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Tag: abel

Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 4- Tragic Death of a shepherd

I had opened my eyes (just for a moment) and thought that I saw a sunrise from long long ago.. Watching for a long time (it seemed) or maybe for just an instant (I could not tell). I then observed the sun waning beneath the surface of this paradise.

Tragic DEATH!

This instant of time quickly reverted into a darkness.. and my eyes (I thought) were not even closed again. I quivered and held my breath (I thought), as an eerie sense of a chaotic scene drew me down beneath the place where I thought I had just stood above the once magnificent paradise.

So I was no longer filled with any breath of joy at what I had already seen.

Then a scene planted my mind into a still and horrific place which pierced the ash-like fog into which I had fallen. I knew that this place emerging into the strain of my blinded eyes was not only beyond the garden, but it is beyond the fields where I had just witnessed a contentious conversation between two brothers.

I looked deeper into the darkness.. and then, I now realize, — beneath it.

Just then, I remembered my Guide, who I guessed had not only led me to the garden east of Paradise but also to this place. And I remembered straining to hear what the two brothers were saying: Kahyin, the gardener, and Heḇel, the shepherd whose offering had pleased the LORD.

.. It was only then that a dark and joyless truth wounded my briefly revived heart.

HE KILLED HIM!

So it came about in the course of time that Cain [qayin] [Smith {like Moses’ father-in-law}] brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.
Bereishit (Genesis) 4:3 :: קַיִן The same as קַיִן (H7013) The KJV translates Strong’s H7013 in the following manner: spear

Once again I wanted more knowledge from my Guide about what I had just seen.

So CAIN, a disgruntled gardener, KILLED his brother, a shepherd?

You have just witnessed its result, my Guide confirmed.

So Cain was ALSO the Hunter, wasn’t he?

No.

I was wrong already..

Who then, I wondered as my Guide continued His response.

He murdered Abel, just as later in your timeline you know that Moses would murder a Hebrew brother.

WHY? Why did the Lord allow it?

I plead for the bloodied body I had just seen of the shepherd brother of Cain not even thinking (in my response) of the man Moses had killed.

I reasoned with my Guide:

This shepherd, Abel, was a righteous man. AND the LORD even accepted his offering at the same time He rejected what Cain brought Him.

And logically I added:

HE could have stopped Abel’s murder.

Yes, of course the LORD could have prevented Cain from killing Abel.

AND The Almighty could have prevented the guilty man to whom HE gave this story, Moses, from killing a Hebrew slave when he lived as a prince in Egypt.

I had no answer..

You asked why the LORD allowed these things to happen to Cain who mostly lived as a good man trying to please God.

I thought of Moses (this time)..

and Joseph in Egypt before their slavery..

THEN I remembered what my Guide had just asked me an instant ago, “Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?”

And I even remembered that David was also a later shepherd, just like Abel, yet like Moses and Cain King David had murdered a man.

Do you think it would be better for these men to have NO choice in what they do and just have God lead them here and there to do as the Lord their God pleases?

I began thinking about Cain and Able BOTH being FREE to choose their own actions and reactions in the paradise of God.

Each of them Slaves!!? — I thought. IF we are NOT FREE to choose wrong, it would make us like slaves of GOD..

I’m thankful that I am free from slavery, even to GOD.

I wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.

Of course you are free to say whatever you would like to me.. and to God.

And even though you may say anything to any other man you encounter on the earth the LORD does not restrain you, think of those words you cannot hear. You just witnessed the consequences of only one such encounter.

Now look ahead to right judgment of the LORD when we freely choose to accept His Word.

IN THE BEGINNING…

For an instant I looked back.. further to the west of the endless line..

I thought I heard sobbing.. and “I’m so sorry I didn’t raise you right” and “We didn’t want you to know the mistakes we made..” ..and yet more wailing the way I felt over the death of Abel. Adam and Eve loudly lamented all of this.. and the separation of a father and mother from one sinful son: Cain, who had just killed the other son they loved..

I could only imagine my own father or mother IF I had actually killed any of my siblings.. (or anyone, for that matter).

“Not only is this tragic death of their son Abel new to them,” my guide pointed out to me, “the impact of DEATH itself has just gripped Adam and Eve — two parents who the LORD had told many years before,

‘You shall surely die.’”

I thought of those times one of my brothers had been MAD at ME… What if it were my blood in that field?

Then the LORD said to Cain,
“Where is Abel your brother?”
And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Genesis 4:9 NASB20

Then He said, “What have you done?

The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.

“Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

“When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you;
you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.”
Genesis 4:12 NASB20

4:16 וַיֵּצֵא קַיִן מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶֽרֶץ־נוֹד קִדְמַת־עֵֽדֶן׃

קַיִן [

Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin.. who brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

I heard the Voice of my Guide in Hebrew, yet somehow I understood every word.

I have told you about qayin and heḇel his brother for good reason.

Now it’s time for me to introduce you to the hunter.

