The Birth of Violence

I don’t think our world is particularly more violent than in ages past. I think we are entering a new era of barbarism, where violence is more commonplace, but it is not any more or less violent than other eras, such as the Roman Empire or the Middle Ages. We hear more about violence each day, due to the instant information we have at our disposal, and that leads to the misconception of more violence.  Because of technology, we can create violence with more casualities in less time, but when you consider the death toll during the Civil War or the Viking invasion of the late 900's AD, the violence is fairly similar and the suffering caused by it is identical. We have lived with violence in our midst since very near to the beginning of time.

Genesis 4:1-16
"Adam lay with 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." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?""I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" 10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." 13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." 15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden." 

In the early chapters of Genesis, we have the origins of many significant characteristics of human civilization: agriculture, clothing, shepherding, childbirth, and violence. Why did Cain kill his brother Abel? The implication is that he was jealous of the favor shown to Abel after they presented offerings to the Lord. Abel brought the best of what he had, while Cain just brought some of what he had. Anger led to hatred, and hatred led to the first murder committed. The Lord warned Cain ahead of time that sin was crouching at his door, desiring to have him. Instead Cain became the slave instead of the master, forever cursed to walk ground closed up to his efforts.

The point here is that it didn’t take long, perhaps 15-20 years, from the Fall of Adam and Eve to the first murder. And the time between that murder and next would be shorter, and the next one shorter, until over the course of time there were murders being committed simultaneously all over the world. Today there must be hundreds of individual people murdered every hour around the world, and who knows how many thousands die every day, from bombs, gas attacks, robberies, etc., in groups of two or more.

Violence has been with us since the beginning. Violence will remain as a part of human civilization until its end. But violence has a soft underbelly, and that is where its downfall was determined. The death of another innocent Man, put to death with extraordinary violence, changed the course of human violence from never ending cycle to something that will end in justice for those who have been wronged.