Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. ThIS is study #11 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we are going to read Genesis 4:12:

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

I will stop reading there. When we look at the historical setting, we see that Cain has just killed his brother Abel and God knew this and God came to Cain and spoke to him. In the previous verse, God said, “And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand,” and in our verse God is pronouncing the punishment against Cain for the sin he committed. We wonder why God gave Cain this kind of punishment. It really does not seem all that severe for the crime of murder. We would expect something much harsher. As God later said in the time after the flood, in Genesis 9:4-6:

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Here, God indicates that if someone murders a man and sheds blood, his own life is to be shed. His life is to be taken. We know that all through the history of Israel and into our modern history, capital punishment (the taking of a murderer’s life) is according to the Law of God. It is God’s will. However, in Genesis, chapter 4 God does not require Cain’s blood to be shed. We understand that God had not introduced that Law as yet, but this would have been a good opportunity. God could have said, “You have shed man’s blood and now your blood is required,” but that is not what the Lord said. Again, let me read Genesis 4:12:

When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

And here is Cain’s response in Genesis 4:13:

And Cain said unto JEHOVAH, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

We read this and we think, “Well, it is not capital punishment.” Cain is not being executed. It is not even the penalty of spending the rest of his life in prison. It does not seem like such terrible punishment for the crime of murder against his fellow man until we understand that Cain is a figure that represents the unsaved within the churches or even in the world, just as Esau represents all those that God did not choose to salvation. So, the “way of Cain” pictures all those that attempt to get right with God through their own works and, yet, they were never the elect that were predestinated to salvation. We get a clearer picture once we understand that Cain is especially a figure of those within the churches where God had His program of times and seasons wherein the Lord sent the rain in order to gather the harvests. First, there was the “first of the firstfruits” or Jesus Himself. Then there were the “firstfruits” that were saved during the church age and, finally, there was the ingathering at the time of the end when the Latter Rain was sent forth. They were the “fruitful seasons” of God’s salvation program.

But, here, the punishment against Cain is fitting and appropriate and makes perfect sense once we understand that he is standing as a representative of the corporate church body, the unsaved within the congregations at the time of the end: “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.”

The word “strength” is Strong’s #3581 and it is translated as “fruits thereof” in Job 31:39:

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

This Hebrew word is also found in Leviticus, chapter 26 which is a chapter where God is speaking to His people that are disobedient. It says in Leviticus 26:14-15:

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

Then let us go down to Leviticus 26:18-20:

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

We see the word “strength” in verse 20 where God punishes those that do not keep all His commandments. That is because they are under the Law and not under grace, which means they are not the elect. Those that are under the Law must keep the whole law and if they fail to keep the whole law in just one point of Law, then they are guilty of (breaking) the whole Law. That is the condition that every professed Christian is under. They say they are children of God, but in their hearts it is not true and, therefore, they must keep the Law. Then God comes to visit at the appointed time (at the end of the church age) and He found that the corporate body had failed to keep His commandments and He pronounced judgment upon the entire corporate church that consisted of Catholics, Protestants, independents, and so forth. God pronounced the judgment: “And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.”

Compare this to what it says in Joel, chapter 2 where the Lord speaks of blessing that occurs in His “times and seasons” of rain. It says in Joel 2:21-24:

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for JEHOVAH will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in JEHOVAH your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.

