Sinful Humanity

Two Brothers - Genesis 4; 1 John 3:12; Hebrews 11:4; Hebrews 12:24

It didn’t take long for the reality of life outside the Garden to settle in. Gone were those tranquil evenings and the long walks through the perfect garden. Here to stay was the toil and tears of a broken and fallen world.

Though outside the Garden, God still had a mandate and a plan for Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. They began to have children, first Cain who grew up to be a farmer and then Abel, who grew to be a shepherd. They had other sons and daughters too. 

Adam and Eve had no idea the amount of suffering and pain their choice to eat the forbidden fruit would cost them and all generations to come. The harsh consequences of their choice would soon become very plain to them as they watch the effect it had on their own boys. They raised them to know God, the Creator, who gave them breath. They told them of the walks in the Garden, of the Fall, and of God’s promise of redemption. They told them to worship God by offering up a sacrifice from a pure heart.

One day, Cain brought some fruit from his harvest to offer to God for his offering, Abel, by faith, brought the first born of his flock for a sacrifice. God rejected Cain’s offering and had favor on Abel’s, teaching that pure worship is defined by God, not by us. This made Cain very mad, for he had aligned himself with the evil one. 

God asked Cain, “why are you mad? If you do what is right, won’t it be accepted? Be aware, sin is crouching at your door. It desires you but you must rule over it!”

God warned Cain about his anger, but Cain disregarded God’s voice. He set up a meeting with Abel in the field on day, and when Abel showed up, Cain committed an evil deed and murdered him! This is the first murder in all of human history!

Shortly after, God asked Cain, “where is your brother?” “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain replied.

“What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground! You are now cursed from the ground and it will not produce for you. You are now to be considered a vagabond and a fugitive on this earth.”

“This punishment is too great for me, I cannot bear it! You have removed me from my land and from your face. All who see me will kill me!”

“No! If anyone kills you, vengeance will be taken on them sevenfold!” said the Lord!

And God put a mark of protection on Cain and he left the presence of the Lord and moved east of Eden. In one day, Adam and Eve lost two of their sons, one to murder one to exile. The burden of eating that fruit is unbearable.

Not long after, Adam and Eve had another son and called him Seth. Eve said, “God has appointed for me to have another son instead of Abel, for Cain has killed him. It was after this that people began to call on the name of the Lord. Eve knew that God would be faithful to His promise to send a Savior through her seed to overcome the evil one. Abel’s blood cried out of the ground for vengeance, but the Savior’s blood would cry out for redemption. 

The Flood - Genesis 4-9; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5

Adam and Eve continued to have children, and their children had children. Soon the number of humans began to grow rapidly, and Adam and Eve’s sin spread throughout all generations.

As their numbers grew, mankind continued to drift farther and farther from the Garden and the presence of God. Although they were created in the image of God, they chose to disobey God and pursue their own devices. They began acting out of violence with one another. God saw the wickedness of the people and knew that every intention of their hearts were sinful.

His heart was broken and He regretted that He had ever made mankind.

“I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things  and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But a man named Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord!

Noah had a close relationship with the Lord and was the only blameless man on all the earth! So God told Noah, “I am going to cover the earth with a flood, destroying every living thing. But I will keep you safe!”

The Lord told Noah to build an ark, a really big boat. God said to him, “Make a boat from wood and seal it with tar, inside and out. Then build many decks and stalls for animals inside of it. I promise to keep you safe in this ark! A pair of every kind of animal–a male and female–will come to you to be kept alive. You will also bring seven pairs of animals that I approved for you to eat and sacrifice. And remember, take enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

As Noah and his boys were building the ark, Noah preached to the people to repent and turn to the Lord for safety. They mock and ridiculed him for his flood warning, as it had never rained before.

Noah followed God’s plan precisely and when it was complete, God brought the animals to the ark. When it was fully loaded and Noah and his family boarded the ark, the rains came. Water burst up from the ground and poured down from the sky, covering the entire earth! Everyone and everything outside of the ark was destroyed, only Noah and his family survived.

For 40 days and 40 nights it rained down, but then it stopped. For months Noah’s ark floated along as the floodwaters began to subside. Noah sent out a raven and it quickly returned. Later he sent out a dove, and he was overjoyed that it returned with an olive leaf in its beak.  Finally one day, after the ark had settled on top of mount Ararat, Noah sent out a dove, when it didn’t return he looked out and saw dry land.

God said, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives and all the animals. Fill the earth and multiply.”

The first thing Noah did when he left the ark was to build and alter and sacrifice one of every clean animal unto the Lord. God was pleased with the aroma and said, “I will establish this covenant with you, that I will never again curse the earth, destroying every living thing with a flood, even though people’s thoughts and actions are bent toward sin from birth.”

“I have put all the animals under your control, but have put the fear of man in them. You can use them for food, but you must not eat the lifeblood in the animal. I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. Life is in the blood and all of life belongs to me!”

God also said, “See I have placed this rainbow in the sky whenever it rains. It will be a reminder to me of the covenant I have made with you and all generations of mankind.”

Even in His wrath against sin, God provided a way of escape. For Noah it was the ark. For us today, God has provided His Son Jesus Christ as our way of escape. Do you trust Him?

(Today’s post is adapted from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)