Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 16
Cain and Abel Part 2 Messiah’s Mark of Protection
Elohim says Cain my son “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Now this, to me, is a super important scripture found in the Old Testament. This Scripture tells us how Elohim, how God reacts to our being upset about something. Elohim comes to us and says, “Yo. You’re upset. You’re angry. You'd better turn around and do what is right. Because if you do there is a path back to acceptance.
There is a path back to you being in favor instead of disfavor.” So, Cain was given this opportunity. He was given a path. He was given a way to go, where he could repent from his anger and his jealousy of his brother and all the stuff that was going on. He could have still found his way back into God's favor.
Now I call this principle ‘Reconciliation through Obedience’ It is certainly a principal that applies here in Genesis and it's a principle that applies in Deuteronomy. Where God tells the children of Israel: If you do what is right. If you obey the law. You will be the head and not the tail. You will be above and not below. I will bless you in the country. I will bless you in the city. I will bless you when you leave your house. I will bless you when you come back your house. But on the other hand, if they disobey then they were going to receive the equal except in curses. And they will be below and not above. They will be the tail not the head, etc. Now I think this principle still applies to us today. If we get upset about something, we still have the ability to repent, turnaround, do what is right and then we will find acceptance with our Creator. But if we take
the next step. What does it say? It says if you do not do what is right sin is crouching at your door.
Now this is a picture of a wild animal crouching, ready to pounce. So, like a tiger, a cheetah whatever, pick your wild cat. They sit, they wait and then when the prey comes into view, they pounce and they devour. It desires to have you but you must master it. Now Cain is at a point where he can choose one way or the other way. Literally he’s standing at the door, sin is on the other side of the door waiting to devour him.
On the other side of the door is repentance and a path back to God. He could've slammed the door through repentance and made his way back to Elohim. Instead, he chose to give into his jealousy, to get into his anger, give in to his hatred and he walked right through that door. And sure enough sin pounced on him and sin devoured him.
That was the point where you went from just being upset and angry, to the point of rebellion. He went against what God said he should do. He rebelled against Elohim. So now he is being consumed by his sin and what happens next? He invites his brother out into the field under some pretext and while they're out in the field Cain murders his brother. Now maybe his name Cain which means spear or spear head could have something to do with how he did the deed or it could be that he just picked up a rock or whatever. I mean there's many ways that Cain could've done in his brother. So, Cain has now killed his brother.
He’s standing there and we’re watching as Cain stands over this lifeless body which used to be his brother. There's blood dripping out of his wound that was created by Cain. And that blood is dripping into the ground and being absorbed down into the soil.
Now in the midrash Tanchuma, excuse me, Tanchuma Bereshit 10, it says
After Cain slew Abel, the body lay outstretched upon the earth, since Cain did not know how to dispose of it. Thereupon the holy one (Elohim), blessed be He, selected two clean birds
In other words, they weren’t vultures. They weren’t carrion birds. They weren’t buzzards or eagles or owls. They were clean birds like turtledoves or other birds of the field.
And he caused one of those birds to kill the other bird.
So, this was a portrayal of Cain killing Abel.
The surviving bird dug the earth with his talons and buried its victim. Cain learned from this what to do. He dug a grave and buried Abel.
Now it may not happen this way but I really like the stories that we find in the Midrash. And this one kind of spoke to me. Now Cain has somehow disposed of the body, probably buried it. And now he's back in the camp. He tending is his fields, or whatever. And Elohim comes to him and Elohim confronts him. Now, we know what happened. We know there's a dead body out in the field. We know that there's blood in the ground. And we know that this murder, you know Abel is going to be missed. Somebody is going to figure this out. But what does Cain do? He lies. He covers up. He tries to evade the truth. And he's now in this whole place like he's in the clutches of sin. And we know that when Satan speaks his native language, its lies. We know that lies are now coming from the sin.
So, he asks Cain, he says where's your brother? And of course, Cain’s response is what am I? Is it my day to watch him? Am I my brother's keeper? How would I know? I have no clue what happened to Abel. Of course, Elohim knew that this was a boldfaced lie. So, this is what Elohim says to Cain:
The LORD said, “What have you done? [Listen!] Listen your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
So, all this hiding of the body. All of the lying. All the subterfuge. Elohim just cuts right through it. And that's what he does to you and me. When we think we’re very cleverly hiding our sin from Elohim. There's no way. He just cuts right through it. And he says, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground where you killed him.”
Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground,
So, everything that Cain knew, his whole livelihood, his whole world, planting and reaping, the crops and all that has now been stripped away from him. Sounds kind of familiar. Remember Adam and Eve tending the garden, naming the animals their whole livelihood was just stripped from them in the form of a curse.
So, the same ground,
which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand will no longer produce any crops for you.
Cain you are totally hosed. You are no longer a farmer.
When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
And if you look at the words that are used to translate ‘a restless wanderer’.
