If I were attempting to write a comprehensive Bible commentary, well, first of all, I'd be crazy, because there's no way I'm qualified to do that.
Second of all, I'd probably never finish it because Bible commentaries are really, really big and long and I'm not getting any younger.
And third of all, if I were writing a big, long Bible commentary, I’d have to try to explain a whole lot of confusing things I don't understand myself, including some questions that pop up right here in Genesis 4.
This is where, for example, we read about the birth of Adam and Eve's kids, Cain and Abel. They're born, they grow up, and then Cain kills his brother, moves away and gets married. Wait ... just a ... doggone ... minute. Cain gets MARRIED?
Who on earth did Cain marry?
And my answer to that age-old question is, "I. Don’t. Know."
I don’t know how there could have been any other people around who had a daughter for Cain to marry.
Furthermore, I'm okay with remaining stumped and mystified about that, and about a lot of other things I may encounter on this journey through God's Word. I figure if I really needed to know, God would have said. He didn't ... so I don't.
So, let's get on with the business of seeing God's heart in Genesis 4 ...
Well, I think it's clear that God still cared passionately for His fallen creatures or there wouldn’t be a Genesis 4. As I said in my last post, God certainly could have wadded up this world like an art project gone awry when Adam and Eve rebelled in Genesis 3, but He didn’t.
That shows me God's committed, loving, merciful, longsuffering heart.
But then we come to that story in the 4th chapter about God preferring Abel's offering of animals over Cain's offering of plants (vegetables? fruits?), and it almost seems like God is playing favorites.
After all, Cain was a farmer, so why wasn’t it okay for him to offer up plants to God?
We know the God of the Bible is not moody, impulsive, malevolent or unfair. In fact, He is perfectly just and righteous in His judgments, so I'm going to trust that God would not have found anything wrong with Cain's offering unless Cain had clearly known he was doing something very wrong when he offered it.
Something about Cain's offering must have revealed a disobedient or begrudging heart.
While it seems like there are more questions than answers in Genesis 4, I do see some clearly wonderful glimpses of God's heart in this chapter ...
I'm amazed that just as He did when Cain's parents went astray in Genesis 3, God came in person to deal with Cain, too, about his sin. He could have sent an angel ... or a lightning bolt ... but He didn't -- He came personally and tried to turn this whole bad-offering incident into a teachable moment.
Even when Cain reacted to God's reprimand by getting mad and pouting, God calmly tried to show him how not to repeat his mistake.
That sounds like a good Father to me.
When Cain went off and killed his brother, I see how much the loss of Abel's life mattered to God. The God who created the whole amazing universe cared immensely about this one human life that had been taken. Sometimes we forget that God's heart is big enough to infinitely love every single person on this earth.
God also still cared about the one who took Abel's life. After passing sentence on Cain, God “appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.”
I have no idea what kind of sign that might have been, but the point is that in spite of everything, God was still looking out for Cain.
God cared about him so much, in fact, that He allowed Cain to live, find a wife (wherever she came from), and have a son.
If grace is getting something good that we don’t deserve, and mercy is not getting something bad or painful that we do deserve, I think Cain got a boatload of each.
Adam and Eve's family tree continued to sprout. Cain had a child who had children ... who had children ... who had children. The first couple even had another son "in place of" the murdered Abel (Gen. 4:25)... although every parent knows no child can ever really take the place of another.
The point is, those first people rebelled, argued, shirked, murdered, and protested ... and God protected and blessed them anyway.
Not because they deserved it, but because they were His.
And finally, after having all that mercy and grace heaped upon their undeserving heads, God's people finally responded. In the last verse of Genesis 4, we find this hopeful turning of hearts: "...Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord."
It's a shame the omniscient God knew what was coming up ahead.
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