Not in God's Name 2 Cain and Abel

 Genesis 4:1-16

As soon as Adam and Eve have children, sibling rivalry begins.  Cain and Abel were different, had different skills and interests, used the land in different ways and their difference led to envy.  If greed got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden, envy was cause of the first murder.  Watch any two toddlers at play and it won’t be long before the envy between them leads to physical violence.  If there is only one red truck, one child will shove the other aside to get it.  We live on a planet with limited resources and we all need to learn to share.

photo by cloudvisual @ unsplash

This story raises the question: Is God’s love limited as well?  Just because God loved Abel, did that mean that God did not love Cain?  God’s rejection of Cain’s offering led him into the sin that is always lurking at the door, the tendency to envy and hatred that we must conquer. 

Our human nature responds with empathy for Cain because we too have experienced times in our life when we were rejected, when our efforts were not good enough, when someone else got the prize we wanted.  The Bible never does give us an answer to the “why is life not fair?” question, but it does tell us how to handle life when it is not fair. Cain’s response is not a wise choice. Cain chooses to see himself as a victim and that gives him an excuse to victimize.  Thus begins a cycle of violence that is hard to break.  God’s response to Cain breaks the cycle without eliminating the consequences of Cain's actions.  God loves the victim and the victimizer.  God’s love insists on our freedom to make our own choices, to be a victim or a victimizer or both or neither. 

I acknowledge the ideas of Jonathan Sacks in his book “Not in God’s Name”