Truth To Wonder: conversation for christ

The murder of Abel by his brother Cain, reveals a great deal about the exceeding wicked nature of the heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Cain’s clearly unrepentant manner is on full display in this passage, as the Lord comes to Cain with a question. God of course knows what has taken place, but He moves in the same manner as He had done with Cain’s father Adam in Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3, the Lord calls out to Adam as to where he is hiding. Secondly, as to how Adam had become aware that he was naked. In both instances, God knows what Adam and Cain had done. Yet He moves with meekness that grants an opportunity to both Adam and later Cain. That opportunity being the chance to admit to their sin and seek the Lord’s forgiveness. Yet on both counts, both Adam and Cain try and either pass the blame on for their sin, or simply refuse to acknowledge that their wicked deed was a crime. This is human nature in action, exceedingly wicked and deceitful from the earliest days of mankind. 

After Cain’s dismissive response to the questioning by God, the Lord’s anger is kindled. Firstly, because the blood of a righteous man had been shed. Secondly, the coldness of heart and numbness of conscience that refuses to see the hideous nature of the evil deed it has committed against God. It is this open defiance by the fallen heart against the Lord God that enrages Him. Such a heart takes the meekness of God, and throws it back in His face. This is done with an arrogant nature that declares that the self has judged the matter differently to God, and that God is in the wrong in His judgement. This is the same murderous nature as Satan, the father of such unrepentant sinners, he who was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).

Cain shows no remorse for his murderous evil, as he is clearly happy to continue with life with the lightness of a seared conscience. Now that Abel is silent, Cain shows his complete disregard for the severity and depravity of his actions. Out of sight, out of mind. Yet God sees all, and God hears all, and so the blood of Abel cries out to Him (Genesis 4:10), and so the Lord moves in just judgement against Cain for his great sin.

Interestingly, God’s punishment is not death for Cain, even though he had killed Abel in cold blood. God’s judgement is wise and profound, one that will speak of both His mercy and His justice throughout all the generations of mankind. Firstly, what Cain had taken pride in, his farming skill and plentiful harvests, was to be stripped of him. From a position of prominence, he would now be a beggar in all the world. No longer would he know the goodness of God, instead he would have to rely on his own skill and strength to survive, living as a fugitive and vagabond. God gave Cain what he wanted, separation from Him. 

Herein is the mercy of God. This mercy has been afforded to countless billions who have desired the same thing, to be separate from God. So, God, with a heavy heart, gives them all exactly what they seek, separation from the caring eye of His blessed face forever. Instead, they will know only His wrath as they dwell eternally in Hell.  

On hearing this judgement, suddenly the reality of his actions smashes into the mind and heart of Cain. Just a few words before, Cain was still arrogant, proud and remorseless in his sin. Yet now, Cain becomes a quivering wreck of a man. In Genesis 4:13, we see the deeply selfish nature of humanity. We see how true the Lord’s Word is when we read that “no man ever yet hateth his own flesh; but nouriseth it and cherisheth it” (Ephesians 5:29). Cain’s sole consideration as God’s judgement is passed, is the welfare and safety of his own skin. Still, there is no dawning on his blackened heart of the immense evil he has committed against God. This is highlighted further by how Cain’s 65 words spoken in response to God in this interaction, 8 of them are either ‘I’ or ‘me’. His heart is still firmly leaning in his understanding of the situation (something Solomon strongly warns against! In Proverbs 3:5), and has no inclination to understand why God has judged him so or how he might obtain the forgiveness of the Lord.

Cain’s seeming sense of guilt then, is the self-fuelled ‘sinners guilt’. This is the brief heaviness of heart and guilt that befalls a sinner when they are caught in the act of sin. Their pain is not a deep heart conviction of the filth of their sins before a thrice holy God. Instead, it is a realisation that their actions will now be punished and their immediate, worldly, fleshly situation will be hit. This is often mistaken as remorse and even repentance, however it is nothing of the sort. David shows us the nature of repentance, when in Psalm 51:4, he rightly sees that all sins are ultimately against God. David sees his own filth against the pure glory of the Living God and so cried out to God for forgiveness, knowing that only the Lord could cleanse him of his wickedness and sin. Mary Magdelene shows us true repentance also, as she wept at the feet of Jesus, washing His feet with her tears. Those tears flowed from a heart that saw itself as God sees it, exceedingly wicked and deceitful in all things. Both she and David made no attempt to justify, rationalise, dismiss or make light of their sin. The heavy weight of the witness of the Holy Spirit against their sins would not allow such a thing. Instead, they threw themselves to the merciful feet of the Lord, and trusted that as God had convicted them of their sin, He is gracious and merciful to then wash them clean of it. Cain presented none of this. ‘Sinners guilt’ may produce great tears and great proclamations of being ‘sorry’, but it is only a passing guilt fuelled by self preservation.

Yet how merciful is the Lord God! Even on hearing such a selfish appeal for mercy from the unrepentant lips of Cain, He moves to show His mercy through a wise and just judgment of Cain. God places a mark on Cain, a mark that will warn all who come across him that he is not to be harmed, for if he is, God will avenge him sevenfold. Why would God be so merciful to such a selfish, remorseless soul as Cain? Because vengeance is the Lord’s (Romans 12:19). The shedding of the blood of the righteous is the Lord’s to avenge, and He will do so in the fullness of time. Though Abel was the first to have his blood shed for his faith in the Lord, he would not be the last. In Revelation 6:9-11, we read of the multitude martyred for Christ, all appealing to Him for vengeance over their spilled blood. Yet Christ comforts them and tells them to wait a little longer. They are to wait until all their brothers and sisters in faith join them in glory, and then He will come in the fullness of His power and glory to judge all the earth. 

Furthermore, the mark on Cain would be a constant reminder of what awaited him, the eternal judgment of the Lord. Each time the mark caught his eye, it would declare to him the ever-approaching hour of his destruction. That moment when he would close his eyes the final time, and open them to look upon the face of the Lord God he lived so angrily against. All those that came across Cain, would see this mark and would see a ‘dead man walking’, a man destined for eternal judgment. It would be a fearful reminder to all that gazed upon Cain, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God! (Hebrews 10:31). It would also declare that the Lord is merciful in giving him further days to wander this world, the very thing that Cain cherished most. It also points to the close of days, when a mark, but this time by the Beast as seen in The Book of Revelation, will preserve unrepentant sinners in this world for a very short season. This season will soon pass though, as it did for Cain, and eternal judgment will come to them just as it did for Cain.

This then is how we can go about our days, as believers in Christ Jesus, seeking to peaceable with all men where possible (Romans 12:18). Not because we are too be weak and compromising Christians, that is the preserve of the Biblically illiterate. Instead, we are to be selfless, bold, steadfast and loving in all our days, even when we know it may come at great cost to ourselves. We can do so because we know that He will avenge all evil done against His beloved children. No tear spent by the faithful servant of Christ Jesus, will go undried by His almighty hand. The battle is the Lord’s (1 Samuel 17:17), and so we can run bravely into the fight as David did against Goliath, because we trust that whatever the outcome, our future is assured and He will always do right. (Genesis 18:25) Amen.