Genesis 4:16 - Meaning and Application

Here we get a further account of Cain and what happened to him after God rejected him.

First, he quietly accepted the part of his sentence that hid him from God’s face. Genesis 4:16 says he “went out from the presence of the Lord,” which means he willingly gave up God and religion. He was willing to lose the privileges of faith, as long as he was not bound by its commands. He left Adam’s family and altar, dropped all claim to fear God, and no longer came near God’s people or his ordinances, that is, his appointed means of worship and instruction.

This is a warning. People who pretend to be followers, but play games with God, are often left to themselves until they do something openly shameful. Then they cast off the outward form of religion they once disgraced, while still refusing its power. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and Scripture never shows him coming back for comfort. Hell is “destruction from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). It is a lasting banishment from the source of all good. That is the sinner’s choice, and it will become the sinner’s judgment, to his eternal shame.

Second, he tried to deal with the part of the sentence that made him a wanderer. He chose a place to live. He went east of Eden, far from where Adam and his godly family lived, setting himself and his cursed line apart from the holy people, like an enemy camp outside the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Revelation 20:9). The cherubim with the flaming sword were east of Eden (Genesis 3:24), yet he chose his home there, as if he could defy the fear of the Lord. But his effort to settle was empty. The land he lived in became a place of Nod, which means shaking or restlessness, because his own spirit never had peace. Those who leave God cannot find rest anywhere else. After Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, he never truly rested. Those who shut themselves out of heaven live in constant fear and unrest.

Cain also built a city, or was building one, as Genesis 4:17 can be read. Some understand this to mean he kept building it but never finished, because the curse was on him and on his work. However we read it, the purpose was clear. He was making a settled home as a sign that he meant to stay away from the church of God and never return. This city became the center of rebellion against God. He was openly defying God’s sentence. God had said he would be a fugitive and a wanderer. If Cain had repented and humbled himself, that curse might have been changed into a blessing, as happened with Levi, who was scattered among Israel and made a blessing. But Cain stayed proud and unrepentant, and what could have been a mercy became a curse.

This also shows what Cain wanted after he left God. He chose to settle in this world and treat it as his lasting rest. People who look for the heavenly city often live on earth as pilgrims, in tents. But Cain, as one who cared nothing for that city, built himself one here. Those who are under God’s curse often look for their security and satisfaction in earthly things (Psalm 17:14). He also used this building to distract himself from his misery. He tried to drown the noise of a guilty conscience with the sounds of axes and hammers. Many people do the same thing when they bury themselves in busy worldly work so they do not have to face conviction.

We also see that wicked people often get ahead of God’s people in outward success. Cain and his cursed family live in a city, while Adam and his blessed family live in tents. So we cannot judge God’s love or hatred by what we see in this life (Ecclesiastes 9:1-2).

His family, too, kept growing. Here we get an account of his descendants, or at least the heirs of his family, for seven generations. His son was Enoch, a name he shared with another Enoch, the holy man who walked with God (Genesis 5:22), though the two men were not alike. Good people and bad people may have the same names, but God knows the difference. He can tell apart Judas Iscariot from Judas, not Iscariot (John 14:22).

More of Cain’s descendants are named, but only briefly. They are not treated like the holy line in chapter 5, where we are given more detail about each one. Here they are listed quickly, as people not especially valued or admired when compared with God’s chosen people.