Genesis 4 Commentary
If sin leads to death, it is the death of the righteous, not the wicked! Sinful Cain escapes death; righteous Abel pays the penalty.
By the statement “…You must not touch it, or you will die”, did the LORD God point to a situation like we have with Cain and Abel? That the presence of disobedience or sin results in activities that lead to death? Death, the result of wickedness, and not exactly the result of God’s decree?
This kind of death, maybe a different kind of death, who knows? Genesis is a string of endless questions! There is a loose end everywhere!
Regardless, we have the first funeral in creation. Probably Adam and Eve don’t know what has happened. But God knows. Abel is not mourned by his parents; God mourns him.
Adam’s sin saw him scattered from Eden to work the ground. Now Cain is punished further by being scattered from the ground into a life of wandering. The ground won’t produce anything for him, not even after sweating on it!
You wonder why the LORD God shows up only after trouble, only to investigate or bury the dead! We need to get things straight. The LORD was always present by his Word – the commandment. “Don’t eat”. When the serpent spoke lies, the LORD spoke in a straight line: “Don’t eat”. The LORD is present by His Word!
In the Book of Exodus, we shall encounter the Ark of the Covenant. It represents the Presence of the LORD God. It is a small golden box with nothing inside but the Word of the LORD God – the Ten Commandments. It becomes the essence of the Sanctuary and later the Temple of the LORD God.
Verses 6 and 7 show us that the LORD God intervenes but Cain won’t listen. Cain fails to rule over sin. Loss of dominion can be connected here.
The difference between father and son is in the controlling factor. Adam has the serpent pulling the strings. Cain has sin pulling the strings. Both are scattered from their dwelling places.
Life, death, and the ground are symbols whose meanings need localization depending on the context. We could borrow the concepts from the previous chapter but only sparingly. Otherwise, we land ourselves in deeper confusion. If the result of sin is death, the LORD God should be happy that Cain is killed, if not by the LORD God Himself, another human should do it. But wait a minute… Cain is marked by the LORD God for protection!
The generosity of the LORD God is impossible to understand!
We also see justice. Poor Abel’s blood is the reason the ground won’t produce for Cain. It is the blood that speaks for Abel.
It should be strange that there is no other spokesperson for Abel – then his blood won’t even spill! The gospel is that a man doesn’t have to wait for his own blood to speak for him. The blood of the Lamb (Jesus) does speak for you. And what a loud message!
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