Then
the Lord said to Cain, “Where is
Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
And
He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me
from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has
opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
When
you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A
fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
- And
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is
greater than I can bear!
. . . And
the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him
should kill him. (Genesis 4: 9-15)
There
were two young men, brothers, from a good family. Cain, the elder brother, had been upset about
something that happened at church, but when he invited his brother Abel over to
talk it seemed that they would quickly move past the latest episode of their
sibling rivalry. The day went on, the
night came, the sun rose again, but only Cain had come home, and the story became an investigation.
The
investigation led to an indictment. The
indictment to trial. Trial to sentence. In
our place and time, police investigate, prosecutors indict and bring to trial,
and judges (directly or indirectly) decide guilt, innocence, and sentence. Police, district attorneys, and judges are
agents of the state. Therefore, the
state is in charge of every stage in the story.
In the State vs. Cain (more commonly known as Cain vs. Abel), God is the state. The Lord Himself investigates, prosecutes, and presides over the first
criminal trial. Cain vs. Abel is the first and ultimate
setter of precedent for the Christian view of a just legal system.
How
does a godly court system function? We
can know by looking back at the case where God was “the State.”
INVESTIGATION
In
verses 9 and 10, God questioned Cain, but he denied any knowledge of the crime.
Then the Lord said to Cain,
“Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Keep
in mind that God knew that Cain was guilty.
Human prosecutors often say they’re certain of defendants’ guilt, but
they aren’t omniscient. Even when there’s
a signed confession, human prosecutors don’t literally KNOW. God KNEW Cain was guilty, but God still let
Cain speak.
From
verses 9-15, we hear as often from Cain as we hear from God. The Lord didn’t silence or suppress the voice
of the accused.
Verse
10 states that God let the voice of Abel’s blood speak. In other words, God the investigator didn’t
suppress any forensic evidence.
PROSECUTION
God
let the accused talk, and He spoke for the victim. God demonstrated that one could pursue
justice for victims and simultaneously be fair to the accused.
TRIAL
God
referred to physical evidence in declaring Cain guilty. Cain wasn’t guilty
because of his character, his religious practices, his skin tone, upbringing, or
affiliations. Cain wasn’t guilty because
he ran or acted suspiciously. God ruled
according to truth and evidence.
SENTENCING
The
crime was murder. A quick scan of
Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy and you’re sure that God believes in the
death penalty. But, in the very first
criminal proceeding in Biblical history, where the defendant is guilty of unprovoked,
unjustifiable, probably premeditated, murder --- God did not sentence the
defendant to death.
Cain
was given life in exile without parole. (Genesis 4:11, 12)
POST-SENTENCING
Cain
appealed his sentence, and God listened to him.
GOD let the convicted criminal speak.
GOD actually considered the arguments of a convicted felon when said
felon questioned the severity of the consequences of his sentencing.
Cain
was caught, convicted, and sentenced. However,
God still treated him like ---- like a child of God whose life and thoughts had
value.
Cain’s
argument on appeal was prophetic.
And Cain said to the Lord,
“My punishment is greater than
I can bear! . . . it will happen that
anyone who finds me will kill me.” (Genesis 4:13, 14)
In
other words, “Now, my life is devalued. I’m
going into a culture where anyone could kill me and get away with it just
because I’m a convicted felon.”
The Mark
Verse
15 indicates that God thought that Cain had a valid point. God meant for Cain to fulfill his sentence,
but God did not want the criminal conviction to devalue Cain’s life.
Police
kill unarmed Black men and women, but we justify it because:
“He
was a convicted felon.”
“She’d
been arrested before.”
“He
looks like a bad dude.”
Unsworn
citizens kill unarmed Black men and women, but we defend them because the
victim
“.
. . was suspended from school for smoking weed.”
“.
. . was throwing up gang sings on his Facebook page.”
“.
. . looked suspicious.”
We justify
the murder of those whose past or presence marks them to us as guilty.
How
does God mark the guilty?
And the Lord said to Cain, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him
sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should
kill him.
The
mark of Cain was not part of Cain’s punishment.
The mark was the certificate of God’s protection.
In
contemporary terms, the mark of Cain was a special policy enacted by God
declaring that it was a severe felony to kill a previously convicted person and
use their previous convictions as justification.
In the
very first criminal proceeding, God declared that you can’t kill people cause
of what they used to do. You can’t shoot
a man because he looks like “a bad dude.”
You can’t fatally apply an illegal chokehold because he didn’t want to
be handcuffed for selling cigarettes without a license. You can’t shoot an unarmed child, woman, or
man and after the fact, search social media for an image of them looking
guilty.
For
that, God said vengeance shall be taken on you sevenfold.
That
punishment to the seventh power isn’t proposed for the felons. It is promised to the people, to the society
that says #alllivesmatter, but functions as if some lives matter much less.
Sometimes you just "know" someone is guilty. You are so sure of it that no evidence or argument will dissuade you. Evens so, for those
of us who claim to follow the God of the Bible, there are limits to how we
punish the guilty.
Christians
should not operate systems in which the voice of the accused is silenced or
evidence is suppressed. Christians should
not accept investigations and prosecutions in which the state or its agents
presume guilt based on what they “know” from subconsciously biased feelings,
intuitions, and perceptions. Christians must
never dehumanize the incarcerated, take aware their voices, or summarily
dismiss their complaints. Christians
have to recognize that sometimes the guilty have a valid point.
And,
critically, immediately, Christians must leap off the bandwagon that hardens our hearts over the blood of men, women, and children killed in streets, in
yards, on sidewalks, in jail cells, and in the parks where they play. Even if they were guilty, God says that they
deserve better than that.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO); and
director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and
clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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