Signs and Wonders (3 page)

“And you, Adam, first of your kind, you listened to your wife and ignored the word of your God. For this I sentence you to hard labor all the days of your life. You shall leave this garden, where everything grows without toil, and go to a place where the earth is dry, where only thorns and thistles grow. There in that cursed place little rain will fall. You shall water the earth with sweat and tears to grow a little food. And when you die, and die you must, you shall return to the earth. For of dust you were made, and to dust you shall return. Do you understand?”

They were weeping and could not speak.

“You understand,” said God. “You have eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and its fruit is bitter. You must go now. Leave this garden and go where you will.”

So God drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. And to keep them from coming back he set an angel at the gate of Eden. This angel had four wings and four faces. His wings were made of brass, and his faces were those of lion, ox, man, and eagle. In his hand he held a flaming sword, which no one could pass.

A
DAM AND EVE WENT
to live in another place. It was a dry stony place, where they toiled together, digging rocks out of the ground. When night came they fell into an exhausted sleep.

Adam prayed to God to forgive his disobedience and allow him to return to Eden. God answered, “You lost the Eden I had prepared for you. Now, if you wish another, you will have to make it for yourself.”

Adam said to Eve: “By the God who made us, I shall not despair! His answer means that our heavy toil will bear fruit at last.”

But now Eve could not help Adam because she faced a labor of her own. She was about to bear a child. Adam had to toil alone in the held, prying out rocks and breaking the ground so that it could take seed. He had to dip pails of water from a tiny stream and bear the pails back on a yoke across his shoulders to water the earth he had planted with seed. For in that place little rain fell.

Eve spoke to God secretly in her own fashion: “I know that it is too soon for you to forgive me. But, Lord God, hear my prayer. You have condemned me to bear my child in pain. And I can endure such pain without complaint, but in your mercy allow me to live to see my child.”

God answered her with a secret sign, and she labored her child in suffering, and bore a son. And Adam and Eve knew the first joy they had known since leaving Eden, and named their son Cain. His hair was red; his brows were tufts of fire.

He grew into a tall, strong boy, level-eyed and unsmiling, who followed his father everywhere and did as his father did. Soon he was a great help to Adam in the work of the field. He wanted to help in the heavy work of prying rocks out of the ground and digging up stumps, but he was too young. He grieved so at not being able to help that Adam gave him the task of bearing water and chopping weeds. And Cain was content.

Then Eve bore a second son, whom they named Abel. This boy she kept close. He was a beautiful child. His cheeks were red, and his hair was dark, and his eyes brown as a lamb’s. His voice was soft, and he was gentle in all his ways.

This second son, Abel, did not follow his father into the fields. His mother had given him a lamb as a pet, and he became skillful with sheep. He kept flocks of fat sheep, grazing them on the hillside. He sheared their wool and gave it to Eve to make clothes for the family.

Now Cain had grown into the full strength of his manhood. He was a mighty farmer, and his crops flourished. In the joy of a rich harvest he built an altar to the Lord and offered Him the first fruits.

Each morning he visited the altar to see if God had taken the offering, but the fruit lay there withered and dry. Cain saw that his offering had not pleased God, and he did not know why.

Then Abel raised an altar and offered the firstborn of his flock. Before his wondering eyes the wood burst into flame and the lamb was consumed. Abel rejoiced. And Adam and Eve rejoiced in the favor that had been shown him.

But Cain took fire. A murderous rage burned in his heart.

God said: “Why are you angry? Do you question my will? If I refuse your offering it is because I am not pleased, and you must study how to do better. And beware! If you close your heart to my will, you will be opening your heart to Satan, who squats always beyond the door. Put aside your pride, Cain, and heed not that fatal whisper.”

Cain’s wrath was not cooled. He said to Abel: “Let us walk in the fields.”

They walked in the fields. Abel spoke of this and that, but Cain said nothing.

“You are silent, brother,” said Abel.

Cain did not answer, but strode across the darkening field holding Abel tightly by the arm. The sun was falling, sending out shafts of light that were like spear shafts dripping with blood.

