Genesis Part 013

We can see from Cain’s example that the correct response is not to get angry when we are caught or corrected for doing wrong. We should own up to our mistakes and humbly seek repentance when we realize we have violated God’s laws or principles.  

Genesis 4:7 – As mentioned in chapter 3, sin can rule and run our lives if we let it. It’s always right there. It takes God’s help through the power of His Holy Spirit, and much diligence to rule over sin. We all fail at times, but we must not give up! We cannot quit striving to overcome. 

James 1:20 tells us,

“For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Bad things come from the anger of men. From Cain's anger sprang up other evil thoughts, which resulted in murder, and then lying to God.  

In Genesis 4:15 it states, “the LORD set a mark on Cain.” This leads to a timeless question; What was the “mark on Cain?”  We don’t know. There are many weird ideas out there that are created out of man’s ideas and are false. What do we know? God “set” “a mark.” The word “set” means “to put, to place, to appoint, to direct toward.” It’s a word used 580 times in the Bible but translated many different ways. The word “mark” meaning “a signal, a sign, a token.” The first occurrence of this word we see in Genesis 1:14,

"Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.'"

In that verse, God placed signs in space that were used to identify timing. The word is later used by God about the rainbow (in Genesis 9:13) and about circumcision (Genesis 17:11). We don’t have much insight into the mark of Cain but what we do know is that it fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended; to spare Cain’s life. 

Next in verse 24 we see a statement from Lamech,

“If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

This has a number of interpretations, but here is a quote from Adam Clarke’s commentary:

“It is supposed that Lamech had slain a man in his own defense, and that his wives being alarmed lest the kindred of the deceased should seek his life in return, to quiet their fears he makes this speech, in which he endeavors to prove that there was no room for fear on this account; for if the slayer of the willful murderer, Cain, should suffer a seven-fold punishment, surely he, who should kill Lamech for having slain a man in self-defense might expect a seventy-seven-fold punishment.”