We can’t leave Gen. 4 without saying a few words about, “The Mark of Cain.” The religious commentators are all over the place and nobody has a corner on the market and it seems the deeper they go, the broader the market. Some believe his skin color changed, some believe it was a curse from God, some believe it was an internal thing, some believe it was banishment, the ancient Rabbi’s saw it as a horn on Cain’s head, some believe it was a shaking like Parkinson’s, some just don’t believe and some admit they just don’t know so move on. The Hebrew word for ‘Mark’ is (owth) and is used 76 times in the Older Testament, 75 of those are used as a sign, many as a sign of ownership. Some as a taboo mark for, ‘don’t touch!’ This mark has been the seed-bed of confusion and debate for centuries. However, the word (owth) or sign, token, flag, beacon, monument as used in Exodus 12:13 on the first Passover when they struck the lentil and the door posts with the three branches of hyssop, plunged into the basin of blood was a, ‘sign of something greater to come!’ Or the sign, token (owth) bow God set in the clouds after the universal flood in Gen. 9:13 as a sign of the covenant between God and man that He would never destroy the earth again by water. Or the token, sign (owth) of circumcision that God set up between Himself and the Jewish people making them His covenant people (olam) forever. As you study this word further you see it has a sense of ownership, protection and it is something that is visible I believe, for all to see and it is ‘NOT’ a sign of God’s curse but on the contrary of His protection just like the blood on the door, the bow in the cloud, and circumcision of all the males and a host of others.

The only parallel we have to this marking is found in Ezekiel 9:4-6 with a man dressed in fine linen called the ‘Ink Horn Man.’ Who went throughout Jerusalem and, “set a ‘Mark’ (tav) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that were done in the city of Jerusalem…and begin at His sanctuary.” The ‘Mark’ or (tav) in ancient Paleo-Hebrew was a symbol of a cross and was the mark of the covenant. Ezekiel was carried to Babylon before they adopted the Aramaic language and alphabet. The cross-references in your Bibles to the Ezekiel passage of 9:4-6 are Revelation 7:3; 9:4; & 20:4 which refer to those during the tribulation with the seal of God in their foreheads and Exodus 12:7; 23 which is the Passover and the blood on the lentil and mezuzot or side posts. Then you have the ‘Mark of the Beast’ in Rev. 13:16-17; 20:4. The 144,000 are sealed during the Tribulation with the Father’s name written in their foreheads. Rev. 14:1.

Now back to the ‘Mark of Cain,’ God said to the Jewish people in Egypt, “Strike the lentil with the hyssop dipped in blood, dip it again and strike the two side posts with one swipe and on every door in the land of Goshen you had a cross in the blood of the lamb, and God said, When I see the sign, token (owth) I will pass over you. In Ezek. 9:4-6 the ‘Ink Horn Man’ put a (tav) the ancient Paleo-Hebrew cross on their foreheads and they were not to be touched. Study the book of Numbers , lay out the twelve tribes and the sanctuary, get in an imaginary helicopter and look down and they marched in the form of a cross for 40 years in the desert. Michio Kaku a Ph.D. Theoretical Physicist said, if you step inside of a perfect cube and look up you will see a cross. In Revelation 21 the new Jerusalem is a perfect cube; estimates are 1,500 miles x 1,500 miles x 1,500 miles and when you step inside the lobby and look up you will see one, humongous cross! And if you continue your search you will find the ‘Cross’ from Genesis all the way through Revelation. Why? It’s God’s plan! That’s why!

So, what was the ‘Mark’ on Cain’s forehead? A visible mark of ownership and protection, saying ‘Don’t Touch,’ a walking sermon, a sign of grace, a shaking, if you will. You’re entitled to any intelligent opinion you wish to draw on your own. Gather your evidence, form your conclusion, make your proposition, but in my humble but accurate opinion, and I may be out on a branch all by myself Dr Showers.  I believe the ‘Mark of Cain’ was an ancient Paleo-Hebrew (tav). Just like the one the ‘Ink Horn Man’ dressed in fine linen put on the men in Ezk. 9:4-6, and it may have been put their by Him.  So that every time a person looked at Cain, and every time Cain looked at a piece of glass or into a pool of clear water to wash his face, he saw this symbol and was reminded of the One who was to come and die for Him to set him free for the murder of his brother and what was this symbol? It was an ancient Paleo-Hebrew, ‘Cross’  on which the ‘Lamb of God would die for the sins of the world’ including Cain’s. But he chose to run, hide and lie, instead of falling on his knees and crying out, “LORD Save Me!” Three simple words from his heart to the heart of God. When confronted by God for his sin instead of confessing it he lied Gen.4:9 and then he gave God the typical humanitarian excuse, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Will you right now acknowledge your sin, confess it to God, take a knee and pray, or will you run, hide and lie like Cain and let Diabalos mark you for trouble? The sin we are dealing with on our journey is not murder, it’s ‘Prayerlessness!’ But it is as deadly as Cain’s for a ‘Disciple of Christ.’ Cain’s brother Abel didn’t live very long and yet he is listed in the ‘Hall of Faith.’ In fact he is the first one you meet as you enter the lobby, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain; by it he obtained righteousness, God testified to this, and even though he is dead his gift still speaks.” What did he offer? The blood of a lamb, a type of Christ, and it started in Gen. 3:21 when God made coats of skins for Adam and Eve. They both knew the way to God, the blood of an innocent lamb which ultimately leads to Calvary, but only Able did it God’s way. Without the recognition of Christ as our substitute and sacrifice there can be no approach to God. There has been more persecution on religious grounds than on any other in the whole world. That’s why I believe the very ‘Mark’ (tav) God put on Cain’s forehead was the very purpose set forth before the foundation of this world, in the council of heaven, rejected by Cain himself, the blood of the Lamb of God! Without the shedding of blood there is no redemption but without the sprinkling of blood there is no salvation. You need both, appropriation and application, the blood was shed at Calvary and the door step but if you don’t apply it to the lentil and door posts of your heart and home you will die, without hope and without Christ and go straight to hell!  “Abba, Father, may we not be marked like Cain for destruction but like Abel for consecration. It’s not enough, O LORD, to know the way; We must be in the way, like Eliezer so You can lead us, guide us, teach us, talk to us, touch us, transform us, mold us, instruct us and make us men and women of prayer, in these last days.” In Jesus Name!      ‘Between The Lines’

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Cain – Part #2)