What was the mark that God put on Cain (Genesis 4:15)?

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.

The mark of God was set upon the murderer as a token of exemption from all vengeance at the hands of man. For as yet the right of judgment, which belongs to God alone, had not been delegated to a human hand. But the goodness of God, which should have led the guilty to repentance, becomes but an occasion to the selfish desires of the flesh. Willingly departing from the presence of God, Cain becomes the founder of the first settled, social community. The useful arts, and fair embellishments of life, — things capable, indeed, of goodly ends when used for God, but which, as merely human inventions, are the chief nourishment and solace of that "pride of life" which keeps the unrepentant world at a willing distance from the God of grace (Isa. 5:12) — are due for their invention to the family of Cain (Gen. 4:21-22).

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.

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.

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.

Human government, it has been justly said, finds its root in the authority which God conferred upon Noah. There was no such thing, properly speaking, in the antediluvian earth. Adam had a most extensive dominion, but no power over life. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man," etc. (Gen. 1:26-28). There was no authority delegated over man, nor even to deprive the least animal of its life. Hence it was that the murder of a brother did not draw down vengeance from man, though conscience dreaded the retributive blow from every hand. "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto ME from the ground," said the Lord to guilty Cain; and He set a mark upon him, lest any should slay the fugitive. Then followed a long reign of gigantic and uncurbed wickedness. Finally, a preacher of righteousness was raised up who warned for the space of one hundred and twenty years, when God swept away the corruption and violence of the race in the waters of the deluge.

God's word to Cain had revealed a great truth — that He, and He alone, has to do with a sinner. Others, like Abel, may suffer; but all sin is directly done against God, and He asserts His title to deal with it alone. "Whosoever slayeth Cain [the Lord therefore says], vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold."

Cain, a marked man (for God set the mark upon him so that he should not be slain), went out of God's presence in this state. A man with a hardened conscience built the city which was called after his son; that city which so clearly represents the whole kosmos. (that is the ornate system known as the world), and where all the arts and sciences are cultivated, but God excluded.

If Abel typifies Christ as the slain witness, Cain represents the Jews who slew Him; though not the Jews only, for all the world was involved in the fearful crime (Acts 4:27). But Cain was not to be destroyed, accordingly "Jehovah set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (Gen. 4:15). In like manner, the Jew is being preserved by God with a view to another and a better age. He is pleased to regard him as a manslayer rather than as a murderer (Num. 35). The history of the Jew being the history of man, when the former is once more owned of God, universal blessing will be brought in.

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.