Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood
cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which
opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for
you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me
from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a
restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
But the Lord said
to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven
times over.” Then the Lord put a
mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s
presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:8-16
A member of the British royal
family was, yesterday, thrown out into the wilderness. Stripped of his royal
and military titles, even disowned by various charities and other bodies for
whom he had been a figure-head, he is now, officially, a nobody.
And, I imagine, a very lonely man.
He has certainly done wrong, and you might very well say “Well, serve him
right”. But I can’t help feeling a bit of pity for him. Privately, I assume,
some friends and family will stay loyal to him, but “how are the mighty
fallen”.
I found myself thinking of Cain,
who murdered his brother Abel and was expelled to “the land of Nod” – “No-man’s
land” you might call it – and condemned to a life of rootless wandering
(Genesis 4). No excuses for him, of course: he seems to have done what he did
with full “malice aforethought”, and we nowhere read that he turned to God in
true repentance.
But given that we are all sinners
with dark secrets, perhaps we can find a place in our hearts as we look at him
– and also at our lonely ex-prince.
The story suggests that Cain was
given both judgment and mercy.
First, judgment.
God says, “You will be a restless
wanderer on the earth”. No fixed home; no supportive community; no smiling
faces to lift his heart; no friends.
I met a man once who had been given
a hut with basic facilities in a larger community of primitive dwellings. The
people didn’t want him, but presumably felt they ought to do something for him,
so there he was for a time at least, living his solitary life. I suspect he
would often go whole days without speaking to a soul. A man sad beyond words.
It’s the mark of a person who refuses
to turn their back on sin that they exist in a constant state of inner restlessness.
Whatever dark secrets they have stir up feelings of guilt and shame, for the
human conscience can be a hard taskmaster, quite likely disturbing our sleep
and robbing us of any lasting peace.
Yet God wants the people he has
made to know and enjoy peace. Even amid all the troubles of our world there is
nothing to compare with the peace of sins confessed and forgiven, and to know
that we are reconciled with God himself. Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give to you”. True, that heavenly peace will never
be complete until we see Jesus face to face. But nonetheless it is for all,
right here and now, who are humbly and truly sorry and seeking by God’s grace
to be the person he wants us to be.
Do you yet know anything of that
peace; or are you still wandering around in the spiritual Land of Nod?
Second, mercy.
Even though we never read of Cain
repenting, we do read of God being kind to him.
Cain protests against God’s
judgment: “My punishment is more than I can bear… I will be a restless wanderer
on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me”. But God contradicts him: “Not
so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over”. And then,
intriguingly, “the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no-one who found him would
kill him”.
What was this mysterious “mark of
Cain”? Answer: we don’t know. How did other people recognise it for what it
was? Answer: we don’t know. But those questions are beside the point. What
matters is that God listened to Cain’s complaint and showed him mercy. Whatever
the mark was, it was a safe conduct, not a stigma, as one commentator neatly
puts it. It teaches us that God is always ready to reach out with mercy, even
to those who are yet to repent of their sin. What does the apostle Peter tell
us? – “God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”
(2 Peter 3:9). And everyone means – well, everyone!
There are other signs of hope to
come. As we read on through Genesis 4 we discover that Cain fathered a family
(how did he find a wife!?) and built a city (verses 17-18). Perhaps not such a
total wanderer as we have been led to expect! Whatever is hidden behind those
bare facts, we can surely draw the conclusion that as long as a human being is
still alive on the face of the earth the love of God is there for them if only
they will grasp hold of it.
I do hope our wretched prince is
aware of that fact – and that you and I are too!
“Our hearts are restless until they
find their rest in you”. Father, we listen again to the promise of Jesus: “Come
to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. Thank
you, Lord. Amen.
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