Genesis 4
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
I have long loved John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden. I personally think it is better than The Grapes of Wrath, but that is just me. There is an amazing scene in the novel in which three men—Samuel Hamilton, a man named Adam, and Adam’s Chinese cook, Lee—discuss the story of Cain and Abel. They wrestle with trying to understand what it means.
“Two stories have haunted us and followed us from our beginning,” Samuel said. “We carry them along with us like invisible tails—the story of original sin and the story of Cain and Abel. And I don’t understand either of them. I don’t understand them at all but I feel them. Liza gets angry with me. She says I should not try to understand them. She says why should we try to explain a verity. Maybe she’s right—maybe she’s right.”
After getting a Bible and reading Genesis 4, the men discuss the meaning of it. Samuel Hamilton offers this explanation of God’s rejection of Cain’s offering and then Cain murdering Abel.
Samuel said, “There’s an advantage to listening to the words. God did not condemn Cain at all. Even God can have a preference, can’t he? Let’s suppose God liked lamb better than vegetables. I think I do myself. Cain brought him a bunch of carrots maybe. And God said, ‘I don’t like this. Try again. Bring me something I like and I’ll set you up alongside your brother.’ But Cain got mad. His feelings were hurt. And when a man’s feelings are hurt he wants to strike at something, and Abel was in the way of his anger.”[1]
It is a charming attempt at an interpretation—God simply preferring lamb to carrots—but as we saw last week the scriptures actually do explain why God rejected Cain’s offering (i.e., Cain not bringing his best, Cain not having the faith of Abel, Cain being self-focused). Even so, I suspect Samuel’s homey explanation of the murder itself is probably correct. Let us hear it again:
But Cain got mad. His feelings were hurt. And when a man’s feelings are hurt he wants to strike at something, and Abel was in the way of his anger.
Yes, perhaps it is just that simple: Cain got mad, Cain wanted to hurt something, and Cain’s eye fell on Abel. We can be sure that Cain’s wrath at Abel is stoked to a red fury by God’s favoring of Abel’s offering. So, he seeks Abel out and he kills him. Indeed, as Samuel Hamilton says, we carry this story around with us like an invisible tail. It does haunt us. It frightens us. Why? What is its abiding significance?
The ultimate way to express rage at God is to destroy the one part of creation that bears God’s image: human beings.
It is impossible to strike God. First of all because God is spirit (John 4:24) and one cannot strike spirit. Secondly because God is God…and one does not strike God. In the absence of being able to strike God, what does the angry person do? Simple: they strike that one part of creation that bear’s God’s image. This is what Cain does.
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
This is powerfully understated, but just imagine: Cain had never heard of a murder before. He was not, like us, desensitized by nearly countless fictional murders witnessed on television or in novels. He had never seen a crime statistic. He had never seen or heard of a courtroom. Nobody had ever been killed before.Imagine what it takes for one person to kill another person today. Then imagine the depths to which the first person who ever killed a person would have to sink to be able to (a) imagine it and (b) do it. What was Cain’s thought process? Did he look at Abel’s offering of flesh and blasphemy and think, “God wants blood? I’ll give Him blood then!”?
This much is certain: Cain was angry at God and killing Abel was the best thing he could think of to show God his anger. I do not say that Cain was not angry at Abel. I only say that, at heart, this act of fratricide only came about because Cain could not pull off Deicide. We can see Cain’s anger at God in his astonishing response to God.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”
It is not advised that one be cheeky with God, yet Cain was. He was sarcastic. There is a kind of insinuated indictment in these words: “Can you not keep up with your own creation, God?” The sheer audacity of it is mind-boggling. God responds with judgment.
10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
The imagery is powerful and disturbing. “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” Shed human blood had never touched the earth before. This was a new experience for the ground, this mingling of dirt and blood. The ground is personified as having gaped open its mouth to receive it. The picture is one of the elements themselves being disturbed. Abel’s blood cries out to God!
God’s cursing of Cain and the ground echoes His earlier cursing of Adam and the ground in Genesis 3. Abel is therefore doubly cursed, for God says that the ground that has already been cursed “shall no longer yield you its strength.” Furthermore, Cain is cast out even further than his cast out parents are! Thus, he is doubly cast out! He was born an exile from Eden and now he is sent further out!
Consider now the great theological tragedy of murder: it kills the only part of creation that bears the Maker’s image! That this is the main tragedy of murder can be seen in the institution of capital punishment in Genesis 9.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
The rationale for putting those who take human life to death is that the life they have taken is “in [God’s] own image.” It is no small thing to take a human life! On the contrary, it is a very veryserious thing indeed!
The devil loves murder and knows that each step we take on the path to it is a kind of murder in and of itself.
