Cain and Abel #4

Q: What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

The Bible teaches that sin has severe consequences and will ultimately be discovered and punished by God. The narrative of Cain and Abel illustrates the frightening power of sin to master the sinner and transform him into a reflection of the devil. Cain's envy led to murder, and the subsequent judgment from God shows that sin is always punished. In Numbers 32:23, it states, 'Be sure your sin will find you out,' emphasizing that God sees all sin and will hold individuals accountable for their actions, just as He did with Cain when He confronted him about Abel's death. This passage also reveals that sin creates a haunting voice in one's conscience, as Cain's guilt followed him long after his crime.

Q: How do we know God's justice is true?

God's justice is evident in His responses to sin, as demonstrated through the consequences faced by Cain after murdering Abel. God's justice is validated through the story of Cain, who, after committing murder, faced God’s inquiry and indictment. God did not leave Cain unpunished; rather, He executed a timely judgment, proclaiming, 'Cursed art thou from the ground.' Despite exhibiting mercy by sparing Cain's life, God ensured that Cain experienced tangible consequences for his sin, as the ground would no longer yield its strength to him. This affirms that God's justice is not complacent; rather, it is both immediate and enduring, expounding the truth that all sin will ultimately be discovered and judged.

Q: Why is mercy important in the story of Cain and Abel?

Mercy is crucial as it highlights God's long-suffering nature even towards those who commit heinous sins. The account of Cain and Abel poignantly illustrates God's mercy, particularly in how He dealt with Cain after the murder of Abel. Instead of executing immediate capital punishment, God confronted Cain and sought to awaken his conscience. Even as He imposed consequences for Cain's actions, God showed mercy by allowing Cain to live and offering a form of protection against those who might seek to harm him. This illustrates that God's mercy is often extended even to the most brazen of sinners, allowing for repentance and redemption, a theme consistent throughout Scripture as seen in Romans 2:4, where Paul teaches that 'the goodness of God leads you to repentance.'

Q: What lessons can we learn from Cain's response to God's questioning?

Cain's response teaches us about the denial of sin and the human tendency to deflect responsibility. Cain's reaction to God's inquiry—'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?'—exemplifies the human inclination to deny guilt and shift accountability. Instead of acknowledging his sin, Cain lies and displays insolence, an attitude reflective of many who seek to escape the serious nature of their wrongdoing. This illustrates a critical lesson: sinners often seek to cover their sin and evade the personal responsibility that God calls them to acknowledge. In Proverbs 28:13, it affirms, 'He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.' Cain’s evasion shows that resisting to face sin results in further spiritual blindness and separation from God.

Q: Why is the concept of brotherly responsibility emphasized in Cain and Abel's story?

The story emphasizes that we are responsible for one another's well-being and should care for our brothers and sisters. Cain's act of murder and subsequent denial with the question, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' highlights a foundational concept of relational responsibility in the Christian faith. The tension between Cain and Abel reflects the broader biblical principle that believers are called to care for one another, whether it be emotional, spiritual, or physical well-being. 1 John 3:11-12 draws out the contrast between the actions of Cain and the expected behavior of God's children, urging they love one another rather than following Cain's example. The narrative thus serves as a solemn admonition to all believers regarding the weighty responsibility of love and care for fellow believers and the tragic consequences of neglecting this duty.

The following message was delivered
on Sunday evening, March 29, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. I urge you to turn with me in
your Bibles to the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, Genesis
chapter 4, and for the benefit of those
visiting with us, Tonight is the fourth in a series of studies
in the life of Cain and Abel, the first two children born of
our first parents, Adam and Eve. And tonight our attention will
be directed to the paragraph beginning at verse nine, immediately
following Cain's horrible, cold-blooded murder of his brother Abel, We
read in verse 9, And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel
thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? And
he, that is God, said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now Cursed art thou
from the ground which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive
and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. thou hast driven
me out this day from the face of the ground, and from thy face
shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in
the earth, and it will come to pass that whosoever findeth me
will slay me.' And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever
slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. and Jehovah appointed a sign
for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. These two men, Cain and Abel,
shared the same womb before they ever saw the light of day. They
were nursed at the very same breasts. They were nurtured by
the same loving, caring parents named Adam and Eve. They were both guided by the
same parental influences into their respective callings in
life, one to the task of a farmer and the other into the task of
a herdsman. Both were obviously given the
same religious instruction so that when they came to years,
we find them in the preceding paragraph with no explanation
offering sacrifices unto God as a matter of course, indicating
that they were now as grown adults simply reflecting the patterns
graciously imposed upon them by parental instruction and guidance. However, in spite of sharing
the same womb, nursing at the same breasts, being developed
under the same parental nurture. There was a universe of difference
between these two men. And the differences do not come
to the surface until they are old enough to express their own
deepest religious experience and perspectives. It is then,
and only then, when each brings his offering on his own to God,
that it is clear that God accepts the person and the offering of
Abel, chapter 4 and verse 4, and that God does not accept
the person and the offering of Cain. And this discriminating
response on the part of God sets in motion a series of attitudes
and actions which eventually produce what we called in our
previous study the first murderer and the first martyr. The firstborn
son of Adam and Eve becomes a cold-blooded murderer. the second born becomes
the first martyr who seals his faith with his own life's blood. And already in this early part
of chapter 4, the prophecy of chapter 3 and verse 15, that
two seeds would emerge from the human race, one whose alignments
would be with the serpent, and one whose alignments would be
with the seed of the woman. And here in these two first children
born of Adam and Eve, we find the seed of the serpent coming
to expression in the disposition and person and actions of Cain,
and the seed of the woman ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ coming
to expression in the person the disposition and the actions of
Abel. Now as we pick up our study tonight
at verse 9, the obvious key to the structure of this section
is found in the dialogue that is carried on between Jehovah
and Cain. Abel is now out of the picture.
He looks upon the face of Jesus. He is in the presence of the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. The first martyr
has gone into the presence of the Lord in whom he trusted and
has entered into the glorious face-to-face vision of the Redeemer
and of his Heavenly Father. And so it is only Cain who is
left here upon earth and the focus now falls upon God's dealings
with Cain. And as I say, the key to the
passage as to its structure is this dialogue between Jehovah
and Cain. To be more precise, we have two
couplets of that dialogue, God speaking to Cain and Cain's response,
a second couplet in which God addresses a second issue and
Cain's response, and then the passage closes in verse 15 with
God having the final word. I must confess I was tempted
to follow the track set out by Matthew Henry, who outlines this
section as a courtroom scene. He says we have Cain's arraignment,
Cain's plea, Cain's conviction, and Cain's punishment. And while
I say there's much that's attractive in that outline, I believe we
can be a bit more true to the actual structure of the text
if we consider it in the framework of these two couplets of dialogue
and God's final word. And if I were to give a title
to the sermon, it would be God's Day in Court with Cain the murderer. Notice then with me the first
couplet. We have Jehovah's interrogation
of Cain and then Cain's response to that interrogation. Jehovah's
interrogation of Cain, verse 9, And Jehovah said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? God takes the initiative here
as He did with Adam and Eve. He doesn't wait until Cain, under
the pressure of a terrorized conscience, cries out to God. But Jehovah comes to the murderer
Cain and he interrogates him. And the essence of his interrogation
is very simple and straightforward. God asks Cain to tell him where
his brother Abel is. Where is Abel? thy brother."
Now the essence of that interrogation is clear and so also is the purpose
of it. God's purpose in interrogating
Cain is not that God needs some information. For the scripture
tells us that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding
the evil and the good. And God's eye beheld the murder
that burned in the heart of Cain. God's eye beheld him speaking
to his brother as he brought him into the field. God beheld
him as he raised whatever the death weapon was. God beheld
Abel in the final death twitches. God saw his head brought God
saw the last signs of life expire. God saw Cain go back to some
place in secret, perhaps to wash his hands of his brother's blood.
God saw it all. And so the purpose of his interrogation
was not to give God information. but it was to awaken the conscience
of Cain to face realistically what he had done and the knowledge
that Almighty God was fully aware of every aspect of his deed. That was the purpose of God's
interrogation. It was calculated to bring Cain
to that first step in any sinner receiving the mercy of God. And
you know what that first step is? Looking your sin straight
in the face with Judgment Day honesty. Not a person in this
building tonight will ever know the mercy of God until you're
prepared to be honest about your sin. And that's why God's interrogation
simple and straightforward. Where is Abel, thy brother? Should have brought forth from
Cain the response, O Jehovah God, he lies dead in a field,
where I with these hands killed my own brother. O God, have mercy
upon me. When I saw the life go out of
him, I shook Him. I breathed into His mouth. I
spoke to Him. I pleaded with Him. But I could
not bring Him to life again. O God, I have taken away the
life of my brother. Have mercy upon me." God's interrogation
of Cain was calculated to awaken his conscience, to own his sins,
that he might feel his desperate need of the mercy of the living
God. But then, God's interrogation
