If your eye is on the mark, you will miss the point.
The
age old question is; why did God reject Cain’s offering?
What
was the Mark that was put on Cain?
Setting the stage
- After Adam and Eve
were banished from the “Garden of Eden” they had twin boys; Cain the first born and Abel the second. –
Cain is also spelled Kane (possessed).
- Many times in
scripture, God has accepted the second born over the first born as
blessed. Scripture does not say
why, just that God’s ways are higher than our ways.
- Anyway, they both
made offerings to God, but Cain
Gen 4:1-2 Cain and Abel
were twins
1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and
bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel.
And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. KJV
Gen 4:4-5 – God rejected
Cain and his offering
4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the
firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on “Cain” and “his offering”
he did not look with favor. NIV
Isa 55:9 – God’s ways
higher than man’s ways
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
NIV
Prov 14:30 – Envy rots the bones
30 A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy
the rottenness of the bones. KJV
Mal 1:2 – God chose Jacob
over Esau the first born.
2 "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the
LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, NIV
Background
- In ancient times
there was always a conflict between the farmers who were the
tillers of the ground and the semi-nomadic shepherds, herdsmen who always
had to move on to “Greener Pastures” because sheep eat all the way down to
the root, decimating the foliage.
- Adam
and Eve worshipped God and brought their children up to offer
sacrifices.
- Dual
Intent: Thanksgiving for what had been
received and Faith that it would continue.
- The boys had two
different trades; being able to exchange and trade with each other.
- Cain was a Farmer and
raised vegetables and offered the “first fruits” of the soil to God
- Abel was a Sheppard
and raised sheep and offered the “firstlings” of the flock to God.
- God looked with favor
on Abel’s offering and not upon Cain’s.
- Much is made over the
fact that God requires a meat offering, but The Torah commands
sacrifices of both animals and grain crops. – So then, what was the
problem here?
Gen 3:23 – Man is to
work the ground
23 So the LORD God
banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he
had been taken. NIV
Gen 4:2 – Two ways of life.
2 Now Abel kept flocks,
and Cain worked the soil. NIV
Faith
- Obedience
- I don’t think it
mattered what was being “offered”, it was Abel’s FAITH in God that commended him as a righteous man
before God - Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. – Faith was
something Cain lacked.
- When you read the
account, you can see Cain’s character was sullen, self willed, haughty and
vindictive – He harbored thoughts of murder in his heart.
- Scripture supports obedience
to God is far better than your sacrifice to Him.
Heb 11:6 – Without Faith, it’s impossible to please God
6 And without faith it
is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe
that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. NIV
Heb 11:4 – Abel had FAITH in God.
4 By faith Abel offered God a better
sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man,
when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even
though he is dead.
1 Sam 15:22 – Obedience
is better than sacrifices
22 "Does the LORD
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of
the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than
the fat of rams. NIV
What happened next?
- God disregarded “Cain”
and his offering, but told him to cheer up, everything could still work
out. – This was about Cain, not about Cain’s offering. – God extended
Himself to Cain.
- But Cain’s pride was
wounded which produced envy, hatred, violence, unbridled anger and a
spirit of revenge. - Duly note; that it was not too
late for Cain to choose the way of God.
- Cain was ticked off
and mad – Satan was crouching on his doorstep ready to pounce.
- You can almost paint
the picture. – The brothers are two opposite classes of man - Abel is
God’s humble, believing man of Faith and Cain is Satan’s proud, self
willed man – Good and Evil.
- NOTE: God extended Himself in reconciliation
to Cain; the hope of forgiveness and victory.
- If you do what is
right;
blessing are set before you - If you do what is wrong; Curses.
- It’s the same today; we
can try to do better or get angry with God. – Life is choice driven.
Gen 4:6 –
Don’t be downcast and angry
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
Gen 4:7 – Do what is right
and I will accept “you”.
7 If you do what is right, will “YOU”
not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching
at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." NIV
1 John 3:12 – Cain’s actions were evil and he belonged to Satan.
12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the
evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his
own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. NIV
John 8:44 – Satan was a murderer from the beginning
44 You belong to your father, the devil,
and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. NIV
Deut 30:19 – Blessings and
Curses are set before you
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses
against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and
curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live NIV
Cain does the deed
- Cain
makes a life choice. – Do what is right or Do what is wrong. – You
are the master of it.
- A seed planted in
bitter resentment matures full grown in murder. Think
about that.
- Cain is the “master”
of the power of his decisions. – He can choose to “master” his thoughts.
- The next we know,
Cain kills his brother Abel, probably with a spear. - God shows up
and Cain utters the famous selfish defiant line “Am I My Brothers’ Keeper” – In
other words; If Cain is missing, it’s your fault God – You’re the
Keeper, the one that’s in charge, not me.
- This was not an
accident from a wrestling match gone wrong. Cain got Abel to go into the field with
him and then attacked him. – This
was premeditated murder.
- Can’t you just jump
into the story;
see Cain run Abel through with his spear; dig a hole and roll his body
into it and cover it up. – Then join in the search with others to find his
brother.
