Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sermon preached on Genesis 4 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/02/2023 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We continue today in Genesis chapter 4 after focusing last week on verses 1-10, where we saw the Cain murder his brother. Today, we’ll read about the consequences that God puts upon Cain here. And what might strike you is how much grace God extends to Cain after he so ruthlessly murdered his innocent brother. This introduces us here to the concept of common grace, where we learn that God does extend varying measures of grace upon sinful humans. This is general grace, not saving grace. Saving grace is that grace he gives his elect to save them from eternal damnation through Christ. But this common grace does not bring eternal salvation and is common to all mankind, saved or not. Both the righteous and wicked will experience varying measures of God’s common grace in this life. So today we’ll think about this as we find it first introduced here in Scripture. And we will also recognize how common grace is ultimately a servant to God’s bigger plans, including in matters of justice and salvation.
But first, let us then begin by considering God’s curse here upon Cain. That is the background for which we see God’s common grace. That curse is issued beginning in verse 11. Like the curse issued on his parents, his curse is also specific to his vocation. Up to this point Cain had been a farmer and now in verse 11 God is cursing him from the ground. Now the ground would no longer give him the kind of yield it once did. God says this will require Cain to become a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. He’ll become a nomad living off the land going from place to place instead of someone who’s settled in a particular location where they are working and farming the land over a period of time. God puts this in terms of the lex talionis principle, which is the principle that says the punishment fits the crime. He references in verse 10 that Abel’s blood is crying to God from the ground. Cain had spilt Abel’s blood onto the ground and so now the ground who has opened up its mouth to receive his brother’s blood will no longer give him anything back. So the result of this for him would be to lose his existing life and preferred lifestyle. He’ll have to find some other way to survive and move away from everything that he’s known so far and go into a sort of exile.
That being said if this was the totality of God’s justice I still might wonder if it did ultimately fit the crime. Soon enough God would tell Noah in Genesis 9:6 the principal that whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. When we get there, we will see that God enshrines via special revelation the concept of capital punishment in the case of murder, which is a concept that certainly could have been inferred by natural law. But for the immediate moment God hereby shows much mercy to an unrepentant Cain by issuing this curse upon the ground for him. Here is some of that common grace already being expressed, with mercy shown to an unrepentant Cain. For Cain, this degree of mercy here could be thought of delaying the inevitable for Cain. He is a lost soul. Yet, that is part of what common grace is. It shows undeserved mercy to even lost souls, and one thing that does for them is give them opportunity to yet repent. Though God knows Cain will not go on to do that, nonetheless it is merciful of God that he yet provides to Cain such opportunity for repentance. It is a function of common grace then even to deliver such a merciful sentence here upon Cain.
This then leads to Cain’s response. I can’t help but think it is one of the most shocking responses in scripture. He responds with an appeal to God in the form of a complaint. Unashamedly, Cain actually asserts the opposite of what I just said, claiming that his punishment went too far. His argument is to say that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime because by making him a wanderer like this it will leave him open to the situation that whoever comes across him may kill him. I am not sympathetic to this in the least since if that were the case he would surely just be getting what he deserved. His response shows how unrepentant Cain was. But the idea here of his complaint is along the lines that people who are out on their own wandering around don’t have the same ability of protection as someone living in a more settled location alongside others.
Let’s turn now to our second point and see how God graciously responds to Cain’s appeal starting in verse 15. There we find that God promises Cain would be avenged if anyone would try to come along and kill Cain in his state as a wanderer. Verse 15, “So the LORD said to him, ‘Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.’” There are several things to understand here. First off, he addresses Cain’s concern that being a wandering exile could make him vulnerable to being murdered, by saying that if that were to happened, he’d be avenged. In other words, if someone comes along and takes advantage of Cain’s circumstances, they will not go unpunished for such an evil. Second, for God to say that this vengeance would be sevenfold is surely to say that it will be a complete justice. Seven in Scripture is that number of completion, since God completed creation in seven days. So, for God to say justice would be served against any would-be murderer of Cain in a sevenfold fashion is to say that such a murderer would be held fully accountable for their actions. Third, we might note that it does not say who would bring the vengeance upon any would-be murderer of Cain. However, surely this is to be understood in context as what we call a divine passive, that God in one way or another would see that any murderer of Cain would be properly dealt with in terms of justice. God is the ultimate source of justice, and as Deuteronomy 32:35 would later record God saying, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Or Psalm 94:1, calls the LORD the “God of vengeance”. I would note that while this truth is here meant to assure Cain in his situation, he should realize this truth goes both ways. God here assures Cain that should anyone murder him, they won’t go unpunished, but be properly and fully dealt with. But that would surely be true for Cain too, that his murder of Abel will be also be sevenfoldly dealt with by God ultimately, but I digress.
