Genesis 4:1-2

2006.Jul.23 16:08

Child 1

Read Genesis 4:1-2 | Full Chapter

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.” Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
(Genesis 4:1-2, NASB)

Adam and Eve have children. At this point, they have two, apparently after being ejected from the garden. I can’t think of a time I’ve ever heard somebody preach from this passage–or even discuss it–without it being simply a prelude to the Cain & Abel Debacle. This can’t be blamed on the shortness of the passage–the church seems to place uncanny value on short passages. However, this is indeed a momentous occassion.

There is a great business about human identity vis-a-vis God’s identity throughout the Bible, emphasized in Genesis by the tree of knowledge and the fall. Recall the serpent’s argument: "You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil" (Genesis 1:4-5, MESSAGE) . There are things that clearly dilineate humanity from Jehovah. The issue with the trees center around his eternality (read, true life) and his knowledge of all things. Another major separating factor is God’s role as the creator.

Birth gives us an interesting perspective into God’s nature and our relationship with him. Indeed, earth seems to be the womb in which humanity gestates–Jesus speaks of the time before the tribulation as "beginning of birth pains" (Matthew 24:8, NIV) . If God conceived humanity in his mind, and created the womb, this life for us, that we might as individuals and a species be born into his kingdom, then pregnancy has much to teach us of his love for us and the pain and heartache he chooses to endure for our sakes.

When Eve is pregnant with Cain, she receives understanding that the fruit of knowledge could not give her, and as she shares her experience with Adam, so too does he gain understanding. How they will hurt for their children, they could not have known, but in the joy and love and pain of pregnancy and child-rearing, Eve and Adam can begin to understand why God created this world, created them upon it, and why he chose to allow them to bring on themselves the curse of sin.

It baffles me how the church can ever despise pregnancy, but we do it so often. How often out of the same mouth comes pro-life rhetoric and condemnation of women for their pregnancy. If it is a result of sin, well, whose life isn’t. We are all conceived in sin, we all choose to walk in it. Not one person is alive who cannot trace their life directly to some sin. But pregnancy, children, maturing, life, these are gifts of God, blessings that we might grow in understanding and so rejoice all the more in the incredible much he does for us.