In a court of law, some cases are easier to prove than
others. The evidence yielded by the investigation, the quality of the
prosecuting attorney, and the resolve of the judge to render the proper verdict
make all the difference. The same would prove true in the capital murder case
against Cain in Genesis 4:9-16. The only difference is, in this trial, God
would both lead the investigation, bring the charges as prosecutor, and render
the verdict as judge.
In most trials, the more compelling the case against a
murderer is, the harsher the judgment proves. However, this case yields some
surprisingly merciful activity. Let us take a look at four things God does in
his first courtroom appearance in Genesis 4:9-16.
God Tries Cain-4:9-10
Following the terrible crime committed by Cain in 4:1-8 comes
the investigation—“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’” (4:9a).
Again, as in the questions God raised earlier for Cain (see “Why are you angry?”
in verse 6) and the inquiries He made of Adam and Eve (“Where are you?” and “Who
told you that you were naked?” in 3:8-10), this question is not intended to
inform God of something He does not already know; it is intended to give the
recipients of these questions an opportunity to confess and begin to deal with
their sin.
Though Adam in chapter 3 fesses up to the sin he committed (albeit
after he tries to blame it on others), there is no such admission of guilt in
Cain. Instead, Cain compounds his culpability by lying about his brother’s
whereabouts saying “I do not know” and then attempts to elude the question and
absolve himself of responsibility for Abel by asking, “Am I my brother’s
keeper?” (4:9b).
Nobody is ever charged with the responsibility of being “his
brother’s keeper” as Scripture never tells God’s people to “keep” their
brothers. The verb “keep” is, in fact, nearly exclusively used of God in
describing his relationship to Israel. He is Israel’s keeper and as such never
slumbers or sleeps (Ps. 121:4-8). For God, to “keep” means not only to preserve
and sustain but to control, regulate, and exercise authority over. Therefore,
for Cain to recuse himself from Abel in this way is wholly inappropriate. It is
a desperate attempt to distance himself from being responsible for Abel’s
whereabouts (Hamilton, 231).
Here, Cain reveals that he is not only a murderer; he is a
liar, evasive, and indifferent. It would seem as though the proclivity toward
sin has not only been passed down to the next generation (from Adam to his
children), it has grown more acute as the human condition continues to devolve.
In verse 10, God attempts to confront Cain again, only this
time, it is as a prosecutor, not an investigator as before (see verse 9),
saying—“What have you done?” (4:10a). Here, God is not so much seeking
information as much as He is making an accusation. It is clear that God
believes and knows Cain’s role in this tragedy and seeks to root it out.
To this end, as any good prosecutor does, God presents
damning evidence of the crime that has been committed—“The voice of your
brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground…” (4:10b). Abel’s blood spoke
directly against Cain’s claims and questions. God, in essence, told Cain, “you
can tell me whatever you want about your brother’s whereabouts and your role in
those whereabouts, but this blood-stained earth tells a different story.”
The very ground that had been cursed earlier was now
polluted by the spilling of innocent blood. Later Israel was forewarned that
murder defiled its land, and for such crimes there was no exoneration for the
nation except through retribution against the malefactor (see Num. 35:33; Gen.
9:5) (Matthews, 275).
Though it is true that Abel never speaks in the Genesis
record, his blood speaks here and indicts Cain for his terrible crime. Not only
that, but Abel’s testimony of faith would live on throughout the ages (see Heb.
11:4), revealing what a heart that desires to please God looks like.
God Judges
Cain-4:11-12
The very blood-stained ground that Cain stood on is the very
ground that curses Cain, “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened
its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand” (4:11). Here, the irrefutable
evidence speaks for itself and convicts Cain in God’s court.