is followed by Cain's response to that interrogation. That's
the last part of the first couplet, 9b. No sooner does God say, Where
is Abel thy brother? But Cain is ready with a very
flip answer, and he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper?"
Cain's response to God's interrogation is twofold. First of all, he
responded with a shameless lie. He said, I know not. Now that was nothing other than
a bald-faced, stinking, rotten, calculated, shameless lie. He had the audacity to think
that he could calm the all-seeing, all-knowing God of heaven and
earth, and he says, I don't know. Can you just see the look of
innocence? A bald-faced lie, a shameless lie, thereby now
manifesting he's a full-blown son of his father the devil.
For in John 8, 44, Jesus said to the Jewish leaders of His
day, Ye are of your father, the devil and the lust of your father,
it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and a bold knot in the truth. He is a liar and the father of
it. Two things He says about the
devil, he's a murderer and a liar. He had begun to reflect the image
of his spiritual father to whom he had aligned himself by his
sin when he murdered his brother Abel. Now the murderer becomes
the liar and fully reflects the image of his spiritual father,
the devil. So his response is first of all
a shameless lie, but then He responded with what I'm calling
brazen insolence. Insolence is bold disrespect. There's a kind of modest disrespect. That's the kind of disrespect
some of you show when people may pass you, particularly some
of you young people, and they say hello and you act like you
didn't hear. That's disrespect, but it's not insolence. But if
when someone passes you and says hello and you turn around and
go, That's insolence. That's bold, audacious disrespect. And notice the insolence in the
response of Cain. It's not enough that he should
lie. I know not. He then says, am
I my brother's keeper? And the way it's arranged in
the original places the emphasis on the concept of the keeper,
not so much on, am I my brother's keeper, but my brother's keeper
am I? I thought he was your pet, God.
You had respect unto him and to his offering. He's your pet. Certainly, you can take care
of your pet and your favorite, And you never came to me and
appointed me to be his full-time nanny. You see the insolence? He's saying, in essence, God,
why are you hassling me about the whereabouts of my brother?
He is none of my concern! The impudence to tell God! You've got no right to ask me
a question like this. It's not in my job description.
I'm a keeper of the ground. and my brother is a keeper of
the sheep, but I'm not the keeper of my brother. What are you hassling
me with such a question?" So in the first couplet we have
God's interrogation of Cain and Cain's response with an outright
lie and with brazen insolence. Now then we have the second couplet
And in that we have Jehovah's indictment and temporal punishment
of Cain for his sin, and then Cain's response to that punishment. All right, let's look at the
first part of the second couplet. Jehovah's indictment and punishment
of Cain, verses 10 to 12. And he said, that is Jehovah,
now not a question but an exclamation. What hast thou done? The voice
of thy brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. And
now cursed art thou from the ground, which hath opened its
mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou
tellest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt
thou be in the earth. First of all, we have Jehovah's
indictment, and then we have the temporal punishment imposed. The indictment is, what have
you done, Cain? Your brother's blood, literally,
your brother's blood, probably referring to the fact that it
was spilt and spattered blood, The many stains made on the tilled
earth are crying to Me from the very earth that has absorbed. And the imagery of its mouth
is used. Its mouth has opened to swallow
your brother's blood. And now it is crying to Me for
action. It is crying to me to intervene
on behalf of the brother whom you so callously and wantonly
and cold-heartedly have slain. King, while you may have hardened
your heart to your brother's cry for pity and mercy when you
first began to rain blows upon his head to kill him, to plunge
the knife into his bowels to kill him, You may have been deaf
to his cries for mercy, but I am not deaf to the eloquent cries
of his blood spilt at your hand. God indicts him as being guilty
of spilling innocent blood. And he tells them in the form
of the participle means that it was a persistent and a continuous
cry as though God's own rest in heaven was disturbed by the
voice of that blood crying up, crying up, crying up, crying
up until God comes down to silence its voice. So the indictment
that is brought down upon Cain is the indictment that God knows
full well what he has done. And what he has done is to slay
his brother, to spill innocent blood. And then God imposes,
and I want to make it plain, and this is why I've used the
word at this point, temporal punishments upon Cain. We'll look elsewhere at the close
of the message for the worst part of his punishment, but here
we have the temporal punishments that God imposes upon Cain. And notice, first of all, that
the object of the curse is Cain himself. Verse 11, And now cursed
art thou from the ground. If you're familiar with chapter
3, you'll remember that after the fall of our first parents,
God pronounced a curse upon the serpent, and he pronounced a
curse upon the ground for man's sake, but no curse was pronounced
upon Adam and Eve in their persons. But now, The curse comes down
directly upon the person of Abel, and now, cursed art thou. The curse will come upon Cain
himself in terms of various forms of temporal punishment. And while
God sovereignly dispenses with capital punishment and spares
the life of Cain, He sovereignly imposes specific difficulties
that will attend him all of his days. Notice what the source
of that difficulty will be. Cursed art thou literally away
from the ground which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's
blood. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive
and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth." You notice the
focused emphasis upon the ground? in conjunction with his temporal
punishment? And there are two basic words
used in this section of Genesis for the earth or for the ground,
one referring to the earth, Eretz, the general word for earth, and
the other for the till, the arable, the more fruitful land for production
for someone who, like Cain, was a farmer. And God is saying,
from the very source which is absorbed the blood of your innocent
brother, the arable land, that land which you have known to
be your friend as you tilled the land. as you nurtured your
various plants, and as you saw them bring forth, and from which
you even brought your offering to Me, cursed are you from that
very ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's
blood. And there will be two particular
things that the earth will not give to you, Cain. It will not
give to you the provision that it would ordinarily give nor
a place of settlement on which to live. There will be an intensified
unyieldingness in the earth. When you till the ground, it
shall not henceforth yield unto you its strength." Now, a curse
had already been pronounced upon the earth after man's fall. You
remember what God said to Adam in chapter 3? He said that the
earth is cursed because of you and this is what the result will
be. cursed for man's sake, because
