Well, if you would turn to Genesis chapter 4, we're in
Genesis chapter 4 continuing the story of Cain and Abel.
A few moments ago, we took special note of sanctity of Life
Sunday, right? And it's great that here on
Sanctity of Life Sunday, we would be addressing the first
death in human history. How appropriate for us to be
talking about these things. So as we look into this
particular death on this day given to promoting the sanctity
of human life, I'm reminded of a pro-life billboard I saw once
that said abortion. Deep down, you know what's
wrong. The militant push for abortions
in our nation is an example of people becoming desensitized to
death. Even outside of the abortion
conversation, many have become calloused to death.
Death is so much a part of life that it seldom grips and tears
us to shreds. Sure, we grieve when someone
close dies, but other than that, we know death is coming.
The statistics on death are impressive. 1 out of every one
person dies. We check the many forms of news
at our disposal and we're likely to see and read about to death.
Whether it's under natural circumstances, accidents or
murders. We're daily reminded that we
live in a fallen world under the presence and power of sin and
death is part of life. As followers of Christ, we
believe that our God is not a God of death, but of life.
Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.
He wants to bring death wherever he goes.
But Jesus literally said I came that they may have life.
Jesus and Satan are at odds in this world, Satan working to
extinguish life and Jesus working to make life abundant.
If you're able, would you stand? As we read from Genesis chapter
4, verses 8 through 16, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and
when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother
Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain,
Where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, What have you
done? The voice of your brother's
blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its
mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its
strength. You shall be a fugitive and a
wanderer on the earth, Cain said to the Lord.
My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from
your face. I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will kill me. Then the Lord said to him, Not
so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance
shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain,
lest any who found him should attack him.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled
in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Let's pray. Father God is we approach this
passage this morning. There are some things that will
be difficult to address and my prayer this morning is that your
heart is what shines through in all the words that I share this
morning. May it be your heart of
compassion, your grace, your mercy that is on display this
morning even as we look at a topic like death in Jesus name,
Amen, You may be seated. So our study this morning begins
at the logical place. Cain kills his brother Abel.
Like we know this, right? We, we, we expected this.
We knew this was coming, this. But this wasn't just a crime of
passion, something done in in the heat of the moment of our
common Bible translations, about half of them say that Cain was
talking with Abel. And then, and then casually, the
setting moves to out in the field where Abel was killed.
The NIV, the NLT, New Revised Standard, and the Christian
Standard Bible all translate verse eight in a much different
manner. They each say something like one
day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the
fields. And while they were in the
field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
These translations point to a nefarious purpose in Kane's
conversation with his brother. He wasn't just asking for his
brother's help with something out in the field.
His goal was to lure Abel to the field and there with no one
around murder him. Now not to state the obvious,
but Kane killed his brother like he killed his brother.
Yes, that is the point that I'm making here.
I know you know that, but it's important that we start there.
This short section on Cain and Abel refers to Abel's Abel's
brother 6 times. Actually, I should say Cain's
brother 6 times from verses 8 all the way all the when he's
introduced, all the way through the end of this section, it
mentions his brother. Now why does that matter?
Well, this this passage serves to tell us that Cain's treatment
of his brother is intrinsically related to his relationship with
Yahweh. I put that there on the note
sheet. Cain's treatment of his brother
is intrinsically related to his relationship with Yahweh.
If his relationship with Yahweh was close then then he would
have treated his brother with respect and dignity, right?
But his relationship with Yahweh was strained.
We know that from the very beginning.
He was literally at odds with Yahweh.
So destroying another image bearer, another human, wasn't
out of the question. When I think of this, my mind is
is immediately drawn to the New Testament.
In Luke 10, Jesus was confronted by a lawyer, I'm guessing
probably a Pharisee, somebody who knew the law really well.
He wanted to know, how do I inherit eternal life?
So Jesus asked him, well, you're a lawyer, you tell me, what does
the law say? And and we read in Luke 1027, he
says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your
mind, and your neighbor, neighbor as yourself.
Jesus told the man he'd answered correctly and to live in this
manner. But then verse 29 shows us his
real motive. It says he, desiring to justify
himself said to Jesus, who's my neighbor?
Like who do I really have to love?
Do I have to love that person that that is not like me?
