Two Boys… And Sin

SUN., JULY 11, 1993, 12:10 PM
FARM, STUDY

Well, o son, you expect at least some form of reprimand… at least some notice that the activities of this past week kept you away from this mode of learning. You have felt the need, and I’m sure you’ll be here often as the time pressures lessen and as the trip west has been postponed. You did plan and conduct your class pretty much according to My prescription, and you deserved the praise you received. You also know that I am not yet satisfied with your inclusion of the spiritual. You shall have another chance tomorrow, and I expect more direct inclusion. Expect that I will let you know whether what you do and say meet My standards.

Today, as the title suggests, I have some comments on the events in your morning Bible study of this last week. I want you always to assert that one of My best roles is to help you in your understanding of Holy Scripture, as well as other readings and ideas that you hear. I can and do teach you some original “stuff,” but this other role, as interpreter, is one of My best.

As the myth goes these first human persons with immortal souls… created in My image… were invited to leave the wonderful but sterile Garden and to begin earth life, in the reality that I intended. They began to discern good and evil, and therefore to understand better what challenges life “on the outside” would present. They also were given some responsibility to populate the earth, so Eve bore two sons for Adam. Now was this just nature working in its chance fashion, or was this of My Doing… or some of each? Boys just aren’t going to produce another generation. But, as the story goes, these two boys grew to young men, somewhat competitive in what they did with “the fruit of the earth,” symbolizing, without any Scriptural proclamation, that humans would, even should, consume some variety of plant and animal sources for food.

Sin and evil already were in the earth scene, the sin of disobeying My command. I have told you repeatedly that this was part of My plan for the earth, not an action that surprised or disappointed Me. You note that I had to send a beguiling snake to urge Eve to disobey and eat of a delicious but forbidden fruit. The primal sin or evil has thus been established – disobedience. And yet no direct harm had come to anyone. The next evil to be identified and highlighted was that done to another human. But how to provoke that? They were brothers and were competitive, but had no desire to harm one another.

So I accepted Abel’s offering, but was critical of that proffered by Cain. Even to this day spiritual feelings can be quite strong about indications that have favored one group over another, one spiritual path over another. While it can be seen as good that one desires My favor, this virtue turns into sin when this translates into enmity toward an apparent competitor. Thus there was anabolism or a creation and building up, and so there had to be catabolism, the complement, the breaking down as in death.