And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And . . . then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 3: 25, 26)
Able was the birthright son because he followed the teachings of his father and kept the Law of Sacrifice given to Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the garden. The Law stated that the first born male lamb without blemish was to be given to the Lord through a blood sacrifice. This was in the similitude of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was yet to come. It was designed to symbolically look forward to that pivotal event in the history of mankind.
Now Cain was the first born and by patriarchal order should have been the birthright son. Why was he not? The Bible tells us, but the Book of Moses fleshes it out so that it makes sense. And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold, Cain hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him? And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel. And Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And Cain loved Satan more than God. (Moses 5: 16-18)
If you just read the account from Genesis, you could be led to believe that God was unfair to Cain and should have accepted the fruit offering because Cain "meant well." But obedience to the Law of Sacrifice as it had been given required a lamb to represent the Lamb of God. Cain didn't "mean well." He loved Satan and it was Satan who told him to sacrifice grain as a blatant, in-your-face gesture before God. It was rebellion and disobedience, plain and simple. The Pearl of Great Price clarifies and expands our understanding of what happened.
After Abel's death, his parents mourned double - for their son who was dead and their son who was cast out from the presence of God for rebellion and murder. And Cain became Perdition and was joined with Satan.
When Seth was born, Eve was overjoyed. Adam, too, rejoiced because he had a birthright son to become the patriarch of Adam's family.
Modern-day revelation tells us even more about Seth and his righteousness.
From Adam to Seth, who was ordained by Adam at the age of sixty-nine years, and was blessed by him three years previous to his (Adam’s) death, and received the promise of God by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth; Because he (Seth) was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age. (Doctrine and Covenants 107: 42, 43, 51, 53)
Seth was a great patriarch after the example of his father. He was not just a place-holder in the generations of Adam to Noah, but the carrier of God's holy priesthood which he received by the laying on of his father, Adam's, hands.
And God revealed himself unto Seth, and he rebelled not, but offered an acceptable sacrifice, like unto his brother Abel. (Moses 6:3)
One of the blessings of the fathers was posterity. To that we must add priesthood: being God's people, choosing God first, and holding God's priesthood to administer the ordinances in faith and righteousness and obedience.
©Gebara Education 2016
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