The Scriptures read are Genesis 4-6, Psalm 2 and Matthew 2.
Genesis 4-6. The first murder is fratricide. If you've ever had a sibling, this comes as no surprise. It was jealousy, envy: the Heavenly Father likes you best. No specific reason is given for God not accepting Cain's sacrifice. But he tells Cain that he can do better. He warns him that evil will master him if he doesn't master it.
Cain doesn't listen. He kills Abel and then lies about it. But God hears Abel's blood cry from the ground. He bars Cain from working as a farmer. Cain is devastated. He can't bear his guilt and fears/hopes others will kill him. God will not let that happen. It's interesting that the Mark of Cain is a mark of protection, a sign of God's mercy on a sinful man. The first murderer gets life.
Begin the Begats. Long livers all, though each less than the last. Methusaleh at 969 years is the winner. God decides to limit human life to the Guinness record of 120 years. The originators of various trades are among the begetters and begotten. We also get giants, mighty men of yore, the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men. They used to be famous but we are only left with the quizzical word, Nephilim. They pop up in Numbers 13 and the Israelites are like grasshoppers to these giants among men. More signs all is not right with God's world.
Evil is spreading. It's all people think about. God sees the earth he pronounced good is now ruined with violence. He decides to start over. He will preserve Noah and his family and a pair of each species of animal. He tells Noah to build a big boat for the reboot of creation. (Noah, BTW, is the Hebrew word for "favor" spelled backwards. There's a great deal of wordplay in the Bible that translations simply can't do justice to. Remnants of when the stories were passed on orally, no doubt.)
Psalm 2. I sang this in Hebrew in Concert Choir at Wheaton College. Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. The nations grumble about God and his Anointed but God gets the last laugh.
Matthew 2. The wise men arrive looking for the new King of the Jews. Herod, the present holder of that title, is none too happy. When the wise men get wise to Herod's subterfuge, they exit stage left. An angel tells Joseph to get the family out of Dodge, er, Bethlehem. Herod reacts badly, ordering mass infanticide. There is no record of this outside the Bible, but it is totally in character for a king who murdered his own sons and wife. Then Herod suffers the same fate as his victims.
The angel tells Joseph the coast is clear. ("Angel" in both Hebrew and Greek means messenger.) They return and end up in Nazareth in Galilee. Matthew underlines how each move is predicted in the Old Testament. God has a plan and he didn't dream it up yesterday. What's next?
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