- Cain lies and denies
the act of murder and offers no evidence of remorse or repentance.
- Cain is banished to
be a fugitive and a wanderer on
the earth;
- The ultimate penalty
for a Hebrew was to be exiled from the roots of his family – Not death.
We
now have the first Murderer and the first Martyr.
Gen 4:8 – Premeditated
Murder
8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's
go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain
attacked his brother Abel and killed him. NIV
Gen 4:9 – LIES &
DEFIANCE – I don’t know where Abel is
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your
brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" NIV
Gen 4:13 -14 – You are “out of here” Cain !
13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is
more than I can bear.
14 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." NIV
TATOO
RABBIT TRAIL
- This is a good place
to mention that the “heathen”
would cut shapes on themselves and rub colored dirt in it to make symbols.
(Tribal marks were well
known in the
- God said
- So it was a big deal
to have a tattoo – YOU DID NOT
BELONG TO GOD.
Deut 14:1 – No tattoos on
God’s people
1 You are the children of the LORD your God: you
shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the
dead.
KJV
The Mark
- This was the first
murder in history. The boys were not kids, they were full grown married
men and there were lots of brothers and sisters and families - it would be
his fellow kinsmen that would want to avenge the murder of Abel. – The atonement for this sin was
the shedding of his own blood. – He
was a dead man walking.
- Cain did not say his
iniquity was too great to forgive, he said his punishment was
too great to bear. – There was no remorse – No cry of repentance - No cry
for a pardon.
- God
marks Cain
so no one would try to kill him. - What was the mark? – Some say a tattoo,
others a disease of the mind, lunacy, a maniac or leprosy, others say God
turned Cain Black – What if Cain was already black and God turned him
white? – Why do we assume that Adam and Eve were white or even olive
complexion?
- To say that God, as
a curse, made Cain “black” is allowing Satan to drive a wedge between the
races – Satan did the same thing with the Jews and the Gentiles – Hate is sin
and a foothold for Satan in your life. - The curse was on Cain; not on “a
people”
- Satan’s shakes his
fist at God, desiring to destroy Man; God’s finest creation that was made
in His own image
- Understand – Cain called out to
God for mercy - It was God’s compassion that Cain received “the
mark” instead of death. – Bloodshed pollutes the
land.
- The
Mark -
A man’s hands and forehead are the most prominent; and a discoloration
like leprosy or a type of tattoo is the most scripturally logical.
– I personally favor huge splotches
of discoloration on his whole body that everyone could see. – Real Scary Stuff.
- Some scholars feel
the “city of refuge” he built
may have been his “mark of protection”. Others feel it’s also possible, as
a mark or token, that God just “symbolically” assured Cain that He would protect him. (Don’t worry Cain; you’re now predestined,
marked by my plan.) - (I don’t think so)
- The
purpose of the mark was to let everyone know that Cain had murdered his
brother and was sentenced by God
to be a perpetual fugitive and a restless vagabond cursed to wander
the earth - not to death, for he was not to be killed – Death was God’s
prerogative alone.
- Cain
went out of the Lord’s presence – That means Cain separated himself
from God and there is no record that he ever came back.
Gen 4:10 – The ground calls out your brothers blood
10 Listen! Your brother's blood cries out
to me from the ground. NIV
Isa 26:21 – The earth will
disclose the blood shed.
21 The earth will disclose the blood shed upon
her; she will conceal her slain no longer NIV
Num 35:33 – Atonement is
only by the one who shed it.
33 "`Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed
pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood
has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. NIV
Heb 12:24 – Only the blood of Jesus cries louder than Abel’s
24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to
the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
NIV
Deut 28:16-19 – Cursed in
the city and in the county
16 You will be cursed in the city and
cursed in the country. NIV
19 You will be cursed when you come in and
cursed when you go out.
Gen 4:15 -16 – God put a mark on Cain to save his life
15 Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that
no one who found him would kill him.
16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence
and lived in the land of Nod Eden
Ex 13:16 – The mark is a symbol
16 And it will be like a sign on your hand
and a symbol on your forehead NIV
Rev 14:9-10 – Mark on the
forehead or hand
9 "If anyone worships the beast and his image
and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand,
10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury NIV
Isa 44:5 – Tattoo on the
hand
5 One will say, `I belong to the LORD'; another
will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand,
`The LORD's,' and will take the name Israel
2 Chron 26:20 – Leprosy on
the forehead
20 They saw that he had leprosy on his forehead,
so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the
LORD had afflicted him. NIV
Num 12:10-15 – Miriam
marked with leprously like snow.
10 there stood Miriam--leprous, like snow.
15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for
seven days, NIV
Isa 3:9 – See it on their
faces
9 The look on their faces testifies against
them; they parade their sin like Sodom
Gen 4:17 – Cain was married
17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became
pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. NIV
Dan 4:33 – Crazy - ate grass
33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon
Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen,
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like
eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. KJV
Interesting
- Cain went to the “
- This city became a “city of refuge” where a man could
run to so as to not be killed. Cain’s
mark may have been the city itself that protected him. – The building
would have probably started in a cave and over 500 years made into a small
city of mud huts as his family grew.
