HEBREW WORD STUDY THE MARK OF CAIN

Transcription

1 HEBREW WORD STUDY THE MARK OF CAIN Genesis 4:15: And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Exodus 11:7, But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. To protect Cain from being killed, a dog was given him, who accompanied him and protected him against all comers. Mishnah Genesis Rabba 22:12 There has been a sort of love/hate relationship between the Jews and dogs throughout the centuries. On the one hand we find dogs are often referred to in a negative light in the Bible. Yet, we find a passage like Exodus 11:7 where the dogs did not bark when the Jews left Egypt after the last plague.

2 In some Jewish circles they will not even own a pet dog because of the negative light that Scripture places on dogs and yet there is a positive light in Scripture and in Jewish tradition. As a dog lover myself, Sparker to the exception, I would like to focus on the positive light that is presented on dogs. The ancient Egyptian word for dog was iwiw, which is really a reference to the dog s bark. From ancient drawings of the dogs in Egypt their dog of choice seemed to be the salukis or greyhounds. A greyhound is after all a hound dog that is used for tracking and the Egyptians would not only use them for hunting but as guard dogs and police dogs. They were used in military actions and as household pets. Thus the iwiw, the very thing that the dog was prized for by the Egyptians that they gave it such a name to reference their bark, did not bark when they were supposed to in Exodus 11:7. They were to either alert the Egyptians that the Jews were leaving the land or to track down the first born of the Jews to slaughter them in revenge for the deaths in the final plague. We are not too sure the importance of their not barking but if they were anything like my neighbor s pit bull, Sparky the Wonder Dog, not barking would be nothing less than a miracle. As a result the Midrash in Shmot Rabbah 31:9 teaches that dogs were to be rewarded for not barking by being fed the meat that was not kosher. You can be sure Sparky deserves no such reward. Many Jews will even feed their pet dog before they feed themselves as a symbol of this reward. But in digging through Jewish tradition I find that the word used to express one s affection for a friend, or a lover is kalavi. Kalavi means like my heart or one who is close to my

3 heart. Yet this is also a play on words for the word in Hebrew for a dog which is Kalav. The word is spelled Kap, Lamed and Beth. When the Kap is used as a preposition is means like or as and the following word is lev which means a heart. Even the Hebrew word for a dog represents something with affection. But I even found more of a positive spin in Jewish tradition regarding the dog. I was reading in the Midrash the other day and discovered that there is a teaching by the sage Rev that the mark of Cain was a dog. We have no idea what the mark of Cain was. The Hebrew word for mark is simply oth or Aleph Vav Taw. It begins with the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and ends with the last letter. It could mean a mark, it could also mean a sign or a token. The Jewish Midrash tends to look at the word as a token. God was showing mercy to Cain and as an act of mercy God gave Cain a dog. Of course we have no way of knowing for sure what this oth was but I like the idea of God showing his mercy to Cain by giving him a dog to be a companion, friend, and a protection. After all Cain would be an outcast and so God gave him a companion. Of course if that dog happened to be Sparky it would have probably been just another punishment. I have a friend who had a dog that she raised from a puppy. She developed a real connection with her furry friend. He proved to be everything that Cain s dog would have been if this were the oth God gave him. Her dog, that she named Autumn, was not only her constant companion, but her protector, her comfort in her grief and something much more. She told how when she would take Autumn for a walk and when she did she could hear the still small voice of God. Why did God give us animals in this world in the first place?

4 Some were meant to provide food for us, but many were not, many were meant for something else, to show us God s beauty as in the galloping or running of a horse, his majesty in the lion, His tenderness in the mother s car of her young, His joy in the singing and dancing of a bird or His reaching out to us in the presence of a little squirrel who runs up to you and twitches his nose looking for that daily peanut you give him. The Bible makes it very clear that we are to treat animals humanely, we are not to make animals suffer and we are to treat them with respect. God gave us his creation as a reminder of who He is, what He is and that He is always near. Autumn passed away not too long ago. My friend said that since his passing she found it very hard to hear the voice of God. I am confident she will find a new friend among God s creation that will help her hear the voice of God once she has worked through her grief. I am confident because she has learned the purpose of God s creation, our animals friends have been given to us by God as a gift as Cain s oth was a gift to be a constant reminder of the presence of God and they can offer us the gift of helping us hear God s still small voice. I took a vacation day from work today to take advantage of my season pass to Brookfield Zoo. So what is the attraction of a zoo? Go figure. I think people go to the zoo to relax, find a sense of peace and somehow being around God s creation does that for them. It is almost as if you can hear that still small voice of God as you God uses his creation to entertain us.