Realize that this whole discussion implies a sort of gap in society at this time. At this early stage of human history, we are yet to find at Cain’s day a civil government with a physical sword that would execute sevenfold justice against murderers. If there were, you might even imagine Cain would have to answer to such a magistrate for murdering Abel. Cain here, being in league with the serpent, was in need of being subdued by man. And so, when Cain here raises this concern that being a wandering exile might result in him being unjustly murdered, God’s response actually begins to lay down a foundation for civil government and its pursuit of justice. Cain’s concern expressed the need for such criminal justice and God’s promise holds in seed form the hope of a more formal criminal justice system to yet to come forth among of humanity.
So then, God then takes this promise that he gives to Cain and strengthens it with a sign. The end of verse 15 says that God then put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Let me note right away that while some kind of “mark” put physically on Cain is likely the correct interpretation, but that obscures the literal language here. The word for “mark” here in the Hebrew is really the word usually translated as “sign” and so often used in the context of a sign of a covenant. So yes, verse 15 speaks of some sign that would somehow try to warn evil people against attacking Cain. It seems the sign would serve some function of deterrence against crimes against Cain. But we aren’t told what the sign was visibly speaking. And so, before we get lost into speculating what specifically this sign or mark looked like, we should recognize how this sign language makes this look covenantal. God adds to the strength of his promise with this sign, which makes it a covenantal oath of sorts.
So then, what we find with God’s response to Cain’s appeal here is that there is a the beginnings of common grace even put in covenantal terms. This will become more clearly enshrined in chapter 9 with Noah, and there will be remarkable similarities. As already stated, there in chapter 9, God will speak of how murder is not to go unpunished, and even calls mankind to enforce that. There in chapter 9 that common grace covenant will also be given a sign, the rainbow. So, in chapter 4, we see the seeds of even a common grace covenant.
So then, we begin to see Cain live out his curse in verse 16. It says that Cain goes away from the presence of the LORD, ultimately to wander into exile into the land of Nod, east of Eden. That reflects how he moved away from where the other settled people were, off on his own. It’s interesting the reference to moving away from Eden. When Adam and Eve fell, we note that God didn’t actually destroy Eden, just bar them from it. One might wonder if they saw in that a hope that they might one day graciously be allowed to return to Eden. But in Cain’s case, he’s going the opposite direction. His wandering exile takes him even farther from Eden.
Let us now turn in our third point to consider Cain’s lineage and the civilization that develops from it. Now, I’ve already mentioned that we should see Cain as actually the seed of the serpent. And I think what becomes clear in this chapter is that Genesis is painting his line in general as of the seed of the serpent versus next chapter we will see the line of Seth being painted as the seed of the woman, i.e. the godly line. Yes, over time that lineage will not be so clearly demarcated by genealogy, but for now that is how it begins to manifest itself.
So then, notice how Cain’s line develops starting in verse 17. Cain and his wife have a child named Enoch. By the way, yes, in these initial generations his wife was presumably a sister, and God did not issue any laws against such close unions until later in human development, and so there was nothing wrong with this at that time. So then, we see that ultimately there is a city founded and named after Enoch. Let us not read over that too quickly. Cane’s lineage establishes the first recorded city in the Bible. Recognize how this begins to look to address his accursed situation. Cain had expressed the concern that a life of wandering would make him in danger of being the victim of criminal activity. But when a city is eventually founded, that would be a beginning to mitigate this risk. Creating a city certainly wouldn’t be the solution to prevent all crimes. But the building of a city would provide various benefits to humanity over just a nomadic lifestyle, including the opportunity for civil government that even had a sword to execute that sort of sevenfold justice that God commended to Cain. And surely the fact that the city was named after Enoch shows that a civil government was beginning to be formed here. For the city to be named Enoch implies that the city would be governed by Enoch and his dynasty, since it is basically ”his” city. By analogy, we think of how later Jesus would say that Roman coinage ultimately belonged to Caesar since it bore his image on it. So too, this city that bore Enoch’s name was a city under Enoch and his descendants’ rule. So then, the formation of this city and the related government and justice and other benefits, was also a function of God’s common grace. It was gracious of God to allow sinfully wayward man to establish and build up such a place. The formation of cities has been important to the advance of civilization, and we should see God’s common grace behind it.