This is the first occasion in Scripture in which a human
being is placed under a curse. Though the serpent, the ground, and individual
characteristics of the human person/condition were cursed earlier when Adam and
Eve sinned, Cain himself is called cursed in verse 11. This speaks to the
severity of Cain’s crime against God and His greatest creation—humanity. In
fact, his culpability is emphasized by the direct accusation made—“your brother’s
blood from your hand” (4:11). Also,
the language used “you are cursed” (4:11) is eerily similar to the judgment
dealt the serpent “cursed are you” (3:14). This grammatical parallelism
demonstrates that both Cain and the serpent are especially cursed as each took
actions that led to the loss of life.
There are two elements involved in the cruse dealt Cain.
First, “when you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to
you…” (4:12a). “Because Cain has polluted the ground with innocent blood, he is
‘driven’ from it as his parents were from the garden (3:24),” albeit in a
different way (Matthews, 275). Now, Cain would no longer enjoy a harvest.
Though the ground was already cursed, requiring hard work for any yield
whatsoever, the ground that Cain would trod was especially cursed as it would
yield nothing, no matter the effort put into it.
Inasmuch as Cain would no longer be able to till the soil
with any result, he was consigned to live as a vagrant—“you will be a vagrant and
a wanderer on the earth” (4:12b). Cain would live a life of perpetual exile as
no home would sustain his needs and as no land would respond to his cultivation
from this point on.
No doubt this element of the curse spoke in a special way to
the people who originally read this—the Israelites wandering in the wilderness
without a home. They knew how important it was to have a homeland as they hadn’t
possessed such in centuries (they were enslaved before and now they were
sojourning in the desert). So important was the land they were originally given
and the Promised Land they were expecting that it was declared holy as it was bestowed
by God and maintained by His covenant. Because of this, special provisions were
made so that the land itself would not be defiled. For instance, it was decreed
that a dead body must be buried by nightfall lest its corpse offend God and
render the land unclean (Deut. 21:23). Therefore Abel’s body left rotting in
the field was a powerful marker of the severity of Cain’s great sin and the consequences
he received. If Cain could not keep his land undefiled by blood, he would have
no land—an absolute necessity in that day.
Everything up to this point in the narrative seems
relatively understandable—an investigator seeks the truth, a prosecutor makes a
case, and a judge renders a verdict following a terrible crime. The guilty
party—Cain—is punished and, if we are being perfectly honest, gets off
relatively easy as God would have been totally justified in striking him dead
right then and there. However, the punishment is banishment and a life of exile
in a fruitless land. Seems more than reasonable to me.
God Protects
Cain-4:13-15
However, it is not the end of the story. The next voice
heard in this passage is Cain’s. Here, as we often see following a verdict
being read, the perpetrator cries out for mercy—“Cain said to the Lord, ‘My
punishment is too great to bear!’” (4:13). Really?! Does Cain have a case?
Should Cain even be given an opportunity to make this appeal? Who is Cain to be
saying this anyway? The charges have been made, the evidence has spoken, the
verdict has been read, the gavel has fallen, and Cain has already received less
than he deserves!
Though, if we were present to witness this ourselves we
might yell, “shut up!” or “sit down!” in response to these protestations, for
whatever reason, God allows Cain to persist and outline his grievance—“Behold,
You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from your face I
will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth…” (4:14a).
However, chief among Cain’s complaints is for his own life—“and
whoever finds me will kill me…” (4:14). Cain understands how precarious his
situation is and protests that his penalty is too harsh—arguing that isolation
from God’s protective presence effectively results in a death sentence. “Under
the weight of this curse, Cain goes to pieces, though not in remorse” (von Rad,
Genesis, 107).
There is a decided difference between how Cain responds here
and how Adam responded in 3:20. There is not a hint of remorse in Cain’s plea,
only self-pity and resentment. Fearing that someone else will do what God chose
not to do (kill him), he asks for God’s help. Pretty rich! I can’t believe God
would stand to listen to this!
However, not only does God’s listen, HE ENTERTAINS CAIN’S
COMPLAINT WITH A RESPONSE! What is even more unprecedented is despite his
deserved expulsion, the LORD DOES NOT LEAVE CAIN HELPLESS—“So the Lord said to
him, ‘therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold’…”
(4:15a).
