Genesis 4:14 “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”
Cain stubbornly refuses to recognize his own guilt and tries to make God bear the blame. (How ironic, when the Son of God bears our blame already of His own free will, on the sole condition that we confess and forsake our sins and believe on Him.) “You have driven me away,” Cain accuses, and then gives an irrational three-part foretelling of his own future that is two-thirds speculation and one-third quote from God’s Word. Heaps of false prophecies today generate for the same reasons and in much the same manner as Cain’s prognosticating.
“From thy face shall I be hid” seems more like wishful forecasting on Cain’s part, poorly disguised as a complaint. At the same time it reveals his ignorance of God’s character and capabilities.
“I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth,” Cain finally repeats something God actually said. But God also said, “when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.” Cain’s own persistant refusal to face up to the results of his evil actions would turn him into a continual wanderer. When we run from our problems we are bound to run into them again.
Finally, Cain concludes that everyone is after him to take his life. Who did Cain think would kill him anyway? His own father and mother? Another brother? Did Able leave behind children who Cain feared would grow up to avenge their loss? In any case, Cain clearly judges everyone else according to the standard of his own character. How often do we do the same thing? When we reject God’s moral measuring mechanism, there is nothing else left to us but to make ourselves the standard, which is a recipe for suspicion, doubt, fear, anger, and depression, ad infinitum: in short, an absolute disaster.
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