5 WORD STUDY A CLOSED PORTAL Genesis 4:5-7: But unto Cain and his offering he had no respect, and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are thou wroth and why has thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well shall thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. I remember as a child in Sunday School watching my Sunday School teacher tell the story of Cain and Abel using the flannel graph. Abel kept falling off the board (guess he had more graph than flannel) leaving only Cain on the board kneeling down with his fruits and vegetables clutched to his hands and looking up to heaven with a forlorn look. Maybe it was Abel s continued departure from the flannel graph board leaving a lonely Cain with a sad face looking up to God that made a lasting impression on me, as I could not help but feel sorry for the old boy. Of course I could never condone his actions in wasting his brother, however, I could not help but think that if God could have cut Cain a little slack and accepted his offering, which was given in good faith, the story could have been quite different. But, no, God had to play it by the book and only an animal sacrifice would do.

6 But come on, this animal sacrifice was not really made law until the time of Moses. Surly God could have given the poor guy a break. Years later after studying Hebrew I began to realize that God having no respect for Cain s offering really had the idea of conveying no power, and insight into this offering. For one thing the ground had been cursed, So Cain was offering something that was cursed. The second thing is God telling Cain that if he does well he will be accepted. God was really playing hardball at this time. Without the law, or a Bible, how was one to know if he was doing well. The Hebrew word for doing well is tov. This word was used quite a bit at creation. After God created something, He then saw that it was tov or good. As explained in earlier devotionals, this word means to be in harmony with God. Cain offered something that was cursed to God and was not in harmony with Him. Note that God warns that if you don t do what is in harmony with God, sin lies at the door. The word sin here is chatak which means unintentional mistakes or sins, Apparently, the act of offering fruits and vegetables may not necessarily have been a sin, but at most it was an unintentional mistake, yet it was still not in harmony with God. Perhaps Cain killing his brother was more manslaughter than murder, more unintentional. It is possible he did not even understand physical death. Well, that s another issue. What I am pondering is this idea that if you do not do what is in harmony with God, unintentional sin is lying at the door. I don t believe that this is as metaphoric as we think. The word in the Hebrew for door has the preposition Lamed before it which could be rendered as to, for or unto with the definite article the. This is a definite, specific door. Not only that the word used here comes from a Semitic root word

7 patach which is often rendered as a portal. This is more than just a doorway to another room, it is an entrance to something entirely different. My metaphoric Looking Glass that I talk about in my upcoming book, Beyond the Daleth is an example of a portal. We never seem to stop to ask why Cain and Abel were offering their sacrifices to God. The Bible is not clear, but I think the answer is buried in the Hebrew. They were seeking to open a portal to the presence of God. Note that when Cain s offering was not accepted his countenance fell. That word countenance is pani in the Hebrew which is often a reference to one s presence. His presence was fallen. In verse 7 God says if he does what is in harmony he will be accepted. The word accepted in Hebrew is se eth which really means to be lifted up. It would seem that the offerings were made so their presence would be lifted up to God s presence. When Cain offered something that was cursed, out of harmony with God, he could not feel God s presence. This also appeared to be a messianic picture which involved the shedding of blood for redemption and of course fruit had no blood so it could not be used as a blood sacrifice. When he did not feel the presence of God in giving his offering, he was wroth. The word for wroth is charah. In its Semitic root means to be hot. Being hot does not necessarily mean to be angry. Other things can make you hot. You get hot or charah when you feel sorrow as in the pain of rejection. It is possible Cain s countenance fell because he did not feel the anticipated presence and fellowship with God that should have followed his offering. God explained to Cain that even though he did not intentionally make a mistake or sin or do something that was out of harmony with God, it stilled blocked the entrance through the portal to His presence and fellowship. Like most Christians I have periods when I seek the presence

