Who among us has not received a gift and had no use for it? Most of us, at an early age, were taught to be gracious if we received a present that we did not like. As we matured we realized that at least the person made an effort to please, even if it was not to our liking, and we would try to say something nice about the unwanted gift so as not to show disappointment or hurt the givers feelings.
My first realization that something was “wrong” with God was when I read the story of Cain and Abel’s gifts. This god had no civility. This god was raw, crude, ungracious, and down right ill mannered. I could never reconcile his cold rejection and behavior to Cain. As a deity, I expected a higher standard than I even set for myself. This god would have never made it into the inner circles of southern society.
What parent would deliberately set two children against each other by showing such extreme favoritism? If your two children came to you with drawings and you hung one on the refrigerator and threw the other in the garbage, would the rejected child not feel resentment toward the other child? Is this not the beginning of sibling rivalry?
There has been no peace since day one under this “god”. And yet every preacher tries to justify this mean-spirited atrocity toward these two children. “Cain did not give with the right spirit; it was Cain’s heart-condition,” they say. There is nothing to uphold this. We are not given any information nor indication of Cain ever having animosity toward his brother prior to this. “God required a blood sacrifice,” you say? And Cain should have known this? How deeply did it hurt Abel to kill his pet sheep? What kind of god causes such trauma and pain to a child to kill the animal he loves? This is no good god. This god cannot be a representative of our Creators.
Why did god not accept Cain’s gift? The answer can be found in the New English Translation of the Septuagint.
Genesis 4:7
If you offer correctly but do not divide correctly, have you not sinned? Be still; his recourse is to you, and you will rule over him.
Cain offered correctly; he showed respect for his superior. But how did he not divide correctly? He did not divide correctly because he did not realize his heritage. Cain was the son of Satan and this god to whom the first family paid homage was none other than Satan himself. Cain “sinned” by failing to realize that he was not of this earthly class of people and lowered himself by trying to be like them.
“Be still; his recourse is to you, and you will rule over him.”
Cain was instructed to be patient. He was here informed that he would dominate these earthly people and they would be expected to pay homage to him as they had to his father, the god of this world, Satan.
The Septuagint is considered to be more accurate than the Masoretic texts from which most Bibles have been translated today. This link is recommended for additional reading concerning the translations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