Do I have to love that person who hates God?
Do I have to love that that person that just cut me off?
Do I have to love illegals? Do I have to love ICE?
Do I have to love the protesters?
Do I have to love people I don't like?
The answer to all of it is yes. You see, the way of Jesus is
different than the world's ways. And Jesus went on to tell the
story of the Good Samaritan. I know you're familiar with it.
He would. He was robbed, beaten and left
for dead. A priest come, comes by, sees
him and passes by on the other side.
Then a Levite comes by, sees him, also passes by on the other
side, and the one who stops, Luke 1033 tells us the
Samaritan, somebody who shouldn't be stopping in this
situation. The Samaritan as he journeyed
came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion.
You see the Samaritans and Jews hated each other, like actually
hated each other. They were actually racist
towards each other. The Jews hated the Samaritans
because they were, they were half breeds.
These were people who had returned from the exile and in
the exile the Jews had had intermarried with the Assyrians
and Babylonians. And so then they return and they
are no longer purely Jewish descent, that now they are
mixed. And so the Jews hated the
Samaritans. And of course, when you're hated
as strongly as they were, you repay in kind, right?
They hated them back. Now that was the situation here.
But it's the Samaritan who stops and helps this person.
He was the Good Samaritan. As I relate this passage this
morning, thinking about Cain and Abel, the the Good Samaritan's
actions, and Jesus exhortation towards compassion, I can't help
but grieve over what's happening in our country.
Whether you agree or disagree with the president's attempt to
remove illegals from this country, it's clear that the
image bearers of God are being violated.
I'm stepping it this morning, but this is what God has given
me. I've agonized and agonized over
this this morning all week. I should say what to share.
That's something I see that I think grieves God's heart.
Some conservatives lack compassion and neglect to see
the human side of the immigration issue, an issue
which I might add, is important to me.
Without immigration, I don't have the wife and family that I
have now. Some neglect to see the human
side of this issue, casting all immigrants under under the
derogatory label of illegals, whom I might add, are also image
bearers of God. Before I continue, allow me to
share part of an e-mail that that I received from our
denomination this week. It recounts some of the
experiences that Pastor Joel Ramirez of Iglesia Centro
Cristiano in South Minneapolis has recently had.
Dear friends, several people have asked how I am doing and
how our congregation is navigating this difficult
season. The best way I can answer is by
sharing a glimpse into one ordinary day and the larger
reality surrounding it. Yesterday was meant to be my day
off. By mid morning that changed.
We received an urgent call asking us to rush to Anoka.
A church members brother and nephew had gone to handle a
simple car related matter and found themselves surrounded by a
ICE agents in the parking lot. When we arrived they were
already gone. Only the empty car remained.
Throughout the day, we encountered the quiet wait many
families are carrying. A young girl proudly recited
Bible verses she memorized in English and Spanish, while her
mother, seven months pregnant, shared that she rarely leaves
home out of fear, despite having her paperwork in process.
We delivered groceries to a family new to our church, living
cramped in a in a basement with three children, one with Down
syndrome. The parents now take turns
leaving the house so their children won't risk losing both
parents at the same time. That same day, their daughter
turned 14. No party, no guess, just a
cheesecake, prayer and tears. That evening we drove a woman
home because she was too afraid to take an Uber after hearing
stories of ICE detentions involving Latino writers.
We also visited a 16 year old whose mother has been suffering
severe stomach pain for weeks but is afraid to seek medical
care even though she has a valid work permit and a pending asylum
case. This is where I'm stopping with
the e-mail. But the e-mail goes on to talk
about how drastically attendance has been impacted in their
church, in their bodies, of course, as well as how how some
parents are are taking legal steps to assign custody for
their children in the events that one of them is removed so
that they their children aren't taken over by the States.
It's a sad time. Wherever you sit on the
situation, hopefully you can see the humanity in this.
And similar stories are told all over the Twin Cities and in many
other parts of our nation. People who are here legally
finding themselves living in fear because a portion of our
government has lost all compassion and neglected to
remember that we are all people bearing God's image.
So as Christ followers, we value life, all life, because our
relationship with Him dictates it.