8 of God but somehow I cannot find it. I cannot open that portal. I do not intentionally sin (well maybe sometimes) nor do I intentionally seek to be out of harmony with God, but if I am not opening that portal to his presence, it could be a sure sign that I am unintentionally doing something out of harmony with God. Whether we call it sin or not, something that is not in harmony with God will block our entrance to God s presence. We may be giving a gift or sacrifice to God, maybe a tithe or offering yet if our motives for giving that gift are not in harmony with God, it will not open a portal to His presence. I mean a husband can come home one day with a bunch of flowers and say, Well, here are some flowers, now that I have given you something you have to give me something, you have let me go on that fishing trip with my buddies tomorrow. She will give him something alright, but it won t be permission to go on a fishing trip. Those flowers did not bring him into harmony with his wife. Now if he were to bring home some flowers and say, Honey, I ve been thinking about you all day and just wanted to give you something to just show you how much I love you and I thought of these flowers whose beauty reminded me so much of you. Now those same flowers will bring this man into harmony with his wife such that he may not even want to go on that fishing trip or he may just want to take her with him on that trip. Yet, do we not do the same to God, we throw ten dollars into the offering plate and say, Well, God here is ten dollars that I should be using to pay the rent but I am giving it to you so you will have to keep your end of the bargain and multiply that, open the flood gates of heaven and give me a hundred fold return. You may get the same thing old Cain got which was a closed portal. However, if you take ten dollars and throw it into the offering plate and say, God, I don t know how else to express my love to you but to give you this ten dollars which I could use for other things, but more important than anything else is just to somehow tell you that I love you. You may just open that portal to His presence and not even care about a hundredfold return.

9 You see the word for portal is spell Pei, Taw and Cheth. The Pei represents speaking from the heart, the Taw represents the truth of God and the Cheth represents passing through a gateway or portal. If you speak from the true intents of your heart to God, and it is harmony with him, God will open the portal to His heart and presence to you. Please don t forget to join our mailing list and follow us on Facebook You are more than welcome to join me in my journey and search for the heart of God. WORD STUDY OUR BROTHER S KEEPER

10 Genesis 4:9-10, And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother s keeper? What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother s blood crieth unto me from the ground. When God asked Cain where his brother was, upon first reading it sounds like he is giving a very imprudent answer, I don t know am I my brother s keeper? Yet, Jewish tradition teaches this was not an imprudent answer, but a defense. Even today our courts and juries look very closely at the motive behind a murder. It may be a proven fact that a person took another person s life, but a trial is still held to determine the motive behind the killing as that will determine the punishment. This can get very complex in a court of law and laws differ from state to state. For instance in Texas one is allowed to use deadly force to retrieve personal property and hence, the killing of another person to protect one s property is more justified than in another state which places the value of human life over that of personal property. An attorney may try to argue that his client took another person s life in self-defense which carries a lessor punishment than pre-meditated murder. This is called a justifiable homicide. However if it is proven that the killer established control over the situation before the killing took place it would be considered manslaughter which carries a higher penalty. Then there is a higher penalty if the killing were voluntary verses an involuntary manslaughter. We also have killings that take place in a war. Again there are degrees of killing in combat. A soldier may be held for murder if he kills a prisoner of war who has surrendered and is no longer a threat, or if a kills a civilian during time of war. All this is to say that not all killing is a capital crime.

