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

Hating Abel

…but He did not respect Cain and his offering.  And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.  So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire is for you, but you should rule over.”

Genesis 4:5-8

As we continue to consider the ways in which Abel is a type of Christ, we want to consider how Cain, Abel’s brother hated him enough to kill him.  Cain’s hatred arose from the fact that God did not accept the work of his hands as a sacrifice.  It is implicit that the sacrifice of the lamb was that which God had prescribed.  Cain’s offering was not a matter of ignorance.  If Abel offered a lamb, where else would he have gotten the idea to do that except that God had stipulated it?  Hence Cain’s offering was the same, in spirit, as every other offering of all false religions.  It was a spirit of, ‘here is the fruit of my labor, God, that should be good enough for You.’  Because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s, the historic division arose between the godly and the ungodly.  Cain hated his brother enough to kill him.  So Abel is again a type of Christ.  Christ declared, ‘If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.’  It was the self-righteously religious, who offered to God the fruits of their own labors, who were first and foremost the engineers of the crucifixion of Christ.  So today, let us ask ourselves, of what people are we?  Are we those who wear the mantle of Abel or the mantle of Cain?  We are one or the other.  We cannot be both.  Our souls hang in the balance.

Our most Wise and Holy Savior,
we rejoice that You were willing to endure such
contradiction of sinners against Yourself.
We praise You that by Your stripes we are healed.
Evermore enable us to endure hatred for Your sake.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Abel, The Priest

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.’  Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.  Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.  Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.  And the Lord respected Abel and his offering….

Genesis 4:1-4

As soon as God had articulated the message of the coming Christ in Genesis 3:15, He began to show Christ by type and shadow in the Old Testament.  We see the first instance of that in Abel, the first martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ.  As we tour through this passage, we want to point out the various ways in which Abel is the pre-figurement of Christ.  The first thought that comes to mind relates to the Mediatorial function of Christ as Priest.  As Christ offered the perfect Sacrifice, so Abel, as the first recorded individual to worship God by sacrifice, did so with ‘the firstborn of his flock.’  This sets the precedent for all who would come to God in an acceptable manner.  We are ‘kings and priests unto God’ but we are only so because God has made us so.  Our approach to God can only ever be upon the merits of Christ.  Because He is our Great High Priest, Who has offered Himself as the Lamb of God, we can approach the very Throne of God without fear of rejection.  God laid all the sins of all of the elect upon Christ.  Abel, as a type of Christ, offered the lamb as the sacrifice.  God owned that sacrifice and ‘respected Abel and his offering.’  So, God also accepted the Sacrifice of Christ in a larger way, of which Abel’s acceptance was only a pale imitation.  Today, let us dwell upon this type and shadow which God set forth early on to point us to Christ, Our Priest and Sacrifice.

Our most Holy and Wise God,
we rejoice, that the overwhelming message of Your Word, is Christ.
We praise You, that page by page, and line by line,
You lead us evermore to behold Him, the Altogether Lovely One.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush Is Burning