Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #15 of Genesis, chapter 4 and will read Genesis 4:13-15:

And Cain said unto JEHOVAH, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And JEHOVAH said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And JEHOVAH set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

I will stop reading there. As we were discussing in our last study Cain is being used by God as a picture of the unsaved within the corporate church. This is all taking place “at the end of days,” at which time Cain rose up and killed his faithful brother Abel, the righteous one. And at the end of time it is the unsaved that drive out the wheat from the churches and congregations of the world.

Then in a curious way, God places a sort of protection around Cain. Cain was concerned and he had said, “My iniquity is greater than I can bear.” He had been driven out from the face of the earth and God will hide his face from him. He will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Cain worried that everyone that found him would slay him and God replied, “Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” Spiritually, this fits with God’s judgment upon the house of God, the corporate church. God came to visit the churches and congregations of the world in the year 1988 (the 13,000th year of earth’s history) and He found them unfaithful, so He brought judgment upon them. He removed His Spirit from the midst of the churches and He began to pour out his wrath upon the corporate church body. That was God’s judgment. At the same time, God loosed Satan who had been bound from the time of the cross and Satan entered into the churches and congregations and began to destroy them. He ruled as the man of sin and his emissaries took over the positions of power in the churches and the doctrines deteriorated and all kinds of “other gospels” prospered under his rule and this spiritually destroyed the corporate body. We see it today. They are a complete desolation, spiritually. It is like a wasteland and we find there is no truth or faithfulness because they lack the Spirit of God.

Satan and his emissaries zealously went about destroying the corporate church, which was now made up of tares because the wheat had come out. God opened the Scriptures and commanded the true believers to come out of the churches and, yet, this destruction was continuing as Satan and his emissaries were destroying the churches just as the King of Babylon and the Babylonian army were destroying Jerusalem and Judah. That is how it was spiritually within the churches, so in a sense, they were killing “Cain.” Cain had killed his brother and now Satan was bringing destruction to the corporate church that had gone in the way of Cain by killing their brother and, yet, God does not commend them. God does not praise Satan. He does not commend Satan’s army.

What happened to Babylon after the seventy-year period expired? God had used them and He called Nebuchadnezzar His servant as he assaulted the nation of Judah and assaulted the city of Jerusalem. God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to destroy His temple and to carry His people captive into Babylon. But at the end of seventy years (a picture of the Tribulation period), God raised up the Medes and Persians to destroy Babylon. That is what it says in Revelation 18:2:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…

Then speaking of Babylon, it goes on to say in Revelation 18:5-6:

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Babylon had destroyed Judah. Satan and his kingdom destroyed the corporate church. It began on May 21, 1988 and covered the 23-year period of the Great Tribulation that concluded on May 21, 2011 and then came the fall of “Babylon” or the fall of the world. God transitioned His judgment from the corporate church to the nations of the world and Satan himself. May 21, 2011 was the day that God began to avenge the temple. He was taking vengeance for His temple, as it says in Jeremiah 51:6-8:

Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the JEHOVAH'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the JEHOVAH'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

That matches the language of Revelation 18. Then it says in Jeremiah 51:11:

Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the JEHOVAH hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the JEHOVAH, the vengeance of his temple.

Why does it say it is the vengeance of His temple? It is because the Babylonians had destroyed the temple, historically, just as Satan had destroyed the corporate church. And, yet, this all served God’s purpose and that is why God referred to King Nebuchadnezzar as His servant. It is important for us to understand that even though Satan, the evil fallen angel, served God’s purpose and even though emissaries of Satan, the evil men within the churches, served God’s purpose by bringing the corporate church to shambles, God does not approve of their action. They should not have lifted up their hand against their brother. This is what God said in Obadiah and it reminds us of David not lifting up his hand against God’s anointed. Yet, Esau (who typifies the unsaved within the corporate church) did dare to lift up his hand against his brother Jacob. It says in Obadiah 1:10-15:

For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. For the day of JEHOVAH is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

This sounds very similar to what God said about Babylon. “Reward her even as she rewarded you.” What Esau had done, it would be done unto Esau and that is God’s warning in Genesis, chapter 4 to those that would slay Cain. Yes, Cain was a murderer. Yes, Cain had done a tremendously evil thing in killing his brother, but vengeance belongs to God. God will avenge the blood of Abel against Cain and that is what God is doing. He pronounced a judgment concerning the land and Cain would no longer be fruitful. God is handling the manner with Cain. God will take vengeance. It is not for man or anyone else to put themselves in the place of God and to avenge or to kill, especially against God’s anointed (like Saul) or God’s ambassadors (the corporate church). The corporate church was the caretaker of the Oracles of God and God had an intimate relationship with the churches previously and even though God is judging them we must be warned that God will turn around and take vengeance on you. That is what God is saying when He says, “Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” It is Strong’s #7659 and the word “sevenfold” basically means “seven times” and it is translated that way in Psalm 12, verse 6. It says in 2Samuel 21:1:

