Genesis 4, 6-9

Cain & Abel:

Question 2
If Abel was protected by God, and God let Cain know Abel was being protected, Cain would have not pursued his deathly actions by how he truly felt. If the murder didn't happen, the knowledge of justice would never exist.Like in Genesis 1-3, God gave Adam and Eve choices, and just like in Genesis 4 he gives the brothers a chance to choose how they deal with their feelings. Adam and Eve were also unprotected by God when they met the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and their punishment for what they did carried off to their offspring so they were unprotected too. Abel may sound completely innocent, but that is because we really know nothing about him or his relationship with his brother. Since there is lack of information about Cain and Abel's earlier life, I came to wonder how did one become a farmer, while the other the Shepard? Did they choose their own career path? Or were they assign by God? Because if so , Cain was treated unfairly since he was growing fruits and vegetables when God had already made fruits and vegetables, so the offering of Cain would be not as plentiful as a Shepard's work. God also created animals,but as a Shepard, Abel was able to take care of those animals enough for them to offspring. It took on different responsibilities. It also sounded like Cain was receiving help from the earth, because when Cain was punished , God said "When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength".

Question 4

At first I found the Mark of Cain the most confusing out of Genesis 4... Cain kills, and God doesn't want vengeance against Cain, but he does want vengeance if Cain is killed by another man. Then I realized factors to this reasoning...God doesn't want to kill Cain because he wants to punish him in a suffering way rather than not suffering at all by killing him in an instant. If he didn't put a mark on Cain , Cain could just find a human being he meets as he travels the world and just ask them to take his life so he can escape his punishment. So at first you think, "oh God is really nice and forgiving since he will let Cain live", but then in truth he is really true to his word about justice by making Cain's life a miserable hell. God may be doing this not to protect one person, but to everyone else that Cain may cross so they can see what happens when you have deeply sinned.


Noah

In Genesis 4, murder and vengeance is first discovered and that disappoints God. He insists on punishing those who do wrong, but in the chapters immediately right after it contradicts when God commits murder to not only one person,but probably billions of people! From the time of when the earth was created to Noah’s story, it was at least a few centuries that have gone by and many generations were born.

God created everything out of nothing within just a few days, so I’m pretty sure he would have the ability to destroy what he created within a matter of minutes, rather than 40 days, 40 nights and a yearlong flood. Since God  saw Noah as a good man on the outside, there is a possibility he could have been testing his goodness and faith on the inside by commanding him a task so bizarre. Though why would you ask a 600-year old man to do the labor that should be done by 600 men? It startled me to know that despite his age, Noah was in perfect condition to build a ridiculously gigantic ark. Also, why did he wait so long? Before Noah was born or before he reached the age of 6 centuries, it’s hard to imagine that there was not another man equally as decent as him before his time who could of not done the task just as well.