Agriculture - Abel’s Occupation

It has been suggested to me that agriculture was a manifestation or form of Babylon (the false or religious system of things). I will reply.

We all come from dust and feed from it. The carnal man eats the dust, crawling on it. Agriculture is the means of providing us with earthly food, clothing and shelter. It all began with agriculture...Adam and Eve tended a garden; Cain and Abel were farmers.

Hear this: Cain was in idolatry of agriculture. How do I know? He was offended when his agricultural offering was rejected. He placed too much emphasis on the value of his offering. “Why,” he thought, “should anything so good be rejected? Is it not good enough even for God?”

So what did Cain do? Angered by the rejection of his idol, he did not repent of his idolatry and ultimately left the presence of God. Appearing to leave his idol behind, he took it with him in the negative. Why? Idolatry is self-serving and Cain was serving himself. He despised honest, wholesome, God-ordained labor, saying, “There is no profit in it,” and became a vagrant. That is what the word “Nod,” the name of the land to which he went, means - vagrancy. And there, it says, “he built a city.” Is it not primarily in the cities that we find vagrancy? Do not vagrants seek out cities and certainly not farms where the work is from dawn to dusk and the pay does not compare to that of almost any other occupation?

It seems ironic that cities resulted from idolatry of agriculture rather than farms. Wouldn’t one think that farming would be the logical outcome of idolatry? Idolatry, however, serves the idolater and not the idol. How many would choose the farm life as the means to serve themselves? Do they not soon find out the hard way that this particular idol is not worth worshipping? Sometimes they find out too late and are stuck where they are.

In Cain’s idolatry of agriculture, in his rejection of honesty and reality, in his false religious spirit, he left the farm and went to the city, a place of security outside of God, a gathering of men...Babylon...false religion, adulteration of truth and spiritual principle, seeking something for nothing, seeking security in something other than God, his works being rejected of God. Is agriculture Babylon? No, agriculture is good, God-ordained and required, the basis for natural life on earth where the Lord God put man to labor. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Abel remained a farmer. He was righteous. Is the farm a manifestation of Babylon? No. Earthly cities can be, though not all living in a city are in idolatry. There are many kinds of idols and fruits thereof. I defend farming to encourage some not to fear farming as though it was idolatry in itself.

False religion is Babylon. Cain’s religion was false and in that falsehood, he left the presence of God. Did he farm? No, he built a city.

But what does Isaiah say?:

“Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! In My ears, said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant” (Isaiah 5:8-9).

Is this not an admonition against a repeat of the Tower of Babel, looking for security, provision, self-sufficiency, “to be placed alone in the midst of the earth,” to prevent being scattered by clustering? This can mean city or farm...take the Hutterite colonies for instance...are they not “cities”? Is this not what denominations are all about? Are not tares “bundled,” only to be burned?

And what of the saints who gathered for fellowship in Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost? I do not blame them or criticize them, but were they not scattered through persecution under the sovereignty of God? Does not water live only when it flows as in a river and not when it sits as a stagnant slough?

As a child I recall some of our farmer neighbors in rags and hardships with us, then leaving the farm and discovering “the easy life” in which they rejoiced and reveled. They now had certain and bigger pay checks, fewer working hours, and less risk. They didn’t have to worry about sick cows, getting the hay off, depending on fickle weather, and being tied to the farm seven days a week.

They now had time for leisure, sports, and entertainment. They had opportunity for exposure and participation in so many more activities, events and people. If they went into self employment, even if risky, they had opportunity and potential for much more than they could ever dream of as farmers. And they were no longer despised as “stinky, ignorant farmers,” poor (relatively speaking), and “out of touch with the world.”

We must fear God and repent of being in any kind of idolatry, be it of agriculture or non-agriculture.

Today, it is said, is the “Age of Information.” “If you have information, you have the power for all you need.” Great works are built up seemingly independent of agriculture. Cain and his seed promise that one is well rewarded, at least temporarily and in certain ways, by abandoning the farm for the city. Cain is still building cities and, to do so, needs inhabitants. Where do they come from? They either come from other cities or, ideally, from the country.

Why ideally from the country? For two reasons:

1) All cities are Cain’s and it is not productive to rob one to pay another.
2) Cain is in rebellion to God and would seek all to leave His presence and join him. “Misery loves company.”

Again, I am not saying that all those living in cities are idolaters, or of Babylon, or that all those living on farms are in the presence or favor of God. It is all in the motive and deliberation within.

Men are religious because they serve mammon. At the core of false religion is money or self serving. That is the spirit of Cain, and he has many followers and supporters. Case in point: After becoming the Prime Minister of Great Britain, I am told that Tony Blair directed people to leave farming, move to the city, take on other occupations, as with high technology, and let others produce the food.

