traditional role -- that of the son who took care of the animals.  The hearers of this story would have heard a story of an Israelite farm -- a story about people living much like they themselves lived.

The passage doesn't really speak to why God favored one sacrifice over another, and it's not really important or the point of the passage.  What is important is the model of the effects of sin.

Cain killed Abel, and the rest of the chapter parallels the Adam and Eve story in Genesis 3.  God gave instruction, humans disobeyed.  God confronted them, and the humans protested, casting blame in another direction.  God then banished them, but does not abandon them.

Cain is sent to Nod, which just means "the wilderness."  He loses his inheritance. The blood of Abel -- the sin -- makes the land unusable. Because of his sin, he loses his future, his potential, his family. 

However, even though he is sent away, he does not lose his God.  God marks him with a mark of protection.  God still cares about what happens to him.

It is a story we can apply to sin in our lives.