Land of Nod

The idea of this mark, this sign, could be a physical sign, like some kind of tattoo that says, you know, "Qayin, don't kill." Or a sign can be some kind of event then transpires, such as the fact that no one does kill him until the seventh generation, which is a sign that God was true to his words and allowed him to, uh, forbear the punishment for a while.

[Hebrew] And Qayin went out from before God, exiled, and he lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden, further east of his parents.

Uh, now, sometimes I think that there's kind of a joke going on here, and Qayin is thumbing his nose at God's punishment.

If you remember, God told him he would be Na and Nad.

Do you see the kind of play on words? Nav and Nod.

So he's keeping the letter of God's law.

Oh yeah, I'll be a Nod, but not a wanderer, but a person who lives in the land of Nod.

This theory of mine, even though it seems far-fetched, actually fits perfectly into the next verse, because if you see, he actually managed to live in a city in a very sneaky way.

But whoever tries to kill Cain will be avenged, Cain will be avenged sevenfold.

And then Cain leaves from Hashem, and he goes and he dwells in a city, or in the land of Nod, east of the garden.

Okay, so we're not going to be able to catch every single detail of the story, because there is a lot, Adam and Chava's story, as deep as it was, that level of depth continues into the story of Cain and Hevel.

Every single detail means something.

So you're gonna get it inverted, and it's kinda hard to see which guys are good and which guys are bad.

If you go to Turkey and Lake Van, the good guys they talk about aren't the same good guys as the good guys in the land of Nod, you know?

Mm-hmm.

So to keep going real quick, if you don't mind, I'm gonna share my screen right here.

The world did not improve upon these business methods for hundreds and thousands of years.

So if you, if you were listening to that, it says the person who was in charge was Nod.

Nod was in charge of that, and Nod, if you remember from the Bible, when Cain killed Abel, where did he go to? He went to the land of Nod, and he found a wife, okay? That's, the land of Nod, Nod was the leader of the rebellion.

He led the 60s.

If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.' Then the Lord will put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden." [gentle music] Genesis 4 onwards marks a turning point in the story of God.

From this point in the Bible all the way through to Revelation, uh, really there is this greater question now on the heart of humanity, which is how can we get back into relationship with God? How can we reconnect with that way in which we've been truly created to be as humans, this are min nature, and how do we get back into a reconciled relationship with God Himself? And really, Genesis 4 onwards is the story of humanity desperately trying to do that, but doing it through all broken ways, and the desperate need we have for Jesus to come, uh, from the hand of God literally, uh, into this world in the incarnation, uh, to show us God's action to restore and redeem us.

And what you see in the rest of the Genesis sort of 4 to chapter, end of chapter 11 narrative is the increased reality of sin, a judgment God brings, and then a grace that He offers so that humanity can continue to be in relationship with Him.

He says, not so.

If anyone who kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times, the Lord said, and put a mark on Cain so that if anyone found him, they would not kill him.

And then Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Very important and very interesting.

Like he knows that something has to atone for what he just did.

So Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

So Cain goes off to this safe place and God protects him, even though he just killed his brother.

God's trying to populate the earth here.

That's what that was all about.

Now what we got told in the sandbox, right? Sandbox, the earth, carnality, right? In the land of Nod, I talked about it last week, the land of Nod, east of Eden, where we nodded off in our sleep.

It's all in the Bible, man.

It's all there.

Cain went out from the presence of God.

Oh, bad idea.

to the land of Nod, east of Eden.

That's where we are,

And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who came to him would kill him.

Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, so that in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

When Cain kills Abel, Genesis 4 says a sevenfold vengeance goes into effect on the earth.

To kill Cain will bring a sevenfold return of vengeance from the hands of men.