Rethinking Cain & Able, Favoritism, Parenting

by TMS 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  TMS

  Imagine two children. They both decide to make a picture for their daddy. One paints a picture using watercolors, the other draws a picture using pencil.

  Daddy really likes watercolors, so he congratulates the one boy.

  Daddy doesn't like pencil drawings, so he 'does not look with any favor' upon the other boy. You can imagine the smile (countenance) falling from his face as his gift is shunned.

  AFTER that, the pencil artist gets angry and developes social issues (For which the father yelled at him) that eventually lead to him becoming a murderer.

  It's called psychology... Something that Yahweh consistently proves to be ignorant of.

  Lore

  Bro. Lore,

  If you're actually eighteen, with that much insight, you're going to do fine is this world. Hibiscusfire, bless her heart, cannot be reached at this point. She's out slaying dragons and infidels. As crude and lame many of these biblical accounts are, the Watchtower spin 'splaining them is much, much lamer.

  tms
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  Justahuman24

  LtCmd.Lore

  According to Hebrews 11:4 it was definitely the sacrifice that Yahweh didn't like. And according to Genesis 4:4-5 Cain didn't develope a bad attitude until AFTER the favoritism. Which is EXACTLY what TMS said.

  Do you have any scriptures that would indicate that Cain was insincere BEFORE Yahweh rejected him?

  Hebrews 11:4 makes it clear that faith was what led Abel do everything right. It says: "By faith Abel..." Whether it was the fact that he offered a blood sacrifice (which I don't think is the reason) or whether Cain just didn't offer his sacrifice with the right attitude, which God detected because duh! He's God and can read hearts and minds. Also, notice how God asked Cain that, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? 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." (Gen. 4:7) And 1 John 3:12 says that Cain's "works were wicked". And just to clarify before someone says - he was only wicked after he killed Abel - well, John says that because his works were wicked that's why he killed his brother Abel.

  "If you do what is right..." implies Cain wasn't doing what was right and this doesn't seem to be referring to the act of offering the right things. It's followed by "will you not be accepted?" So Cain either had already some something bad, or was already bad-ish like be a mean brother, bad son, etc but not to the point of doing anything really serious/commit murder/sin gravely. If that was the case, as it seems to be from the text, God was already judging Cain and his attitude from past experiences. Remember, they were over 100 years old. Just because the Bible doesn't mention what they did before or how they behaved doesn't mean nothing happened between their births and the time when they made the offerings.

  Justahuman - super but nonetheless
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  TMS

  hibiscusfire, justahuman:

  Ur both bright young people, but uve gone way "beyond what is written" in ur Watchtoweresque spin on the Cain & Able account. Jehovah, the Great Communicator gave us no evidence of Cain's misbehavior prior to being humiliated for his blue ribbon vegetable offering. Actually, the Mosaic Law code which followed reinforced the notion that Jehovah just was a huge meat eater, especially of fatty pieces with blood dripping off the altar.

  Even if Cain had been a bad boy before his attempt to gift Jehovah with his best, do you think Jehovah handled the situation well? Do you think it would have hurt the almighty to have tabled his lust for meat fat temporarily and at least pretended to like the lad's offering? Actually, Jehovah, being allknowing, omnicient, knew that Cain would react the way he did, but blew it off because he was such a damn meat lover that he didn't care who got hurt in the process.

  As Judge Rutherford used to say: "Face the Facts." Jehovah God was not a good parent. He repeatedly showed favoritism on an individual and national basis. He favored Israel, but slaughtered the men, women and children of surrounding countries. He had incorrigible youth stoned by their parents. He pardoned murderer/ adulterer David, but killed his innocent baby. He's watched many tsunami waves kill thousands of his children without lifting an almighty finger.

  tms
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  Narkissos

  Doesn't Cain, in effect, follow on Yahweh's logic, bringing it one step further (even if it is one step too far)?

  Vegetable < animal < human sacrifice?
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  vitty

  OMG !!! Did I really sound like Hibiscus.........im sure I did. No wonder people scoffed.

  Sorry Hibiscus, I dont want to sound mean to you personally
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  Sad emo

  Hi TMS

  These are my thoughts on the passage, nothing to do with animals being better than veggies or anything like that!

  Abel brought the very best of his produce whilst it's written that Cain brought 'some' of his produce. The implication seems to be that he didn't offer the best, or even the firstfruits of his produce, which is why God wasn't too happy. This in turn implies a difference in attitude of heart toward God. Abel really loved and respected God for who He was, so he reflected that by bringing the best he could offer. Cain on the other hand may have respected God but not genuinely loved Him, he reflected his attitude by bringing God whatever he didn't want himself.

  I just had the thought that perhaps a good New Testament analogy might be the story of the widow's mite, where Jesus pointed out that the widow's small offering was better than the rich man's who threw in what he had to spare.