That is not repentance, folks. That is an assault on God’s fairness. That is an assault on God’s kindness and God’s justice. That is saying: God, you’ve got to be kidding. You can’t be that hard on me. Rather than repent and be forgiven, so as to have the curse removed or mitigated, this lover of sin only complains about the unreasonable burden and unkindness of God’s sentence. And that’s what unbelievers do when they hear the message about hell and judgment. That’s not fair. That’s not right. God can’t do that. They resent that message.
And to reinforce his resentment, he recites the curse, as if such a recitation in God’s ears is going to make God change his mind. Verse 14: “Behold, Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Thy face I shall be hidden and I shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” And he’s reciting it, as if — if in God’s hearing it, He somehow will reconsider. Actually, it’s possible to translate: And from Thy face I will seek to hide. Casuto, the Hebrew commentator, translates it that way. So, God, I can’t get anything out of the ground; you’ve cursed me and I’m going out and I’m going to hide from Your presence. This is what You’re doing to me. And I’m just going to wander all over the place all my life as a vagrant and a wanderer in the earth.
And he adds this: “It will come about that whoever finds me will kill me.” I know what’ll happen: Whoever finds me will kill me. Why? Well, ’cause they were all related to Abel, right? Well, this indicates that the population may have been growing, certainly soon would be growing. There must be adults in the world who would kill him. So it is reasonable to assume that somewhere along the line — and it’s hard to be dogmatic about this — the population was growing and developing. And Cain was going to live a long time, a long time. And people would be born. They would grow and they would have children, and they would all know about Cain, the killer of Abel, ’cause they were all relatives. As I said, Cain’s wife would be his sister, and there would be a family proliferation through the years, and everybody would want to kill Cain.
Can you imagine how tough it would be to live? You’re the only — there’s only a few people. You’re thrown out. You go out on your own. Where are you going to go to get food? You can’t grow anything. You don’t have any animals. You’re going to have to try to kill something here or there, or try to grab something that’s growing off a tree, trying to eke out some kind of survival. As the years develop and as people populate the world, they’re all going to know the story about you; they’re going to hate you because of what you did; they’re going to seek to kill you. So he’s saying: I’m not only going to have to hide from you, I’m going to have to hide from everybody else. That opens us up to another mark of an apostate, mark of a doomed man.
8. The doomed fail to appreciate common grace.
Look at this in Verse 15: “So the Lord said to him” — okay, this is common grace — “…Therefore, whoever kills Cain,” or whoever would kill Cain, “…vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Seven is sort of the number of completion; complete vengeance, perfect vengeance in a perfect measure. God says whoever kills Cain: “…vengeance is going to be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain lest anyone finding him should slay him.”
Now, people always ask: What is that sign? And the answer is: Who knows? I have absolutely no idea what it is. I don’t know what it is. I have read paragraph after paragraph about what it is, page after page. Nobody knows what it is. But God says I’m going to bring the full strength of divine law on anybody who acts in personal retribution on Cain. God did not want to establish personal retribution, personal vengeance, as a means of dealing with criminals. Throughout the Bible, you read about that, too; Deuteronomy 3, Psalm 94, Romans 12, Hebrews 10. God says: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” God is the avenger. God places that vengeance in the hands of a duly constituted government, court. But no personal vengeance. He doesn’t allow blood revenge. In fact, he becomes the protector of the killer. He becomes the protector of Cain. This I call common grace. This is the providential, common grace of God. God doesn’t have to do this. He could have killed him. He let him live. Not only let him live, he protects him by marking him with a sign. Sort of like blood on the doorposts in Egypt that made the death angel pass over.
He put some mark, some visible mark on Cain so that everybody would know that’s the mark of God and, if you kill him, you will receive the vengeance of God. There’s no other way to understand this than common grace. This is God being gracious to a wicked, reprobate man. And why does God do that? Why is God gracious to the sinner? The answer in Romans 2:4 and 5: The patience and forbearance of God is intended to lead you to — what? “Repentance.” So here was God. God had already plead with him to make a right choice. God had given him a curse and, yet, protected him from death, which would have given him an opportunity to say I’m sorry, I repent. If you’re going to let me live, then I repent. He doesn’t do that.
So now God says I’m going to make sure nobody takes your life; I myself am going to put a mark on you that signifies that I am your protector and God. Here is God Himself protecting this wicked sinner. That is God’s common grace. That is the grace that God extends to every reprobate, every ungodly person, every wicked sinner, every unbeliever, every doomed person. And the purpose of it, Romans 2:4 and 5, is to lead that person to repentance. Cain had absolutely no appreciation for that whatsoever; absolutely none.
9. And the last point is the doomed settle defiantly outside the presence of God.
Verse 16: “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” No comment. No comment on God’s invitation to him to do the right thing. No comment on God’s sparing his life and giving him space to repent; no comment on God becoming his protector. Is that not amazing? God is the protector who makes sure that even the worst wicked reprobate sinner is given time, is given life, so that there may be an opportunity to repent. But that doomed sinner settles defiantly into the world. “…Went out from the presence of the Lord.” That’s the saddest comment yet. No repentance. He chooses to live apart from God. That is his settled conclusion to the matter. And he settles — I like that word — he settles “…in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Where is that? I don’t know. East of Eden, somewhere. Doesn’t matter where the land of Nod is. It only matters that it was “out of the presence of the Lord.” He settled in the world. He loved the world, so “the love of God was not in him,” 1st John 2. Nod is an unknown place, but it symbolizes the place where God is not considered. It’s out of His presence.
So here is the prototype of the doomed. And he gives us the path to damnation. Here it is: Have a hopeful beginning, but offer unacceptable, hypocritical, self-righteous worship; resent God and His people; reject God’s word and refuse to obey it; hide your sin by denial or redefinition; be obstinate when confronted by the divine Judge; and when being delivered from immediate death, make no repentance; protest only God’s judgment and refuse to be broken under it; fail to appreciate God’s common grace, which lets you live and enjoy His wonderful world; and settle defiantly into the system of Satan. Such are the children of Cain.
All right. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you again for Your truth. We’ve covered a lot and yet, we’ve covered only one thing, one great subject; what it is to be an unbeliever, with all of its facets. And we haven’t said the half of what should be said, but can only pray that we’ve at least begun to understand the greatness of this passage. Oh, how I pray for any who are in the way of Cain. O Lord, may they repent at your invitation to do what’s right. May they be broken under the grace that postpones their doom. May they fall at your feet in gratitude over the forbearance and patience that You exhibit in becoming even the protector of the unrighteous. May they turn and seek forgiveness and, not just in anger, settle finally into the world out of Your presence. Father, rescue, deliver sinners, even tonight. Through Your word, Your power, we pray in your Son’s name. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
