Tag: offering

Sheep and Goats

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיָּ֥לֶן שָׁ֖ם בַּלַּ֣יְלָה הַה֑וּא וַיִּקַּ֞ח מִן־הַבָּ֧א בְיָד֛וֹ מִנְחָ֖ה לְעֵשָׂ֥ו אָחִֽיו׃
After spending the night there, he selected from what was at hand these presents for his brother Esau:
עִזִּ֣ים מָאתַ֔יִם וּתְיָשִׁ֖ים עֶשְׂרִ֑ים רְחֵלִ֥ים מָאתַ֖יִם וְאֵילִ֥ים עֶשְׂרִֽים׃
200 she-goats and 20 he-goats; 200 ewes and 20 rams;
גְּמַלִּ֧ים מֵינִיק֛וֹת וּבְנֵיהֶ֖ם שְׁלֹשִׁ֑ים פָּר֤וֹת אַרְבָּעִים֙ וּפָרִ֣ים עֲשָׂרָ֔ה אֲתֹנֹ֣ת עֶשְׂרִ֔ים וַעְיָרִ֖ם עֲשָׂרָֽה׃
30 milch camels with their colts; 40 cows and 10 bulls; 20 jennies and 10 jackasses.
Genesis 32:14-16 (Revised JPS, 2023)

The “gift” that Jacob gives Esau and that Esau reluctantly accepts is outlined in Genesis 32. It’s a collection of animals, and the first to be listed among them is…. the goats. As in, the very animal that Jacob covered himself in to make himself look like Esau when he swiped the blessing from his older brother.

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,
Genesis 4:3-4 (NKJV)

The word “present” or “gift” (מִנְחָתִי) here is first mentioned back in Genesis 4. It’s the word used to describe what Cain and Abel gave to God. It is an offering. Or, given the nature of kingdoms, it is a TRIBUTE.
God did not accept Cain’s gift. Esau initially rejects Jacob’s gift. It’s an interesting parallel.

Another important note: the offering starts out with GOATS and Sheep. Goats are listed first.

This pairing has a meaning to Christians: it’s the “whatever you’ve done for the least of these, you’ve done to me” passage. And while it seems very good for “the least of these,” the story appears quite damning for those who fail to care for the poor and weak. Those poor goats!

But maybe this link to Jacob and Esau is a clue.

The Jewish teachings about Esau is that he represents wickedness in all his ways. He appears irredeemable – even his “kiss” of Jacob is viewed with derision, with some teachings suggesting that his intent was to BITE his brother, not kiss him. He is a character of murder, wrath, impatience, and an insatiable appetite for lust. Later, we see him as a nation that strives against the people of God.
In the Matthew 25:31-46 passage, the text tells us who the sheep and goats are.

They are not individuals. They are not people who will be redeemed or damned. They are nations. They are systems of humanity, and what Jesus is telling us plainly is that a system of oppression is Edom. It is the legacy of Esau, and God simply will not accept it. It is the entire rejection of the call to love God and to love your neighbor, and it is THAT which is damned in the story.

“But on Mount Zion there shall be [h]deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.
Obadiah 1:17-18 (NKJV)

Sin and Sin-Offering

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis 4 presents us with a horrifying, theologically problematic, guilt-inducing, burden-laying rendering of Genesis 4:7.

Sin is crouching at your door; it’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Almost all of them

Nearly every translation says it similarly (with the notable exception of Youngs Literal Translation (YLT), which is what started me on this journey!)

But let’s think about this statement that God is making to Cain, and how it applies.

SIN is CROUCHING at YOUR DOOR, and it DESIRES YOU, but you must MASTER it.

What is this saying? And why would this message be God’s instruction to Cain?

What doctrine is this?

Now, think about the sin in your life. Think about your own moral failings, and personify them for a second. It says sin desires us. Odd. I mean, I desire it more, but maybe God is telling me that sin is “alive” in some way. It is a thing that crouches and desires me.

