There are two main groups of people identified in these scripture texts: the people of Israel, and “the nations.” The people of Israel were set apart by God to be his holy people and treasured possession. By entering into the Mosaic covenant, they received his blessings and the accompanying responsibilities.
Following the covenant made with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), and the dramatic rescue of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt in the exodus, God revealed another covenant. The Mosaic covenant was spoken to and through Moses to the people of Israel.
These passages contain the first recorded encounters between human beings and God outside the Garden of Eden. In chapter four, there are alternating accounts of human sin (4:3-5; 4:8-10; 4:23-24) and God’s actions of grace, judgment or justice, provision, and salvation (4:6-7; 4:11-15; 4:25).
God created one part of his creation in his image and full of his breath. Human beings were given the capacity to create, to make decisions, to think, to love, to have relationships, and have dominion over the rest of creation. This included the choice to obey or disobey God’s command to avoid eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Disobedience damaged God’s entire creation.
After creating them, God looked and saw that each part of creation was good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). As he looked at everything together as a whole, he saw “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Human beings were given the responsibility to tend, care for, and exercise dominion over the rest of creation, not to own or exploit.