“Where are we going?” said Abel.

“Into the hills.”

“Why must we go so far?”

“I have a heavy matter to impart. I do not wish to be near where we dwell.”

“Brother, I am weary.”

Cain did not answer, but strode up the slope of the hill toward the sun, which was bloodying the whole western part of the sky.

“Brother, you look so strange. I am afraid.”

Cain said nothing. He tightened his grasp on Abel and strode up the hill.

“I am weary,” said Abel. “I go no farther.”

Cain turned on him and said: “Why did the Lord God refuse my offering and take yours?”

“I do not know.”

“I know,” said Cain. “And the knowledge is sore. You are a thief, born to steal whatever I have.”

“No,” whispered Abel.

“Yes! Oh, yes. I was happy until you came. I dug the fields with my father, and the earth prospered under my care. No one harmed me, and I harmed no one. But then, cursed day, you were born, and everything changed. For you immediately began to steal. First you stole my mother’s love, then my father’s. And now you have robbed me of God’s favor—all in the same soft, false way and with that lying smile. Now I must punish you.”

“Cain, stop! Do not raise your hand against your brother.”

But Cain had seized Abel by the throat and held a rock raised over his head.

“Cain, forgive me. I did not mean to steal their love. I mean you no harm. I love you. You are my only brother.”

“I hate you. You are my only brother and my only enemy. You must die.”

Abel fell to his knees, sobbing. But Cain had no mercy. He smashed the rock down on Abel’s hands, which were covering his head. The hands slid away, and Cain smashed the rock down again and again on the bowed head, until it was a mush of blood and bone. Then he took up rocks and covered Abel with them so that he could not be seen. Only a rim of the sun clung to the edge of the sky now. Cain reached his bloody hands to the bloody light and laughed a wild, bitter laugh. Far off across the valley he heard the lost voices of Abel’s sheep. Then suddenly he was afraid.

God came down and said: “Where is Abel?”

“I do not know,” said Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

God said: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood calls out to me from the ground.”

Under God’s glance the rocks fell away, revealing the broken body of Abel.

“You have murdered your brother,” said God. “You have dared to take life from him whom I have given life. Now the earth itself shall curse you, because you have made it drink your brother’s blood. From now on that earth will be barren to your touch. You will till it and water it and plant it with seed, but it will not bear for you because you have blighted it with your brother’s blood. You shall leave this place. A fugitive and wanderer you shall be till the end of time.”

Cain said: “My punishment is more than I can bear. You drive me from your sight and from my home. I must go among strangers, who will kill me.”

“No,” said God. “Your death belongs to me. Whoever kills you will be punished with seven deaths.”

Then God branded Cain’s forehead with the letter M, meaning “murderer,” also meaning “mine,” so that all men would know that Cain was reserved for God’s vengeance, and they would not kill him.

Cain traveled eastward. It was a terrible journey. The sun beat down on him. When he sought shade against rock or tree, the shade shrank away from him and he had no shelter from the burning sun. He was too thirsty to eat, and when he tried to drink the water shrank away from his lips. He was about to die, but God was not ready to accept his death. God clouded the sun and allowed a little rain to fall so that Cain might drink, and He allowed Cain to pick some fruit to eat.

Cain traveled to a land named Nod, which means “home of the wanderer,” and there found a wife and fathered sons—who became fathers themselves. One became the father of all those who live in tents and raise cattle. Another became the first to play the harp and fathered all who play the harp and the pipes. A third, named Tubal-cain, became the first man to work in metal. He invented the forge, the sickle, and the plow, and became the father of blacksmiths. Cain lived to be very old, but the bloody sign never faded from his forehead, and he never saw Adam and Eve again.

H
UNDREDS OF YEARS
passed. Men multiplied upon the earth, but they had learned nothing from the curse put upon Cain. For they still killed their brothers and other men’s brothers—and sisters and mothers and children. They robbed and murdered and did all manner of wicked things.