So we are given this picture of a creepy, crouching thing that wants to… eat us? Is that what this “desire” is? Are we pointing back to the serpent, with an implied message that the serpent’s intent is to consume us?

Maybe? Sin is bad, so… sure.

But then…

“but you must master it.”

What the works-based-salvation messaging is this? We must MASTER it? Rule over it? I mean, this might point back to “dominion over all the earth,” and include the serpent, but what is this saying? That we must… save ourselves?

For anyone who has wrestled with true spiritual bondage in their own lives, being told “you just need to stop and master your sin” is a death blow. Because it is impossible.

Unfortunately, we KNOW people who defeated addiction and bad behavior. “I did it. Why can’t you?”

But this response from them doesn’t help. It makes it so much worse at times, and it’s often from this pit of despair that we finally cry out to God. We learn that only God can deliver us. And then we read the Exodus and see: only the hand of God could free His people. We learn that it’s only by faith, and not our works that we are saved.

Our entire walk with Jesus teaches us to depend not on ourselves, but on him and what he did on the cross, and through the empty tomb. This is our hope. He is our salvation.

That’s the premise of our entire faith.

So why does God tell Cain that he must “rule over” his sin?

I don’t think God did. Or at least, I think the Hebrew text might be written in a way to understand the message another way. The key is in this word “sin.”

It is translated two different ways in our Bibles:

SIN… and SIN OFFERING

(Sin: 182x; Sin Offering: 116x)

The only way to know which way to translate it is through context. In the next usage of the word, it’s quite clear that it can ONLY mean “sin,” because “sin offering” would make no sense here:

And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Genesis 18:20 (NASB)

In fact, if you ONLY read Genesis, you’d think that the word could only be translated as “sin,” but note that each time, it’s connected to the word “offense” or “outcry.”

And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Genesis 18:20 (NASB)

Then Jacob became angry and argued with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?
Genesis 31:36 (NASB)

‘This is what you shall say to Joseph: “Please forgive, I beg you, the offense of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.”’ And now, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Genesis 50:17 (NASB)

But when you get to Exodus, AFTER Israel’s deliverance, when God teaches Israel how to sacrifice and worship rightly, we have these renderings of the SAME word. The context is what gives you the right meaning.

But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
Exodus 29:14 (NASB)

Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it.
Exodus 29:26 (NASB)

However, Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year; he shall make atonement on it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”
Exodus 30:10 (NASB)

So let’s go back to Cain, and see another problematic word. This time, it’s DESIRE.

I said earlier that a serpent desiring to eat you is a fine picture for sin. But that word “desire” is not used to describe the desire of a predator in the scriptures.

It’s longing. It’s love.

To the woman He said,

“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you shall deliver children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”
Genesis 3:16 (NASB)

“I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.
Song of Songs 7:10 (NASB)

So now let me paint this picture for you.

Cain has just been rejected. His heart wasn’t right. He was filled with pride of his own work, and that isn’t an acceptable offering.

So God tells him, “if you do what’s right, you’ll be favored. But if not… ”

“… then see that I have placed a sin-offering at your door. It longs for you. It’s a lamb that knows nothing except love for you, but… you have to grab hold of it. You have to bring it to the altar, as your brother did.”

God tells Cain that a sacrifice is available.

This passage is NOT saying we have to overcome our own wickedness. That is impossible. It’s saying that, just like for Abel, an offering was made available for Cain. An offering he did not work for. He did not earn. It’s there FOR him, just like for Abel.

It is always God who provides. It’s the same message Abraham understands when he tells his son Isaac, “God will provide a lamb.”

That has always been the message. It is the only answer to sin. It is the only thing God requires: a sacrifice HE gives us to offer.

An Appropriate Sacrifice

Posted on by jovial_cynic
What did Cain do wrong? People have pointed to Abel’s “appropriate” animal sacrifice, pointing to God’s covering of Adam/Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3… but I think there’s something else going on here.

We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)

It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)

What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?

Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”

This is death.

God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.

It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.