GEN 4:9-12 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
We have read this passage before. The famous “Am I my brothers keeper?” Story. In man’s race to seem wise among others we have developed theories about many things in the Bible. Some of these theories have been pushed for so long that people forget why they believe such things other than the fact that this is what pastor said or what my dad or mother told them. But just as the Bible says, reasoning with scripture and thought is always a needed thing. If we don’t, something like a camel walking through an eye of the needle becomes a threading needle in today’s society, making it impossible when in fact the eye of the needle ( to pillar post in the city entrance) only made traveling through city passages harder if you chose to keep your items on the camel instead of taking them off. It never made it an impossible task. You just had to take your time and be careful upon doing it. So it is with this story and assumption. For years many have been told that this story of the first murder informs us that Cane’s punishment was passed to all men just like Adam’s fall. Well this is false! Despite popular views Cane’s punishment was for him and him alone. How do I know this because of three important facts. One, Adam’s fall was tied to all of man only because all men came from his blood line. This is big! Cane is tied only with his family, not all of mankind(remember Seth and the other children Adam fathered)I could stop right here and this would close the case down now but I will proceed. Adam was also perfect, Cane was not. Cane had a sin nature basically. Cane was just like any other man at that time, judged on his own merit. The second fact was that the punishment on the ground and its production of food was already given upon man through Adam.
Gen 3:17-18 You shall not eat of it,’cursed is the ground because of you;in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
So this tells me that Cane received a even worst curse to the ground and produce attempts he put forth. And lastly we know this punishment was only to Cane because of the result. God marked Cane because of this curse to keep him safe from judgement. This mark and his curse was one and therefore it showed that it was unique to him. If it had passed to his family they too would have had to be mark for just being his bloodline and apart of the curse if it was truly passed to all his bloodline or even more so with all men. None of his family recieved such marks and therefore shows only Cane was effected by this special curse placed on him.
I know it sounds really good to come up with tie ends to help preach and or teach our children but when we tie in things that aren’t there this can leave the door open for Satan to get others to walk away from Christianity. It can also lead to assumption that mislead wrongful thoughts that may not lead to distruction right away but can do so later based on a false foundation. I think we all need to understand that embellishment is not needed in the gospel, no matter how good it makes others feel. What seems right to us could be a path away from Yahweh.
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