Genesis Chapters 4-6

Boy! They really don’t waste any time getting to the good stuff, do they? In Gen. Chapter 4, we start off with Adam and Eve having sex, and she gets pregnant with Cain. Next to be born is Abel. Cain ends up becoming a farmer, and Abel a shepherd. They both bring offerings to God, but for some reason, God isn’t as impressed with Cain’s offerings. Cain becomes jealous, and kills Abel.

This is where things start to get confusing again. God banishes Cain. He’s getting good at this banishment thing! He tells Cain that he will spend the rest of his days as a wanderer and a fugitive. Cain’s response definitely raises an eyebrow:

Gen. 4:13-14: “At this Cain said to Jehovah: “My punishment for error is too great to carry. Here you are actually driving me this day from off the surface of the ground, and from your face I shall be concealed; and I must become a wanderer and fugitive on the earth, and it is certain that anyone finding me will kill me.””

This is my question: Exactly WHO is going to find him and kill him? At last count, there were only three people on earth at this point. There had been four, but after killing his brother, the only other people left were his parents. At least, that’s all I’ve read about! There is no mention of God actually creating other people after Adam and Eve. My assumption has always been that they were the only humans created to begin populating the earth. Where did the other people Cain talks about come from? Here’s an answer I found online:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Cain-afraid.html

Here we go making assumptions again. If we’re going to do that, why are we choosing to go the incest route? Wouldn’t it have been easier and nicer to assume that God had decided to create other human beings for the children of Adam and Eve to procreate with? Why does it have to be incest? That’s just ugly! In verse 17, Cain has sex with his wife, and this is where the list of the children, grandchildren, etc. begins. We get as far as Na’amah, Cain’s great-great-granddaughter. It’s all very hard to keep up with! I actually made a family tree as I read to make it easier!

We rejoin Adam and Eve in verse 25:

Gen. 4:25: “And Adam proceeded to have intercourse again with his wife and so she gave birth to a son and called his name Seth because, as she said: “God has appointed another seed in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.””

Are we not going in chronological order here? There have been five generations of children born since Cain killed Abel! I’m not sure if this is out of sequence, or if Eve just waited that long to “replace” her son. (We’ll get to the age issue later!) If you go with the theory that she had given birth to many children over the years, and that they simply had not been mentioned, then wouldn’t she have long ago felt like Abel had been replaced? I’m not sure which theory I want to go with, since none that I can think of actually make sense. I’m just going to leave it as is and move on.

There is nothing really exciting about chapter 5. The entire chapter is dedicated to listing men, at what age they had children, and at what age they died. The only interesting part of the chapter is how long the men actually lived. The youngest at death was 365 years old! The oldest at death was 969 years old! While this defies all logic, we’ll just assume (assumptions are apparently a big part of believing the bible) that the aging process wasn’t the same back then. At the end of chapter 5, we are introduced to Noah! Noah had at least three children after his 500th birthday! I imagine he probably thought that would be his legacy, but boy was he wrong!

Onward to chapter 6!

God decides that he needs to put a limit on lifespans. Maybe all these 900 year-old men wandering around was just too much to keep up with! Just imagine what the world population would look like if we all lived to be that age!

Gen. 6:3: “After that Jehovah said: “My spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.”

In my head, I envision everyone over the age of 120 simply falling over dead at this point. Alas, that is obviously not what happened. Since Noah hasn’t built the ark yet, and is well over 500 years-old at this time, we have to again assume that this new rule only applies to those who haven’t yet reached the new age of death.

Chapter 6 also finds God frustrated with his creations. I guess he realized he really screwed up somewhere along the way, (Wait! God doesn’t make mistakes!) and decides he needs a do-over:

Gen. 6:6-7 : “And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart. So Jehovah said: “I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground, from man to domestic animal, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, because I do regret that I have made them.””

Oh, No! God’s not happy! He’s just going to erase it all!

PLOT TWIST! Noah comes to save the day! Apparently Noah has been a good enough servant to warrant a second chance, so God gives him the instruction manual on how to build the ark. He tells him exactly how big to build it, which animals to put on it, and which people are allowed on it. At the end of chapter 6, Noah is doing exactly as he is told!

SPOILER ALERT! I’m pretty sure that in the next chapter, it’s going to rain! I’ll let you know for sure in my next post! In the meantime:

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