{"id":6542,"date":"2015-04-21T00:05:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T07:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6542"},"modified":"2015-04-20T11:14:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T18:14:26","slug":"mercy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/04\/21\/mercy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LORD said to Cain: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? Why do you have such an angry look on your face? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling. But you did the wrong thing, and now sin is waiting to attack you like a lion. Sin wants to destroy you, but don\u2019t let it!\u201d <\/p>\n

Cain said to his brother Abel, \u201cLet\u2019s go for a walk.\u201d And when they were out in a field, Cain killed him. <\/p>\n

Afterwards the LORD asked Cain, \u201cWhere is Abel?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHow should I know?\u201d he answered. \u201cAm I supposed to look after my brother?\u201d <\/p>\n

Then the LORD said: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy have you done this terrible thing? You killed your own brother, and his blood flowed onto the ground. Now his blood is calling out for me to punish you. And so, I\u2019ll put you under a curse. Because you killed Abel and made his blood run out on the ground, you will never be able to farm the land again. If you try to farm the land, it won\u2019t produce anything for you. From now on, you\u2019ll be without a home, and you\u2019ll spend the rest of your life wandering from place to place.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis punishment is too hard!\u201d Cain said. \u201cYou\u2019re making me leave my home and live far from you. I will have to wander about without a home, and just anyone could kill me.\u201d
\n\u201cNo!\u201d the LORD answered. \u201cAnyone who kills you will be punished seven times worse than I am punishing you.\u201d So the LORD put a mark on Cain to warn everyone not to kill him. But Cain had to go far from the LORD and live in the Land of Wandering, which is east of Eden. (Genesis 4:6-16)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Cain had murdered his brother and he deserved to die. All the ancient law codes, from Egypt to Mesopotamia included death as the sole penalty for murder. After the Great Flood, God ordered capital punishment for murder. The death penalty was part of the covenant God made with Israel in the time of Moses. Nevertheless, over and over, those guilty of the most heinous crime imaginable were granted mercy instead of vengeance. Moses killed an Egyptian overseer, but God did not demand his execution. David murdered Uriah, and he was forgiven. But before all of that, we have the example of Cain who murdered his younger brother. <\/p>\n

God had rejected Cain\u2019s offering, but had accepted his brother\u2019s. Why? Not because of the kind of offering that Cain brought to God, but because of the kind of heart he had brought to him. God warned Cain about his anger. Rather than repenting, Cain gave into it and murdered his sibling. <\/p>\n

God did not order Cain\u2019s execution. Cain\u2019s punishment was exile from his people and from his chosen profession as a farmer. But God protected Cain from human vengeance. Rather than allowing justice\u2014eye for eye\u2014God granted Cain mercy.<\/p>\n

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The LORD said to Cain: \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? Why do you have such an angry look on your face? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling. But you did the wrong thing, and now sin … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6544,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542\/revisions\/6544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}