This is when the trees bear their fruit and do yield their strength. It is a different Hebrew word for “strength,” but it carries the same idea of the word in our verse in Genesis, where God says to Cain, “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.” It has everything to do with fruit. In other words God is telling Cain that he will have no more fruit. Cain was a tiller of the ground and there was nothing wrong with that occupation. Adam was commanded to go forth from the Garden of Eden and till the ground, so Cain was following in the footsteps of his father and he was involved in husbandry. He was involved in harvest and gathering fruit, which is what all of God’s people were involved in at the time when the early rain was falling and the firstfruits were being brought in. But now has come the “end of days” and we keep going back to that statement in Genesis 4:3: “And at the end of days it came to pass,” and God required an offering. Abel and Cain brought their offerings and God rejected Cain and his offering while accepting Abel and his offering and it was all a result of the spiritual condition of their hearts. God made it known and He finally separated the wheat and the tares (the saved and the unsaved) and He let it be known to Cain that he was not accepted, nor was his offering. Then Cain rose up and slew his brother because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Now the separation has taken place at the time of the end and it was the time in which God was no longer using the churches and congregations of the world as the messengers of His Word. He abandoned them and He gave them over into the hands of Satan. The Spirit of God had departed out of the midst of the churches and there was the curse and punishment. Remember when Christ cursed national Israel, as represented by the fig tree? Christ said, “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.” That was the curse upon national Israel. Then the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” With that statement the Lord Jesus was letting it be known that at the time of the end when the Scriptures are opened up and the hidden things come forth from the Bible, His people would see the end of the church age and they would pronounce the curse upon spiritual Israel. The fig tree would be cursed a second time as the corporate New Testament church would be punished at the end of the church age when God’s judgment began at the house of God. The judgment was that there would be no more fruit from henceforth. Their land would no longer yield unto them its strength. The judgment upon Cain mirrors the judgment upon the churches and congregations of the world at the time of the end – they would be without fruit. Ultimately, this meant there was no more salvation within the churches anywhere in the world after the point that the judgment began on the house of God (in 1988). There would be no Latter Rain in the congregations and without the rain, they would not produce fruit. Of course, without the Holy Spirit present, you can preach all you want, day and night, and you can even be faithful to the Bible, but without the Holy Spirit blessing His Word to the hearts of men, there can be no salvation without God opening the ears to hear: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

That brings us to the next part of the verse in Genesis 4:12:

… it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

The Hebrew word “fugitive” is Strong’s #5128. We are not surprised to find that this word is often translated as “wander,” such as its use in Amos 8:11-12:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of JEHOVAH: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of JEHOVAH, and shall not find it.

Do you see how brilliant God is in writing the Bible and putting these figures together, as He developed the type and figure of Cain as the corporate church that rises up at the end and slays its righteous brother? Then God pronounced the judgment that there would be no more fruit for them and that was the terrible punishment they would bear. There would be no more salvation within the churches and congregations. Then God gives us the word “wanderer,” when He says that when Cain would till the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a wanderer and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. They can go from sea to sea, wandering like a fugitive, and why are they wandering? They are seeking the Word of the Lord because there is a famine in the land. It is not a physical famine for bread or water, but it is a famine “of hearing the words of JEHOVAH.” Do you see how that ties in to the lack of fruit? There is no more Holy Spirit in the midst of the churches and it is the judgment of God upon the corporate body. God ended His relationship with the New Testament churches and congregations and they would no longer be used of God as shepherds to feed the sheep. They would no longer be used in God’s vineyard. As we read in Isaiah 5 God would destroy the vineyard. The fruitful season of the churches is over and there will be no more fruit forever.

This word is also used in Amos 4:6-7:

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city…

And what city would that be? It would be “Jerusalem above.” Then it goes on to say in Amos 4:7:

… and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.

The corporate church received no rain. Then it goes on to say in Amos 4:8:

So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH.

To be “not satisfied,” means there is no salvation.

Then it goes on to say in Amos 4:9-10:

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith JEHOVAH.

This is language of God’s judgment upon the corporate church. There is “wandering.” Two or three cities wandered unto one city, like going sea to sea, but they are not experiencing the blessing of God in salvation, so that theme is consistent.

It also says in Lamentations 4:11-12:

JEHOVAH hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

Who is the adversary and enemy? It is Satan. It is as if God is saying that the people of the churches and the people of the world do not believe that Satan would come into the churches and take his seat as the man of sin.

Then it goes on to say in Lamentations 4:12:

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

Does that sound familiar? What was Cain’s offence? He slew righteous Abel. He shed Abel’s blood and, here, God is faulting the prophets and the priests because they did the same thing, spiritually. Historically, that was also literally true in Israel, but in the New Testament churches and congregations there was primarily a “spiritual killing.” When the prophets and priests bring another gospel, it essentially “kills” and it drove out the saints from the churches, resulting in the shed blood of the saints, from the righteous blood of Abel all the way to Zacharias.

Then it goes on to say in Lamentations 4:13-14:

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

Once again, the Lord connects false gospels within the churches with His judgment upon them and the end of the church age when judgment began at the house of God and God relates it to this word “wander” and being a fugitive. It is this point that God focuses on in regard to the punishment of Cain in Genesis, chapter 4, verse 12.