Genesis 4-7

Today has been an odd day, and I've hardly had any sleep due to developing reverse sleep patterns over the Christmas break, so I'm going to try and keep this one brief. Which is difficult, as Genesis 4-7 covers the story of Cain and Abel and Noah's Ark Part 1, so we're dealing with sibling rivalry, murder, polygamy, and mass genocide here.

Let’s jump right in: My first thought upon reading the story of Cain and Abel was to wonder why God was so hard on Cain. Why did God reject Cain's offering? I know that post-Christmas we can all relate to getting a gift we're not that thrilled with, but it's the thought that counts, right? Turns out God thinks so too. My handy study guide informs me that God's reaction was nothing to do with the quality of the gift, but the heart of the giver. God rejected Cain's offering not because the offering itself was inadequate, but because of the sin in his heart.

And maybe God had a fair point there, because in just the next paragraph Cain murders his brother. Holy fratricide! Tellingly, when God questions Cain about the murder he committed, he shows anguish at his punishment but no actual remorse or confession of guilt.

Fun fact: Cain is sent to the 'Land of Nod', and apparently Nod means 'wandering' (i.e. he is sentenced to wander the earth, like the Incredible Hulk) and it has nothing to do with being sent to the Land of Sleepy Time.

The first problem I encounter with the Bible today is the crazy long life spans that people live in this chapter. Noah becomes a father at 130 and lives to 930? I don't care how much organic food they ate, that is just cray-cray. Obviously these kind of long life spans aren't supported by any scientific evidence, so unless there's some 900 year old skeletons lying around somewhere undiscovered, this is problematic for the reliability of the Bible. Exaggerating the age of important figures seems to be something they did in ancient times, as a Sumerian list of kings from the same era lists one individual as being 72,000 years old at time of death. If anyone has any good information sources on making sense of this issue, I’d love to hear it!

The next major wall I hit is the story of Noah's Ark. 

I think this is an amazing faith story that sets a great model for us as Christians. God instructs Noah to do something that made no sense to him at the time, at first without even explaining why, and Noah trusting in God and ignoring the sceptical voices of people around him is ultimately what saves Noah and those he loves.

Obviously I struggle with the historicity of it. The common quibble is that so many animals couldn’t co-exist on a boat, and the concept of it does sound fairly comical, but it’s not a deal breaker. I don’t see why they couldn't build partitions on the boat - modern zoos do it all the time. The issue that I struggle with is that if it was a world-wide flood there's just not enough water on the earth to cause it.

Here’s where my trusty study notes come to my aide again by explaining that when it states the "whole world", the context could also refer to the ‘known world’ - the parts of the world where humans lived at that time, but not in fact the whole earth, which is in fact possible. This makes much more sense to me, especially as the existence of a flood myth in all cultures seems to suggest there was some kind of large scale flood event in early human history.

So – another day sat on the fence as to the infallibility of the Bible. It’s a bit uncomfortable out here but I’m getting used to it.