God’s mercy shows up again after Cain killed Abel. Genesis 4:13-16 records Cain’s despair over his punishment and God’s pity on this unrepentant man.
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; if anyone kills Cain, he 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.Being put away from his home was bad enough, but he would also be put out of the presence of God. This is the equivalent of spiritual death and the lot of every sinner even now.
Cain also would be restless and wandering, worried that he was a target and concerned for his own life. (Nod means “wandering.”) This also describes what happens when anyone sins. Guilt is a worry, a looking over one’s shoulder fearing consequences and punishment.
Even with Jesus Christ in my life and knowing the security of my salvation, when I sin, I have a sense of being set outside God’s family. While this cannot happen literally, the feeling of it does happen. Sin produces a sense of isolation, of being out of touch and out of fellowship with other Christians and with God.
I am also restless, wandering through my hours and days without that former assurance of God’s guidance and direction. I worry about my life, and might even begin to fear death. My assurance fades and the sense of being loved and cared for begins to slip.
Cain illustrates this, but Cain didn’t do anything about it. He never expressed sorrow to God for what he had done. He only felt sorry for himself and his misery over the punishment God inflicted.
There is a lesson here. When I sin, God wants repentance. Repentance is sorrow for sin and a deep desire to turn from it to God. I know that when I repent, my fellowship is restored and my wandering ceases. Cain missed that.
Yet what happened next is a remarkable thing. Cain seemed unrepentant yet God was gracious to him. He marked Cain in some way so that no one would kill him. His life was held and protected by the mercy of God.
Cain’s mark is not described, yet the symbolism of it is illustrated throughout Scripture. People sin, yet the mercy of God preserves them and allows them to live. We are given more than a second chance to turn from sin to God simply because God is merciful.
As one who has received His mercy, I’m to pass it on. When someone sins against me, I’m to be merciful, even protecting them from the consequences of their sin in whatever capacity that I can. This includes non-retaliation and forgiveness on my part. I cannot remove their guilt (only God can), but I can be merciful.
Apart from the mercy of God and repentance, I know that I would be like Cain in his misery, feeling ostracized from humanity, driven from the presence of God, and wandering through life looking over my shoulder or waiting for the other shoe to drop. What hits me about this description of Cain is that much of the world’s population does feel like him. Without knowing of the mercy of God, sinners know only despair, emptiness and fear. They are unable to show mercy to others in their guilt and wander in the land of Nod.
The good news is that this does not have to continue. The Lamb of God took our guilt upon Himself and died for our sin. By faith in Him, sinners can belong to God’s family, enjoy God’s presence, and lose that fear of punishment and death. Jesus ends our wandering by giving us an eternal home and a resting place in Him.
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