The Mark on Cain
- 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
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