No doubt Cain had done his best to hide the evidence of his crime but Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground. No amount of hiding of evidence could conceal this evil from God’s eyes. What man cannot see God sees. There will be a day of judgment when every secret sin that has ever been committed will be published before all. How many murders have never been solved? How many liars have succeeded in covering their tracks! But that day will reveal them all.
How can we hide from God what he already knows what we have done? God’s question has advanced beyond asking where Abel is, to asking what Cain has done. He is shown that his denial has succeeded in hiding nothing from the Lord, but has rather invited a deeper search. God will uncover all that is currently hidden.
When you look through these verses, you see the reasoning of God with Cain – imploring, expostulating, remonstrating with him, persuading him, stirring him, and tragically there is no response. Of course, God knows it will be in vain, but he does it anyway. And that is what we do, that is what we are called to do today – to remonstrate with sinners or, as Puritan Richard Baxter termed it, to wrestle with sinners, to reason with them and persuade them. We hear some messages given which are said to be soul-winning messages, and sadly we do not hear any reasoning, or persuasion, or appeal, or any desire for their souls. All we hear is the basic facts, rapped out, almost curtly – you are a sinner, and you will go to hell, and you need a Saviour and you had better come or else. That is a slight exaggeration, but it really does not amount to much more than that. That is not preaching the gospel. You look right back in chapter 4 of Genesis, and you see first in one event and then in another, two questions, two appeals, two expostulations, even with a hardened sinner who is not going to change, so that God will be right and just in the day of judgment . Well, we have to appeal and that is what we try to do, as often as we can, once a week, in one service a week, reason with souls, and remonstrate with souls, and persuade men and women, and that is what we try to do in witness. You see then the character of gospel representation set out even in this passage. Unfortunately, sometimes this is called the trial of Cain, but that is not fair, because appeal is going on until the very last step.