- He was the ancestor
of Tubal-cain, the first metal worker, ancestor of the purported “Kenites”; a tribe of wandering
metal workers. – Woe-Woe- They
took to the ways of Cain.
- Took’em
out
- They gradually degenerated and become spiritually and morally corrupt
and finally God took out
all of Cain’s descendents in the flood. – You reap what you sow – At some
point the patience of God wears thin and there is no remedy - God will not be mocked.
- Adam and Eve had a
third son; Seth, His descendent
Noah was the only family line to survive the flood. – Noah lived to
be 950 years old - Methuselah lived to a ripe old age of 969.
- Interestingly; to God a day is
like a thousand years – No one every lived over “one day”.
Gen 4:17 – Cain built a city named for his son Enoch
17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant
and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and named it
after his son Enoch. NIV
Jude 11 – Woe to them that
take the way of Cain
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain;
NIV
2 Peter 3:8 – A thousand
years is only a day
8 With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day. NIV
Gen 6:5 – They became
spiritually and morally corrupt
5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness
on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil all the time. NIV
Gal 6:7 – God will not be
mocked
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.
A man reaps what he sows. NIV
2 Chron 36:16 – After a
while – there is no remedy
16 But they mocked God's messengers, despised
his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD
was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. NIV
Jude 10-11 –
Cain spoke abusively and did not have understanding
10 Yet these men speak abusively against
whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by
instinct, like unreasoning animals-these are the very things that destroy
them.
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain;
NIV
Deut 19:2 – City of refuge
2 then set aside for yourselves three cities
centrally located in the land the LORD so that anyone who kills a man may
flee there. NIV
Num 35:12 – Protection
until the trial
12 They will be places of refuge from the
avenger, so that a person accused of
murder may not die before he stands trial NIV
Last Word
- Life is
“Choice Driven”.
–The Lord looks on the thoughts and attitude of man’s heart.
- Cain could have
learned from his experience, but made a life choice to get angry.
- Anger is a foothold for
Satan. – It’s a seed of sin that can mature into a harvest of death.
- Cain in Hebrew means:
Get; acquire; spear –
Probably killed his brother with a spear. – The word Cain is related to
the word meaning “to forge in metal”, hence a “smith”. (Cain’s descendents were
metal workers)
- Abel in Hebrew means;
Vapor; breath; futility – His
life was a vapor.
- Cain’s
offering
was unacceptable because of Cain’s absence of FAITH and lack
of respect.
- The
Mark
- We don’t know what the mark was, but when you saw Cain, immediately you
knew he was under sentence from God and you stayed far away from
him.
- The
Purpose of the Mark was to protect the life of Cain - We find
commands in the OT to build “cities
of refuge” for man to run to for protection till he had his day in
court.
Anger is a foothold for Satan.
Obedience is better than offerings.
Without FAITH it’s impossible to please God.
Matt 12:34-35 – Good comes
out of a good heart
34 For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth
speaks.
35 The good man brings good things out of the
good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil
stored up in him. NIV
1 Sam 16:7 – God looks on
the heart - the reason for actions
7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his
countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for
the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the
LORD looks on the heart. KJV
Rom 2:28 -29 – Circumcision inward of the heart
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly,
nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly;
and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the
written code. NIV
Heb 4:12 – The thoughts and attitudes of the heart
12 For the word of God is living and active.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
NIV
If your eye is on the MARK,
you have missed the point.
FAITH
In the multitude of counselors,
there is wisdom.
Prov 11:14
I am grateful for those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical information, and scripture verses. Because of them I can stand on their shoulders and see further than I otherwise ever could have.
A Commentary, Critical, Experimental and Practical – Erdman’s
Apocrypha; The – Edgar J. Goodspeed
Baker Commentary on the Bible – Walter A. Elwell
Bible Almanac; The – Packer-Tenny- White
Bible Commentary – F.B. Meyer
Bible Dictionary - Harper
CARM – Christian Apologetics &
Research Ministry
– M .J. Slick
Expositor’s Bible Commentary; The – Frank E. Gaebelein
Great Doctrines of the Bible Vol 2 – W.
A. Criswell
Illustrated Bible Dictionary – Nelson’s
Illustrated Bible Dictionary - Tyndale
Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible – Packer-Tenny
Influence; The – A novel – Matthew John Slick
International Dictionary of the Bible; The new – Douglas-Tenney
Josephus; the Jewish Historian A.D. 37-98
Matthew Henry’s Commentary - Zondervan
Mysteries of the Bible – Readers Digest
Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible; The – Zondervan
Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls – Hugh J. Schonfield
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible – T.A. Bryant
Victor
Journey through the Bible; The – V. Gilbert Beers
Where to find it in the Bible – Ken Anderson
Who’s Who in the Bible – Paul D. Gardner
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Wycliffe Bible Commentary; The – Pfeiffer-Harrison
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