OLD TESTAMENT STORIES

Adam and Eve.

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth He also made the sun, moon, and stars; trees, flowers, and all vegetable life; and all animals, birds, fishes, and insects.  Then God made man.  The name of the first man was Adam, and the first woman was Eve.  Both were placed in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden, where they might have been happy continually had they not sinned.  But God forbade them to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Satan tempted Eve to take the fruit of this tree.  She ate, and gave to Adam, and he ate also.  Thus they sinned, and sin came into the world.

Then God called to Adam and said, “Where art thou?” Before this, Adam and Eve had been happy when God was near, now they were afraid.  Why?  Because they knew they had done wrong.  So sin makes us afraid of God.

God rebuked them for the evil they had done; and then drove them out of the Garden of Eden, placing an angel to keep watch over the gate so that they could not return.

CAIN AND ABEL.

What a sad story the Bible tells us in the fourth chapter of Genesis!  Cain and Abel were brothers, the sons of Adam and Eve.  How they should have loved each other!  Yet we find that Cain killed Abel.  Why did he do this?

Cain was a husbandman, who tilled the ground; Abel was a shepherd, who kept sheep.  One day each offered a sacrifice to God.  Cain brought fruit, and Abel brought a lamb.  God accepted Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.  Why?  Well, I am not quite sure, but I think it was because Abel offered his sacrifice according as God had commanded, and had faith in a promised Saviour; but Cain simply acknowledged God’s goodness in giving him the fruits of the earth.  God had probably told them, too, that when they came to worship Him, they were to bring a lamb or a kid as a sacrifice for their sins; this Abel had done, but Cain had not.  Cain was angry because God had accepted Abel’s offering and not his; and he hated his brother Abel.

God knew the evil thought Cain had towards his brother, and asked him, “Why art thou wroth?” and said, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” But Cain did still more wickedly.  When out in the field he killed his brother.  Was it not a cruel deed?  They were alone when this murder was committed, yet one eye saw it all.  God saw it, and said to Cain:  “Where is Abel, thy brother?” We cannot sin without God knowing it!  Cain told God a lie.  He answered, “I know not.”  But he did know.  God was angry with Cain for his sin, and sent him as a fugitive and vagabond to wander on the earth.

[Illustration:  Abel’s sacrifice.]

THE FLOOD.

About fifteen hundred years had passed since Cain slew Abel, during which time man had become more and more wicked.  At length 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.”  Then God said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.”