Departing from the Lord
And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear! “Behold, Thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Thy face I shall be hidden, and I shall be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and it will come about that whoever finds me will kill me.” 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, lest anyone finding him should slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Gen 4:13-16).
When the Lord told Cain how he could be delivered from depression he did not listen. When we do not heed the Lord, it will usually result in our falling even further into sin, just as it did with Cain. Cain still could have turned to the Lord, humbled himself, and repented, and he would have received help. The Lord warned him that he had to master the sin, but he continued down the path of letting his sin master him.
It is interesting that, even then, Cain understood the law of sowing and reaping, which Paul explained in Gal 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” He knew that because he had murdered his brother, he was in danger of being murdered himself. This is a law that is as sure as the law of gravity. Therefore, if we want to receive grace, we should learn to sow grace every chance that we get. If we want to receive mercy, we should learn to sow mercy every chance we get. If we do good, we will reap good. If we do evil, we will reap the same.
When reading about Cain\’s fear of being murdered, one might think, “Who is going to murder him?” Adam and Eve lived nearly one thousand years. They did begin to fulfill their commission to multiply and fill the earth, having many other sons and daughters. Obviously, there was already a population on the earth by the time Cain slew Abel. They were obviously close relatives to Cain, but he was still afraid of them. He had slain his own brother, so he knew that a brother could slay him. This was accurate enough, because all men ultimately derive their name from the same family, but that has never kept them from attacking one another
- Pray that you will become sensitive to Yahweh and not to nature’s operations. Isa 50.4-5; John 10.7-10.
- Pray that the sun shall not smite you by day nor the moon by night in this season but you shall have the covering of Jehovah upon you, your family, the Body of Christ and the territory.
- Declare that the heavens shall yield their best for you (Psalm 121:6; Deut 33:13-14, Hos 2:21-22).