Sanctity of life doesn't just mean before birth, it also means
from the cradle to the grave. Every person's life, no matter
their age or capabilities, their socio economic status, orphaned
or adopted, healthy or on life supports, all, all are precious
in God's sight and I know that will offend you.
I take issue with it because I don't want to love everybody
sometimes, but this is God's word.
My challenge to us this morning is that we begin to see others
as our brothers and sisters, fellow image bearers who who
Christ died for, and allow yourself to be moved with
compassion for their plight. Now that the heavy stuff out of
the way, that was kind of introductory.
So we move on to God confronting Cain in verses 9 through 10.
The Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother?
He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the
ground. The first thing God asked was,
where is Abel? Of course, God already knows,
but but he's giving Cain the opportunity to come clean, to
confess his sin. Cain's response is purely flesh,
a snarky, I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?
Cain had abdicated his position. He was Adam and Eve's oldest,
the the third caretaker in the world.
He's just the third human in the world.
He he held a special place. But he had exchanged that
position for anger and instead opted for killing his brother.
This isn't the first time the word keep shows up in scripture
though. The word somer was also used
back in Genesis 215 where it said the Lord God took the man
and put him in the garden to work it and keep it.
So his job is to to look out for the land and to take care of it
and help it to be productive. He kept watch over it for it's
good. Adam had been keeper of the
garden, but here the object being guarded over should have
been another human being able. All of us humans have been given
the same task by God to be keepers of the world and and
help it both the earth and humanity to be as good and
profitable as it can be. Cain's obligation to the earth
and humanity means the answer to the question am I my brother's
keeper is a resounding yes, you are your brother's keeper.
Yes, Cain is his brother's keeper.
Cain wasn't off the hook with Abel.
There was an obligation on his part to look out for his family.
Now I'm not sure what kind of like existential threats there
that might have already existed at this point in time.
Of course there's threats from animals, but I don't know if
other people were pondering murdering people or something
like that where, where things had been at this point.
It's hard for us to understand that so early in humanity's
history. But taking the life of his
brother, this, this was completely unfathomable, hadn't
been done before, yet he somehow ventured into this uncharted
territory. He failed to uphold his
community responsibility. Moses contemporaries, hearing
this for the first time, would have immediately recognized this
to be particularly heinous. To kill his brother.
This this violated community solidarity which was highly
esteemed among the Hebrew people.
We are free to choose our actions, but we are not free to
choose the consequences of our actions.
Cain had free will and he abused it.
So now we turn our attention to the curse on Cain.
Verse 11 reads Now you are cursed from the ground which has
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its
strength. You shall be a fugitive and a
wanderer on the earth. The first part of the curse
meant that he was cursed from the ground.
Cane is simply cursed from the ground.
In the garden there was lush provision for food.
Everything was perfect outside the garden.
There was arable land where humans could cultivate the land
to be what they needed. Cain worked the ground, it would
give him a great yield. It's it's strength is how God
referred to it. He got a great return on his
time invested into farming the land, but now the ground was no
longer going to to easily yield its crop in the same way that it
had. And so since the ground is no
longer going to be as as productive, he's now destined to
become a hunter gatherer as he's driven to a place that has no
hope of agriculture. And this brings us to the second
parts of the curse. He was exiled to wander.
He is exiled to wander. Genesis 46 told us where he
went. 46416 told us where he went.
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled
in the land of Nod or Node, east of Eden.
Over the years there have been attempts to locate the land of
Node. You see Eden there and southern
Iraq. This is where the the Euphrates,
the Tigers, the Gihon and the Pichon rivers.
We don't know all of these rivers, couple of them are
harder to nail down, but we can presume that Eden was likely
somewhere there in southern Iraq.
And so if Cain goes to to the land of Node, he's going
somewhere east of it. So we don't know exactly where.
It could be that maybe he's still in Iraq, maybe he's
actually in Iran, another place. I hope you're paying attention
to what's going on there because certain portions of the media
are not talking about this. But God has been working around
the world, especially in Islamic regions in Iran.
He's working there as well as those people are fighting for
their freedom. So it could be that perhaps Cain
was exiled to somewhere in Iran. We, we, we don't know exactly
because it just says Adam and Eve went east of the garden and
all it says is Cain went east. We don't know if that means east
of the garden or if he went further E further into Iran.
We don't know exactly. You know, there's no sign that
says welcome to Node, the home of Cain.