of man's sin, God intensifies in the case of Cain and in a
way that is not revealed to us, that no matter what he did, No
matter how much fertilizer he put upon it, no matter how much
he cultivated and weeded and nurtured that soil, because it
absorbed the blood of his brother, it will hold a grudge against
him for the rest of his life. That's what God says. When you
kill the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto you its
strength. Oh yes, it will yield, but no
matter what you do, Cain, it'll be reluctant earth, because it's
earth you stained with the blood of your brother. And then the
second thing he says, that he would lead an abnormal nomadic
life. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt
thou be in the earth. Just as the earth will say, in
essence, I have a grudge against you, King, because you spill
your innocent brother's blood upon me, I will reluctantly yield
my fruit, but never, never to the full extent of my power.
And it's as though any place he would pitch his tent with
permanence said, I too hold a grudge against you, and I will not allow
you to remain long. upon that part of the earth where
you would like to dwell and carry out your preferred career of
being a farmer. And it's not without significance
that in the next part of this chapter, when the history of
Cain unfolds, the emphasis falls upon him being a builder of city. Very significant. The ground
opened up its mouth to swallow the blood of his brother, and
now that ground will be the very instrument of fulfilling the
temporal punishment of God for his sin, an intensified unyieldingness
and an abnormal nomadic life. Now in the last half of the couplet,
what is Cain's response to this pronounced punishment? Verses
13 and 14. And Cain said, You see now how the structure is
found in this dialogue? Jehovah says, Now Cain said unto
Jehovah, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou
hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground, and from
thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer
in the earth, and it will come to pass that whosoever findeth
me will slay me." From lying and from insolence, he now moves
to self-pity, despair, and paranoia. Notice first of all his cry of
self-pity. And for some of you who have
studied this passage, You are aware that there are alternate
translations. Some suggest, as the marginal
reading of the 1901, that Cain's response was not, my punishment
is greater than I can bear, but my iniquity is greater than that
which can be forgiven. And it was a cry of despair of
one who would feign be forgiven, but now he comes to the realization,
I've sinned too greatly. I've put myself beyond the pale
of the grace of God. And having examined the arguments
for that rendering, I feel that they are inconclusive and I'm
convinced that the context and the overall analogy of scripture
does not warrant that rendering at all, but rather the translation
as it is found in the 1901 does reflect what Cain said, My punishment
is greater than I can bear. It's nothing but the wail and
the whine of carnal self-pity. No cry after being indicted by
God given the temporal punishments of God. Oh God, I now see that
the earth should open its mouth and swallow my brother's innocent
blood was a horrible crime. Oh God, can there be pity in
your heart? Can there be forgiveness for
such as I who have slain my own brother? My sin! My sin! My sin, O God!" No. He says, my punishment is more
than I can bear. In other words, God, you're excessive
in bringing upon me such manifold temporal consequences for my
sin. It's interesting. He later on
indicates that his own conscience was telling him he should have
been killed for his sins. He said, anyone who finds me
will kill me. How did he know that? His own
conscience was accusing him. And here God tells him that he
is going to live and live out many years a fugitive and a wanderer
as you shall be in the earth. And instead of falling down saying,
O God, my conscience tells me you should kill me here on the
spot and yet you are going to spare me. O God of mercy, God
of grace, your punishment is lenient. But like every hardened sinner,
all he's concerned about is, God's given me more than I deserve. My punishment is greater than
I can bear. No concern about his sin. In
all of its ugliness before God, ugly in its essence, only concerned
about the consequences. Only concerned that he got caught
and God slapping his hand and he says, God, you slapped too
hard and you left a red mark on the back of my hand. He responds
with a cry of self-pity and then secondly with a complaint of
the specifics. He understood God well and now
he gives back to God. He's going to detail to God.
all the things God's done to him. And he says four things
in his complaint of the specifics. He says, I'm deprived of the
productive soil. Behold, thou hast driven me out
this day from the face of the adamah, the arable, the tilled
land. You're driving me away from the
place where I make my living, the place where I put bread on
my table. God, have you no heart? Don't
you know that I must eat?" And later on in the chapter when
it says, he knew his wife and bore a child and bore children,
the assumption seems to be that at this stage he was already
a married man. So he may in essence have been
saying, God, have you no pity for my wife and for my children?
Here you're telling me that the land is going to be unyielding
to me. God, have you no heart of compassion?
His self-pity merges into a complaint of the first specific, I'm deprived
of the productive soil. Secondly, I'm cut off from the
place of your special presence. Look at the text. Thou hast driven
me out this day from the face of the ground and from thy face
shall I be hid. Apparently there was still a
special presence of God outside of Eden where Adam and Eve had
been banished. For verse 16 says Cain went out
from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod
on the east of Eden. And he said it's not fair. Here's
a man whose heart is set against Jehovah and yet he's fearful
of being utterly cut off from every last remembrance of the
presence, the worship, the existence and the blessing of Jehovah. And he complains about it. And
thirdly, he says, I'll have no settled dwelling. I shall be
a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. I'll not have a place
to call my own if what you say is true. and I'm a man given
to farming and I need arable land and tillable land and productive
land and you've told me that no such land will be productive
to me, then I'll have to be a constant fugitive and wander trying to
find a place where I can eke out a living or eventually settle
and give up my career as a farmer and become something else. And
then fourthly, he says, I will be a man marked for death. Notice his language, and it will
come to pass that whosoever findeth me will slay me. Now where did
he get that notion? I say he got that notion from
the fact that it is written on the very conscience of man that
whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed.
And if you look at the chronology Verse 25 of this chapter, Adam
knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name
Seth. And how old was Adam when Seth
was born? Verse 3 of chapter 5, Adam lived
130 years, begat a son in his own likeness after his image,
and called his name Seth. So if Seth was born when Adam
was 130, We have reason to assume that Cain and Abel were born
in the time period when, in this genealogy, most people began
to bear children somewhere in the 60s. Who can tell? Who can
tell how many hundreds or thousands of the extended family of Adam
