Cain's Offering Revisited

Some time ago, I wondered why God was dissatisfied with Cain's offering. John Paul II provided some insight as I noted here.  The June 2012 Magnificat offers more insight from Saint Ephrem the Syrian.  He writes: 

Abel was very discriminate in his choice of offerings, whereas Cain showed no such discrimination.  Abel selected and offered the choicest of his first born and of his fat ones, while Cain either offered young grains or [certain] fruits that are found at the same time as the young grains.  Even if his offering had been smaller than that of his brother, it would have been as acceptable as the offering of his brother, had he not brought it with such negligence.  They made their offerings alternately;  one offered a lamb of his flock, the other the fruits of the earth.  But because Cain had taken such little regard for the first offering that he offered, God refused to accept it in order to teach Cain how he was to make an offering. For Cain had bulls and calves and an abundance of animals and birds that he could have offered.  But he offered none of these on that day when he offered the first fruits of his land.

What would have been the harm if he had brought ripe grains or if he had chosen the fruits of his best trees?  Although this would have been easy, he did not do even this.  It was not that he had other intentions for his best grains or his best fruits;  it was that, in the mind of the offerer, there was no love for the one who would receive his offering.  Therefore, because Cain brought his offering with negligence, God despised it on that account, lest Cain think either that God did not know of Cain's negligence, or that God preferred the offerings rather than those who were offering them.

From:  St. Ephrem the Syrian:  Selected Prose Works, The  Fathers of the Church, Vol. 91, 1994, CUA Press.

Cain and Abel

Apropos of another matter entirely, I chanced to be reading (trying, in my own humble fashion) Pope John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae.  He begins his Encyclical with the story of Cain and Abel and answers a question I asked earlier which was, Why was God unhappy with Cain's offering?  The Pope writes that there is no reason given for this, but he goes on to explain that God  ". . . although preferring Abel's gift, does not interrupt his dialogue with Cain.  He admonishes him, reminding him of his freedom in the face of evil:  man is in no way predestined to evil."  

Oh dear.  What a mundane mindset I had when reading this story.  It's the Bible, not a murder mystery!  What I saw was only that God was being mean to poor Cain who was only trying to be good and that God wasn't being nice, he was being unfair.   He's God, and His ways are not our ways!  

The Pope goes on.  God is "always merciful even when he punishes, . . . "  He put a mark on Cain  ". . . not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him. . . ."

Genesis

Book written:  10th century B.C.,  editing 6th century B.C. some attribute to Moses

Time Period/Setting:  time immemorial to about 1700 B.C.

Title:  Genesis means 'beginning'

Familiar Bible Stories:  I hope I'll finally remember that all the old, familiar children's Bible stories are told in the book of Genesis:  Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain (the murdering one who was a farmer ) and Abel (the shepherd), Noah and the Ark (and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth who are constantly memorialized in crossword puzzles), The Tower of Babel, Jacob's Ladder (a favorite Bible School song, too) and Joseph and his coat of many colors.   Jacob wrestles with God in the book of Genesis, and here, conveniently, is Pope Benedict's reflection on the matter.   And, back to Cain and Abel for a moment, why was God  unhappy with Cain's offering.  Maybe I didn't read carefully enough, but that stymies me.

Patriarchs and Wives:  The challenge I had in reading the book of Genesis was keeping the patriarchs and their wives and children straight and trying to place them all correctly in time and space.
 
Abraham and Sarah (formerly Abram and Sarai) started out in Haran which is present day northern Iraq in the year ?  , but at God's instruction worked their way down past Bethel to the Negeb and Egypt.  Seems like an awful lot of territory to cover.   The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah includes the astonishing manner in which Lot offered up his virgin daughters to the mob of angry men at his door.  Something similar happens later on in Judges (19.22  Gibeah's crime).  Let me make clear that I'm not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but the status of women in Biblical times makes my hair stand on end.  Talk about an oppressed, sub-par existence.  

Then, through God's power, follows Sarah's pregnancy and she gives birth to Isaac. 

Isaac marries Rebekah, who like Sarah must await God's touch in order to bear their twin sons, Jacob and Esau.  Rebekah was an agreeable figure at first, but proves to be nasty and calculating.  Why?  Are we to learn something from this mean mother (or mean wife)?

Jacob of course wants to marry Rachel, but is tricked into marrying Leah.  When he does get Rachel she, like Sarah and Rebekah, is barren.  God again intervenes.  Each of these births,  Isaac's, Jacob's (and Esau's) and Joseph's is an event set apart just as Christ's birth will be set apart, just as, I can't help but think we are being instructed here, every birth is a special event touched by God.  Marriage, pregnancy, procreation are not hum-drum, every day acts governed by human whimsy.  Nobody is an accident of nature.  Each of us is a distinct intention of God, created for a purpose.

Because God chose these women to be wives and mothers of Israel's patriarchs, I would have expected them to be, well, nicer, more refined, exemplary in their behavior.  But these women are awful.  Sarah is cynical and bitter.  Rebekah, sort of a Lady MacBeth, plots and schemes behind her husband's back.  Leah and Rachel compete with each other over who has had more children.  I would ask, what's their problem, but I think I know.  They have to share a husband and not only with each other!  How about the matter of the sisters "giving" Jacob their maids!  He has two sons with Bilhah and two sons with Zilpah.   And these sons count as his legitimate sons, heads of the twelve tribes along with their brothers.  

Rachel's sons seem to occupy pride of place, especially Joseph, and Rachel's death and burial are given some mention.  Interestingly, she was buried on the road to Bethlehem and  Jacob even puts up a stone at her gravesite.  I believe her tomb is mentioned again somewhere in Exodus or Numbers as the Israelites pass through.  Not sure about that.

Where:  As for where all this takes place, it seems that Jacob is sometimes in Paddan-aram which is near Haran, Abraham's point of origin, and at other times he's in Canaan and maybe other times he's elsewhere.  

Twelve Tribes: Jacob's sons, the twelve tribes, in alpha order:  Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon and Zebulun.