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From: bts@unc.UUCP (Bruce Smith)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Pharaoh's Heart & Is G-D a Vegetarian?
Message-ID: <6533@unc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jan-84 23:49:23 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.6533
Posted: Mon Jan  9 23:49:23 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Jan-84 03:26:59 EST
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lines: 49

It seems we can't agree on whether G-D hardened Pharaoh's
heart, or whether Pharaoh hardened his own heart. (See
Exodus 11:9 for a motive for G-D's doing it.)  Personally, I
think it was Mr. Cholesterol who hardened Pharaoh's heart.
There's an earlier event, in Genesis, which it seems G-D
could have prevented if He'd only acted fairly.  I'd like to
hear any comments on this story.

The following is from Genesis 4:1-8, in the KJV:

     And Adam knew Eve his wife.  And she conceived and bore
Cain.  And she said, I have gotten a man from Jehovah.

     And again she bore his brother Abel.  And Abel was a
keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

     And as time went on, Cain brought to the LORD an offer-
ing of the fruit of the ground.

     And Abel also brought of the first-born of his flock
and of the fat of it.  And the LORD had respect to Abel and
to his offering,

     but He did not have respect to Cain and to his offer-
ing.  And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

     And the LORD said unto Cain, Why are you angry, and why
did your face fall?

     If you do well, shall you not be accepted?  And if you
do not do well, sin crouches at the door-- and its desire is
for you, and you shall rule over it.

     And Cain talked to his brother Abel.  And when they
were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and
killed him.

Why didn't G-D "have respect to Cain and to his offering"?
If He had, a murder might have been prevented.  Was it
because G-D's not a vegetarian?  (Doesn't it go along with
unc!tim's claims for Him to be a carnivore?)

There's a Randy Newman song which starts out with Cain murd-
ering Abel.  If anyone out there's got the words to that
song, they might be appropriate for the discussion, too.
_____________________________________
Bruce Smith, UNC-Chapel Hill
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