and Eve were already inhabiting the earth? And since the only
means of communication was word of mouth, and it was all one
extended family, we are, yes, but in a way that we cannot tie
together all the bands as they could, having such longevity,
and one generation after another being born, while the first generation
still lives, so that there could be accuracy of transmission of
fact. He said it will become known
throughout the whole earth what I've done. And I know that as
my conscience tells me, whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall
his blood be shed. So the conscience of everyone
who hears of my deed will tell him that I ought to be slain.
O God, whosoever finds me will slay me. I'll have to live in
the shadows. I'll never be able to show my
face in public. I'll be a fugitive and a wanderer
with no settled place of dwelling. I'll never be able safely to
go out and show my face in public. My brothers, my cousins, nephews,
and grandnephews, and all of the extended family will know
that I'm a marked man. Isn't it amazing how differently
he views his sin now? When God spoke to him as we saw
two weeks ago, when he came to him when his anger was burning
in his breast, and had not yet moved his hands to the deed of
murder and said to him, Cain, Cain, sin is couching at the
door. It's like a beast of prey. Its
desire is to consume you, but you need not let it consume you.
You, in my strength, may rule over it. And he welcomed it in
not as a beast of prey, but a little pussycat. Oh, has he found out
that God was not indulging in excessive rhetoric. God was not
indulging in scare tactics. God warned him that outside the
door of his heart was a beast of prey, not a pussycat. He let in the beast of prey,
and now he's reaping the fruit of his folly. Well, we've looked
at the first two couplets. God speaks. Cain responds. God speaks. Cain responds. And
now we look at Jehovah's final word to Cain in verse 15. And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore
whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah appointed a sign
for Cain lest any finding him should smite him." What is Jehovah's
final word to Cain? It's a word that comes, first
of all, in verbal expression, and then a word that comes in
an object lesson or a sign. First, there is a divine threat
with respect to the preservation of Cain's life. Cain is gripped
with this fear that whoever finds him will slay him, that they
will have more conscience than he had. They will not be so abandoned
as he was. And God puts a divine threat
to preserve Cain's life and says that he, Jehovah, is committed
to this principle that anyone who would slay Cain Vengeance
should be taken upon him sevenfold. That's a Hebraism that means
to the full extent. And that word became known because
later on, Lamech, that wicked descendant of Cain, says in verse
24, after slaying a man for wounding him and a young man for bruising
him, if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech, seventy
and sevenfold. So God makes it plain that this
Word is a Word that Cain is free to let people know, Jehovah who
indicted me, Jehovah who has cursed me and the ground because
of my sin. No matter what I do, it will
not yield as it yielded before this Jehovah who is keeping His
Word. So that no matter what I do to
the earth, it doesn't yield to the fool. And no matter where
I seek to settle, I must pack my tent and move on. This Jehovah
who means what he says has promised, if you take my life, he will
avenge you to the full measure. So God gives him a gracious word
of promise, saying that although your life will have its miseries,
your miserable life will yet be spared by a covenantal pledge
on the part of Jehovah that will protect him from any of the extended
family taking vengeance. And then God does a second thing
in His final word. He gives not only a divine threat
with respect to preserving Cain's life, but a divine sign to assure
Cain of the validity of that promise. And the rendering in
1901 is accurate. I was speaking to Pastor Lamar
before the service in looking up this word sign. I know of
no other place the Hebrew word oath Not our English word O-A-T-H,
but the Hebrew word pronounced in the Hebrew Oph, is a word
which only here is translated as in the authorized version,
a mark. Everywhere else, the word for
mark, as two or three other different Hebrew words are used in the
Old Testament, but this word is almost invariably translated
sign, and it means what we've come to know the word sign to
mean. For example, when Moses is commissioned
by the Lord at the burning bush, And he's told, go down and be
the deliverer of my people. And Moses said, well, how will
the people know that I'm your messenger? God says, you'll throw
down your rod and it will turn into a snake. This shall be a
sign, an oath, a sign. And you remember when God came
to Gideon. Thou mighty man of valor, the Lord is with thee.
You're going to deliver the Midianites. And he says, oh God, give me
a sign. And he puts out the fleece. That's
our word, sign. It's the word in the familiar
promise in Isaiah, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. The virgin
shall conceive and be with child and bring forth a son and thou
shalt call his name Immanuel. It's the standard word for some
supernatural act of God that has a divinely ordained significance,
either to validate a messenger of God, that's why apostles could
say, Paul could say, the signs of an apostle were wrought in
me. Signs and wonders were validations of the unique authority and position
of apostles and in some cases of the prophets. And God is saying
that Cain would either be given here a once for all supernatural
manifestation of God to seal to his heart the promise or that
wherever Cain would go, whenever anyone would seek to slay him,
God would grant a sign that would remind them, I mean what I threatened. Whoso slays Cain, I will vent
my vengeance sevenfold. There is nothing in the Hebrew
text to lead to the idea that God put a mark upon Cain, and
wherever he went, people saw him and went, oh, look at Cain.
Won't even get close enough to kill him. What a silly notion
has been built upon a poor translation from the original. What God does
is to encourage this wicked murderer that he will be faithful to his
own word to protect his life. That's what God does. That's
not a novel opinion of Albert N. Martin, but a Hebraist of
the stature of not our President George Bush, but a George Bush
of another age whose works have gone through reprinting because
of their worth, commenting on this, he writes, the Hebrew The
Lord appointed a sign to Cain. The original word employed, oath,
often signifies a sign, a token, or a memorial by which something
is confirmed or brought to remembrance. And then he quotes some of the
text I have quoted to you. As to its being a visible mark,
brand, or stigma affixed to the person of Cain, there is no ground
whatever for such an opinion." And then a more recent commentator,
Leupold, the Lutheran commentator, again, a man very much at home
in the structure and in the field for the Hebrew language rights,
Now when the question is raised wherein did this sign consist,
it's usually regarded as a mark set upon him. But this assumption
overlooks the fact that the text does not say God set a mark in
or on Cain. Rather, he caused a sign or pledge
or token for Cain. And then he gives the parallel
passages. God let this sign appear therefore
for Cain in order to reassure Cain. There is therefore no ground
for supposing that Cain went about as a marked man all the