You know, as as we would put up now these days.
Oh, this is the home of President Ronald Reagan's
birthplace I saw the other day. You know, there's no sign like
that. We have no idea really where
node is, even the city he built called Enoch.
We don't know where it's located either.
But let me let you in on a little secret.
There might be a reason why we don't know.
I and many scholars don't think it's an actual place.
The word node actually means exile or wandering.
The last verse of this section, verse 16, could then be
translated. Cain went away from the presence
of the Lord and settled in the land of wandering, the land of
exile east of Eden. Part of the curse involved his
exile, so it makes perfect sense for Moses to write that Cain
settled in the land of wandering.
Now being a wanderer is one thing, but there's something
else that's going along with this wandering that he that he
is going to experience. It is since he is removed to the
east, he's removed farther from God's presence.
He would experience a loss of God's presence.
In verse 14 Cain said from your face I shall be hidden.
And then in verse 16 we're told Cain went away from the presence
of the Lord. These verses don't explicitly
tell us God was going to remove His presence from Cain, but they
do make it clear that his relationship with Yahweh was
about to significantly change any sort of face to face
relationship he might have had. Whether he went there to the
garden and would would meet there at the entrance to the
garden in commune with Yahweh, any relationship he had would be
gone. The passage continues with
verses 13 and 14. Cain said to the Lord, My
punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground and from
your face. I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will kill me. Cain is airing all his
complaints to Yahweh, and so he is complaining of an unbearable
loss. This is an unbearable loss for
Cain as he's experiencing the repercussions of his actions.
Now. Sin can be a complex thing.
We first violate God's ways and standards, thinking that we know
better than He does right. I can do it my way, forget what
what God has to say on it. Then when discipline comes, we
we, we can either repent or dig our heels in.
And here Cain is, digging his heels in and complaining.
When we're caught in sin, like, like we're really stuck in it,
this is what we become. We start to blame shift.
We start to point the finger. We bite at anyone.
We lash out anyone within reach, especially those closest to us.
No, the problem isn't me, it's you.
That's what sin does when we don't want to address it.
All Cain could see was himself, and in a moment when he should
have shown remorse, he demonstrated self pity and
entitlement. The loss of land and loss of
God's presence was just too much for him to bear.
And part of why Cain felt it was too much was because he feared
for his life. He feared death.
He he wasn't being delusional
here. He was justified in fearing for
his life. He'd broken loyalty to his
kinship, and it was it was reasonable to think that someone
may come along seeking vengeance for Abel.
Now Cain's fearing for his life presupposes the the expansion of
civilization. By now, it's easy for us, if
we're not careful to, to just look back on the situation, this
moment and think, oh, there were only now three people on the on
the face of the earth, Adam, Eve, and Cain, because Abel had
been killed. Well, no, that is not the case.
Civilization had already begun there.
There was there were many people on the earth by this time
already. So, so Cain is fearful that that
somebody is going to come and kill him seeking retribution for
the ACT that he committed against his brother Abel.
Genesis 54 tells us that the days of Adam after he fathered
Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters.
Adam lived 930 years and Cain's younger brother Seth lived 912
years. So it's reasonable for us to
arrive at the conclusion Cain probably lived 900 plus years
himself, and over the course of his long life there could be
many opportunities for Blood Avengers to exact retribution.
In spite of Cain deserving expulsion, God didn't leave him
helpless. So lastly we look at God's
response to Cain in verse 15. The Lord said to him, not so if
anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should
attack him. Now, of course, later capital
punishment becomes God's recommended response to murder
cases, but that's not always the way he chooses.
In Yahweh's response, we see a God who holds justice in his
right hand and mercy in his left.
God's mercy was was already on display in the simple fact that
that he had chosen to let Cain live.
This is God's mercy to Cain. He let Cain live.
Allowing him to live was important.
God said no one was going to kill Cain, and if they did, God
would take vengeance on them in His mercy.
God didn't give Cain what he deserved and let him continue
living. But not only was God merciful,
but he was also gracious and gave Cain something that Cain
didn't deserve. In fact, God has been gracious
with Cain all along. He was patient towards Cain as
he grew angry over the offering not being accepted.
God was encouraging in the context of failure.
