Cain and Abel 1

This is longer than I planned so one story - two posts.

A man. A woman. Children. At entry level, the story of Cain and Abel is about Adam and Eve's children - two brothers. Here are some basic, simple observations.

-How old? We don't know. Probably old enough to be unsupervised.

-Can we assume Cain and Abel are old enough to work? Are they offereing the fruit of their work? The fruit of their parents work? Not clear. We do know that historically children were put to work much sooner than they are now. Whether you read this as Cain and Abel being adults, young adults, teens or pre-teens their ages might change how you picture the story but for me it doesn't really change the story.

-It appears that they had different jobs or perhaps just different interests. They came to God with different offerings.

-God favored one but not the other. People have ideas about why but we don't really know. In it's simplest form God prefered one over the other and it made Cain mad.

-God interacted with Cain. God asked him, "Why are you angry?" Kids don't always know why they're angry but God asked. We need to ask. "Why are you angry?"Sometimes the answer isn' what we expect.

-"But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." For me, this was always the heart of the story of Cain and Abel - the part that's most clear.

-THEN (after God said this) Cain lured his brother out to the field, attacked him, and killed him. This wasn't an accident. This was very deliberate. Violence in God's first family.