Summary
Summary
Further devolution of conscience ensues from Cain’s self-driven separation from God, when our merciful God engages Cain with the question “where is Abel thy brother”? Cain’s sin reaches beyond the thoughtless, incautious yielding to the temptation of intellectual independence characteristic of his parent’s sin, and plants itself firmly in obstinate defiance of God’s intention. A loss of rational proportion is evidenced by Cain believing that God has not witnessed the murder that he denies, and his injured pride makes a lame accusation of inconsistency against God when he sarcastically reminds God that God had already rejected his sacrifice because he was not a shepherd like Abel, so why is he now being questioned as if he is his brother’s keeper? Cain’s hatred has so hardened his heart, that he rejects God’s demand to love his brother and treat him justly. His separation from God results in his separation from his neighbors, and a willful blindness which prevents him from living in accord with God’s Summary of the Law.
God continues His compassionate lesson to Cain in spite of his obstinate defiance, by pointing out that Abel’s blood cries out to Him from the ground. God is about to impart a lesson about the distinction between vengeance and justice. He hears the cry of vengeance from Abel and his never-to-be-realized descendants, but does not enact this vengeance by taking Cain’s life. Instead, God delivers justice by allowing Cain to send himself to his own self-imposed Hell, by sentencing him to the separation from his neighbors (banishment) that he stubbornly insisted was his right, in justification of his murder of Abel. God explicitly curses Cain, for the crime of sowing Abel’s blood into the mouth of the earth. The earth will not return a harvest when Cain labors to cultivate it. He is doomed to live as a fugitive, wandering the earth under the burden of guilt for his brother’s murder, an example to others of the tragedy of unsuitability for brotherly coexistence with others.
When Cain encounters God’s word in the form of His curse, he soberly contemplates his predicament when banished from his native soil and God’s intentions for him. He admits that it is more than he can bear, and laments that he will easily fall victim to other men who, seeing the evidence of his crime in his solitude, will see him as a threat and slay him. Satan now has him in a state of despair, in which he can only anticipate from others the same evil he did to his brother Abel. This is the Hell that he has consigned himself to.
And yet, in response to Cain’s despair, our merciful God protects Cain by marking him as His own. Seven-fold vengeance is pronounced on anyone that dares attempt to kill him, and an outward mark is placed on Cain as a warning. The possibility of future redemption is thus offered even to this murderous sinner.
Bible Study Notes