The Mark upon Cain.

“And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”

Cain was concerned about the vendetta but God had decreed that he be punished for his sin. We live in a day when people are concerned about rehabilitation without worrying about retribution. Retribution is not the same as vengeance. Vengeance belongs to the Lord (see Rom 12: 19). Even though Romans was written to the church there are certain principles that belong to people of every age. The Lord sought to exact vengeance upon Cain, as His Divine justice required but God made sure that anyone else would be excluded from exacting vengeance. We can ask a reasonable question her: if there were only Adam, Eve and Cain at this time who would exact vengeance? However we can assume that Adam and Eve had other children and their gene pool was a rich and varied as it has ever been so there would be no inbreeding until the effects of sin had worked its way through the human population for thousands of years. The brothers and sisters that were not specifically mentioned in the text, but were certainly there would be seeking to exact the price of God. This may seem a very simple answer to question but we can also ask ourselves, did every person who lived during the time of King David have their name mentioned? The answer is no, but we do know that there were far more people living than were mentioned in David’s history. He did number the people and we do get an idea of the number of Israelites alive but they weren’t the only people living at the time. All the people living were not an essential part of the story of redemption so they remain anonymous, just as the vast majority of people remain anonymous today. To take this argument one step further, this is why the Lord Jesus Christ mad himself no reputation during the time of His incarnation. The vast majority of people alive at that time were of no reputation and He had come to seek and to save the lost (those of no reputation) (Matt 18: 11). This naturally leads to the “whosoever believeth” of John 3: 16.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)