After God confronted Cain with the murder of his brother, God issued a punishment.
“Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” (Genesis 4:11-12, italics mine)
‘Not My People’ are always restless.
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today You are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from Your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant.” (Genesis 4:13-17, underline mine)
And away from the Lord’s presence, Not My People go from bad to worse.
“[Cain’s great-great-great-grandson] Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” (Genesis 4:23-24)
Questions for reflection:
How does evil spread, whether culturally or generationally?
Can mankind be trusted to police itself apart from God’s presence? Did Cain demonstrate he couldn’t master sin before being sent away? Would he be likely to master it now, having been sent away from God’s presence? As the world drifts from God, can we expect things to get better or worse?
Think back to the curse in Eden. Adam and Eve (created in God’s Image) were judged, but not cursed. The land was. Why?
It’s not just Adam and Eve and their progeny who faced the punishment for sin. All of creation did.
“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God [My People] to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God [My People]. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:19-22)
Look back at the Scriptures and see the connection between My People (Adam and Eve) versus Not My People (Cain and his descendants) with respect to the land, to the ground, to God’s presence, and to restless wandering. Why do you think the land is so important to various groups in the Middle East?