11 God did not execute Cain for the murder of his brother, should He have not done this? This may not have been a cold blooded premeditated murder which warranted a capital punishment. When Cain was asked, Where is your brother, this appears to be a rather senseless question, everyone knows he is dead. God knows it, Cain knows it, why ask? The answer might be found in verse 10, the voice of your brother s blood crieth unto me from the ground. The word blood in Hebrew is demi which is in a plural form. The ancient sages taught that this is in a plural form because it was the blood of all the future descendants of Cain that were crying out. Cain died before it was God s ordered time, before Cain was to fulfill his purpose in this life. Cain did not just kill his brother, he killed all his future generations. When God asked Cain, Where is your brother? He was asking where is the work that your brother was to complete on this earth, where are his children and their children s children. Cain said that he did not know, that he was not his brother s keeper. That is an unfortunate rendering today as it sounds like he is supposed to be like a zoo keeper, taking care kid brother like a pet or animal. That is a pretty saucy response. The word for keeper in Hebrew is shomer which means a guardian. In Exodus 22:10-13 we have the responsibility of a shomer or guardian laid out. If someone is given the responsibility of care for a living creature and it is torn to pieces (tarof yitaref) by a wild animal, the man is not responsible for the loss. Joseph s brothers knew they would be held responsible for their brother s alleged death by their father as they were his shomer or guardians. In ancient times an elder brother was held responsible for the wellbeing of a younger brother. In order to relieve themselves of any guilt they presented evidence that Joseph was torn to pieces (tarof yitaref) by a wild animal. Jacob, upon being given the evidence of the blood

12 on Joseph s coat declared his brother s innocence by saying, surely he has been tarof yitaref (torn to pieces). Cain gave as his defense that he was not his brother s shomer. He was not responsible for the work that his brother was to perform, he was not responsible for the future generations of his brother, which was God s job and responsibility. Then God said that his brother s bloods crieth out. The rendering of this word for crieth out does not go far enough. It is the word tso ekim which is not just crying out but crying out in grief, sorrow and pain. It is for this reason that Cain was found guilty, he was guilty of inflicting sorrow, grief and pain and for that he would be punished. Perhaps this was not first degree murder for which he deserved a capital punishment and be put to death, perhaps it was manslaughter. He did not intend to kill his brother, he did not intend to inflict pain on his brother, but in his passion and anger that is what he did and for that he was punished, not as severally as a premeditated murder, but punished nonetheless. Not too long ago I felt God calling me to pray for a man who committed adultery. As a result he lost everything including his children and was now in dire circumstances. I rebelled, I cried out to God, No, I will not pray for this person, he has brought grief and pain to his wife and his children and he is getting what he deserves. How can you ask me to pray for his restoration, how can you weep over him, you should weep for his children and his wife. No I will not weep for him. All I could sense was Jesus saying, I am his shomer the guardian of his heart, I know why he did what he did and I weep for his loneliness, his pain and his desperation to be loved. God did not condemn Cain to death for his crime. He did punish Cain, but he did not execute him. I believe he did not do so because He was the shomer, the keeper of Cain s heart.

13 Cain s heart was broken when Abel s offering was accepted and his was not. But how could God accept Cain s offering when it was from the ground and God had cursed the ground, He could not receive anything that was cursed. Cain did not understand this, instead he felt God was playing favorites with Abel and it broke Cain s heart. Sin is sin, and God must punish us for our sins, for He is also a just God, but He also knows our hearts, he is a shomer, the guardian of our hearts. He does understand why we sin, He understands our fears, our need to be loved, our need for security, our longing to have what others have. He knows why we sin and he weeps for our suffering. Note verse seven in this chapter where God explains why he cannot receive Cain s offering, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. The word well in Hebrew is tov which means to be in harmony with something. If Cain would do what was in harmony with God he would be accepted, if he does not do what is in harmony with God, it does not mean it is sin, but that sin lies at the door. The word door is patach in Hebrew which means a portal. The word lies is rovets which is a resting place for precious stones. In other words if we do not do what is in harmony with God sin will rest at the portal to God s presence offering precious stones, or offering something to entice us away from something even more precious, His presence and love.

