May 24, 2026 (Pentecost Sunday):

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Adam made love to his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.‘ Seth also had a son and named him Enosh. It was at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 4.25-26)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

The story of Cain (who killed Abel, his brother, because he couldn’t understand why sin offerings were less preferable to thanksgiving offerings) and Seth (the third son of Adam and Eve whom she declared was God’s replacement for the loss of Abel is actually the means of speaking of generational consequences: curses and blessings. There is no use in playing the blame game as we see is prevalent in the Genesis story. The burden of responsibility falls on the individual to “repent and go in the God direction.”

Adam blamed Eve instead of confessing “God, I messed up. This is all on me.” Instead, Adam went further and in blaming Eve, blamed God for giving him such a woman (Who, if we remember, was created out of Adam. So, Adam had no one to truly blame but himself.)

Eve blamed the Serpent for the deception. She confessed the apple looked good for eating and denied it was actually for anything else. She might as well have blamed Adam for being weak and not stepping in to stop her when in fact she knew the duty and the consequence for disobedience. At that point, she might as well have blamed God for the whole situation.

Cain blamed God for not accepting the work of his hand as an acceptable offering. He blamed God for favoritism of Abel over him when it came to what would be called in the last verse of chapter 4, “calling on the name of the Lord.” It is that verse, 4.26, that separates one line from the other. They would live alongside each other and continue to do so today. One line of Adam and Eve that travels through Cain throughout history is presented as one which does not “call on the name of the Lord.” It is a curious phrase considering that not until Moses do we actually learn God’s name. So it seems obvious to me that what the phrase meant had nothing to do with a moniker, a personal name. It had to do with an orientation of living day by day. If the descendants of Seth, some with shared name similarities to those of Cain, were the first to “call upon the name of the Lord,” then it would indicate that they gave authority and recognition to the “God of their salvation.” He was the God who spared Adam and Eve and redeemed them from the curse of eternal day and separation from the God who was their creator. And while God did not stop Cain from murdering his brother Abel, we are safe to assume that because Abel’s offering was acceptable to God, God provided salvation to Abel as He did with Enoch. Enoch, who was descended from Seth, walked with God 365 years and then God took him to be with him always and never tasted death. This would give us a sense of a generational blessing to overcome the curse of disobedience. Even Cain received the mark of protection from God that came with a curse on any who would seek to kill him. His death could have been at the hands of his brother’s family seeking revenge. It could have come from someone hearing of Cain’s reputation. Let the gunslingers of the Old West, there was always one who thought they were better and wanted to prove it. It could have been simply a person who just was bad and self-centered and was as uncaring about God and goodness and His Word that he just killed him. Was this the case for Lamech who recognized the generational curse was now upon him and future generations?

Today is Pentecost! No one will probably relate the stories of Genesis 3 and 4 to what happened fifty days after Jesus was raised from the grave and the dead. On Pentecost, offerings were brought forward to commemorate the future harvest. The priest would sacrifice a lamb and secure the blessing of God for all those in and of Israel. The city was filled with nearly as many people as on the Day of Passover. The Temple courtyard was filled with hope for a great harvest that would sustain them all for another year. They would take the state of the harvest as a sign of their spiritual blessing. They would come to “call upon the name of the Lord.” The question now that Jesus had come and had been resurrected as Christ and Messiah, God’s only begotten Son, which Lord would they call upon? One who served them or one they would serve. Jesus had shown the direction saying “I have come not to be served but to serve.” His message was about His orientation to God and fulfilling God’s will. It wasn’t really about God becoming a servant except to love the whole world. It was about Jesus demonstrating for the whole world the value of serving others in the name of the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim! Pentecost became then the sign of a new day, a new life, the first born reborn (as Seth had been given by God to replace Abel), the first fruits. The mark of protection was on the heart of those who chose to be God’s people. Sadly the mark on Cain did not protect him. He was killed by Lamech. His descendants did not “call on the name of the Lord” but advanced themselves in industrialism, the technology of the day and the things that could have been used for God’s glory and the advancement of society were used to create an enmity between people seeking to satisfy their own longing and to make of themselves a great nation without God. The Church cannot fall into the same trap as Cain who misunderstood the value of “the blood of the Lamb.”

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.