God banished Cain from the Land of Eden. This devotional reading looks at what that banishment may have meant.
Nuggets
- We don’t have GPS coordinates for the Land of Nod.
- At some point in his life, Cain became a family man.
- Enoch, named for Cain’s son, was the first city.
- Cain, even though he was an ungodly man, did his part to go forth and multiply.
We are heading toward the end of Genesis 4. In this devotion, we will look at Cain beginning his banishment.
But what happened from there? While we don’t get much information, we do get some.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the The Influence of Sin series
Cain
“So Cain left the Lord’s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain had sexual relations with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain founded a city, which he named Enoch, after his son” (Gen. 4: 16-17 NLT)
The Land of Nod
We don’t have GPS coordinates for the Land of Nod.
The main thing for Cain would have been that the Land of Nod was not the Land of Eden. He was leaving everything that he had always known. He was leaving his mother and father.
Cain was leaving God.
Nod is a Hebrew word. It means wanderer, exile, or fugitive.
All we know about Nod was it was east of Eden. That would bring him first into what we know today as Arab nations. If he kept going, he may have gotten all the way into what we know today of as India and Asia.
But then, remember, the word means wanderer. It may not be a specified piece of land. It may be wherever he wandered.
Ooo, baby. Think about that. Everywhere Cain went – even though he knew it only as Nod –it was changing all the time. He would have gotten out of one land into another; but even though it changed, it didn’t change.
Cain was always in Nod, never in Eden.
That, to me, is just emphasizing the fact that Cain was outside of God’s presence. No matter what he did, no matter wherever he went, he would never get back to the presence of God.
Remember, Cain was going to be a wanderer, a nomad. God’s Word – in a variety of ways – addresses that.
- “Then the Lord will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the Lord with the Asherah poles they have set up for worship (I Kgs. 14: 15 NLT).
- “‘O Israel,’ says the Lord, ‘if you wanted to return to me, you could. You could throw away your detestable idols and stray away no more (Jer. 4: 1 NLT).
- “My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know: God is on my side!” (Ps. 56: 9 NLT).
- “I trust in the Lord for protection. So why do you say to me, ‘Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!” (Ps. 11: 1 NLT).
- “Run for your lives,’ says the Lord. ‘Hide yourselves in deep caves, you people of Hazor, for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has plotted against you and is preparing to destroy you” (Jer. 49: 30 NLT).
- “They may sprout on the day you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain” (Isa. 17: 11 NLT).
Whipped, retreat, fly, and run. Very descriptive words of things going the wrong way.
Kalisch had an interesting observation. Nod is only identified as being east of Eden. However, the location of Eden is unknown. So, how in the world would we know where Nod lie?
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So, the most important thing here is as we said. Cain was where God wasn’t.
God was showing us, through the story of Cain, what it is like to be outside His presence. It is misery based on exile. It is unsettled living.
Cain’s Wife
At some point in his life, Cain became a family man.
Genesis 4: 17 talks about Cain’s wife. Where did she come from?
It doesn’t necessarily mean that there were other humans who were not in Adam and Eve’s family.
Well, Cain’s wife may have been his sister.
If Cain was married when he killed Abel, Mrs. Cain would have become a wanderer like Cain. While God told Cain he would be a wanderer, He didn’t say he would be a lonely wanderer. He would have someone with whom to share his sorrow.
But think about it. Was Mrs. Cain being punished for Cain’s sin? Was she obedient to God but forced out of His presence by her husband’s sin? Or did she stoke the fires of jealousy, anger, and hatred?
Gilfillan thought about it this way. He wrote,
“He goes out alone, save for his poor weeping wife, for children as yet he had none. He goes out in silence, without venturing to utter one word of remonstrance or regret. He goes out withered and accursed, although not utterly crushed. He goes out bearing, and showing that he is conscious of bearing, his character burnt and branded on his brow. He goes out, preserved indeed, but preserved as the criminal on the scaffold is preserved from the guns of the soldiery and the missiles of the crowd, that he may abide the executioner’s axe, or feel the hangman’s gripe. He goes out alone, but you see in him the representative of the giant race of transgressors, who are yet in his loins as he goes forth. He goes out into a thinly peopled earth, but into an earth where he knows that every man is aware of his crime, and would kill him but for a mark which identifies and renders infamous while it secures him.”
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In other words, I think Gilfillan hit all the bases because he had no clue what was what.
But then, some think that the world was also populated at this time by angels and daughters hooking up. “Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives” (Gen. 6: 1-2 NLT).
We’ll address this somewhere down the road. But for this discussion, we’ll say we don’t know what Mrs. Cain’s maiden name was.
Look at the contrast. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12: 1-3 NLT).
In the last devotion, we talked about all the I will statements in those verses. God drove Cain away, but He guided Abram back.
Abram was a man of righteousness and obedience. Cain was a man of sin and disobedience.
Founded a City
Enoch, named for Cain’s son, was the first city.
Okay. So, the tale wove us around from chosen ones to outcasts to murder to banishment to a city.
Hmmm. I would say the population was growing.
Not only growing, but I would say the people were becoming more civilized.
But then, it sounds like Cain and Mrs. Cain were no longer wanderers. They were going to be city folk.
In fact, Enoch means beginning. Cain probably did see this as a renew.
Hmmmmm. Does this mean Cain is telling himself, “This life is pretty good. I don’t need God.”
Kalisch described this as lawlessness being corralled by self-imposed laws. Babington felt the city allowed the people of the day to extol their own praises, and not God’s. They would be able to implement their own desires, and totally disobey God’s Will.
Resources
While this does increase civilization, if the laws are not based on God’s laws, we gain nothing.
Look how Watkinson said. He wrote,
“The spirit of Cain was the spirit of ungodliness. It was the spirit of worldliness, it was the fastening to the earthly side of things and the leaving out of the spiritual and divine; it made material life a substitute for God, and in all things aimed to make man independent of God. It was government without God. ‘Cain builded a city’ — he laid the foundation of the worldly rule, and laid it in the spirit of pride and independence. It was culture without God.”
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Civilization is nothing without God.
The Descendants of Cain
“Enoch had a son named Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech” (Gen. 4: 18 NLT)
Cain, even though he was an ungodly man, did his part to go forth and multiply.
Cain and his wife stated their family. This fulfills the blessing given in Genesis 1: 28. “Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply …’”
To me, this shows me that God is not a dictator. Even though Cain and his descendants did not obey God, He allowed them to further his line. God didn’t cut off their ability to have kids.
Make no mistake. God could have done that. If He had done, they would have brought it on themselves.
So far, that is a generalization of all Cain’s descendants. In the next devotion, we’ll look at a couple of them.
Making the Connections
Babington made an interest observation that I hadn’t thought of before. We never hear about Cain ever again.
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God will tell us about bad stuff — disobedience, persecution, exiles. He wants us to know that He will punish us when we sin.
But God mostly focuses on saving us. He loves us and wants our relationship with Him restored.
How Do We Apply This?
Obey God.
Father God. While You have not given us much information about Cain, You have given us enough. We know we need to choose You. Strengthen us so that we can obey You. Amen.
What do you think?
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