14 WORD STUDY SIN LIES AT THE DOOR Genesis 4:5-7: But unto Cain and his offering he had no respect, and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are thou wroth and why has they countenance fallen? If thou doest well shall thou not be thou accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. I remember as a child in Sunday School watching my Sunday School teacher tell the story of Cain and Abel using the flannel graph. Abel kept falling off the board (guess he had more graph than flannel) leaving only Cain on the board knelling down with his fruits and vegetables clutched to his hands and looking up to heaven with a forlorn look. Maybe it was Abel s continued departure from the flannel graph board leaving a lonely Cain with a sad face looking up to God that made a lasting impression on me. I could not help but feel sorry for the old boy. Of course I could never condone his actions in wasting his brother, however, I could not help but think that if God could have cut Cain a little slack and accepted his offering, which was given in good faith, the story could have been quite different. But, no, God had to play it by the book and only an animal sacrifice would do. But come on, this animal sacrifice was not really made law until the time of Moses. Surely God could have given the poor guy a break. Years later after studying Hebrew I began to realize the reason why God had no respect for Cain s offering. For one thing the ground had been cursed, so Cain was offering

15 something that was cursed. The second thing is that God was telling Cain that if he did well he would be accepted. Was God really playing hardball at this time? Without the law, or a Bible, how was one to know if he was doing well or not. The Hebrew word for doing well is tov. This word was thrown around quite a bit at creation. After God created something, He then saw that it was tov or good. As explained in an earlier devotionals, this word means to be in harmony with God. Cain offered something that was cursed by God and was not good (tov) or in harmony with Him. Note that God warns that if you don t do what is good (tov) or in harmony with Him then sin lies at the door. The word sin here is chatak which means unintentional mistakes or sins. Apparently, the act of offering fruits and vegetables may not necessarily have been a sin, but at most it was an unintentional mistake. Still it was still not good or (tov) in harmony with God. Perhaps Cain killing his brother was more manslaughter than murder, more unintentional. It is possible he did not even understand physical death. Well, that s another issue. What I am pondering is this idea that if you do not do what is in harmony with God, then chatak (unintentional sin) is lying at the door. I don t believe that this is as metaphoric as we think. The word in the Hebrew for door has the preposition Lamed before it which is often rendered as to, for or unto with the definite article the. This is a definite or specific door. Not only that but the word for door used here comes from the root word patach which refers not only just to a door but a portal. A portal is more than just a doorway to another room, it is an entrance to something entirely different. My metaphoric Looking Glass which I speak about in my Beyond the Daleth stories is an example of a patach (portal). We never seem to stop to ask why Cain and Abel were offering sacrifices to God. The Bible is not clear, but I think the answer is

16 buried in the Hebrew. They were opening a portal to the presence of God. Whenever they felt the departure of God s presence they knew it was time to offer a sacrifice. Note that when Cain s offering was not accepted his countenance fell. That word countenance is pani in the Hebrew which means presence. His presence was fallen. In verse 7 God says if he does what is in harmony he will be accepted. The word accepted also means to be lifted up. It would seem that the offerings were made so their presence would be lifted up to God s presence. When Cain offered something that was cursed, out of harmony with God, he could not feel God s presence, his presence fell downward rather than upward to meet the presence of God. This also appears to be a Messianic picture which involved the shedding of blood for redemption and of course the fruits would not offer a blood sacrifice. When Cain did not feel the presence of God in giving his offering, he was wroth. The word for wroth is charah which means to be hot. It does not have to be rendered as anger. You get hot when you are feeling sorrow as in the pain of rejection. It is possible Cain s countenance fell because he did not feel the anticipated presence and fellowship with God that should have followed his offering. God explained to Cain that even though he did not intentionally make a mistake or sin or do something out of harmony with God, it stilled blocked the entrance through the portal to His presence and fellowship. Like most Christians I have periods when I seek the presence of God but somehow I cannot find it. I cannot open that portal. I do not intentionally sin (well maybe sometimes) nor do I intentionally seek to be out of harmony with God, but if I am not opening that portal to his presence, it could be a sure sign that I am unintentionally doing something out of

17 harmony with God. Whether we call it sin or not, something out of harmony with God will block our entrance to God s presence. We may be giving a gift or sacrifice to God, maybe a tithe or offering yet if it is out of harmony with God and it will not open a portal to His presence. You see the word for portal (patach) is spell Pei, Taw, Cheth. The Pei represents speaking from the heart, the Taw represents the truth of God and the Chet represents passing through a gateway or portal. If you speak from the heart the truth of God, that which is good (tov) in harmony with him, He will open the portal to His presence.