rest of his life. Anyhow, the Hebrew word oath
never means mark. End of quote. Now why do I say
that? Well, for a number of reasons,
not the least of which, there was a time even in the Christian
church when people were so desperate to justify the oppression of
blacks that this was one of the texts they forced into service.
That the mark of Cain was the blackness of his skin. And one
of the reasons I say that is to show how desperate the human
heart will be to justify its own wickedness. No, this sign
was with respect to Cain himself in order to assure him that God
was not speaking empty words when he promised to preserve
him. Well, that's what the passage
teaches, to the best of my knowledge and the fruit of my labors, two
couplets of dialogue. God speaks, Cain responds. God speaks again, Cain responds,
and then God gives the last word. But now, what are we to learn
from this fascinating account of God's day in court with a
man called Cain? As I have wrestled with the burden
of the passage, there are so many dimensions of truth But
I want to limit it to three crucial areas as I conclude the message
tonight. What are the vital lessons of
this passage? And here I trust you'll gird
up the loins of your mind and listen with all the energy of
your soul. First of all, it contains some
crucial lessons concerning sin. Secondly, some crucial lessons
concerning an obstinate, unhumbled sinner. And some crucial lessons
concerning the mercy of God. to unworthy sinners. Crucial
lessons concerning sin. What are the passages, what are
the things this passage teaches us about sin? We live in a day
when people make a mock at sin and God calls them fools. When
the word sin has become the brunt of jest to poke fun at, quote,
fundamentalists who believe in moral absolutes. Well, what does
this passage teach us about sin? Well, the first thing it teaches
us is this, that sin has a frightening power to master the sinner and
to make him like the devil. Sin has a frightening power to
master the sinner and to make him like the devil. Eve held Cain in her arms. And she exclaimed, I have gotten
a child with the health of Jehovah. And she names him Dot, as we
saw when we dealt with their names. The Hebrew verb, I have
gotten, takes the language or the word structure of that verb
and makes a name and gives to her child this name, Pot, that
whenever she would look upon him, she would think of the goodness
of God in giving me this son. I have gotten a child with the
help of Jehovah. And now her firstborn that she
nurtured in her womb and nursed at her breast, dandled upon her
knee and trained and taught in conjunction with Adam and had
the delight of seeing him grow into manhood. Eve must now see
him exiled, banished, marked out by the curse of God upon
his person, a curse that would be seen in the unyielding earth,
in the unsettled nature of his life, and only God's constant
protection preserving him from dying violently at the hands
of others. How in God's name did he get
from that precious humble of life that brought forth this
exclamation, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah, to
where no doubt she wept herself to sleep many a night. I tell
you it's a picture of the frightening power of sin to master the sinner
until it makes him just like them. First of all, it was just
a little twinge of envy when he saw his brother's lifestyle
under the smile of God. Then the envy began to burn into
resentment when his brother's person and offering are somehow
by God attested as acceptable and his own rejected. And from
the little twinge of envy to burning envy and to resentment,
it says, it burned unto him until Cain is consumed with a burning
anger, an anger that moves his hands to slay his brother. But
that's all treatment to men. Now God enters the picture and
he lies, looking God straight in the eye. And then he's insolent
and says, God, what are you hassling me about my brother for? That's
not part of my job description. And then he's a vagabond and
a wanderer. How in God's name did it all
happen? It's when he thought he could
set limits upon sin. And God knows, as I sat at my
desk last Sunday, thinking I'd preach this Sunday night, and
as I've sat at my desk this week, and this afternoon, and early
this morning, and yesterday, and I look out and knew I would
be looking out in the faces, many of you children, who just
a few short years ago, your mothers also said, I have gotten a child,
a son, a daughter, with the help of Jehovah. Your mom and your
dad prayed you into conception, prayed for you while you were
nurtured in your mother's womb. No doubt your dad may have laid
hands upon your mother's swelling tummy and pleaded for that unborn
life, that early you would come to know that you were born with
a sinful nature, that you were born in connection with Adam,
condemned and lost, doomed and damned, and had the potential
to become a vile creature like Cain. and they watched you grow
and develop and they rejoiced and they laughed and they thanked
God. But tonight their hearts begin
to be full of fear because they see you as a young person in
your stupid, sinful folly, thinking you can set limits to your sin. You can say to sin, thus far,
no further. Enough sin to give me pleasure,
but not enough to bring me shame and grief and heartache and make
me a vagabond in the earth, make me one who lives with a tortured
conscience. But hear me, dear children, I
beg you, hear me. Sin is crouching at your door,
and it has one intention. That's to make a full-blown son
or daughter of the devil out of you. To make you into a murderer
and a liar, and the worst murderer of all, that of trampling underfoot
the blood of the Son of God! You don't believe it! You say,
I can say no to the overtures of the gospel. I can say no to
uprightness and honesty. And I can set limits. No, you
can't. Cain couldn't. And he had no
bad companions. He had no television. He had
no wicked society. He had no hell music blaring
in his ears. He had none of the helps you
have to make you a full-blown son or daughter of the devil.
And yet he became Oh, dear children, in God's name,
I beg you, I plead with you. Earn the lesson of Cain and Abel.
Sin has a frightening power to master the sinner until it makes
him just like the devil. And there's only one person who
can protect you from its power, and that's the Lord Jesus. If
you get to Jesus and give yourself to Jesus and be wrapped up in
Jesus, the Scripture says, he that is born of God overcomes
the evil one. The evil one, the devil, touches
him not. Not that he does not tempt, but
he cannot touch so as to possess and make us into his image bearers. when Christ is ours and we are
His, and He is making us into His image. But then there's a
second crucial lesson about sin in this story, and it is this,
that sin will certainly be discovered and punished by God. Sin will
certainly be discovered and punished by God. God says in Numbers 32,
23, Be sure your sin will find you out. Could words be more
simple? Be sure. Want to be sure of something? It's a little word that used
to be used. You come up to someone, make small talk. What do you
know for sure? I'll tell you what I know for sure. Be sure
your sin will find you out. Have you ever wondered what Cain
thought When out in the field he saw his brother Abel in the
twitches of death, and his head dropped to his side, and he died
with his eyes open, there was the blank stare, and he may have
pushed down his lids instinctively, but he must have felt like and
wondered, Will lightning strike me? There's no lightning. Will Almighty God send an angel
