Knowing The Bible Characters - Seth

My today's Bible Character is the third and probably the "unpopular" son of Adam and Eve (next to Cain and Abel). Some of you may have not even heard of him. According to the Bible, Seth was born after the slaying of Abel by Cain, and Eve believe God appointed him as a replacement for Abel. "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." (Genesis 4:25 NIV)
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Something evolve out of Seth's existence, they are called the "Sethianism" which are also knows as "Gnostics". In some theory says that Seth and Job were one. There are so many theories about "Sethianism" and how they started, which definitely I have no interest because I believe that I don't want to waste my time on any man-made spiritual theories or whatever that is not of the Bible.
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My objective here is to educate my reader that Cain and Abel were not the only two sons of Adam and Eve. In fact, the bible scholars said that there may be more sons and daughters that Adam and Eve had, but because it was through Seth that the genealogy of Jesus were flowing, and this is probably the reason why some other sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were not listed in the Bible.

Knowing The Bible Characters - Abel

My last Bible Character was Cain, who was the firstborn of Adam and Eve. I will be talking tonight about Abel, Cain's brother.
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Abel was the brother of Cain, the second son of Adam and Eve. Abel was the first martyr in the history of Bible and also the first shepherd. The Bible did not give too much illustration about Abel, except that he found favor in God's eyes by offering him a pleasing and pure sacrifice, that made Cain (whose sacrifice did not please God) jealous and resulted into killing his brother.
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We can also speculate that Abel must have been physically weak, that he was physically overpowered by his brother when Cain led him out into a field and attacked him. Abel must be too naive or just too trusting, a natural manner for a younger brother toward an older brother. This was the first case of murder in the history of the Bible, and if you look around, this still happen today. Brothers are killing each others because of jealousy and selfishness.
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The story of Cain and Abel was not particularly about the jealousy and crime. It is about obedience. In the first place, both of them knew what kind of offerings God requires for himself from them. Abel gladly followed and offered the best crops he had, but Cain did not take it seriously. Cain must have offered a slightly defective lamb that made God furious because after all God deserves the best. Abel did the right thing, and earned God's favor.

Knowing The Bible Characters - Cain

I know that it took me so long to post my 3rd entry of this series "Knowing The Bible Characters". I have no reason why. I just forgot about this. My third character is an interesting one, Cain.
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Cain is the first son of Adam and Eve. In Hebrew, Cain means “brought forth” or “acquired”. Eve said in Genesis 4:1; "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth [ Or have acquired ] a man." Cain grow up as a crop farmer, while his younger brother Abel was a flock keeper.

There are a lot of theory made on who really Cain was, such as being literally the son of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and many more. But knowing that digging into it would not bring any good out of it or whatsoever, I decided to skip those information.

“In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. ” (Genesis 4:3-5 NIV)

This scenario was the motive of the first ever murder that has happened in the history of the Holy Bible. ^“Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” (Genesis 4:8 NIV)

It left me wondering why Cain’s offering was rejected by God. Was it because God prefer meat over vegetables? No offense to the vegetarian. It was just my silly thought. Of course, we all know that it was not the reason. There must be some serious reason as to why God rejected Cain’s offering. As I was digging more to this topic, I found this answer in BibleStudy.org by Adriano Borean:

"Many have speculated (and some quite assertively ) as of why Cain's offerings were not 'respected'. Basically two reasons can be safely assumed as the cause of God's displeasure: one, the 'attitude of mind' that Cain had with his offerings, the other, the 'quality of the offerings'. When one considers Cain's jealousy toward his brother that drove him to finally murder him, a poor attitude in giving offerings to God is very plausible. This attitude was likely a factor in offering to God poor quality products rather than the very best. Cain's mental attitude was a key factor in displeasing God. God knows man's inner thoughts."

Now this thing enlighten me. The bible may not clearly describe as to what manner Cain give his offering to God, but God knows. My hope is that when we give to God, we give the best that we can and not with a spirit of jealousy in our heart.

Knowing The Bible Characters - Eve

I realized that I haven't post again on this series, so here it is now. Since tomorrow will be the "Mother's Day", my featured Bible Character for today is the first woman and the first mother on Earth which most of us knows. Eve.
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Next to Adam, Eve was the second human being that lived here on Earth. Eve is called the “Mother of Mankind”. She was created in the Garden of Eden to be the “companion” of Adam, because God sees that “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a companion fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18) "And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." (Genesis 2:21-22) Eve was given to Adam to be his “helper”. I know a lot of women who reacted negatively on this statement. But relax, women. This kind of “helper” is with the “higher call”. Look at it this way; God knows that Adam (Man) is not good to live alone, and that was how God decided to create Eve (Woman) to help the man become good as himself. Eve was the one who complete Adam and share equally in his responsibility over creation. She too was made in God's image, displaying a portion of the characteristics of God. Together only could Adam and Eve fulfill God's purpose in the continuation of creation. With Eve, God brought human relationship, friendship and marriage into the world.
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Of course, who can overlook the most popular mistake that Eve did in the Garden of Eden? She succumbs to the serpent's temptation by tricking her with the suggestion that to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make her wise as God, and that she would not die, and she, believing the lie of the Serpent rather than the earlier instruction from God, shares the fruit with Adam. As a result, the first humans were expelled from the Garden of Eden and are cursed. Although she shared a close relationship with God and her husband, Eve failed to consult either one of them when confronted with Satan's suggestions. She acted impulsively, independent of her authority. Once entangled in sin, she invited her husband to join her. As a consequence, God told the woman, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16)

Knowing The Bible Characters - Adam

I am sitting down here in front of my computer, thinking about what to write, then it sparks on my mind to start a new series which I want to call "Knowing The Bible Characters". I believe that every one of the Bible Characters have something for us that we should learn from their story/stories, and whatever they are, the sole purpose of their existence is for the glory of God.
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Other than God the creator, most of us knows that the first man on earth was Adam. The account in Genesis 2 records that God first formed Adam out of "the dust of the ground" and then "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", causing him to "become a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). God then placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, giving him the commandment that "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).
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God knows the heart of Adam, and He knew something was missing. "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). He then brought every "beast of the field and every fowl of the air" (Genesis 2:19) before Adam and had Adam name all the animals. However, among all the animals, there was not found "a helper suitable for" Adam (Genesis 2:20), so God caused "a deep sleep to fall upon Adam" and took one of his ribs, and from that rib, formed a woman (Genesis 2:21-22), subsequently named Eve.
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Adam was living in the Garden of Eden where he can communicate with God face to face. It is a perfect place what we call now a paradise. But there was a restriction. One and only restriction. God told Adam that he could eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and he broke it. As a consequence of his disobedience, God told Adam that he would labor hard for his food, eating bread by the sweat of his brow. And the biggest one was that God drove them away from the Garden of Eden.
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Adam was the father of Cain and Abel, and Seth.