The Farmer vs. the Warrior

The world has put in place laws to diminish and impoverish the farmer and to reward the warrior. Why do I say that the warrior is the counter to the farmer? Because like it or not, one ultimately gets his physical living from the farm. We cannot eat newspapers and microchips, or clothe ourselves with computers and TV sets, or house ourselves in guns and bullets. We need land; we need clothing, shelter and food - all from agriculture, from the soil. We can either attain these things honestly, or take them from the hard-working, honest ones. International acts and laws have been instituted to do the latter. Consider the Farm Act of 1949, where members of the American Farm Economic Association determined to do away with parity amongst farmers and, pushing for unregulated free trade, established Industrial Agriculture (which has led to commercial farms, feedlots, the Cargills and ConAgras, at the expense of the small, independent family farm). The farmer vs. the warrior.

This is the scene of the back alley thug who knocks someone on the head and takes his wallet, though this kind of thief is far more subtle and common. For examples: Why do farmers have to pay so much for machinery? Why do they have to buy commercial feeds, fertilizers and chemicals? Why must they have computers, electronics, specialty tools and equipment? Why must they deal in “genetically advanced” breeds of livestock, many of which are dependent on still other schemes of Cain? Why must they be subjected to certified seed, hybrid seed, and suppliers like Monsanto that prosper in supplying them with that which they could and should produce themselves or do without? Why are there more and more laws laid on farmers to regulate almost everything they not only do but even say or think, with costly compliance and costly penalties if they don’t comply? How is it that if a farmer sells one glass of milk to even a friend or neighbor, he could lose his whole dairy herd or even his farm, when milk is relatively harmless, and healthier raw than processed? Meanwhile, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, pornography and so many other products that are proven killers are openly and legally marketed with great profit and impunity.

Why do fat wheat boards, bloodsucking unions, and parasitic experts complicate matters, and devise and invent still other ways to bleed the farmer? Why are farmers in grave danger, above almost any other occupation, from the machinations and schemes of the ungodly corporations who destroy the earth with chemicals, genetic engineering, systems and equipment, who promise gains but only take them? On every level, the subtle, self-serving Cain continues to slay the simple, laboring, and giving Abel.

I recently saw a farm go bankrupt, having to sell off land to a commercial feeder to whom the farmer owed for feed. Profits were promised and profits came, not to the one promised but to the one promising.

One day, I saw I needed venting in my garage. “Get a whirlybird vent” is the typical solution. Fifty dollars and a hole in the roof. Suddenly an idea struck me. In the same time it would take to install a potentially troublesome and expensive commercial vent, I took little trouble to remove eaves boards, and screen the hole. There is the escape for hot air. Cost? Zero.

So then Cain comes along and says, “You’re selfish! Buying a vent provides employment.” He wants us to support his retreat from the presence of God, his lust for quicker, easier money, and his city-building enterprises. Let the Abels also provide him with food or beware; he will kill them in a jealous, guilty rage. The Cains are stealing, killing and destroying the Abels all over the earth. The bankers, financial consultants, professionals, lawyers, realtors, computer analysts, entertainers, and others who make big bucks live leisurely city lives on the backs of the poor and laboring farmers. The Cains hold the gold and their golden rule is, “He that holds the gold, makes the rules, and rules.” (Don’t get me wrong...I am not against bankers and lawyers per se, but what does each do and why? Are they unwitting participants of a system from which they must repent and be delivered, even as was Matthew the tax collector?)

I have news of hope for the future. This whole scene is about to change historically, all over the world. The Lord is finished with the tyranny and rule of man, governing himself for himself. The age of corruption under the headship of Babylon is complete and now is the Day of the Lord wherein is the governing of His Kingdom in justice, truth, mercy and righteousness.

If we turn to the Lord, He will bring us back into His presence; He will open our eyes, teach us wisdom, and take us back to the basics of life wherein, first of all, we worship Him, not Babylon or agriculture, not delivery from Babylon or agriculture, and not even delivery from worship of Babylon or agriculture. No one will find security or sufficiency in any other thing but God. He will then rebuke the devourer and deliver us from the destroyer, the waster, the seed of Cain, the merchandisers who have taught us to depend upon them for so many things. He will take us back to basics, restore us, and give us a pure and holy God-sufficiency, not self-sufficiency - and each of us will “sit under his fig tree” in peace and prosperity. Then will they say, “The Lord has done great things for us.”

Indeed, with our coming full circle and returning to the simple basics of life, as it was in the beginning, recognizing the earthly portion of our sustenance, its value and place, it would seem in appearance to the carnal mind that we are in worship of agriculture, but it is not so. We have been redeemed and have acknowledged and joyfully accepted the rightful place of all things in the Lord God Who created these things, all well and good, for our sakes and His.

The initial turning back to basics and to the soil, as it was in the beginning, will be accompanied with the shedding of blood, our blood, and one will see RED everywhere. At first one must look the fool, even as Noah did as he built the huge ark nowhere near water. The Lord always calls for faith and makes one to look like a fool or even as evil, but the appearance will be justified in the end. ORANGE is coming to cover the earth. First did the blood flow RED; then comes the reward, the GOLD, the vindication from God. Mix the two together and one gets ORANGE. ORANGE is a happy, prosperous end awaiting all those who persevere.

Praise the Lord!

Victor Hafichuk