Assuming from my fictitious autobiography of Adam and Eve, both Cane and Abel were thoroughly familiar with their parents’ catastrophe, choosing to say what was good and evil for themselves. Their worship gifts to God and final exchange are character-revealing. Abel totally got what he heard, heeded the lesson, and adjusted his relationship with his Creator accordingly. Cain, however, didn’t get it; he repeated his parents’ self-divining way of thinking.
Cain blessed those who blessed his way of thinking and cursed those who objected to it. Nothing has changed since. When any of our opinions or convictions find their root and sap in the ponderings of other created beings, they will bring death. Maybe to us. We are more likely to be deadly to our dependents or extended family, friends, and most certainly to our vast human community. The chaos of our human society is the death cry of our own truth-creating substitute as a replacement or are supplement, at best, to The Truth as expounded by our Creator. Man’s wisdom is not His wisdom because our truth is not His Truth.
Just as God breathed “the breath of life” into our lungs, He also breathes by his Spirit the breath of Truth into our minds. If a human rejects His breath into their lungs, they die. If we reject His Spirit of Truth, we will die slower; every “good” deed will be a death blow, no matter how righteous we might convince ourselves to be. And our wisdom to our family and friends will be as deadly as a viper’s venom. On the other hand, if a human accepts and adjusts to His life-giving Truth-breath, they will live and thrive.
Few characters in the Old Testament are as hopelessly unredeemable as Adam and Eve’s eldest son, Cain. Cain was literally dead set on living life his way. I shudder at the word I just wrote, “unredeemable.” At the core of my evangelical theological training is the idea that each human life can be redeemed by God through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, who is the Christ.
An oft-quoted proverb says, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Is this not a definition of insanity to choose to ignore what is already known? That proverb has been traced back to John Heywood in 1546 England. I think Master Heywood paraphrased it from Jesus’ words in the story about Jesus feeding thousands of people recorded in John 8.
Aware of this, he said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact you have no bread? Don’t you understand or comprehend? Do you have hardened hearts? Do you have eyes and not see; do you have ears and not hear? And do you not remember? (v 17-18)
The Bible says that the human mind is “darkened.” The pull of life’s self-determining “dark side” is strong. It is humanly impossible to overcome. Not Divinely, but it is humanly. The first thing God created was light. He is still doing it today. If you honestly seek it, you will find it. If you passionately desire it, it will come to you. As you accept it, it will be your most prized possession.
When we put ourselves in the center, we are confident we have sufficient light to live happily. But as we move away from our own light, shadows begin to grow, and visibility diminishes. The closer you are to me, the more we delight in each other’s light. Conversely, the further away I am from you, the greater my lack of light appears to you and yours to me. The sociological convulsions we are experiencing are a result of our being steeped in the wisdom of this world and deprived of a Godly wisdom. This worldly human originating wisdom is the rattle of death.
Death comes to each of us, but we do not have to ever live in its hopeless reached stench.
Photo – Looking north across the Columbia River near Portland, Organ into Washington state.
Baldwin Heirlooms 