Gen 4:16-22 | KingComments | STEP | If God as Judge confronts Cain with his sin, he can no longer get away from it. Then Cain takes a different approach. He believes his sin is too great to be forgiven. Here we see the two extremes. First Cain denied his sin. Now that he can no longer get away from it, he states that his sin is unforgivable. In both cases it becomes clear that he does not want to bow before God. Both evasions are a lie of satan, preventing people from turning to God and accepting the offer of grace to be saved. The first is a justification of oneself, the second is a belittling of God, as if there were a sin with which He would not know what to do, for which the Lord Jesus could not die. Guilt that is not forgiven fills man with constant fear ( ; ; ). Wherever Cain wanders around, everywhere he thinks he is in mortal danger. In every one he meets, he sees a representative of the law. The people who live on earth are his brothers and sisters, but even for them he is rightly afraid that he will die by their hand. Yet God, in His goodness, still meets Cain with regard to his life on earth. By appointing a sign for him, others will see that God alone reserves the right to act with the sinner Cain. After this promise, Cain turns his back on the LORD. He leaves to the east, the direction to which God has driven out Adam and Eve ( ) and settles to live there.

‏ Genesis 4:16-22

Cain Leaves the LORD

If God as Judge confronts Cain with his sin, he can no longer get away from it. Then Cain takes a different approach. He believes his sin is too great to be forgiven. Here we see the two extremes. First Cain denied his sin. Now that he can no longer get away from it, he states that his sin is unforgivable. In both cases it becomes clear that he does not want to bow before God.

Both evasions are a lie of satan, preventing people from turning to God and accepting the offer of grace to be saved. The first is a justification of oneself, the second is a belittling of God, as if there were a sin with which He would not know what to do, for which the Lord Jesus could not die.

Guilt that is not forgiven fills man with constant fear (Pro 28:1a; Job 15:20-21; Psa 53:5a). Wherever Cain wanders around, everywhere he thinks he is in mortal danger. In every one he meets, he sees a representative of the law. The people who live on earth are his brothers and sisters, but even for them he is rightly afraid that he will die by their hand.

Yet God, in His goodness, still meets Cain with regard to his life on earth. By appointing a sign for him, others will see that God alone reserves the right to act with the sinner Cain. After this promise, Cain turns his back on the LORD. He leaves to the east, the direction to which God has driven out Adam and Eve (Gen 3:24) and settles to live there.

The Descendants of Cain

The first record of a genealogy in the Bible is that of Cain, the genealogy of the line of unbelief, of flesh. In Genesis 5 comes the genealogy of faith (Gen 5:1). Here we see the principle: “The spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual” (1Cor 15:46). We have seen this in the bringing of the offering: first Cain brings an offering, then Abel. The fact that Cain builds a city and calls it after the name of his son is proof that this record of genealogy is about people who live in unbelief. He writes his own glory on his building.

His descendant Lamech tramples on God’s institution of marriage by taking two wives. The children he has begotten with these wives have received qualities from God but they use them for themselves.

1. Jabal is “the father of those who dwell in tents and [have] livestock”, which we can apply to economic prosperity, property and convenience.

2. Jubal is “the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe”, which we can apply to bringing entertainment through art and culture and other forms of amusement.

3. Tubal-cain is “the forger of all implements of bronze and iron”, which stands for science and technology.

These things characterize the world today. There is no need to ask God. Man arranges everything himself.

We also hear the bragging voice of Lamech who boasts of his power. He is the man who can stand up for himself. He finds himself head and shoulders above his ancestor Cain. No one will be able to do anything to him, Lamech, or that person will be punished much more severely than the one who would kill Cain. He finds himself that important.