I love thee, I love thee not: Cain and Abel

This is one of my favorite Godcrimes for the simple reason that it is so arbitrary whilst still being quite personal. I mean, God does like to smite entire cities to the ground so that no living thing can creep or fly or crawl again, but this is a real soapy-style crime.

Cain, first-born son of Adam and Eve, born with the help of the Lord following a brief period of “knowing”, becomes a farmer. Abel, second-born, becomes a shepherd.

Cain works hard in the field, tilling, fertilizing, sowing, watering, getting filthy from head to toe and coming home smelling of manure, while Abel spends his days doing some serious, hardcore lying about on mountainsides while his flock eats grass and copulates in the sun.

So you can understand Cain’s dismay when God — upon appraising their sacrifices — decides to favor Abel’s selection of first-born lambs and fat over Cain’s offer of healthy, low-calorie, no-animals-were harmed-in-the-production-of-this-vegetable, Vegan cuisine.

I ask myself of course, why favor at all? Why not say, “Cain, mate, dig the veg, and Abel, I’ll get the barbie on, perfect combo, meat and veg, love it. The world of my efforts is truly good”. But no, God had to go and spoil it all by favoring the children of his children, one above the other, for no reason other than than Cain “wanted” to be praised more than Abel, or so God said later on, and because God prefers sacrifices to die bloody, horrible, deaths.

Anyway, gotta love God’s style. First murder in the history of Man, first registered biblical case of jealously among men, first fratricide, etc. and all because God picks up a daisy and plays “I love thee, I love thee not”.

Love to hear your thoughts on it.

Genesis 4:1-8