Genesis chapters 4-7

Cain and Abel, the first murder to ever occur. What did it occur over? Selfishness. Cain saw that God like Abel's offering better. It says that Cain brought some of the fruits. Not that Cain brought the best of, the first fruits or the sorts. Abel brought the fat portions from the firstborn. The best parts. Because of Cain's selfishness and jealousy he got angry and killed his brother. Over such a little thing. Not thinking of the consequences but of only himself and anger. God asked Cain why he was so upset. God told him that "if you does what is right, will you not be accepted?" (Gen 4:7) God was saying that he loved Cain and that he was accepted. But also knew that Sin was creeping in with Cain's anger, anger through selfishness. The consequences that occurred after Cain's murder showed Cain's self centered-ness even more. Cain's response, Gen 4:13-14, is filled with nothing but I; it's to hard for me to bear, I will be hidden, they will kill me. He didn't show remorse for what he was done, but scared for himself. Yet God still protected him and wouldn't allow anyone to kill him.

Then the scriptures goes through many names and the sons of people. What is crazy is how long they lived. 800 to 900 years old. I couldn't imagine living that long. Yet what happened, the "sons of God- to my understanding often refers to angels) saw that daughters of men were beautiful and would marry them. This is even stranger in my mind. Angels marrying humans. But God Clarifies a little more further in the passage. "Then the Lord said, "My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred in twenty years" (Gen 6:3.) We started off really close to God but through time God began distancing himself and not allowing us to be with Him for so long on earth. The reason for this I believe is the greater sin we were getting into. He numbered our days to 120 years. Things were going crazy and wickedness was filling the lands. I believe this coincides with the angels marrying daughters. It wasn't meant to be but even with God right there we were ignoring Him. So God sent the flood. Not to just destroy everything that was created, but it was a second chance for us to live close to Him on our own accord. Noah, a follower of God shown by his actions of obeying God's commands, made the ark to keep life going and to start over.

The flood is very symbolic, I believe it really happened as well, to me especially right now. Some times in our lives God sends a flood. The flood may be in many forms: life changes, deaths, illnesses, lost jobs etc. For me it is both death in family and a drastic life change and direction change. I don't know what steps are next, just like Noah when he built the ark. But it's a chance to start anew. To rekindle the relationship we have with Jesus. It is a time to refocus on God's commands. Not to destroy what we have had before, but another beginning to create something greater. There will be many changes that will continue to happen to better ones standing. Like God changed the years men lived from almost a thousand to barely over a hundred. A drastic change to allow people to live more on God's accord.