So then, from there we see yet further cultural advancement starting in verse 20. Cain’s lineage gets the credit for the development of three artifacts of cultural advancement. In verse 20, we see the practice of animal husbandry under the labor of Jabal. In verse 21, we see the creation of music with musical instruments under Jubal. In verse 21, we see the advancement of metallurgy under Tubal-cain, with bronze and iron working. All of this is from the line and legacy of sinful Cain. God’s promise to Cain confirmed with a sign was an expression of common grace, and it bore the fruit in his lineage with such artifacts of cultural development. And so even among godless people, great human achievements are accomplished.
Realize that such common grace was God allowing fallen man to still begin to realize some of what he had originally intended for humanity. If Adam and Eve had never fallen into sin, the advancement of civilization in terms of city-building and other inventions surely would have still happened, and in an even more glorious fashion. But that fallen humanity could still enjoy some flourishing of humanity despite their sinfulness, is a fruit of common grace.
Despite all these positive advancements, we are reminded nonetheless of the ongoing sinfulness of man. This is how common grace works, especially among the godless. God’s common grace enables them to achieve various things, yet not without those things being affected by sin. This is highlighted starting in verse 23 with Cain’s descendent Lamech, who we are likely to presume is now the ruler of this city of Enoch. Notice the sinful perversions that Lamech introduces here. Lamech perverts the institution of marriage by taking to himself two wives. Lamech also perverts the institution of civil government by murdering a man that just wounded him, and then declaring that if anyone does anything about it he will be avenged seventy-seven fold. Lamech’s murder of that man shows that Lamech is Cain’s son, not to mention Satan’s son. But for Lamech in verse 24 to threaten a seventy-sevenfold vengeance is to surely show himself as a sort of tyrant king. If God’s promise to Cain of a sevenfold vengeance represented a promise of complete and equitable justice, Lamech is basically threatening to give a grossly excessive punishment for any who would dare oppose him. So Lamech perverts both justice and marriage. And you will notice that verses 23-24 are placed as poetry, essentially showing that not only did he commit this immorality, but he even celebrated it. As a side application, while Lamech here perverts justice with excessive retribution, Jesus called Christians to the opposite, to instead be willing to excessively forgive, and not even just seven times, but seventy times seven. Jesus probably had this passage in mind. Such abundant forgiveness makes sense because of how abundant God has been in forgiving us in Christ Jesus.
So then, we’ve seen common grace here today, and its outworking in Cain’s lineage, even among sinners. Last week we spoke of the vanities of life in this fallen world, yet common grace is a God-given mitigating factor to that vanity. Things are bad in this fallen world, but because of common grace they are not as bad as they otherwise would be. Common grace provides natural blessings like the sun and rain needed so everyone can have food and drink. Common grace restrains sin in man’s heart, even in the wicked. Common grace is why there is yet truth, goodness, and beauty able to be recognized in this world, amidst various cultural advancements.
Recognize then that such common grace becomes the environment by which God works his redemptive promises. He didn’t kill Adam and Eve, nor Cain, when they first sinned, even though God would have been in the right to do so. Instead, it is a common grace that he sustains our lives, so that we could even have opportunity to come to know God’s saving grace. Even for the reprobate, common grace all the more removes any excuse on their part. And think about this in terms of the gospel promise in Genesis 3:15. For that to be fulfilled, God must maintain the humanity until the promised seed was born. And now, he keeps the human race going so that the gospel can go forth and he can gather in the fullness of his elect, so that not one would be lost. Common grace serves God’s plan of salvation in these ways.
In conclusion, I’ll give three final applications. One, common grace, while not saving grace, is still grace, and so let us thank God for it. Two, common grace serves saving grace, so don’t harden your heart against God’s grace like Cain did. Three, this common grace today has begun to point you to a fuller picture of glory. What I mean is that so far in Genesis I’ve helped us to consider how the paradise lost of Eden looks forward to a new Eden-like paradise ahead for us in glory. But today’s passage introduced the value of a city. And in fact, this is also part of our eternal hope. Remember, the book of Revelation describes our eternal hope not only as a new Eden. It especially describes it as a New Jerusalem come down out of heaven, complete with walls, and gates, and foundation stones. And so, glory is pictured with garden-like imagery, but it is even more so pictured as a magnificent city. A grand and glorious city, full of only righteous people, where righteousness reigns, and led not by a tyrant but by a benevolent king, even Jesus our Lord. Let us set our eyes on such a future city.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