God grew very angry. “This race of man offends me,” He said. “Their thoughts are evil, their deeds are evil, and I am sorry I ever put such creatures upon earth. So I will wipe them from the earth. I will wash them off with a cleansing flood of waters. Not one man shall be left, nor beast nor fowl that have breathed the air that man has corrupted. Yes, even the memory of a man’s false and filthy habits will I wash away.”

Now, in the midst of all this wickedness lived a man named Noah, who was gentle and kind and tried to raise his three sons to be good men.

God saw how Noah was living, and spoke to him: “You will see the end of all flesh. I have decided to blot man from the earth, for he is too violent and corrupt to live. But your life I will spare, Noah, and the lives of your wife and your sons and their wives.”

“Thank you, Lord,” said Noah.

“You must build an ark—a boat of cypress wood,” said God, “the largest one ever built. It must be three stories high and as big as six of your houses put together—big enough to hold every kind of animal and bird, two of each. You shall take aboard, also, two of each creeping thing, such as snakes and crocodiles. You must stock enough food to feed your family and all the animals, for the beasts will not be permitted to eat one another, and your voyage through the waters of wrath will last almost a year. Work ceaselessly, you and your sons, for even now I am preparing my flood.”

Noah did exactly what God told him. He and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, went to work building the ark. They worked night and day, stopping only for a little food and a little sleep, for they saw the black clouds rolling across the face of the sky and they knew that the terrible rain was soon to fall. Nor did they stop work to answer their neighbors, who came to jeer at them.

“You have gone mad!” they said to Noah. “Why are you building so huge a vessel so far from the sea? How will you launch it?”

“Perhaps the waters will come to us,” said Noah. “Perhaps you should be building boats, too.” But he kept working even as he said this. And the neighbors laughed and jeered and paid no heed to his warning.

Finally, the ark was finished. And it was built exactly as God had instructed—an enormous three-story houseboat, 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. A door big enough to admit the largest animal was cut into its side, and there were windows to see through. And the seams were caulked with pitch inside and outside.

When the ark was finished, Noah and his sons and their wives worked harder than ever, loading the cargo space with sacks of flour and dried meat and dried fish and great cheeses, with sacks of apples and oranges and figs, and with jars of honey.

Then God appeared to Noah and said: “You are a good man. Carefully have you prepared the ark of your salvation. It will keep you afloat when I drown the wicked. Now you have just seven days before I break the fountains of the deep and hurl the tides of my vengeance upon this earth. Herd together the animals, as I have commanded you, and gather the birds of air. Bring them into your ark two by two, then get aboard with all your family. In seven days the rains shall fall.”

Seven days and seven nights Noah and the sons of Noah and their wives worked, eating as they worked, and sleeping not at all. But by the end of the seven days they had herded together the beasts of earth and gathered all the fowl of air, and marched them two by two—male and female of each kind—up the gangway and through the great door of the ark. God had given the animals a special wit for the occasion, so they did not flee their herders and did not attack them, but allowed themselves to be led tamely into the ark. Even the wildest beasts—even lion and tiger, gigantic elephant, and deadly grinning crocodile.

Then, at the end of seven days, when all the animals were aboard, Shem, Ham, and Japheth boarded the ark with their mother and their wives. When all were aboard, Noah took one last look at his home and his garden and his orchard, then walked slowly up the gangway and slid shut the great door.

His neighbors, who had watched the parade of animals with amazement, now fell into a terrible rage as they watched Noah climb into the ark.

“That’s right, madman,” they screamed. “Lock yourself into your stinking zoo. But don’t try to come out, or we’ll kill you!”

The sight of what they did not understand made their wickedness more wicked. But they did not have much time to think about Noah, for on that day the rain began to fall.

It was no ordinary rain. It did not fall in drops, but in thick foaming ropes like a waterfall—as if a mighty hand had lifted an ocean out of its bed and flung it down toward earth. And that is what was happening, for God had kept his promise and broken up the fountains of the deep and was hurling their great waters through the windows of heaven.