And Cain said to the Lord,
“My punishment is greater than
I can bear! (Genesis
4:13 NKJV)
Most of us have heard that Cain slew
Abel, but what were the events in the life of this son of Adam that brought him
to these unbearable circumstances?
Cain’s Folly
Cain was a tiller of the ground and
Abel was a keeper of the flocks. Both
gave sacrifices to the Lord. The Lord
accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s.
And the Lord respected Abel and
his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering (Genesis
4:4b-5a NKJV). One of the pitfalls of the Christian faith is having an
outward religion while being devoid of an inward reality. God did not accept or reject them just based
on the type of offering they each made. There
was a difference in the characters of those sacrificing. Cain was a wicked man and his offering was a
vain sacrifice. Abel was a righteous man (Matthew 23:35) and found favor before
God. Therefore, due to the character of
the two, there was a difference in their offerings. Abel made his gift by faith. By
faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain (Hebrews
11:4). They differed in the motive for
their actions. Abel gave his sacrifice
with an eye on receiving mercy and grace for one who did not deserve it. Cain’s offering spoke of his own ability to
merit God’s favor. One gift pleaded for
God’s help and the other portrayed one’s self-sufficiency.
Cain became angry at the distinction God made
between his sacrifice and Abel’s. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance
fell (Genesis 4:5b NKJV). Cain should have been angry with himself for his
own indiscretions. The commentator, Matthew Henry, says in relation to this
incident; “It is a certain sign of an unhumbled heart to quarrel with those
rebukes which we have by our own sin brought on ourselves.” Anger and finger pointing are evidence of our
own guilt. And so is envy. Those who are not fit to be honored by God
are always tempted to be jealous of those who are. This is the reason some form of persecution always
accompanies a righteous life. Envy seems
to be a sin with it’s own punishment. A sound heart is life to the body. But envy
is rottenness to the bones (Proverbs 14:30 NKJV).
God Reasons With Cain
When
we start down that slippery slope of sin we can be assured that at some point a
loving God always tries to intervene. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you
angry? And why has your countenance fallen (v. 6)? God tries to convince Cain of his sin and
the error of his ways by giving him insight about the source of his anger. But understanding to be transformative must
be embraced. There are none so blind as
those who won’t see. God continues and
lays out life and blessing and death and a curse. (v. 7) If
you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at
the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over
it.” If Cain would have come to his
senses and taken responsibility for his thoughts and actions, he would have received
the same honor God had bestowed on his brother.
God is just, as he does not practice favoritism.
Cain’s answer came in his actions. Now
Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the
field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him (v.8). Whatever
attitudes we allow to remain in our hearts will always surface in the actions
of our hands and feet.
Cain Pleads Not Guilty
Once
again we see God throwing Cain a lifeline. Then
the Lord said to Cain, “Where is
Abel your brother?” (Genesis 4:9a NKJV).
God was extending to Cain an opportunity to admit his crime and reverse the
downward spiral of his life. Things come
to us that may appear to be a judgment or accusation when in reality they are
God’s invitations to embrace His mercy. Cain’s
response must have broken the heart of a pursuing God. When asked about the whereabouts of Abel,
Cain replied, “I do not know. Am I my
brother’s keeper? (v. 9b) As
commentators have suggested, he covered a deliberate murder with a deliberate
lie. Trying to deceive God showed a lack
of understanding of the character of God.
He (God) is omniscient as He sees and thus knows all things. Lying to Him is an exercise in futility.
Furthermore, we see no remorse in
Cain for his actions or for the loss of his brother. “Am I my brother’s
keeper?” If Cain’s conscience had not been seared, it must have been close to
it. God has nothing left to do but to squarely confront him with “What have you
done” (v. 10a). God is merciful and longsuffering and longs for us to humble
ourselves, but if we refuse he allows us to humiliate ourselves.
You Reap What You Sow
Cain
bemoans his punishment. Surely You have driven me out this day from
the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive
and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me” (Genesis 4:14
NKJV). It is interesting to note that
although Cain mentions the consequences for his sin, he makes no reference to
his sin. He dwells on what his actions
have cost him, but he is strangely silent about what it cost Abel, not to
mention rejecting the God who has consistently tried to bring about his highest
good. It seems to be all about him at
the expense of others and God.
Cain started to serve his
sentence. Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land
of Nod on the east of Eden (v. 16).
Nod means exile, wandering, or unrest.
Cain is banished to a sterile land that will not respond to his efforts
as tiller of the ground. He is bereft of
his calling. He dwells in a land without
any hope or goodness, as God is absent.
Unrest ferments in his spirit. For
when we reject God and his reasonable requirements, we have no rest for our
souls.
God seems to give a bit of a
reprieve. And the Lord set a mark on
Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him (v. 15b). But was it really amnesty? Cain has a constant reminder for the rest of
his life to himself and all who pass by that this is the man that killed his
brother. And the crowning tragedy is
that he realizes that it did not have to be.
Some punishments can be worse than death.
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
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