3:1 וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּֽי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹֽאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּֽן׃
Genesis 3:1 – Masoretic Text [Click this link to meet the Hunter, the first character Moses mentions here]

The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

Roger Harned, Christian Author

April 23, 2022
The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a shepherd
Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin Smith. (His friends called him Cain, a nickname long forgotten since his time near the beginning.)

Now I know that if you think back to ACT 1, SCENE 1 or most recently SCENE 2 of our story that you might think of Cain in Moses’ story. I mention this not only because we will momentarily continue with ACT !, SCENE 3, but in keeping with our LINE of thought,

I’d like to ask you a question:

IN the beginning..

Do you think that ‘Once upon a time..’ mirrors Moses’ story ‘IN THE BEGINNING’ in some way?
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Please add your ANSWER to a COMMENT at the end of any of these SCENES.
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Continuing with SCENE 3 of our Story:

Now Abel was a keeper of flocks..

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

Abel, on his part also brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard..

Does Cahyin know that Heḇel made an offering that the LORD accepts while this brother of his worked even harder EVERY DAY as a farmer cultivating the soil full of weeds and thistles, I wondered?

I struggled to keep my eyes covered to keep out so many pictures of this world. And without me saying a single word, my Guide answered me with a question of his own.

Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?

Hmmm.. I had not considered that they may not have had just one place to make their offerings. Since Cain worked the farm while Able wanders the fields as a ‘keeper of sheep..’ maybe goats.. and other creatures roam the earth too.., I wondered; then I asked my Guide,

But even if they worshiped at the same stone altar, how would they know if God accepted either offering? Could both brothers see the LORD?

Look closer.. What do you see?

Two men approaching each other from a distance.

It seems to be the end of a day — twilight — and a stone altar stands at the edge of one field and also near a field — I think it’s wheat — the one coming from a partially cultivated field behind him has an armful of early, small stalks.

And he seems to have some tinder, like thistles and dry stocks, too. (It must be to start a fire.)

Do YOU see the LORD?

I hear a young lamb in the arms of the shepherd as he also approaches the altar of sacrifice.

I don’t see anyone else.

.. And do you hear His Voice?

I looked back on the scene then listened.. But now the scene had quickly progressed and both men had reached the altar.

I could hear a quick crackling of dry branches and thistles burning away in an instant.. then a low roar of burning fat as the fire brightened where the slain lamb had been laid..

And a bright smoke rose into the darkness from the sacrifice of the lamb, while the fire faded into coldness where so many thistles and an unripened harvest had been lain so hastily.

Do you hear His Voice?

YES!

The LORD’s Voice sounds in my own hearing like a Fatherly rebuke of a child who has done something he shouldn’t have.

“Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy?
“If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door;
and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 NASB20 – :וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה

a change of Scene..

And Cain talked with Abel his brother..
Genesis 4:8a KJV

What do you suppose Cain said? (I couldn’t hear his words.)

AND What words do you think Cain and Abel had in their conversation of our NEXT Scene?

Synopsis (so far)

I’m going to have to leave our story right here for now.

So far: I had discovered that the garden near Eden was not exactly paradise. And you must realize by now that Cain was a Gardener, and just now that his brother Abel was a Shepherd.

NEXT: We will meet a hunter. (Any guesses who?)

Don’t forget to COMMENT on Moses’ IN THE BEGINNING compared to ONCE UPON A TIME..

The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

Roger Harned, Christian Author
April 16, 2022
A Temporary Throne – 43

CHAPTER 43

The LORD had shown me Cain and Abel. The LORD had also shown me in the family of Noah; the blessing of Shem over Japheth and Ham. Now the LORD had shown me Jacob and Esau. The LORD was showing me his will for brothers.

I was reminded once more of what the LORD had advised Cain, before his sin:

Genesis 4:7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

All Noah’s sons and their wives and offspring had to do was to ‘do well’ by obeying God.

I had often forgotten that Canaan was the son of Ham, only remembering Canaan as a place and not a man, grandson of Noah, cursed and not blessed by the LORD.

I had forgotten that the places so contested by descendants of brothers were part of the blessings and curses of the LORD on ancestors of these contested lands so long ago.

Though the people sometimes were forced to fear the LORD; Jacob, Abraham and Noah had willingly worshiped the LORD our God.

Would the LORD not bless who he will bless and curse who he will curse?

This is what the LORD had shown me. This is what the LORD had reminded me from scripture.

He IS our Creator! He IS the LORD!

His blessings continue through the generations, his double-portions to the sons and brothers of His choosing.

Then the LORD would show me another brother, a very young man (barely beyond the years of a boy).

I had thought and observed the natural competition of Cain and Abel. I read of Ishmael and Isaac. I observed Esau and Jacob. Now the LORD showed me a young man among ten older men – ALL brothers.

His name was Joseph.

To be continued…

A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

© Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved by the author.

July 31, 2014