Now here in their second conversation after Cain's crime
has been committed, God showed his concern for Cain and
demonstrated more grace by giving him a mark.
This is the mark of Cain. The mark of Cain.
This was some sort of sign identifying him so he wouldn't
be killed by those seeking vengeance on his life.
The mark of Cain has been the subject of of much debate over
the years, with one of the most egregious interpretations
arriving at the conclusion that God turned Cain's skin black so
he could be easily identified. This repulsive teaching was
perpetuated in order to justify chattel slavery and and the
oppression of people of color. The mark of Cain was not black
skin. This interpretation is straight
from hell and has no place in Christianity.
Furthermore, it reminds me. I've heard a story from my dad.
He he had spent some time in Texas back in the 70s.
I think he's on his third moment in Texas now, living there.
He went to school there, later went back to pastoral church,
and now he's back living in El Paso.
But one of his deacons, I believe, maybe it was somebody
with money, said something quite racist.
My dad hadn't been there long and I believe it sounds like the
story is something like maybe he puts his hand through the
dashboard of the car and says that is not how we are going to
be in this church. He soon he was one of those hot
preachers back in the day, one of those fire and brimstone type
preachers. He didn't really preach or or
teach. It was more of a yelling type
thing. I think you probably heard it.
He's changed a lot over the years, but he quickly made an
exit from that church. Because racism has no part in
Christianity. That is not God's heart.
Little secrets in heaven. I think the white people are
going to be the minority, just so you know.
It's going to be wonderful, so I digress.
So this is not what the mark of Cain is.
We don't truly know what the mark of Cain is.
People speculate, what is it? A tattoo?
Was it a scar? Somebody I read even said maybe
he even looked really good. So nobody even had any idea that
this person, attractive guy, was a murderer.
I don't know. So we don't know what it is.
What we do know is that the mark of Cain is an extension of God's
grace, a physical symbol of his protection.
But why would God be so concerned with protecting this,
this murderer, this Sinner? This past summer I spent a bit
of time in a passage that I often come back to, Exodus 34,
verses 6 through 7, where God introduces himself.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord.
The Lord. A God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. This is God's character.
Is he just? Of course he's just, but that is
not his only character trait. When God introduces himself as
merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness, we can trust that to be the case.
And this reorients our our hearts posture towards God.
It enables us to sing those words that we sang this morning.
All my life you have been faithful, God.
All my life you have been so, so good.
Regardless of what life throws at me, I know God is gracious.
Grace isn't an afterthought for him.
It isn't something he just decided to add to his character
traits, it is the core of who he is.
So what do we do with a message like this?
Well obviously don't kill your brother, right?
That's a bad idea. First of all, have compassion
for others. Have compassion for others.
When we have compassion, we're being like God.
When Jesus saw the hurting, the broken repeatedly says he was
moved with compassion for them. This means that we not only feel
and and sympathize with them, but it means we take steps to
help them out. Next, value all life.
Value all life, even the people you hate.
We value all life. Not just lives in the womb, not
just lives that are outside the womb.
Value all of it. Value the people you disagree
with and simply don't like. Look at them through God's eyes
and see what you can see and support vulnerable people is our
last point. Support vulnerable people
whether in person could be a neighbor, a friend, Co worker,
church member, homeless person that you might come across
asking you for food or. Could be by reaching out to an
organization like World Relief or or Habitat for Humanity,
these organizations that that work to just give people a a
hand up, a helping hand to get on their feet supports the
vulnerable. This has been a challenging
message. Everything that's I receive,
that I feel convicted, I need to share.
Obviously it's already worked his way through here, worked his
way through here, and I still don't like some of it.
This is a challenge to me. It is hard to love people that
we don't like, but by God's grace, may we love the
unlovable. So let's bow our heads and close
our eyes. God, as we close our time this
morning, I pray that each person in this room would take these
words that I've shared. Weigh them, weigh them against
your word, weigh them against their own hearts.
And God, may we be shaped and further transformed to your
image so that we love people that we don't want to love, that
we have compassion for people who are hurting, that we have
compassion for the vulnerable. May we value each person as an
image bearer. They were created in your image,
so may we value them for that. Thank you for meeting here with
us this morning. It's in Jesus name we pray,
Amen.