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Genesis 4:17-18: No substitute.

^“17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.” NIV UK

I heard Simon Sinek being interviewed, and he talked about the importance of knowing why you do what you do each day; not just the what, but the why. We need that sense of purpose. Why do you get out of bed each morning? But without God in your life, where do you get that?

People who live ‘’east of Eden’’, away from ‘’the LORD’s presence’’ have a gap in their lives. If they are honest, they know something is missing. They may try to find satisfaction in having children, or in some great project they undertake and give themselves to – like Cain’s ‘’building a city’’. The search for fulfillment and meaning may lie in other directions of course. The point is, we are aware of an aching void within. As someone said, people are like ‘Polo Mints’. They have a hole in the middle. The truth is, it’s a God-shaped hole, and only God can fill it. Children can give great joy (as well as dreadful pain), and we can find pleasure in putting our talents to good use on the earth. But if we make these things our idols, we will find that they are no substitute for the living God. In ‘Ecclesiastes’, Solomon describes how he tried just about everything on offer in the world, because he could, and he found it all to be ‘’Meaningless!’’ He could not find meaning ‘’under the sun’’. For this he had to look above the sun, as it were.

By the way, it is the case that godly parents can have ungodly children. But it also works the other way round. Ungodly parents can have godly children. As we will see, ‘’Enoch’’ is a name which has become synonymous with godliness.

Before I finish, I know you want to know where Cain got his wife. The only realistic answer seems to be that he must have married a sister.

PRAYER: Lord God, I have to thank you because everything now makes sense to me, and I have a reason to live. It’s not that I understand everything. I don’t. But I have a purpose for living that is greater than me, and I am so grateful.

Genesis 4: 13-16: Repentance or resentment?

^“13 Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’  ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, ‘Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. ¹⁶ So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” NIV UK

There is a difference between repentance and resentment. Resentment is not repentance.

There is a difference between repentance and remorse. Remorse is not repentance. You can feel remorseful about the consequences you have to live with, but not repent of the sin(s) which brought about those repercussions. ‘Cain responded to this punishment with self-pity and remorse…To feel remorse is to have regrets, to be distressed by a bad outcome. Remorse can even include an awareness of having sinned (Matthew 27:3-4). But it does not include humbly confessing that sin to God and resolving to turn from it – which is true repentance.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.140.

Cain was not a repentant man: ‘…Cain was not convicted about his sin; he was concerned only about his punishment. Cain’s unbelief, hatred, and deceit destroyed every relationship in his life: his relationship with his brother, God, himself, and the world around him.’ Warren Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.18.

When God speaks to you about your sin, don’t get angry; instead, get right…with Him. This is your opportunity to repent, and find forgiveness.

God is merciful. He was merciful to Cain even though he didn’t repent. Since he would not have the protection of a settled community he was naturally fearful. So God promised to protect him and He placed a ‘’mark’’ on him. We don’t know what it was, but anyone who might seek to kill Cain would somehow recognise the mark, and know that he was under divine protection. (Some scholars think this mark may actually have been the ‘’city’’ Cain later built, verse 17, which would afford him protection).

Since the fall, every human-being is born ‘’east of Eden’’, separated from God. The good news, however, is that there is a way back to God, through faith in Jesus who died for all of our sins. But it is a way which involves repentance. Mere remorse, or regret, or resentment fall far short of the mark.

THOUGHT: God, in His grace, gives us what we do not deserve; God, in His mercy, does not give us what we do deserve.