5. The doomed try to hide their sin or hide from their sin.
Unbelievers, even when confronted with the truth — they might come to church; they might not hear the voice of God, as Cain did, of course, today. But they might come to church and they might hear a message about sin. They refuse to listen. They refuse to admit their sin. They inevitably repudiate responsibility. This is characteristic of doomed people. For the most part, they just will not accept the diagnosis. “The Lord then said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’” And again, remember: God doesn’t need information, because in Verse 10, God said: “‘The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.’” So God knew what had happened. What this does reveal is that Cain was no longer near the body. Here’s God, confronts Cain and says: “‘Where is Abel your brother?’” Which means that Abel wasn’t right there, which means that Cain had run. And that’s what the sinner does. He flees the debacle that his sins have left. He carries on the appearance of being an upstanding and noble person. This is typical of the sinner; he flees the scene of his crime, carries on the ruse of his self-righteousness. “‘Where is Abel your brother?’” And he said, “I do not know.”
He not only flees the scene, but he lies to cover. Again, here is a sinner who is a fixed sinner affirming his rebellion. He won’t even acknowledge his sin. He didn’t say he’s over there, just where I left him after I killed him. He says, “I don’t know.” Oh, the sinner, in his need for self-righteousness, runs from the scene of his crime, tries to hide his sin. And then he says: “‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’” Like I don’t have any responsibility for him. What he is saying to God is your questions aren’t even appropriate. Why should I know where he is? Am I supposed to be taking care of him? He’s saying: Your questions are irrelevant. This is the sinner hiding from his crime, and hiding the truth about his wickedness. This is that pattern that you see in the sinner who will not acknowledge his sin. 1st John 3:15: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” This was a murderer who hated his brother. Same context as we read earlier about Cain. He hated his brother and he loved his sin. But he hid it, because it sort of wasn’t something you paraded around. So he denies any knowledge of his brother’s whereabouts; he denies any killing. He rejects any responsibility for his brother’s well-being.
And you begin to see, folks, at this point what terrible progress sin has made since the fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, there was a sort of a timid hiding in the garden. And now there’s this bold-faced, blatant lie. And sin has pounced, turned him into a murderer, turned him into a liar. His denial, of course, is absolutely useless. But it is the desperate attempt to silence the voice of God by a lie, and that is no defense at all. You know, the doomed person can deny his sin all he wants. And we may not see it, but God sees it and knows it. Sinners will deny their sin. They may even reclassify it as personal expression of individual freedom. That’s what seems to be the way you do it today. You just don’t classify it as sin. You just say it’s freedom; it’s the new morality. The modern definition of sin is righteousness. Man is now the “noble savage” who acts in freedom to do whatever he feels he wants to do, and that’s the nobility of his freedom. The sinner inevitably runs from the scene of the crime and tries to hide the sin.
6. The next point: In spite of that, the doomed are eventually indicted by God.
Eventually, they all wind up at the bar of God. They all wind up before God. Verse 10, here we have God as the investigator, first of all, the interrogator. And He said: “What have you done? What have you done?” You understand that expression even in Hebrew. When your kids do something terrible, “What have you done?” Again, God is not asking for information. If He says how could you have done this, essentially: “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” And God pulls him into the court. God is the interrogator who asks: “What have you done?” God is the investigator who brings in the evidence, and the evidence is the blood of Abel crying to God out of the ground metaphorically. God moves from being the interrogator to being the investigator, to then being the prosecutor. And there are no more questions. Verse 11: “Now you are cursed.” Brought before the divine tribunal. This is the indictment of God; interrogator, investigator, and prosecutor and judge. No more questions. “…Your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”
Really an important sentence in the Bible. Every crime committed, every sin committed rises to God, cries to God. Whatever that sin is, it cries to God. That’s why David in Psalm 51 said: “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” He knew that every sin reaches God. That’s a figure of speech to indicate that every sin rises to God, and all sin offends Him and is known to Him. God responds as the divine avenger. He was the evangelist, and then He became the interrogator, and the investigator and the prosecutor. And the blood of dead Abel obviously couldn’t actually speak. But the fact that there was blood on the ground spoke volumes to God. It cried out to God before His heavenly throne demanding divine vengeance. And Cain is blood guilty before God. And the divine sentence comes in Verse 11: “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” Very ground from which he had drawn his self-congratulatory offerings, the very ground which had yielded the crop which was such a delight to him, that very ground, which not only gave him the crops, but opened its mouth to receive his brother’s blood. And that’s the final verdict that Cain is the killer, by the way. That is the final statement “from your hand,” the end of Verse 11. And God says you did it; you did it; you are the killer.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