It's from the phrase which is nah vanad. Now those two words nah comes from the root nooah. And then the vanad is from the root nood. Now these have two different meanings.
One of them, the first one means like a quivering or staggering like a drunk who is barely able to stand up, wobbling and weaving and bobbing. That is the root nooah. The other one means to move to and fro. So, to wander aimlessly. you are just walking through the land, nowhere to go, you don’t even know where you're going to be, just aimlessly wandering.
So that is how Cain was going to be.
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear.
Oh! Woe is me. This is too harsh. This is too cruel. I can’t bear this curse you put me.
Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence;
Now, whenever the Scripture says presence, it literally means in front of somebody's face. So, it’s like your king is here and you are in his presence, right? So, you are in front of the king’s face. So, you are in the presence of the king. So, that's was its talking about. Cain was in the presence of Elohim. Elohim still came and communicated with them. He watched over them. He protected them. I mean Elohim blessed their crops. Elohim blessed their herds. Elohim gave them everything they need. They should have just been dumped out to survive on their own. But Elohim was still there helping them. Now that is the biggest demonstration of grace that I can ever imagine. I mean if somebody did to me what Adam and Eve did to Elohim, I'd be ready to just cut the whole thing off.
In fact, we know from, we’ll read when we get to Noah and flood, God was ready to just destroy everything and say enough, I'm done with all these humans and all their sin and all the stuff that they're doing. He was ready to just trash the whole thing. But yet he kept extending grace after grace after grace after grace.
And we know that when Messiah comes, that he is an extension of God's Grace. He's an extension of this concept that I’m going to give man another chance. I going to give you another chance. You deserve death but I’m going to give you another chance. I’m going to put a mark on you Cain so that whoever finds you will not kill you. And I'm going to send you out and you are going to wonder just like I said. But nobody’s going kill you because now you have my seal of protection on you. So, let's talk about now, this Mark of Cain or this Seal of Cain. Now, through the years this has been used in a very evil and bad way.
There were ministers who claim that that that mark of Cain was black skin and that justified slavery with the African slaves. Or the mark of Cain was red skin and that justified killing all the Native Americans and taking over their land. This was used as a very pejorative thing. The Mark of Cain is thought in a lot of circles as being something really, really bad. You don't want the mark of Cain! But think about it. Let’s be logical about this. God put a seal, a mark, something on Cain which protected him. So, whoever saw it would not kill him. Whoever saw it would leave him alone because they knew he was under the protection of Elohim. Nobody really wanted to go up against Elohim.
Now, if you look in the rabbinical writings, some rabbis thought that the mark of Cain was one of the one of the Hebrew letters. Kind of like the Nathaniel Hawthorne Scarlet Letter. The letter A was put on the adulterer’s forehead. Something along those lines. And others thought that it was actually a horn or protuberance like the horn of a rhinoceros. I don't know what it looked like physically. I mean you and I are here watching the story, but we have no idea what the mark of Cain looked like.
All we know is that it was a seal of protection and was symbolic of the protection of Elohim. Now this Mark has very definite messianic implications. Because in the future when Messiah comes to earth, 6
Messiah will do the same [thing] that Elohim did for Cain. He is going to do the same for his followers, for his believers, for his children.
He is going to put a mark or a seal on them so that they are protected. There will come a time when evil men will want to destroy all of Messiah's followers but this mark will protect them and keep them safe. Let's read from Messiah in the Old Testament.
The story of Cain and Abel demonstrates what can happen with uncontrolled jealousy.
Cain let his jealousy, let his anger get out of control. And uncontrolled jealousy and anger leads to bad things.
Cain's jealousy over Elohim's favor to Abel and his offering led him to be angry and downcast. Elohim saw Cain's anger and confronted him with the intent of reconciliation.
And remember we talked about ‘Reconciliation Through Obedience.’
He offered him a path of repentance. A path back to good graces with God. His disobedience in regard to his sacrifice had cost him the favor of Elohim, but not the love or compassion or forgiveness of his Creator.
God was extending grace to Cain and offered him a way back.
Elohim warned him. He said, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Sin is like a crouching tiger or cheetah or any big cat who sits and waits for its prey. When the prey comes into view, the cheetah pounces and takes its prey. Sin is like that.
Sin is like a crouching tiger waiting to pounce and devour you. Cain opened the door to sin with this jealousy and anger. If he had repented, he could've shut the door on that sin and walked back to God. Repentance would've led him back to his Savior. But instead, he opened the door and walked through. He let his fiery anger consume him, nursing his hatred against his brother. And then sin pounced on him and as a result his brother lay dead in the field.
Murdered at the hands of his brother Cain.
Rebellion always leads to sin and sin always leads to death.
Certainly, this was true in the case of Cain and Abel and it continues to be true even to this very day.
This is why Messiah has to come. Messiah has to come to break this cycle of sin and death and sin and death. It’s going to be played out [over the next millennia].
We will see it in the Tanakh. It’s played out over and over and over again. Messiah has to come to break this and bring a permanent solution to the sin cycle.
