Genesis 4:15 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 4:15

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Actually, the Hebrew does not say ‘mark’: it says ‘sign’. There have been all kinds of suggestions made as to what this was. Leprosy is quite a common suggestion; or else something akin to a tattoo. Another very common suggestion is a very ferocious appearance, so that people would be frightened of him, but how that would communicate that God will take revenge seven-fold is not obvious. He was given a token, a sign that God would protect him, and somehow it was known in that quite small community in the world at that time (we are not told how this would have been communicated) that nobody had better take Cain’s life. But the significant thing is this. God actually says, in his amazing mercy to Cain, I will ensure that your life is preserved. You have time. Time for what? Time to repent, time to regret, time to turn back? Very likely. Is that not why all of us before conversion were spared for so long? Is it not why the unregenerate are spared for so long? The Bible tells us it is God’s mercy because he wills all men to repent. It is that opportunity to turn back. Now, we know that people will not turn back. That is why there has to be an overruling by election in the lives of those who are saved, but nevertheless, God provides for it. Even in Cain’s case you see mercy still running through the chapter, in that Cain is preserved, and he is preserved by a remarkable staying of the hand of any who might punish him – life for life – for what he has done.

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Cain feared that his life would be taken, and God by this mark confirms that indeed, that was a danger. Later, after the flood, God instituted the death penalty for murder (Genesis 9:5-6), but that was to be carried out by duly appointed authorities, and the implication is that there should be proper enquiry and a justice system to investigate, hear witnesses, and pass sentence. The danger that Cain faced was that every individual might take the law into his own hands in the way that Lamech did later. God hates murder and the continuation of Cain’s life was not intended to teach that the Lord was indifferent to what he had done, but to set him on display for all the world to be horrified at his crime. Therefore in order to dissuade any from following Cain’s example, God somehow warned those alive at the time that any similar act of violence, even against Cain himself, would be met with still greater severity by the Lord. Cain is presented to us in the New Testament as an object of warning, as one whose wickedness is characteristic of the sinful nature and who expressed his murderous hatred in this awful way, early in the history of mankind (1 John 3:12; Jude 1:11).

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Genesis 4:15 Commentary and Bible Study