The Battle Between Two Brothers, cont...

Genesis 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?  

Hebrews 13:1  Let brotherly love continue.

From the beginning of the spread of humanity family feuds have played a role in the path that humanity has taken.  It began to grow when Cain slew his Brother, and blossomed when brothers and sisters began to fight over the family estates.  The legacy of a Civil Rights leader who dedicated his life to peaceful dissent and brotherly love, has been tossed 'under the bus' as family members fight in court for the right to sell his legacy.      In todays modern society, families have been torn apart because someone looked in a pot on the stove, or churches split because of the color of the carpet installed in the sanctuary.  The bases of dissent are usually founded upon what one perceives of reality and not what is real.  

The bases of Cain’s dissent were a false perception  of the events as pertaining to the offering of the sacrifice to God.  The fault resided with Cain and it was the result of his attitude and his failure to accept the Word of God.  In reality it was God whom Cain was wroth with, but he took his anger out on his brother.  Genesis 4:6-7  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? 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.  Genesis 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. 

False perceptions have tainted family histories down through the ages.  God asked Cain two questions and provided the answer.  If he had carefully listened to the questions and answers, he would have known the basis of his dissent. The problem was not with Abel, the problem was within himself.  False perceptions occur when we refuse to look within our self and see our own faults.  Because of false perceptions, family members often see things through a tainted lens, and they often see things not as they really are.
 As in the case of Joseph this false perception is contagious and spreads from family member to those outside of the family .  Often family members are convicted of infractions that they are not even guilty of committing.   Joseph told his brothers of a dream and immediately he was convicted of thinking he was more than the rest of his siblings.  This false perception was brought on by the belief that Joseph’s  father was showing favoritism.  Once this idea in ingrained in the physic of the family, there in nothing that can be done by the parent of the child to refute or eradicate this perception.  Every act or deed are viewed through a tainted lens.

It was Cain’s belief that God was showing favoritism as pertaining to the brothers and this angered him.  It could be augured and it is well within the prerogative of God to show favoritism to the younger son.  Sound reasoning indicates that the older son ideology was that of a ruler, whereas the younger son was that of a servant.   It was always the attributes of a servant that God was looking for when he established his leaders.  Luke attempted to express Jesus’s concept of the Father’s ideology when he said; Luke 13:30  And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.  It was and is the custom of humanity to look to the oldest as being the heir and ruler of the father’s inheartance.  That in itself is reason enough for God to choose the youngest over the oldest son. 

As in the case of Isaac and Ishmael as a blood feud erupted over who was entitled to the birthright. Genesis 25:5  And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.  There is something inherently sinister about two brother’s at odds with each other.  This is a technique perfected in the ancient days and is carried over into the present age.  Mothers and fathers will spend their entire lives struggling to have something to pass on to their children, only to find out in the end that it is all for naught.   

As the condition in the Middle East intensifies, the battle between the two brothers continue to spin out of control, many mainstream Christian churches has divested themselves of the spiritual  connection they have with the brethren of Christ.   Hebrew and Christian theology, the same as Islam has reinterpreted the scripture and they foolishly claim the blessing of Abraham for themselves.  The Jews, Christ brethrens have been denied their proper place and eradication is at the forefront of many churches and nation's agenda.  1 Corinthians 10:32  Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.  There is much about this scripture that we don’t want to understand.

The spread of Islam began when, around 613 CE, the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570 – 632 CE) began to share the revelation which God (Allah) had, according to Muslims, started to give to him three years previously. During the rest of his life, the Muslim community was established in Arabia. The expansion of the Arab Empire in the years following Muhammad's death led to the creation of caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area and conversion to Islam was boosted by missionary activities, particularly those of the Sufis, who easily intermingled with the local populace to propagate the religious teachings. 

A caliphate is an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader, and it has existed in one form or another for most of the 1,400-year history of Islam. These early caliphates, coupled with Muslim economics and trading and the later expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in Islam's spread outwards from Mecca towards both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the creation of the Muslim world. Military conquest, trade and commerce played important roles in the spread of Islam in several parts of the world, notably Southeast Asia

The start of Islam could be marked in the year 610, following the first revelation to the prophet Muhammad at the age of 40. Muhammad and his followers spread the teachings of Islam throughout the Arabian peninsula.  The objective of his teaching was to unite the descendants of Ishmael under one religious banner.  Prior to the conception of Islam the descendants of Ishmael served many different gods.  The Islamic prophet Muhammad united the twelve tribes under one God, the God of Abraham, the same as the Hebrew religion. 

Both religions claimed to be the heir to the blessings of Abraham and are looking for the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.  The difference between the two religions is the difference in the interpretation of the Old Testament scriptures.  Both religions, Hebrew and Islam, refuse to accept the New Testament as the door to the reconciliation of the brothers.  The New Testament establishes a new entity whereby the Jews and the Gentiles could become one body called the church.

The church was established as a spiritual body, and if it exists as a spiritual body, then its blessings and  or benefits must be of the same nature.  The Gentiles are a group of nations that exists because Sarah and Abraham  took matters into their own hand, rather than trusting in God.  Man’s fall from grace took place because Adam and Eve chose to follow the inclinations of their own heart, rather than believing in God.   The Devil has taken all of the necessary steps to insure that the organized church is corrupted through a process call deliberate confusion.

There is the question that comes into play when we think about Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah or even Ishmael and Issac.  The answer to this question is of the utmost importance when it comes to understanding the will of God and the will of man.   To suppress the knowledge of God, we are taught not to ask God questions, yet many of the men of old engaged God in conversations and asked God questions.  To further complicate the ideology of a powerful God, we are taught that God is controlling every aspect of human endeavor.  After God set forth his plan in the Garden of Eden, when Adam was about to disobey, why didn’t God speak and tell Adam, “Don’t do that?”