Friday, August 19, 2011

The Curse

The Curse

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<< Genesis 4 >>
King James Version


9And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.13And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14Behold, 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. 15And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

16And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

17And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. 19And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as havecattle. 21And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

23And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

24If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

25And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.


Sermon

We continue where we left off in our last session. Cain has just murdered his younger brother Abel, because he was jealous of him.

And now we continue:

9And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

God asked Cain this question not because He was looking for Abel everywhere, but just couldn’t find him, no, God is all wise and knows everything, so God knew where Abel was. But God asked this question to Cain to give him a chance to confess his sins to God.

But instead of confessing his sins, Cain tells a complete and utter lie, and says that he doesn’t have a clue where his brother is.

10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

Cain thought he could deceive even God, and here in this verse God proves to Cain that He does know where Abel is. And I believe and am sure that Abel was at that minute sitting on a throne next to the Lord Himself in glory.

11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

And now here comes the curse. All sinners are cursed, even you and I, if we are Christians, are cursed through Adam. And here Cain receives an even greater curse.

I don’t know where Cain is spending eternity now, the Bible seems to be silent concerning that, but sadly we have no reason to believe that he ever repented of his sins.

12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

The curse is in two parts: first Cain is cursed in having extra labour when farming the ground. Then secondly, Cain is to be a Nomad, a traveller without any homeland, no people to call his own, and an outcast.

Notice that the first part of the curse is very similar to that given to his father Adam in the previous chapter.

The second part of the curse is very much like the curse of Ishmael, the father of the Muslims, whose hand is against everyone and everyone’s hand is against him. Alone and without anyone to help!

This is like an atheist, who only lives for themselves and to bring pleasure to themselves, and the only friends they have are other atheists who are only friends as long as they make them feel happy, but when trouble comes they find that all their so called friends have all deserted them.

But the Christian is not so! The Christian has a true friend who is God, and fellow Christians who will always stand beside them even when trouble comes. Indeed the Christians anchor is sure, and they will never lack friendship and joy. The atheist on the other hand is all darkness and alone and they will die alone and spend eternity alone in Hell!

Solemn thought!

13And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Now Cain finally realises that sin is no light matter! Every sin must be accounted for! And every sin, even the smallest little sin is enough to condemn us to an eternity in Hell!

14Behold, 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.

Cain is afraid of someone finding him and killing him because he will be travelling all alone and vulnerable.

But the question is: Who might kill him?

You might say: Maybe some other nation?

But we have only heard of Adam and Eve and their 2 sons, so a total of four people in the world, and now that Abel is dead that leaves only Adam and Eve who might kill him.

But I think that maybe God created more people from the dust of the ground as Adam and Eve were, and thus it might be likely for some unknown stranger to come and slay Cain. And also Cain and his brother Seth (who we read about later in this chapter) had wives, and it would be unlikely that their wives would be their own sisters, so it is quite likely that God went out and created more people.

15And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Amongst all this cursing, yet our ever merciful God took time to give Cain a blessing. This blessing was the protection of God against any that should come against Cain to kill him.

Well, that’s all for now.

I pray that the Lord would add His blessing, and that some of this sermon may be of benefit to someone’s soul.

Amen

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