THE MARK OF CAIN

While the Scriptures do not tell us much about Cain, what they do reveal is excitingly interesting. We cannot be sure whether our first parents would have brought children into this world had they not sinned and had remained in the Garden of Eden, or whether having children was related to their fallen nature. Those of us with children and grandchildren can appreciate an interpretation that would make such an experience a punishment from God!

Anyway Cain was the first child to be born into this world, and it says much about human nature that he was destined to be guilty of fratricide in that he killed his own brother. The first man born became the first murderer, which is about where we are in this world! When we add the sobering truth that whoever hates his brother is a murderer (l Jn. 3:15), we have to concede that ours is a fratricidal world.

The early chapters of Genesis are drenched with sin, and they reveal that man’s sin was progressive, with Gen. 4:7 indicating that sin, like an evil beast, crouched at man’s very doorstep. God warns man that sin sought to dominate him and that he must withstand its power. Even though this admonition was directed to Cain when he reacted with arrogance and self-will when God rejected his sacrifice while accepting his brother’s, Cain could not or would not handle temptation.

If the heavy hand of sin in those early years of history is impressive, the outpouring of God’s grace should impress us even more. This is where the mark of Cain enters. While it is common to view the mark, whatever it was, as an expression of God’s indignation, the record indicates that it was an act of grace. That is our subject in this article, grace, God’s wonderful grace as indicated in the mark of Cain, along with that grace whereby God has always “marked” his covenant people.

Look at Cain. When Jude (verse 11) reaches deep into history to describe the human predicament, he writes: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain.” And 1 Jn. 3:12 names him as being of the evil one in that he murdered his brother. “And wherefore slew he him? Because his own deeds were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”

The Genesis account reveals Cain to be sullen, arrogant, haughty, and self-willed. Being a farmer, he brought the fruit of the ground as an offering to God, but it was not “by faith” as was Abel’s, according to Heb. 11:4. Cain’s heart was not right. While Abel had witness born to him that he was righteous (by his sacrifice of a lamb being ignited by God?), the sacrifice of Cain was rejected. This angered proud Cain and he was sullen and resentful, so much so that God confronted him about his attitude, warning him about the destructive nature of sin.

Now Cain lures his brother: “Let’s go out into the field.” In his humility Abel was not suspicious of his brother’s treachery. Many a man has tricked his own brother, feigning good intentions. Even in the church many unsuspecting brethren, who dare to be different, have been lured into meetings that were really kangaroo courts. Sir Walter Scott named it when he wrote: “O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” A lot of deception goes on in the church, and it does indeed weave a tangled web. Even preachers have been known to do each other in. And then they have to cover their tracks, deceit begetting deceit. They walk in the way of Cain. Brave men use a knife or a club to kill, while cowards use innuendo and slander. Cain hated and killed the body, while his followers hate and kill the spirit.

Tradition has it that once Cain had murdered his brother, he did not know how to dispose of his body since funerals were not yet in vogue. Seeing a bird bury one of its own kind, he proceeded to inter Abel’s body. It is a matter of record that God brings Cain to account: “Where is Abel your brother?,” God asked, according to Gen. 4:9.

Cain’s answer was arrogant as well as a lie: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Too much has been made of Cain’s response, as if to suggest that he should have been his brother’s keeper. There is no indication that God expected Cain to be his brother’s keeper, but He did expect him to be his brother’s brother. We already have too many around, besides those who run zoos, who want to be somebody’s keeper, some of whom are Washington bureaucrats. I think I know more about how to run my life, including whether or not I wear a seatbelt (which I do!), than some politician in Washington. I do not want anybody, including my dear sisters and brothers in Christ, serving as my keeper. This is why I think preachers should teach and preach the word and not bother with such matters as whether the women should wear pantsuits. This is one way in which we can all be like Cain. We are not called to be keepers. We are called to be brothers and sisters, and to treat each other that way.

God now brings Cain to judgment: “What have you done’? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” He thus became the first man to be cursed by his Maker: “You are now cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.” God goes on to strip Cain of his occupation; he could never again till the soil with success. He was sentenced to be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. He was judged not because he failed to be his brother’s keeper but because he had murdered his brother.

At this point the floodgate of God’s mercy opens up, as it always does, even in the face of intolerable sin. Cain complains that “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” for he realizes that once he is a wanderer upon the earth, outside God’s protective care, that he will be killed. If God responded to that as an exacting judge, He would have told Cain that death at another’s hand would be his just end. He rather responds as the gracious and merciful God that He is. So that Cain would not be killed God set a mark upon him.

The nature of the mark has set off a lot of speculation. One view is that Cain had a white tongue, another that a horn protruded from his forehead, another was that he was the first black man. These imply that the mark was an evil omen, expressive of God’s anger. It was rather a mark of grace, indicating that God was still protecting him.

That is the lesson. As vile and vicious as Cain was, still God’s grace reached out to him. Will it not also reach out to us, however bad we may be? God will mark any of us with His protective love if we will allow Him to do so.

We cannot be sure how farreaching grace was in the case of Cain. He lived on in the land of Nod for a time, but he eventually (he and his descendants) built a great city, invented musical instruments, founded brass and iron works. Through Cain man moved from a wandering pastoral life toward modern civilization. If grace is unpredictable, it is also unpredictable what change may come in the life of one touched by grace. In the end Cain may have been one of God’s heroes.

We who are followers of the humble Nazarene have “the mark of Cain” as it were in that there is an unmistakable mark that sets us apart as his disciples. This is the love of Christ, the highest expression of God’s grace. Jesus identifies “love one another even as I have loved you” as the one sign that will make it evident to all men that we are truly his disciples. “By this love will all men know that you are my disciples,” he assures us in Jn. 13:35.

Love is thus the badge of the Christian, the sure sign of discipleship. And love is the fruit of the Spirit, which is the mark behind the mark of the true disciple. We love only because the Spirit bears the fruit of love in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). The Spirit is the seal that gives evidence that God has anointed us, according to 2 Cor. 1:21-22. The Jerusalem Bible gives an exciting translation of those verses: “Remember it is God himself who assures us all, and you, of our standing in Christ, and has anointed us, marking us with his seal and giving us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.”

Like Cain we are marked by God’s grace, even more abundantly, for it is the Holy Spirit that lives with us and in us and bears the fruit of love. And this grace is for all, including those who have walked in the old way of Cain, destroying brotherhood in one way or another. God’s gracious markings bear evidence that man can change and be changed. —the Editor