(This is an occasional series that discusses God's contribution to Civilisation.)
Part I
Who among us does not know and warm to the story of Cain and Abel? We recall that it all started in:
Ge:4:2: And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Ge:4:3: And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Ge:4:4: And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Ge:4:5: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And ends with:
Ge:4:6: And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Ge:4:7: If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Ge:4:8: And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And has then a Godly Mystery and Drama for its moral conclusion:
Ge: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?
Ge:4:10: And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
I do not wish to dwell upon why God did not want vegetables with his meat, that’s probably obvious enough, nor even why God made Cain and agriculturalist and Abel a cattle herder and then was disappointed in Cain. I do not even want to explain why
God, Who Knoweth All, didn’t know where Abel was nor that a murder had been committed, but I simply want to give the background to:
Ge:11:3: And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
You will recognise this from the Godly origins of linguistics, now commonly known as
“The Episode At The Tower of Babel.” This revelation, in Biblical Science, is one of the great turning points of technology. I can be said that we now know the very day upon which God gave mankind
fire.
Yes, that’s right, up until
Ge:11:3, there had been no fire. Abel’s offering had been a raw dead sheep that he had trimmed the fat off and reverently placed in a bucket for the Lord.
Up until this point, mankind had eaten everything raw. To keep warm, he had to run around, even when he felt sick; to dry his clothes he must have thrown them over a bush and let the sun do its job and to protect himself from wild animals, his wife had to stay awake all night patrolling the cave entrance. To make bricks, he simply left them out in the sun.
Knowing that the Children of God would inherit The USA, and knowing that no matter how long you left mud outside in Alaska in December, it would never make a half-decent brick, God, in His Wisdom gave man fire the day before
Ge:11:13, which is why the people of Babel
“said one to another”. If they had known about fire before, they would have just have gotten on with the job, but, because it was a new thing, they discussed the new idea!
Once they had fire, men could go about looking for things to throw upon it, like sticks, twigs and heretics, and so our modern world was born of a Gift of God, the American Muscle Car.
But, to have a car, you have to have wheels...
As it is the Lord’s Day, you might like to read your Bible to discover when and why it was that God gives Man His second Gift:
the wheel.