The flaming sword that barred Adam and Eve's way back to the Tree of Life was a symbol of judgment and justice.
And we talked about the flaming sword, a symbol of justice and judgment.
It was a visual reminder of all that Adam and Eve had lost as a result of their sin. Messiah will come as a conquering king.
And remember the logo. The lion, the scepter, the crown, the conquering king.
He is going to come and he's going to wield that fiery sword against his enemies. Messiah will bring justice and judgment to the earth. The mark that Elohim placed on Cain was a mark of protection. It allowed Cain to live in the presence and protection of his Creator. Anyone who saw the mark knew that they were not to harm Cain. Messiah will do the same for those that follow him when he comes. He'll place a mark on them. The mark will allow them to live in the presence and protection of Elohim.
So, let's summarize what we learned today about Messiah.
Messiah will come as a conquering king. Messiah will use the fiery sword of justice and judgment. He will judge his enemies. He will defeat his enemies and as a result he will set up his eternal kingdom. And in that eternal kingdom, we will then have access back down the path to the Tree of Life. We will have access to the Tree of Life, the River of Life. And we will then be restored to the Garden of Eden. Number two, we learned that God's grace seems to be endless. Even though man sins and murderers and does all kinds of evil and bad things, God keeps coming up with plans for their redemption. And the plan this time was ‘Reconciliation Through Obedience.” But man for some reason tends not to be very obedient and rebels and then goes into sin. And then this whole sin cycle keeps going over and over, sin and death and sin and death. Messiah must come to break that. Messiah must come in order for grace to abound on the earth and sin to be conquered. Number three, we learned that the mark that was put on Cain’s forehead, was a mark of protection and a mark that indicated that God was still watching out for Cain. So, Cain still lived in the presence, before the face of God and under his protection. The same will be true for Messiah, when Messiah comes. Messiah will also put a mark on his followers, on his children so that anyone who sees that mark will know that those children are under the protection of Messiah and they were living in the presence of Messiah. And all his followers will be marked. Now to me these are super exciting revelations about Messiah. Putting that together with the redemptive plan we talked about earlier, we’re getting a more and more
complete picture of what Messiah is about and what he is going to do when he comes. Join us next week. We’re going to look into the whole concept of how the earth continues to do this whole sin cycle. Violence is going to fill the earth and there is going to come a point where judgment comes upon the earth. And then we’re going to see how God saves a remnant out of that. So, join us next time for Messiah in the Old Testament.
Thank you for watching our show today. We hope that you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Now, after watching this episode you might be saying to yourself, “Who is this Messiah that Dr. Smith is talking about?
Is he talking about the Christian Messiah? Is he talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. And then lived a blameless and holy life on the earth, And then was tortured and crucified. And after he died he then was resurrected from the dead after three days. Then after people witnessed this, he was then taken up bodily by Elohim into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Muslim prophet Isa. Isa Ibn Maryam, the messenger, who was sent by Allah to bring a message to the people. The Quran says he that lived a holy and blameless life, was born of the virgin Mary. He fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies in exact accordance. But one difference, instead of being crucified, he then was taken up by Allah into heaven before the Romans laid hands on him. And he awaits there now in the fourth heaven where at the end of days at the day of judgment he will be revealed to all.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Jewish Messiah? The Messiah who has not yet been revealed, that the entire Jewish world is waiting for his revelation. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can hold to any of these beliefs. And we can all still learn together about Messiah. We can learn about our Christian Messiah. We can learn about our Jewish Messiah. We can learn about our Muslim prophet Isa who will be revealed. It
doesn’t matter what you believe. You can even be an atheist or agnostic and still learn from this program about Messiah. Now, I have to admit I am a Christian so I approach things, obviously, from a Christian point of view. And I promise you, as we reveal these prophecies, which I believe have all been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Or will be fulfilled when he comes back, returning in the clouds in the same way he was taken up. I believe that all of this is true, but I promise you I will do my very best to present these prophecies from a neutral point of view. And try to keep my Christian bias to a minimum. Obviously, it will pop up from time to time but I will try to stay only in the Tanakh and try not to get into the New Testament very often. Now, if you want more information about Messiah, we have resources for you.
We have a website which is findingmessiah.org. Now, on that website you are going to find several resources. You will find links to all the videos, all the episodes that we have created so far. You will find links to download the transcripts of any of these episodes. And then you will find a section where you can get more information about Messiah through frequently asked questions. And then there is a section for donation. If you want to come alongside our ministry at Finding Messiah.
Now, there’s going to come a time in this series where you are going to be confronted with the question: What are you going to do with Messiah? Who do you believe Messiah is? Which of these Messiahs do you believe Dr. Smith is talking about? And Messiah will become real to you if you look at all the information presented and come to your conclusions. So, join us as we continue our journey through the Old Testament Scriptures looking for all the Messianic Prophecies. And join us next time as we reveal those to you.