One must be careful not to read into this that God was
somehow bent by Cain’s complaint—“very well, whoever kills Cain…”. Instead a
better interpretation would translate the “therefore” with “Not so, whoever
kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold,” thereby correcting Cain’s
fearful outburst, not the expulsion. This makes better sense inasmuch as God
corrected Cain earlier in 4:6-7, 10 and his expulsion remains the punishment in
verse 16.
Though God was under no obligation to provide Cain with this
reassurance, God makes sure that Cain knows that if anyone should kill him to
avenge Abel, he/she would be dealt with most completely (“sevenfold”).
Not only that, God provides something else—“the Lord
appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him” (4:15b).
Often translated “mark” this “sign” is a mystery to today’s interpreters. One
Jewish tradition understands Cain himself to be the sign who served to admonish
others. A parallel in Ezekiel 9:4 suggests that this sign may have appeared on
the forehead. However, the context of that passage is highly symbolic and
cannot necessarily be applied to the more literal reading of Genesis 4.
Though the nature of the sign eludes most readers, the
purpose is irrefutable. This mark was not bestowed onto Cain as a signal of his
curse; it was given to assure his safety (the mark in Ezekiel’s vision had the
same effect; it distinguished those who bore the brand and gave them protection)
(Matthews, 278). Cain’s mark was an undeserved grace bestowed on this convicted
felon, a grace that assured his life! What mercy!
This begs a question: “Why does God preserve the life of
this murderer, especially when later the Torah would require capital punishment
for murder?” Perhaps by providing the sign, God is preventing the spread of
bloodshed that would have otherwise escalated in this primitive time. Also, by
assuring life when death was deserved, God demonstrates His power over both
these destinies. Life and death are His prerogative. Finally, this gesture
illustrates something of God’s unmatched grace. While all of us would see to it
that Cain would get the lethal injection, God shows grace and illustrates how
His promise of procreation would not be thwarted even by human murder (see
1:28; 3:15, 20).
God Expels Cain-4:16
That said, sin must be punished. Cain would still be
expelled—“then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the
land of Nod, east of Eden” (4:16). Cain’s physical relocation says something
about his spiritual condition. His great sin and the consequences thereof demonstrate
that Cain was far from God. That Cain relocates further east of Eden than his
parents suggests that his sin has moved him even further from paradise. That
Cain was made to reside in Nod betrays his wandering status (as “Nod” is a play
on the word nad, meaning “wanderer”).
In fact, some scholars believe that Nod is simply meant to say that wherever
Cain sojourned could be called the “Land of the Wanderer” (the land of Nod).
So What?
Though God deals necessary consequences to the guilty party
in this passage, as in Adam and Eve’s case earlier (see Genesis 3), He
accompanies his punishments with undeserved graces. Why? Because God is a
merciful God who is not constrained to popular polling, knee-jerk reactions, or
human emotions. God is a God who stands over life and death and in his sovereignty
decides what is best to fulfill His plan. Here, His plan involved bestowing on
a complaining murderer a protected life for years to come, albeit in perpetual
exile.
Though we might scratch our heads in response to what God
does here or disagree with the mercy shown, we ought to sing God’s praises,
for, we too have been given undeserved graces in spite of our sin. God’s mercy
has overwhelmed us too in the person of Jesus Christ. Although we have probably
suffered the consequences of our actions and the necessary punishments assigned
to particular trespasses, we too have been confronted by the unmerited grace of
God who looks beyond our failures to our potential in Him to accomplish His
will into eternity. When we deserved execution for our sins, Jesus took our
place. When we deserved condemnation, God gave an opportunity for life.
For those who cannot believe it, consider this: If God was
not done using an unrepentant, complaining murderer, might he not be done using
you—someone He sent His own Son to die for? We as God’s people must acknowledge
our failures AND embrace God’s undeserved mercy, for then, and only then, will
we be used by Him to share this mercy with the world around us.
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