DRAMA OF THE AGES ! 7. A SHADOW PICTURE The fig-leaf garments were a symbol of the efforts of Man to save himself. It just could not be done. Now God showed an object lesson about sin to the fallen pair. Animals were killed and the skins fashioned into coats for Adam and Eve. Tradition tells us it was a sheep that was used. Now God certainly did not have to kill an animal to make clothing, but this was a lesson for our first parents that SIN brings DEATH and the innocent suffer for the guilty. Now Adam and Eve were required to go out of their garden home and make their home in the earth. They could not remain in Eden because they might eat of the Tree of Life and thus become immortal sinners. This seemed cruel, but it was in mercy that God ordained that the lives of sinners would end. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return. If Jesus had not pledged to redeem man, that grave would have had no hope in it, but 'the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world', would conquer the grave and all would come forth some day. Those who accepted the Salvation offered at so great cost, would live eternally with their Lord. Those that refused all attempts to redeem them, would finally perish eternally. The Wages of Sin is Death!    Adam and Eve were taught to show their faith in the promised redeemer by offering a Lamb as a burnt offering. The Lamb was not a gift from man to God. No, no, far from that! It was to show that they had faith in the GIFT God had promised to make to redeem them. It was in a small way to show they understood that their sin required a terrible redemption price. A price only the Creator could pay. 8. RELIGION OF REBELLION When the first baby was born, we have some clues that Eve may have thought he was the promised one. He was called Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a man, the Lord." When Abel was born, his name meant vanity, or worthless.  Adam and Eve of course had many children, but we are only given three names.  Some people have wondered who Cain married when he grew up. They have made up many silly stories about this. But it is really simple, Cain married one of his sisters. Now Cain and Abel were very different even though they were brothers. It wasn’t just because Cain was a gardener and Abel was a shepherd. No indeed. Cain was rebellious and proud while Abel was humble and obedient.   As they grew up their father Adam taught them all about the promise of the coming Savior. He showed them the angels guarding the Tree of Life. They went on Sabbath to the gate of Eden and there sacrifices were offered. They knew that the lamb was to point them to the coming Lamb of God that would die for their sins. Both of them were taught all about the difference between sin and obedience.   When the time came that these young men were old enough to start offering their own sacrifices something happened. Abel carefully chose his best lamb from his flock of sheep. He took the lamb to the altar and he killed the lamb and offered the blood to show he was sorry for sin and chose to be saved by the promised Savior. God honored Abel’s faith by sending fire to burn up the lamb. At the same time Cain brought an offering. But Cain was proud. He didn’t think he needed any Savior. He brought God fruit from his garden. We are told that he didn’t even care if it was the best. “That is good enough,” Cain thought, “God should be glad I bring Him anything. After all it is my own garden and I did all the work.” The sacrifices are to show faith in what God gave to save us, it is not something people give to Him. We can’t give anything to God as it is all His to start with. That would be the same as if I came to your house and took your bike and gave it to you and said “Here is my gift to you.” That would be silly wouldn’t it?   There was no blood to show faith in the Savior in Cain’s offering. Cain didn’t even think he had any sin to worry about. He was Proud, rebellious and disobedient but he thought he was just fine. God did not burn up Cain’s offering and Cain was angry with God and with his brother. God is so very patient with us! Here Cain was disobedient and angry for no good reason. Yet God talked to him and asked him what was the matter. God told him that if he would do right, his offering would be accepted just like Abel’s was. God wasn’t being nicer to Abel than to Cain. Cain could still have gone and got a lamb and offered it and everything would be just fine. But instead he didn’t listen to God. He hated his brother and his hate got bigger and bigger every day!   It is a fact that when we do wrong and someone tells us, we are angry! If we weren’t wrong, we would not feel angry. So when Abel pleaded with Cain to obey God, Cain in a rage rose up and killed his brother. Instead of the Redeemer, Cain turned out to be the first murderer! 9. 2 RACES AND RESULTS OF REBELLION Genesis 4:9  “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?” God gave Cain some time to cool off and think about what he had done. I am sure the Holy Spirit made him think about all the happy times he had playing with his baby brother. But Cain did not repent. Finally God asked Cain, “Where is your brother?” God knew where Abel was, but He wanted to give Cain one more chance to repent. To say he was sorry. But Cain gave a rude answer to God. Sin makes us so stupid. Cain even thought he could fool God and he wasn’t even afraid to be rude to God. God told Cain that the ground was now cursed again because of the murder of Abel. Cain never felt sorry for what he had done, he only felt sorry for himself. The reason why God didn’t let Cain be killed for the terrible deed he had done, was to show to the universe what happens when wicked men are allowed to live on in sin. It was with Cain that the counterfeit worship of Paganism was really born. Cain and his descendants invented the 'do your own thing' kind of religion.  It was a religion of nature worship and rebellion against the real Creator. It was a religion that taught that man needed no savior and could do as he pleased. The forced of reproduction were worshipped and animals were killed in an effort to absorb their energies.  The idea of Pagan Sacrifices is that it is a gift from man to the god he wishes to please or placate. It is the dead opposite of the true religion. It was in the line of Cain that Paganism had its first roots. It is indeed an old religion, but still older is the true worship of the Creator and the honoring of His law. Counterfeit worship always contains much symbolism and elaborate ritualism. Much to enchant the eyes and ears, to appeal to the emotions and passions of man's carnal mind.  After the death of Abel, Seth was born and he became the father of the faithful race who sought to serve the Lord and show faith in the Coming Redeemer.  Cain was never sorry after he killed his brother, he was just sorry for himself. He went on hating God and doing as he pleased. He and his children would not obey God or keep His laws. God let Cain go on living even though he deserved to die for the terrible deed he had done and we see what happened. Cain’s children and grandchildren were the same, they wouldn’t obey God. They became more and more wicked. They were smart and invented many things. We are told that Cain built the first city. God’s plan was for people to live in family groups on large farms. Satan knew that in cities he could turn people away from God better. Cain’s people invented musical instruments, weapons, and false worship. Cain’s great grandson took more than one wife. He also was a murderer and proud of it. Adam taught every one to obey God, but Cain’s family would not listen. Things just got worse and worse. This is where we now find two groups of people, the family of Cain, called the ‘sons of man’ and the family of Seth called the ‘sons of God’.  The women in the family of Cain learned how to wear jewels and decorate their faces and how to be very attractive in a bad way. They learned to dance and play music that made people forget God. They had parties and holidays and worshipped idols.  Many of the sons of God ended up marrying these woman who had learned evil things and then they stopped following God and their children became very wicked.  Cruelty  and violence were everywhere. Finally we are told: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5. God knew if He did not intervene, man would destroy himself long before the coming of the Redeemer. God called Noah and set him to work to build a huge ship on dry land. In 120 years God would send a world-wide flood. All who would come into the ship would be saved. For 120 years Noah built and preached. Finally only he, his three sons and their wives were the only ones to get onto that Ark. God had also send a selection of the animals and birds to save on the ark. The flood came in spite of the unbelief and mockery of man against Noah.  Sin was washed from the earth and everything that lived on the earth died that was not in the ark. For a short while the counterfeit religion, Paganism was gone.  Even Satan was afraid that he might be destroyed too, the storm was so fierce; and he was very angry with God for destroying the powerful and wicked people that he controlled. God made him stay right in the storm and watch it all.   NEXT

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