A Marked Man

A Marked Man

And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.”  And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.

Genesis 4:15

God takes note of the treatment His people receive at the hands of those who hate them.  A reading of the context shows that God called Cain into account because of his murder of Abel. “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”  After He had reasoned with Cain about his murder of his brother,  God punished him by exiling him from his native territory.  Cain felt that God’s punishment of him was greater than he could bear, and that others, perhaps family members, would kill him for his murder of Abel. God, therefore, ‘set a mark upon Cain lest any finding him should kill him.’  Regardless of the reason for the mark, there it was, as a testimony to the fact that he had murdered Abel, a righteous man.  As Cain became ‘a marked man’ as the ultimate result of his hatred and murder of Abel, so those who hated and murdered Christ also became ‘marked men.’ Down through the corridors of history, their titles echo as the living memories of those who hated Christ ‘without a cause.’  No one, familiar with the Bible forgets the Pharisees, the Sadducees or their leaders Annas, and Caiaphas.  They remain ‘marked men,’ the bloody-handed haters of Christ.  With whom will we side, and with whom will we stand?  Will we be with Abel or Cain, with the disciples of Christ or the hypocrites of religion, with Christ, or against Him?  There is no middle ground.

Our Gracious and Loving God,
we praise You today, that we are Christ’s and He is ours forever.
We rejoice, that we bear Your mark,
not of judgement, but of love.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning