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Cain's Sin and God's Mark Genesis 4:1-15 Key Verse 4:15 "But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him." Adam was created to depend totally on God. But he wanted to be like God and live his own way by eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This rebellion caused the tragic results to Adam and to the world. Adam's fellowship with God was broken. He and his wife were expelled from the paradise. They lost access to the tree of life and was condemned to die. Today's passage deals with the bad influence of Adam's sin. The passage shows how their sin spread and grow. But it also declares God's love and mercy given to a sinner in spite of his arrogance and stubbornness. I pray we may reflect ourselves in the words of today. I pray we may be reminded of God's great love for us as well as for the sinner in the passage. 1. Abel and Cain and their offerings (1-7) Cain was Adam's oldest son; Abel was his second. Cain was a farmer and Abel, a shepherd and herdsman. Each of them brought an offering to God. Cain's offering was "some of the fruits of the soil," while Abel brought "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock." Superficially, both of their offering seemed all valuable and acceptable. However, God, who sees through human heart, accepted only Abel's offering. He did not look on Cain's with favor. Then, what was the difference between the two offerings? Why did God make the different responses to their offerings? The Bible says Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. The first means the best and the most precious. The offering or gift is not only something but also expression of our heart. When we offer or present something, we put our heart in it. Abel offered the first because God was the first in his heart. He chose and offered what matched the Most High in the universe. But as for Cain's offering, we cannot find any beautiful words like the first. He just offered something without any care or concern. Maybe he chose the second best for the offering, while sparing the best for himself. Also maybe, he randomly pick up some fruits as the offering, whether they were decay or not. To Cain, God, the creator and sovereign ruler, did not deserve his best devotion. I was told a graceful story about an old lady at the church I attended long time ago. The lady ironed the bills every Saturday nights. The bills were prepared as the offering for the worship service the next day. She did not want to offer the crumpled bills to the holy Lord. She made her living by selling snacks on the street, so her offering must not have been so much. However, certainly God was glad to accept her offering, since He was worshipped as He is with her offering. We hold worship service every week. But we cannot worship God truly if we attend the service because it is Sunday. What God wants from us is not the formal ritual but the devotion with our heart and mind. We may not iron the offering bills every Saturday night. But if we really want to devote our heart at the worship service, we should try not to be late for the service. Also, during the service, we should pray together before the service and prepare all things in advance. Then, we should repent our sins sincerely and thank God heartily for the graces for one week. These are all true offerings to God when we hold the service. Now what was Cain's response to God? Verses 4b,5 say, "...The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor, so Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast." God is the Sovereign Lord and Creator. He is the absolute Good. If God says it is good, it is good. If God says it is not good, it is not good. So Cain should have checked what was wrong with him, not with God, when his offering was not accepted. But Cain was angry with God as if God had been wrong. According to Cain, he was right and God made a mistake. He thought, "Why is my younger brother accepted by God while I, the elder, am not? Why did God discriminate against me just because I had no lamb to bring?" He totally misunderstood that God should be glad to get anything he brought. Then, how did God deal with this arrogant man? Rather than punishing Cain immediately, God came to him with a gentle rebuke and words of wise counsel. The almighty God lowered himself to give his precious advice to Cain. Look at verse 7. "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." God said Cain's offering was not accepted because Cain did not do what was right. What was right is to offer the best to God, the Most High. But Cain did not do this right thing. So it was not because of God's mistake but because of Cain's fault that his offering was not accepted. God also told Cain to master sinful desire. Man was created in God's image. He was originally good. But because of Adam's sin, evil came into man's heart. Cain had the evil desire to save the best for himself, not for God. But Cain should have overcome this sinful desire and chosen to offer the best to God. We have the same conflict in our heart as Cain. We wants to live for the Lord and the gospel, while suffering from the desire to satisfy ourselves. These two desires don't coexist in one place. If we actively fight evil desire by doing good positively, the evil disappears like snow in the spring. However, if we are not actively engaged in doing right, sin crouches at the door, waiting for an opportunity to spring on us like a lion on its prey. Then how can we get spiritual power to master sinful desire? First of all, we must bend our ears to hear God's word. The Psalmist said, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."(119:11) We could not master sin's desire by our own strength. Only by God's word in our heart and a decision of faith to obey it, can we do good and master the sinful desire. 2. Cain's murder and God's mark God gave Cain the opportunity to see himself as he was. Now Cain should examine his own heart based on God's counsel. He should ask himself, "What have I done to displease God? How can I do what is right?" However, Cain did not receive God's advice. Instead, he raised anger toward God and jealousy toward his brother until it turned into a terrible crime. One day, Cain called his brother out into the field. With flaming rage and jealousy, he hit Abel with a big stone as hard as he could. It was so sudden that Abel could not escape or protect himself. He was hurt severely and died immediately, shedding a lot of blood. It was a horrible tragedy that stemmed from the corrupt human nature after Adam's disobedience. What did the Lord say to Cain this time? Did He inflict death penalty on Cain immediately? In verse 9, the Lord came to him again and asked. "Cain, where is your brother Abel?" (9) The Lord was not asking for information; he knew already. He was giving Cain a chance to confess his sin and repent. He was trying to forgive even the murderer. God was so loving and so merciful. But how did Cain answer? "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain rejected God' love. He refused to repent. According to him, God made one more mistake of asking him about Abel. By his rebellious and unrepentant answer, Cain was cut off from God's forgiveness. God is good and patient, but not so to the one who does not repent to the end. In verses 10-12, God judged Cain, "What have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." Cain was a farmer, but God declared Cain would not get anything from the land. He would wander restlessly here and there on the earth to get something to eat. There would be no peace and stability in his life. He would be like the chaff which the wind blows away. (Ps 1:4) Satan tells us that sin is simple and easy. He makes us feel proud and brave. But he doesn't ever tell us about the punishment that follows. Sin is always followed by consequences. God's judgment and eternal punishment is necessarily on the sinners and the unrepentant. Then, what was Cain's response to the punishment? In verse 13, Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." When he faced the punishment, Cain came to himself. He did not repent by the kind advice. Only when he was whipped and taste pains, did he cry out his suffering from the punishment. He showed a typical example of a stupid and arrogant man. Cain feared whoever found him would kill him. God did not say he would be killed but Cain himself was afraid of being killed. In his deep heart, Cain judged himself and sentenced himself to death and feared it. Really, fear of death is the consequence that follows the sin. Now look at verse 15. "But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him." Cain was a murderer who killed his brother with a stone. In addition, he rejected God's love and tried to hide his sin. Truly he deserved more than the penalty of death. But God did not withdraw his love and mercy from the terrible sinner. When Cain cried out to God in fear, God put a mark on him. No one would not kill him due to the mark. Also, the mark gave Cain one more chance to repent his sin. Truly the mark was the sign of God's endless love to save the sinner. |
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