And what is happening behind the scenes of a murder? God’s word is not silent on the matter. Jesus said this of Satan in John 8:
44a-cYou are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning
The reference to Satan being “a murderer from the beginning” would appear to be a reference to Cain’s murdering Abel. Satan loves murder. If he could get his way he would have all of us killing one another in the most literal of senses. While he does succeed with this design far too often, Satan knows that most people are unlikely to commit actual, literal, physical murder. But Satan knows something else. He knows that if he can get us to put our feet on the path of murder that each step we take is a kind of murder whether we reach the stage of literal killing or not.
In Matthew 5 Jesus spoke of the whole gamut of behaviors that constitute murder.
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hellof fire.
Notice the progression of steps Jesus mentions leading ultimately to murder: anger-insults-“You fool!” We might depict this as a disposition of murder, verbal murder, and then the dehumanization upon which murder feeds. But this is no mere progression. Jesus’ point is that each of these steps is a kind of murder. We can see this in the parallel between verses 21 and 22.
Murder = “liable to judgment”
Angry = “liable to judgment”
This parallelism establishes the crucial point: it is not merely the end of the steps to murder that render us guilty of the crime; it is also the steps themselves. Each insult is a kind of murder. Each angry desire for harm to befall another is a kind of murder. Each insinuation that another is less than human, less than worthy or dignity, less than an image-bearer is a kind of murder.
Jesus radically raises the stakes here by condemning the angry disposition as murderous and the cutting word of insult as murderous.
So I ask you and I ask me: have we been guilty of murder this week? Church, beware the path of Cain! Beware the murderous deed, yes, but beware the murderous word, the murderous attitude, the murderous look, the murderous body language, the murderous dismissal of another as somehow sub-human, “good for nothing,” a “fool”!
There are many ways to murder Abel, and one may do it without ever shedding blood.
Even in the midst of just condemnation God reveals mercy, thereby showing that even the worst of sins can be forgiven.
Our journey thus far in the 4thchapter has been dark and heavy. We have spoken of murder and rage. We have also seen rightful judgement and divine wrath. Now, however, in the midst of this dark storm, we see a sliver of hope, a note of grace, a reason to pause and think that in God there is mercy.
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Cain cries out in despair: “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” To which we might want to respond, “You should have thought about that before killing your brother!” “Sooner or later,” as the old saying goes “everybody sits down to a banquet of consequences.” This is true! Cain has sat down to his table of consequences and bitter indeed is the meal!
Yes, “You should have thought of that first, Cain,” would be a reasonable response. Yet, at this point, God’s response is quite surprising and telling.
15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
The Lord puts a “mark” on Cain not a sign of his curse but as a sign of God’s grace, for it was intended to keep others from killing Cain. At this point it is necessary to address an unfortunate interpretation that held sway among many slave-holders and that, tragically, one still hears today. The interpretation is this: that the “mark of Cain” is black skin. That is, that Adam and Eve and their children were white and that God turned Cain and his descendants black before sending him out in exile. Let me simply say this: this is utter nonsense. There is nothing to suggest that this has to do with skin color. Secondly, there is nothing to suggest that Adam and Eve were white! Based on this theory we might just as easily say that Adam and Eve were black and that the “mark of Cain” was white skin. That has just as much merit. Third, again, the mark was a sign of God’s mercy and grace. It was intended to protect Cain. One does regret having to mention such hairbrained notions and interpretations, but, unfortunately, we must.
The greater theological issue, of course, is mercy. Yes, Cain is cast out to be a wanderer upon the earth. Yes, Cain is under God’s judgment. But do we not see a note of mercy and of hope here? Do we not see that even in the light of man’s wicked rebellion, God offers hope? God does not pour out all the judgment He could have upon Cain. Rather, He announces that Cain still has value and that should anyone raise a murderous hand to Cain, Cain would be avenged.
Just as we see the proto-gospel in Genesis 3 we see proto-grace in Genesis 4. This is a sliver of hope, a note of forgiveness, a hint that in our worst moments when we have committed the worst of sins there is still mercy to be found in our great God. At this point the colorful imagery of Isaiah 1 comes into full focus.
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Yes, though your sins are red like blood, they will be made white as snow! Your guilt can be taken away and your sins forgiven!
Hear me: there is nothing you have done that Jesus cannot forgive.
There is nothing you have done that Jesus cannot forgive.
There is nothing you have done that Jesus cannot forgive.
There is nothing you have done that Jesus cannot forgive.
Why? Because Jesus puts a mark on us. He puts the mark of His blood. He proclaims that we are His, that we are forgiven, that we can be made whole! Jesus shows mercy to the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve! If you will call on His name, you will find mercy! If you will call on His name, you will find forgiveness!
There is nothing you have done that Jesus cannot forgive.
[1]John Steinbeck. East of Eden. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, p.264, 267.