Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 4 and we will read Genesis 4:15-16:

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. And Cain went out from the presence of JEHOVAH, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

We are continuing to look at verse 15, where the last part of the verse says, in Genesis 4:15:

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

The Hebrew word translated as “mark” is Strong’s #226. It is also translated as “sign” or “token” or “miracle.” It is often translated in those three ways and not as “mark.” This same word is found in Genesis 17:11:

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

The word “token” is the same word as “mark.”

Also, it says in Numbers 14:22:

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

The word “miracles” is the same word. God is referring to the plagues He brought upon Egypt and to the miraculous events in which He rained down manna from heaven and brought water out of the rock, and so forth. It is the same word translated as “mark” in our verse in Genesis 4:15: “And JEHOVAH set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”

We can see why the translators did not translated this word as “miracles.” Then it would have said that God set a miracle upon Cain. Also, it would not seem to make sense to translate the word as “token.” A token of what? They were a little perplexed as they wondered how to translate the word.

It is also translated as “sign” in Deuteronomy 28:45-46:

Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of JEHOVAH thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

In verse 46 the word “sign” is our word. What does it mean that they shall be upon them for a sign? What will be upon them and to whom is God speaking? God is speaking to Israel and this is a chapter where in the first several verses God speaks of the blessings of obedience. Then from about verse 15 to the end of the chapter He describes the curses that come upon the disobedient so it would also have application to all people in general and, especially, to the people of God: “Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.” These are the curses that come against the disobedient and rebellious people that fail to hearken to the commandments of God and they are a “sign.” When we read the entire chapter and we read of the curses we can see how they would apply to Cain. For instance, it says in Deuteronomy 28:38-40:

Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

There are also other similar verses where the curse of God is upon the harvest and upon the fruit and we read this when we go back to Genesis 4:11-12:

And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 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.

God cursed Cain. He cursed the ground and He pronounced a curse concerning the “strength” or the fruitfulness of the ground. We spent some time looking at this. Understanding that Cain is a type and picture of those that have a relationship to God, like national Israel or the New Testament corporate church, in which they are bound to be completely obedient. Cain and Abel had a relationship with God and that is why God was requiring an offering from them, but God let it be known that Cain and his offering were not acceptable because he did not have that acceptable sacrifice, a broken and a contrite heart, which was the sacrifice of Christ.

So, our verse says in Genesis 4, verse 15: “And JEHOVAH set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” God set a “sign” upon Cain. The word “sign” is a better translation. What was the sign? As it said in Deuteronomy 28, verses 45 and 46, the curses were the sign and wonder. The curse is the sign and it was the sign that Cain bore, as well as those that go in the “way of Cain,” as God says in the Epistle of Jude 1:11:

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain…

They would not be fruitful. There would be no salvation. After God pronounces the “woe” against those that have gone in the way of Cain, it says in Jude 1:12:

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Here, the Lord joins together being without fruit with being “twice dead.” If you have gone in the way of Cain, you will experience a similar curse. That is the “mark” that the Lord placed upon him.

Let us go on to Genesis 4:16:

And Cain went out from the presence of JEHOVAH…

This is a significant statement. Remember that after Adam and Eve sinned, we read in Genesis 3:7-8:

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of JEHOVAH God amongst the trees of the garden.

They are hid from the presence of God and that is the condition of the natural-minded man, the one that is dead in his sins and under the wrath of God. His sin has separated him from God, so Cain went out from the presence of JEHOVAH because he was under the wrath of God. This is the way of Cain and the way of all the wicked of the earth – they go from the presence of the Lord. Eventually, it becomes their eternal condition, as God says when He describes the coming of the Lord Jesus in final judgment upon mankind, in 2Thessalonians 1:7-9:

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

The punishment of man is to be destroyed and it is a condition that will never change. It is eternal separation from the presence of the Lord. God is the great I AM and all of His elect will live together with Him forever into eternity future. The wicked will be annihilated and utterly destroyed and they will no longer exist in any form – not in body or soul or even as dust. They will be permanently removed from God’s presence in that way and that is the punishment when you go forth from the presence of the Lord. This is what is in view here and it is also in view in Matthew, chapter 25 when Jesus separates the sheep and the goats. Speaking to the goats, He says in Matthew 25:41:

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Then the reason is given why they are being sent away, as Christ explains it is because He was hungry and they gave him no meat and He was thirsty and was given no drink, and so forth, indicating the love that should have been shown from brother to brother and which the wicked failed to show. Then Christ says in Matthew 25:45-46:

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

It did not say it here, but it did say in 2Thessalonians that they were going away into everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and, here, it says, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,” and we could add, “from the presence of the Lord,” just as Cain went out from the presence of JEHOVAH. The language that God uses to describe Cain’s going away is a picture to describe a person that is under the wrath of God.

Then it says of Cain in the next part of the verse, in Genesis 4:16:

… and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

What is the land of Nod? We are not helped too much because the only place this name is found is here. There is not another verse in the Bible where we read about the land of Nod, but when we look at the word itself, it is Strong’s #5113. It is from Strong’s #5112 and that word is translated only one time as “wandering.” Strong’s #5112 is, in turn, related to #5110 and that is the word “vagabond” that was used in Genesis 4, verse 12, and repeated in verse 14, referring to Cain being a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. The word “fugitive” means to “wander” and the word “vagabond” also carries that kind of idea, so the land of Nod could be understood to be the “land of wandering” or the “land of wanderers.” It is basically the land of those that are cursed by God. It is the land of the wicked. It is the land of the ones that are outside the kingdom of heaven and that is also why it says he dwelt in the land of Nod, “on the east of Eden.” We spoke of this when we read about the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a representation of the kingdom of heaven and God drove Adam out of the garden because of his sin and now Cain is going out from the presence of JEHOVAH to dwell in the land of “wandering” on the east of Eden. He is also outside of kingdom of God and we can also gather that even though Cain has been cursed by God and driven out from the face of God and he will no longer be fruitful, Cain is the one that chose where he wanted to live. There is nothing here that says God forced him to live in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden, but it was Cain’s choice. We can see that Cain is not going too far away from Eden, but he is going east of Eden, which is a direction that identifies with the kingdom of heaven. He is going to begin living in fairly close proximity to the kingdom of God. From this we can see that just as the churches have been cast out from the presence of God and under the wrath of God, they still desire to maintain identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every church wants to be called a “Christian” church, so the churches and congregations of the world have been cursed by God and they are no longer fruitful, with no salvation, but, in a sense, they have set themselves on the “east of Eden” by continuing to call themselves by God’s name. They continue to identify themselves as followers of Christ and even in that, they are going in the way of Cain because Cain went out from the presence of JEHOVAH but dwelt in the land of Nod on the “east of Eden.”

When we get together in our next study, we will continue reading about the life of Cain. It is interesting how God goes on to tell us about Cain and his family and his descendants and the city they built and the work they did. We wonder why God is using His valuable Scriptures to record events in the life of Cain. I struggled with that and I think we will have some answers to that question, but I do not think we will have them all, when we continue our study in Genesis, chapter 4.