How did Cain die? What happened to Cain?

When Cain died, his body was put in the earth. He likely had a very great funeral for he had many children. But where has Cain gone? Was Cain's spirit put in the grave together with his body? No, the body is just like a house for the soul. When Cain died, Cain himself, was on his way to hell (1 John 3:12) and when the day comes, he will stand before the Lord Jesus, the judge of all. (John 5:22) By what he has done he will be judged. The books, when opened will tell all the bad works of Cain. It will be shown that he sacrificed to God without blood, and that he killed his brother Abel, and that he lied to God, and many other bad works. So Cain will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, to weep and wail forever. We read of the Day of Judgment, "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:15) And this is the second death. But when Abel died, though his body was put into the earth, where has Abel gone? Abel had brought a killed lamb before God as if he said, "I ought to die and go into the lake of fire but please take the life of this lamb for me." Then God put his name in the Book of Life.

We shall see ere long how little Cain respected the divine sentence which he next repeats: "And I shall be a wanderer and a fugitive in the earth." It was really a most mild and merciful dealing with the wicked man whose hands were imbrued with his brother's blood, directly suited to furnish time for bitter reflection and self-loathing and anguish, had not sin hardened his heart into a mill-stone.

Bold as he was, his consciousness of guilt could not keep his fears hid: "And it will come to pass that everyone finding me shall slay me." There however he was mistaken. Jehovah's long-suffering with His adversaries is amazing; as men now would feel and own, if they only let in light enough to see their own dark enmity to God. "And Jehovah said unto him, Therefore whosoever slays Cain, it shall be avenged sevenfold. And Jehovah set a mark on Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (Gen. 4:15).

Cain was preserved, notwithstanding that which deserved immediate and condign punishment; he was reserved for the special dealing of Jehovah at the end; for He had even a mark set on him (of what sort it is not said) that none should find and slay him. He had the wretched consolation that man's meddling with him to his hurt, certainly to seek his death, would be avenged to the fullest degree. How evident a type it is of God's dealings, and in the revealed character of Jehovah too, with the Jew because of His blood Who was raised up from among His brethren after the flesh to be the anointed king and prophet and priest on His throne, all this and more, being in His own right Son of the Highest and no less God than the Father, Who alone of men and as man had glorified Him in all respects to the uttermost! Yet was He, yea because He was and spoke the truth to the Jews and witnessed the good confession before the Gentiles, slain far more wantonly and ignominiously than Abel was of Cain. But God in that unspeakable wickedness and crime of man made Him sin for us, that we might become divine righteousness in Him: the deepest and most needed and withal most effectual proof of what the God of love is toward man in salvation of the lost at all cost to Himself and His Son. But the Jew, blinded by religious pride and hardened yet more than the Gentile in his guilty course of evil, remains preserved of God, and awaits the special dealings of Jehovah at the end of the age, in that unequalled tribulation which is his predicted portion, before the indignation shall cease and Jehovah's anger in the destruction of the enemies of Israel.

It is to be observed that nothing answering to civil government was instituted originally; nor was it invented by man during all the centuries which preceded the flood. God set it up for the first time after that great event which ushered in those dispensations of God which still run their course till the Lord come. Hence it is that Cain was not punished by man, as responsibility would have required after the sword was committed to Noah. Thenceforward did God solemnly require blood for blood: "whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man." The sword of civil government was only borne by man as God's minister after the deluge.

Nor do we find explicitly the eternal judgment in Cain's case any more than in Adam's. No doubt words employed occasionally imply more to the ear of faith; but the open statement speaks of God's government of the earth, as was suitable in a revelation given to His people Israel. Therefore we hear not of heaven or of hell; but "when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield its strength to thee; a fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be on earth" (Gen. 4:12). Heavier than before was to be the lot of him who slew his righteous brother, cursed himself on the reluctant earth, whence with difficulty he should draw his food, and where he should be a constant prey to a bad conscience and anxious fears, shunned by all around him.

This leads us on to the following chapter in Genesis, where the sentence pronounced in Eden is seen carried out on Adam and all his descendants till the days of Noah. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Cain could shorten the life of his brother Abel, but sooner or later death must overtake him, "It is appointed unto men once to die." This is the solemn record of Gen. 5. "He died," is the simple statement of the inspired historian appended to the lives of all but one herein named. "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war," is the word of the preacher (Ecc. 8:8). And the one exception to the common lot of man forms no exception to the rule, that none can deliver himself from death; for we read, "he was not, for God took him." It was God's act, not Enoch's efforts, which kept his body from the grave.

1894 37 Starting with Gen. 4:16-24 we have a list of the descendants of the man Cain, who "went out from the presence of the Lord," and in the land of Nod "he builded a city." There he and his descendants made themselves comfortable, and cultivated mechanical and fine arts. Meanwhile plunging deeper into sin, until the wrath of God being out-poured, every representative of that guilty family perished by the Flood. Now, turning to 1 Chron. 1:1, we read, "Adam, Sheth, Enosh;" but not one word about Cain and his descendants. The reader might say "Neither is Abel's name there given." Quite so, for he left no son; but how very often in the New Testament is honourable mention made of Abel?

It was God's providential government when Satan made the Chaldeans go and take Job's goods. If we refer to the sentence on Cain, there was no direct government at all in that, it did not kill him. Man is now left to himself until we come to the second world. God protects him, putting a mark on him, lest any finding him should kill him. This I believe to be a figure of the Jews unto this day.

The first son of Adam and Eve. Ignoring the fall, he approached God in his own person, and with the fruit of his own toil from the ground that had been cursed. God could accept neither him nor his offerings: life had been forfeited, and man must approach God through the death and excellency of a victim which God could accept. Cain's anger was kindled because of the acceptance of Abel and his offering, and he slew his brother, notwithstanding that God had reasoned with him respecting his anger. God cursed him from the earth, and set a mark upon him that no avenger of blood should slay him. Cain went out from the presence of God — significant sentence — and in the land of Nod built a city and named it after his son Enoch. Gen. 4. He is held up in the N.T. as an example of wickedness and self-will. 1 John 3:12; Jude 11. Cain's act of worship is a notable type of mere human religion — presuming to approach God as if there had been no fall and no sin. See ABEL.

The Lord had set a mark on Cain, that no one finding him should slay him. He would not have the blood of Abel avenged. This we have already seen.

However, the Lord set a mark upon Cain, saying that vengeance would be taken sevenfold on whoever would kill Cain. God was dealing with him, and man must not interfere. In Noah's day, later on, God gave authority to governmental powers to execute a murderer (Gen. 9:5-6), but in Cain's time human government had not been introduced. God was dealing with Cain directly. This is also a striking picture of God's dealing with the nation Israel after they had suffered as a fugitive, fleeing from the God of their fathers, and as a wanderer, finding no resting place for the sole of their foot. Still, God does not give permission to Gentiles to exterminate them, though this has been tried time and again. God's mark is upon Israel, and those nations that make her suffer will themselves suffer God's retribution.

However, the Lord set a mark upon Cain, saying that vengeance would be taken sevenfold on whoever would kill Cain. God was dealing with him, and man must not interfere. In Noah's day, later on, God gave authority to governmental powers to execute a murderer (Gen. 9:5-6), but in Cain's time human government had not been introduced. God was dealing with Cain directly. This is also a striking picture of God's dealing with the nation Israel after they had suffered as a fugitive, fleeing from the God of their fathers, and as a wanderer, finding no resting-place for the sole of their foot.. Still, God does not give permission to Gentiles to exterminate them, though this has been tried time and again. God's mark is upon Israel, and those nations that make her suffer will themselves suffer God's retribution.