Recall the story of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's children (Genesis 4:1-26). Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. When they sacrificed their offerings to God, the LORD clearly favored Abel's sacrifice. While we may understand Cain's emotional distress in response to being blatantly shunned from God's favor (Genesis 4:4-5), we must note that he was unusually enraged with jealousy and murdered his own brother (Genesis 4:8).
I ask for a couple reasons. One is the obvious. Cain was the farmer and so his sacrifice would have been thing like barley, olives, lentils, and onions. God loves the smell of a roasting meat, not a salad burning (Leviticus 1:9; 1:13; 2:9; 3:16; Numbers 15:7; 15:10; 29:36,
etc). Just because He does not eat doesn't mean He doesn't appreciate the smell of a good BBQ. Does that mean Cain was a homer? Not necessarily. I don't personally know any farmers who are homers, and certainly none who are vegetarian. But consider the following.
Soon after this story in the Holy Bible, as we get through Moses' miraculous adventures in the desert, we see a measurement of agriculture called, interestingly enough, the "homer."
And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof:
an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
Leviticus 27:16
And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails:
he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
Numbers 11:32
Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
Isaiah 5:10
The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer:
the measure thereof shall be after the homer.
This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:
Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:
Ezekiel 45:11; 13-14
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
Hosea 3:2
So naturally I wonder, was the agricultural measurement "homer" named after the first farmer, Cain? And if so, was it because he himself was a homer? Is that why the Holy Spirit never recorded his "adventures" in Genesis?
I can't help but think that literally billions of siblings all throughout history would admit to jealousy in some way, for one reason or another. Cain's jealousy however, was a perverted type of envy, a strong temper that could not be appeased by anything less than murder. While billions of people throughout history find themselves physically attracted to others at one time or another, only homosexuals have a perverted type of attraction, a strong obsession that can not be appeased by anything less than vigorous, aggressive, anal thrusting upon members of their own sex.
Cain slaying Abel
Peter Paul Rubens (1608-1609)
By the time God confronted Cain, his soul was so defiled by his sin that he couldn't help but to dismiss any wrongdoing, to absolve himself of any guilt (Genesis 4:9). Homosexuals likewise are so sin-hardened that they absolve themselves of any guilt, opting instead to emotionally manipulate society until their pride is accepted in public. Homers, like Cain, believe their actions are not only understandable but even justified, such is the perversion of their logic.
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, reminds Christians of the LORD's wrath against those who dare walk away from Him, including the very angels He invented in Heaven at the beginning of time (Jude 1:6), including the Jews He personally freed from Egypt after letting them suffer in slavery to build character for 400 years first (Jude 1:5), including the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 1:7),
including Cain (Jude 1:11). Coincidence?
When Eve convinced Adam to eat the fruit (Genesis 3:6), she had no idea the horrors that awaited mankind. She could not know the extent of the poison and corruption her action would have, the infection of sin humanity would suffer until the second coming of Christ. She was ignorant of the grandiose measure with which perversions, brutalities, ignorance, and general moral baseness she would be responsible for unleashing. I wonder if she felt guilt at having corrupted her own child. I wonder if she felt the kind of utter shame any decent God-fearing Christian today feels when confronted with their child's confession of homosexuality. In any case, surely she mourned for the toll sin took on her family, not unlike Christians mourn for their homosexual children.
The First Mourning
Bouguereau (1888)