Scripture References: Genesis 4:12-24

As the freshness of the world’s youthful ways and the beauties of a new world were disclosed to Cain, and by their bright and peaceful friendliness, I’m sure the bitterness of his spirit was allayed to a degree, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited him and called his thoughts away from the past, some of the old delight in life may have been returned to him. I can imagine that in many of the lonely hours the recollection of his crime would return and with it all the horrors of the guilt which would drive rest and peace from his soul, and I’m sure it render him the most wretched of men. But busied as he was with his new enterprises and explorations, there is little doubt that he would find, as it is still found in this day and age, that it is not impossible to banish such dreary thoughts and to continue to live in the measure of contentment which many enjoy who are as far from God as Cain was. It is amazing how easy it is to relieve guilt by busy-ness.

As we read of his brief history, it’s not difficult to detect the spirit that he must have carried with himself, and the attitude that he gave to his descendants of mankind. The facts recorded about Cain are few but they are significant. He had a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the name Enoch, which means “initiation,” or “beginning,” as if he were making a statement of justification in his heart. I can imagine Cain saying to himself:

“What’s so great the harm after all in cutting short one line from Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the mankind. I am driven out cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I don’t have to be; I will make for myself a place in which to settle, and I will fence it round with walls and fortifications so that no one will be able to assault me.”

In this actual settling of Cain, however, we don’t witness any symptom of his ceasing to be a vagabond, but rather, the greatest evidence that now he was becoming content with being a fugitive from God and that he had cut himself off from hope. His heart had found rest and had found it apart from God. In his city he would make a fresh beginning for himself and for mankind. He would put the past squarely behind him, without looking back. Here he abandoned all clinging memories of former things, of his old home, and of the God that was worshipped there. It does appear he had enough sense not to call his city by his own name, and thus to  invite men to consider his past or to trace back anything to his old life. He seems to have cut all his past from himself; his crime, as well as his God, and all that was in his past was to be no more to him or to his new comrades. He would make a clean start and so that men might be led to expect a great future he called his city, Enoch, a Beginning.

But it is one thing to forgive ourselves and strive to forget our past, it is quite another thing to have God’s forgiveness. It is one thing to reconcile ourselves to the curse that runs through our life, another thing to be reconciled to God and in so doing, defeat the curse. It is sometimes, though not always, possible to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our attitude and possibly our lifestyle so as to lessen the depths of our life that is exposed to others, or we can accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
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