of vengeance with a fiery sword and cut off my head? And he looks,
sees no angel, he says, well, no thunder, no lightning, no
angel, maybe the earth will open up and swallow me. And he begins
to walk and the earth doesn't open up and swallow him. I wonder
if God let him go a few days. The indication seems to be he
was back at home. Some commentators suggest it
may have even been the return of another end of the days when
it was time to bring sacrifices. And he may have even been in
the act of bringing some more of the fruit of the ground. And
God says, how come you're alone this time and not with your brother?
Maybe he had begun to think, no lightning? No angel with a
flaming sword? No earth opening up its bowels
to swallow me? Why, Maybe my conscience is playing
tricks on me. But a moment came when the voice
of God pierced his ear, saying, Cain, where is Abel, your brother? And Cain's lies and Cain's cheekiness
didn't fool God. He said, I know what you've done.
Cain, be sure your sin will find you out. And once God tells him,
I found it out! I'm marking it! I'm punishing
it! Cursed are you from the ground! God was saying, as He said to
Adam and Eve, in the day that thou eatest dying, thou shalt
die. God is saying, be sure your sin
will find you out. My friend, young or old, I care
not what the sin is. I care not how long and how cleverly
you have covered it. God may allow it to be covered
till the day of judgment, but found out it shall be. For Jesus
said, the things that are done in secret shall be spoken from
the housetops. There is nothing covered that
shall not be revealed, and nothing hid that shall not be made known. Yes, that quarter you stole from
your mother's wallet. That five dollar bill you took
from your dad's wallet. Yes, That magazine that you sneaked
into your bedroom? Yes, those lies that were told
and the incident has long been forgotten in the home. Be sure
your sin will find you out. That planned meeting with that
young man where you turned your bodies into a playground and
nobody knows? The eye of God beheld your uncleanness. Be sure your sin will find you
out. That's the lesson of this passage.
God comes as the inquisitor. God comes as the interrogator. God comes as the representative
of the district attorney's office. Sin will be discovered and punished. The third great lesson concerning
sin in this passage is this, sin will always become a haunting
voice in the chambers of your own conscience. Sin will always
become a haunting voice in the chambers of your own conscience. This is why in complaining about
his lot, He puts as the apex of his concern in verse 14, it'll
come to pass, whoever finds me will slay me. As we've already
indicated, where did he get that notion? He got it from the thunderings
of conscience in the chambers of his own breast. And I tell
you, the most horrible companion next to the devil is a haunting,
accusing, I don't care what quote fun you
have in sin, you know as I know, the worm that eats away its pleasure
after the sin is committed is that haunting, nagging voice
of conscience in the deep chambers of the soul. That voice that
your headset and your Walkman and your rock music can't drown. Because there comes a time when
the batteries wear down and you've got to change the tape, and in
those few moments of silence, conscience speaks. Conscience
speaks. The lie, the stealing, the cheating,
The illicit sexual contact between someone of the opposite sex with
whom you're not married is stepping over the bounds of Christian
propriety, not fleeing fornication, but playing with it, toying with
it. Conscience thunders long after
the nerve endings have died down. And conscience thunders. Cain found it out. He could leave
his brother's body in the field. He couldn't leave his conscience
in the field. He carried his conscience back to his house. He carried it to his bed. He
carried it to the field. And he'll carry it right on to
the day of judgment, and he'll carry it into hell where that
will be the worm that dies not and part of the fire that's never
quenched. Now do you see why the Bible
says fools make a market sin? All this we learn about sin from
one little paragraph. A frightening power to master
the sinner and make him like the devil. It will certainly
be discovered and punished by God, and it will always become
a haunting voice in the chambers of your conscience, but very
quickly now, Two crucial lessons concerning an obstinate, unhumbled
sinner, because that's exactly what Cain is here. He is an obstinate,
unhumbled sinner. And in that, he becomes the paradigm. He becomes the model of every
unhumbled, obstinate sinner. Two things. It will always seek
to deny the reality of his sin. An unhumbled, Obstinate sinner
will always seek to deny the reality of his sin. Where is
your brother? I don't know, you liar. You do know. Do you think he really had actually
just about convinced himself? It's amazing what the human mind
can do when it tries to block out reality. And the mark of
an obstinate, unhumbled sinner is that he covers his sin with
shifting and rationalizing and denial and lying and a host of
other things. But here is the Word of God.
He that covers his sin shall not prosper. He that covers his
sin shall not prosper. God will have to vacate His throne
before any obstinate, unhumbled sinner will ever prosper while
he still denies the reality of his sin. The second mark of an
unhumbled obstinate sinner is he'll complain about the temple
results of his sin, but never be concerned about the sin itself.
My punishments more than I can bear. Boo hoo. Pity me. My parents,
they're cruel. They told me I can't do this
because I broke some of their silly rules. I'm grounded for
three weeks. My punishment's more than I can
bear." All they're trying to do is to keep you from becoming
a slut and a whore and a lecher and a whoremonger. And you're whining because they grounded
you, because you broke some of the reasonable rules that are
trying to hedge you up to a life of purity. You want so bad! You want so bad! to become a
slave of your lust that you're always carrying on a pity party
when you get with your peers even in this church and in the
hallways of this church. And you know adults aren't listening
to you. You're grousing. But why in the world do you have
to be in this place? Why in the world do I have to have parents
that don't want me to go to hell? Got to take me to church and
hear preaching and all this other stuff. My punishment's more than
I can bear. Oh, dear young person, it's a
terrible thing To see a man probably a hundred years old, maybe older,
an obstinate heart and a sinner, but I tell you it scares the
liver out of me when I see it in some of you teenagers. It
scares me. You've been brought up with such
light. Some of you have heard more gospel in one year than
some of us heard in two decades growing up. And I fear that God
may make some of you monuments of his righteous judgment to
let someone become so hardened before he sees his 20th birthday
that you become an irrecoverable, hardened, obstinate, stubborn
sinner who may as well be in hell. What a horrible picture. But that's the picture of Cain.
That's why Jude says, they've gone the way of Cain. It's a pattern of denial, self-pity,
resentment of God's gracious interventions. But then finally,
and thank God that the Gospel is found everywhere in the Bible,
there are not only crucial lessons concerning sin, crucial lessons
concerning an obstinate, unhumbled sinner, but crucial lessons about
the mercy of God to sinners. And here are two of them. He
is often long-suffering and patient to the most brazen of sinners.
He is often long-suffering and patient to the most brazen of
sinners. Think of it. In cold blood, he
rose up and slew his brother. God could have justly slain him
on the spot. God could have told Adam and
Eve, your firstborn has been a murderer who so sheds man's
blood. By man should his blood be shed.
In my name, go out and slay your son as an act of capital punishment
to vindicate my justice and to underscore the sanctity of human
life. But he didn't do that. He comes
to Cain to talk to him, to awaken his conscience, to get him to
own his guilt. And instead of seeing the overtures
of God's mercy, he stuffs a lie in God's face and then sticks
his tongue out at God. And what does God do? He doesn't
strike him dead. He just imposes some temporal
punishments. There's not a word here about
any spiritual punishment. He imposed some temporal punishments,
which in themselves should have been constant, pressured reminders
of the mercy of God. when he would go to work the
earth and it wouldn't yield to the fool. He should remember
this is because I sewed my brother. But though he's dead, I'm still
alive. God didn't slay me. What a good
God. And though it doesn't yield to
the fool, I'm not starving to death. I'm able to provide for
my wife and my family. He sends his rain on just and
unjust. What a merciful God Jehovah is. God speaks and says, no, I'll
allow no one to slay you. I'll extend your life for lengths
of days. You'll have the joy of parenthood
and the joy of seeing your children and grandchildren. What a marvelous
picture of the long suffering and patience of God to the most
brazen of sinners. The scripture tells us account
that the long suffering of God is salvation. That's what Peter
says. Paul says in Romans 2, do you
despise the goodness and the forbearance of God? Not knowing that the goodness
of God leads you to repentance. Oh, dear children, young people,
adults, who've heard the overtures of God's mercy times without
number. Aren't you a living monument
of God's long suffering and patience to the most brazen of sinners? What a gracious God our God is. And then the second thing we
learn about His mercy is that He often comes in the overtures
of mercy to sinners while they neither seek it nor desire it. He often comes in the overtures
of mercy to sinners while they neither seek it nor desire it.
This whole passage begins with God taking the initiative. No
indication that Cain was seeking out Jehovah with a conscience
screaming and a heart broken, but God comes to him when he
least expected it. And all my prayer tonight was,
O God, As men and women come to this service, some of them
unconverted, some of them determined that they will not, they have
no intention this night that they will allow the Word to get
to them and the Gospel to get to them and the arms of Christ
stretched out to embrace them. My prayer has been, O God, come! in the overtures of mercy to
sinners when they least desire it, and seek it, and arrest them,
and surprise them, and send them home saved when they came here
determined to go home lost. Oh, that God would do that tonight,
because in the gospel He stretches out His hands to you, children,
young people, teenagers, adults, whatever your pattern of obstinacy
and stubbornness has been. And you came here tonight neither
desiring nor seeking salvation. This God comes saying, I'm the
God who promised that there would be a seed of the woman who would
crush the head of the serpent. And though one of Adam and Eve's
son. Their firstborn becomes a full-blown
son of the devil. Remember, though Abel's out of
the picture here, he's very much in the picture up there. And the overtures of God's mercy
in the case of Abel were embraced. And he saw and owned himself
to be a sinner. And he owned and embraced the
mercy of God promised to Eve and the promised seed. And the
Scripture says that as a man of faith he offered his sacrifice,
and as a man of faith he became a righteous and a godly man,
1 John 3.12. But now, if after all of that
you say, well, there goes Pastor Martin thumping and hollering
and trying to get to me, but I got through it again. I want
to close tonight by telling you where Cain is now. Turn to the
book of Jude. This is our last text. He complained
that he was going to be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.
He has a far worse wandering now. Jude, the last book before
the book of the Revelation. Verse 11, Woe unto them, for
they went in the way of Cain and ran riotously in the air
of Balaam for hire and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Here
he focuses upon formalism in the case of Cain, covetousness
in the case of Balaam, rebellion to constituted authority in the
case of Korah. these are they who are hidden
rocks in your love feast when they feast with you shepherds
that feed fear feed without fear feed themselves clouds without
water carried along by winds autumn trees without fruit twice
dead plucked up by the roots wild waves of the sea foaming
out their own shame now here's the phrase wandering star for
whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. Cain
in his self-pity said, My punishment's more than I can bear. I'm going
to be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. My friends, that
was child's play. He's now a fugitive and a wanderer
from the presence of wandering like a black star across the
trackless spaces of outer darkness. He complained, I am driven away
from the ground, driven away from your face. I'll be a wanderer
and a fugitive in the earth. He's now a wanderer and a fugitive
from the face of God forever. and he'll be a wandering star
in the blackness of darkness forever. God help you if you
choose to be Cain's companion in the vast universe of wandering
stars forever in darkness. If you join him, these hands
are clean of your blood. You won't point your finger to
me in the day of judgment and say, Pastor, you didn't kill
it like it is. But I don't want just to have
clean hands. I want to have full hands and
bring you with me to glory. Go to Christ. Go now. Leave the monster that crouches
at the door. Run to the gracious Savior. who
says, Him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. Let us pray. Our Father, what can we say before
the weighty truths of your word? We feel that our own frail humanity
cannot hold them much less speak them as they ought to be spoken.
Take, we pray, the efforts of your servant, and honor your
word. O God, may we not have spent
our strength in vain, but may this night many flee to the Lord
Jesus, leave the society and the companionship of Cain, join
the ranks of Abel the righteous. Oh Lord, hear our cry for Jesus'
sake. Amen.

Cain and Abel #4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

How do we know God's justice is true?

Why is mercy important in the story of Cain and Abel?

What lessons can we learn from Cain's response to God's questioning?

Why is the concept of brotherly responsibility emphasized in Cain and Abel's story?

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About Albert N. Martin

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Cain and Abel #4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about sin and its consequences?

How do we know God's justice is true?

Why is mercy important in the story of Cain and Abel?

What lessons can we learn from Cain's response to God's questioning?

Why is the concept of brotherly responsibility emphasized in Cain and Abel's story?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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