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

We are going to find this word translated as “sevenfold” or “seven times” used here in 2Samuel, chapter 21, but it is important that we understand the context. There had been a famine for three years, so David asked God why there was a famine because a famine is a form of judgment. God brings famine, as we have seen with the judgment upon the churches, so David wanted to know the reason and the answer God gave was that “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” Saul slew the Gibeonites and, therefore, he had a bloody house, just like when Cain slew Abel and the blood of Abel cried unto God from the ground. It is as if God is hearing the blood of the Gibeonites because in response to what Saul had done the Lord sent the famine.

Why is God concerned about the Gibeonites? In Joshua, chapter 9 the Gibeonites were a people that were in the land of Canaan and they heard reports of Israel and their mighty victories and they were afraid and they sent ambassadors to meet with Israel and they gave the appearance of being from a far country, even though they were not coming from afar. So they took moldy bread and empty bottles and old shoes, and so forth, and they came and deceived the leaders of Israel and Joshua made a league with them in Joshua 9:15:

And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.

The Hebrew name “Joshua” is the equivalent name of “Jesus,” so this is a picture of Christ and “Jesus” made peace with them. With whom does Jesus make peace? He is our peace. He makes peace with all those He saves. We were once at enmity with God and we were children of wrath, even as others, but Christ became our peace and through Him we have peace with God. Also, Jesus has made a “league” with us or a “covenant” with us. We have the covenant of the Bible, the Gospel covenant, so we can see that Joshua, a type of Christ, made peace and a league with the Gibeonites to let them live. That is what our peace with Christ permits; the ones that find peace with God through Christ live forever. We are allowed to live and we will not die for our sins. The Gibeonites are a picture of those would become saved, God’s elect, and that is why what Saul did was very grievous. Here, again, we see that Saul is a picture of the corporate church that kills the true believers. It was said that Saul had a bloody house because he slew those that God made peace with and those that had a covenant. He slew those that had been allowed to live by Joshua (the Lord Jesus Christ) and that is why God brought a famine on the land. We could say that when God brought the spiritual famine of the Great Tribulation and judgment upon the house of God the reason was that they were not faithful to the commandments of God and they were involved in driving out the true believers and spiritually killing them, just like Saul killed the Gibeonites. Therefore, God brought them spiritual famine wherein no one could become saved.

It goes on to say in Joshua 2Samuel 21:2-6:

And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the JEHOVAH? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto JEHOVAH in Gibeah of Saul, whom JEHOVAH did choose. And the king said, I will give them.

Saul was causing destruction with the things he did within the nation of Israel and God avenged the blood of his people. Then King David, a type of Christ, rounded up seven of Saul’s sons. Then it says in 2Samuel 21:9:

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before JEHOVAH: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

The word “seven” is our Hebrew word, Strong’s #7659, which was translated as “sevenfold” in our verse in Genesis, chapter 4. We can see the historical parable ties into when the corporate church is persecuting the people of God and there is a response to it.

We find the same Hebrew word in Psalm 79 and it is translated as “sevenfold.” It says in Psalm 79:1-4:

A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

This language is familiar to us. It is the language of judging Jerusalem, with the dead bodies and the flesh of the saints. It is language that fits in with the judgment of God upon the corporate church because of their shedding of blood.

It goes on to say in Psalm 79:7:

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

It was just like it said in Obadiah where Jacob was being destroyed and Esau joined hands with the enemies in destroying them and God said that Esau should not have done so in the day of Jacob’s calamity.

Then it says in Psalm 79:10-12:

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

Their reproach was daring to put forth their hand against a fallen, apostate church and, yet, it was still the church that had past identification with the kingdom of heaven and were anointed in that sense. They should not have put forth their hand against God’s anointed.

That is why God is telling Cain that vengeance would be taken upon them “sevenfold.” Then it goes on to say in Genesis 4:15:

And JEHOVAH set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

We understand that Cain is a type of the corporate church and when we read this we wonder if that mark could be the “mark of the beast.” We do not have time to get into this in this study, but in our next Bible study we will take a look at this word “mark,” Lord willing, and try to understand what God is saying.