Friday, February 19, 2021

CAIN AND ABEL: JUDAS AND JESUS

  Yesterday, in my commentary, I questioned whose son was Cain. Before I proceed with the symbolism in chapter four of Genesis, compare the two verses about the Cain and Seth, the unrighteous son and “righteous Seth” as he is called.

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. (Gen 4:1)

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. (Gen 4:25)

  In the first passage, “Adam knew his wife” but in the second, “He knew his wife again.” So far, so good! However, with Seth, it is written, “she bare a son.” In the first birth, it says  only, “bare Cain.” In the first case “I have gotten a man” and in the second, it was clear that Adam had a “son.”

  Ironically, as if with foreknowledge of his impending death, scripture says, “And she again bare his brother Abel” (Gen 4:2). Nothing else is said about his birth. Eve seemed to know that Abel, “a keeper of the sheep” would die an untimely death without issue. All the births had a purpose.

  Abel was the “antitype” of Jesus, not opposite of Jesus, but “something that corresponds to or is foreshadowed in a type” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).  Both Jesus and Abel were keepers of the sheep; Abel literally, and Jesus figuratively. Both had short “processes.”

  Scripture says, “And in process of time it came to pass” that both sons brought offerings to the Lord. Cain brought the work of his hands that he had sowed, tended, and harvested; and Abel brought lambs that God sowed, God watched over, and God harvested.

  Already, the righteousness of grace overshadowed the false doctrine of works. The word, “process” was much different in the English language in 1611 when the King James Version of the Bible was written. Its origin was in the thirteenth century (Online Etymology Dictionary) and meant “advanced” or “going forward.” Later, it would be used for many forward moving events. Ironically, in this case, it applied to two much different processes of multiplying life: (1) lambs grown into sheep with little work, and (2) seed into grain with much work. Cain was like Adam in matters of vocation; both worked the ground by the sweat of their faces, but Abel watched over the flock while God multiplied the sheep.

  Concealed within their occupations were two doctrines: works and grace. God favored grace, and punished works.

  Cain was the son of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12) who advanced works, as he was the cause of sinful Adam who would work strenuously because of Lucifer. Cain seemed to be like Adam but was more like Lucifer. With poetic justice, although God sent Adam outside the Garden, Cain was isolated even further; he was cast out of the Presence of the Lord (Gen 4:16).

  Cain sentenced himself — before he was sent out, he saw his future, “Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid” (Gen 4:14). God sent both Adam and Cain away, but only Cain perceived that he was driven out. Cain felt like Judas Iscariot, who also had Satan in him. Because of sin, both felt isolated from God, and both, rather than repent and ask for grace, resolved their guilt by works. Cain hid out, and Judas Iscariot hanged out. Both left the Garden to remove themselves from the Presence of the Lord.

  Abel was somewhat different. He watched over the lambs until harvest time, and then when the harvest was finished, he honored God as Adam had done in remorse. Surely Abel was of Adam and Cain, of Satan! By grace God made Adam righteous and Comforted him with flesh that God provided from a lamb that died for that purpose. That was the first time any animal had died, and it was a lamb to cover sin!

  Cain worked by the sweat of his face, then with a poor attitude, because he must, brought his sacrifice. It was as good a sacrifice from and intrinsic perspective because God came to honor both animal and grain sacrifices. What was wrong, then? Attitudes! Abel had generous and loving attitudes about honoring God, and Cain selfish and uncaring attitudes. Cain, in all aspects, favored the law of sin, and Abel the Doctrine of Grace.

  Just as Judas, by the works of his own hands, isolated himself from Jesus and resolved his own guilt, Cain fled from the Presence of the Lord to resolve his. One hung and the other fled. Many sinners to this day, if things get bad enough, commit suicide, and others flee from God. Both are escapes from the psychosis of guilt.

  When young, nearly everyone recognizes that sin is wrong, and with that guilt, there are two recourses: (1) Submit to God, or (2) Flee from Him. Those that flee are also of their “father the devil” (John 8:44). Cain’s seed was plentiful, and he went forth and planted them in the world where they thought that they would be out of the sight of the Lord. Cain’s seed grew in darkness even in the sun that caused them to sweat. Chapter four goes on to reveal that all his sons were workers with the hands.

  Abel never worked. Since “To live is Christ; to die is gain” (Phil 1:21) by grace Abel went to Paradise by Way of the cherubim and continued in the Presence of the Lord as the Tree of Life. Abel never worked for his Sabbath, and Cain, nor his seed, ever had Sabbath. He went asway from the Tree of Life, out of its Presence, and died. Abel was judged good and faithful, but Cain was never known (spiritually) by God.

KEY VERSES: And he (Cain) said, “I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?” And He (God) said, “What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.” (Gen 4:9-11)

  Compare Abel to Jesus, of whom he is an antitype. “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:  But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:33-34). The ground opened to receive Abel’s blood and so it did to receive the Blood of Jesus. The ground essentially opened its mouth in both cases… for Abel’s blood here, and for the Blood of Jesus later:

  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened… (Mat 27:50-52)

  Cain, with his own hands, caused the death of Abel who foreshadowed Jesus. Judas, with his own hands, caused Jesus to die. Cain was the foreshadow of Judas. God knew all about Judas and Jesus long before they were ever born. If Moses wrote about the life and death of Cain and Abel, he understood about the life and death of Judas and Jesus; the former who was the son of the Wicked One, and the latter the Son of God, the Most Righteous One.

  God asked about Abel and said,  “The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Long after, “in the process of time,” Jesus said to the Pharisees, “If these (brothers in Christ) should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

   Can you not see the similarities? God did have a process! His Way was to set the stage for a “play” that would be played-out four-thousand years later. He was preparing ‘adam-kind to love God and for brotherly love — the same as Jesus said were the “Greatest Commandments.”  (Mat 22:36-40).

  The “Law” in the time of Cain and Abel was twofold: (1) Love God with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strengths; and (2) love their brothers as themselves.

  The story of Cain and Abel was more than an archaic play, but a rehearsal for God’s Plan. When Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), he meant The Greatest Story Ever Told, from the beginning to the ending. In between was a work in progress. Everything in scripture advanced the cause of Jesus, who probated that God’s Will be done.

(picture credit: Manchester Ink Link; "Cain and Abel: Good and Evil Came to Life")



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