Ensign: The Mark Of Cain

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 4 September 2015

[Originally written and sent out October 20, 2011, so please don't write me back that the dates are off. I KNOW; the server crashed where I live yesterday and to be quite honest I didn't like where that Ensign was going. Sometimes it does help us to look back on our work. -- David]

　

We don't know what the mark of Cain actually was. But the bravado that characterized Adam and Eve's first son Cain when he killed his brother, their second son Abel, was gone when God called upon him. (For the full story, see Genesis 4:1-9.) The tiller of the ground -- a farmer in our usage today -- had killed the keeper of sheep, the shepherd, and it's not as though God didn't already know what Cain had done.

　

"And God said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." From there it's mild to say Cain freaks out, especially when he hears God's sentence; not to kill him -- for someone so cavalier about the value of human life, he seems afraid he'll be killed himself -- but to exile him to travel throughout the world as "a fugitive and a vagabond" (verse twelve).

　

José Saramago was no friend of Christianity (he died last year [2010], and his beliefs can best be described as "libertarian communism"), but there are many days I'm not either, so I'm willing to bend a little. Anyway, I just finished his final novel Cain (ISBN 9780547419893) which fictionally accounts for what happened to him after going to dwell in the lad of Nod and having a son (Enoch, who gets the city Cain built named for him in Genesis 4:17) and after that drops out of Scripture.

　

Drops out of Scripture save as a bad example, anyway. (See Hebrews 11:4, 1 John 3:12, and Jude 11.) Well, in the story I read Cain because of the mark God placed upon him (from Genesis 4:15) became a wanderer through history from -- at least in the period the book covers -- Noah to Abraham to Job to Moses to Joshua and saw repeatedly instances in his thought of God inflicting suffering upon the people of Jericho, Ai, and Sodom that they didn't all deserve. I'm flippant with the chronology here because the novel was too.

　

Whenever you and I are called to witness to others to share the Gospel, we have to ask ourselves are we happy about it? How we choose to look upon the world influences how effective we are sharing our faith (not necessarily "sharing Christianity", hence my admission two paragraphs ago) because it is OUR faith. Your faith. My faith. And once a person chooses to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord as the only way to return unto God, they have THEIR faith.

　

None of us may be murderers, but all of us have something in us, something we've done (not something we are, there's a difference) that falls short of the glory of God. It's called sin, an act that separates us from the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and thereby the full potential of our relationship with our Creator. And we're given plenty of opportunity to "'fess up" in life, but we have no way of knowing HOW many chances we'll have. Our lives are gifts to us; we didn't fight to get our own lives from God, and we can't stop Him from bringing it to an end. "For dust thou art [and we are], and unto dust shalt thou return [and we return]." (Genesis 3:19)

　

Nor would I really want that kind of power. But that fact that you and I (maybe) haven't yet received "the due reward of our deeds" (in the words of one thief adjoining Jesus on the cross, per Luke 23:41) doesn't mean we won't -- it's going to happen, unto us "once to die, but after this [life] the judgment:". But Hebrews 9:27 continues into the next verse: "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." I can't say myself whether Cain or Saramago or you finally sought or seek God's forgiveness. But I can say I did, I have, and I do -- and I'll have to answer Him for it. So will you for yourself.

　

Lord, take this mark of Cain from me,

　

David

　

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.