Cain's Wanderings

03/06/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Cain’s Wandering

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 4:11-15

            Message of the verse:  “11 ‘Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  12 ‘When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.’  13 Cain said to the LORD, ‘My punishment is too great to bear!  14 ‘Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’  15 So the LORD said to him, ‘Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.”

            After the murder of Able by Cain God spells out the punishment for Cain, which is that he will never again be able to farm the soil in order to get his living.  God told Cain that he would be a wanderer on the earth; he would not have a home to live in and be able to stay in one place.  This punishment was a great burden on Cain and he spoke to the Lord about it, but he never repented of his sin of killing his brother.  Cain has a slippery slope down the ladder of sin, and it can be seen that he was a child of the devil.

            All that Cain did in his life was worthless, for after he left home and had children and their children had children and so on until the flood they would all perish, as the only one’s to survive would be the offspring of his brother Seth who would be born of Adam and Eve to replace Able whom Cain had murdered.

Cain was afraid that someone would kill him, but God put some kind of a sign or mark on him so that if anyone would kill him vengeance would be taken out sevenfold. 

There are some questions here that are not answered, but one can make some reasonable guesses for their answers.  Where did Cain get his wife?  I believe that because the gene pool was much more pure at that time and one could actually marry their sister and eventually their cousins without any type of bad affects like would happen today if this would be done.  Why was not Cain killed for killing his brother?  Capital punishment had not been established at this time, but would be later by God, and it has never been taken away by God to this day.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  All of Cain’s problems began when he fell to his temptations and did not trust the Lord to get him past those temptations without sinning.  Temptation is not a sin and 1Cor. 10:13 comes into play here:  “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

The Word of God has been challenging to my heart as I have read it today.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to direct my path and to also teach me contentment.