Hallowed Be Thy Name

In Genesis chapter four we have the story of Cain and Abel. Some believe these brothers to have been twins because only one conception is mentioned concerning them. If this is true it would be a fitting physical picture of reaping what has been sown, for it should be remembered that the tree Adam and Eve ate from in disobedience to God was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17).

Some scholars believe the name Cain means “acquisition”.  At his birth Eve said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 4:1). Perhaps Eve recognized that all life comes from the hand of God saying it was with the Lord’s help that her child was born. But if she could have looked down the corridors of time and seen what was to become of Cain, would she have still stated, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord”? Might she not have been tempted to credit Satan with his birth instead? We do not know, but this much we do know, “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Proverbs 16:4). Further, God Himself says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity I am the Lord who does all these” (Isaiah 45:5-7). Cain’s birth was as much an act of God as Abel’s was. All life does come from God the Father whether we perceive that life from our very limited human viewpoint as good or evil. There never has been nor ever will be a God named Satan. Indeed, Satan himself was given life by the Heavenly Father. “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you (Ezekiel 28:15).  No other being, Satan included, can give life to another. That is the prerogative of God alone, so whether that life is seen as evil or good we should be able to say with Job, “‘Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). Eve did acquire Cain from the Lord, the only Source of life.

Some believe that the name Cain means, “spear” This could quite easily speak of the spirit that motivated him. While Cain owed his life, his existence to God, the spirit that incited him to action was most certainly demonic. This is amply shown forth as truth when Cain rose up against his brother Abel and slew him, an act that revealed his evil nature.

The purpose of a spear was to take life and Cain certainly lived up to that name. Further, it could be noted that a spear was thrust into the side of Jesus as He hung on the Cross. “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Thus, the spirit that drove Cain to take his brother Abel’s life and spill his blood upon the ground continued down through the ages and culminated in this one Roman soldier so that he thrust a spear – Cain – into the side of Jesus. This fulfilled the prophesy spoken of in Genesis 3:15 which speaks of the seed of Satan (fallen mankind) bruising the heel of (or killing) the seed of the woman (Christ). Of course, the rest of the prophecy is gloriously fulfilled when Jesus is raised from the dead.

One point to bring out here is that we should be careful in condemning or despising the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with the spear. Though he acted alone in the physical realm, in the spiritual realm we each had a hand upon that spear for “He was pierced through for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). Yet, God in His mercy and grace will not leave us languishing in our sinful state, guilty before Him; rather, He “will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born” (Zechariah 12:10). God will pour His Spirit out upon us who have been dead in trespasses and sins and will bring us to that point of repentance where we grieve and weep because of the evil in our lives, at last recognizing the value of the One whom we crucified, valued as one values their firstborn.

Is not this wonderful pouring out of the Lord’s Spirit upon us who pierced Him pictured by the Roman soldier who thrust the spear into Jesus’ side? For the verse says, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Is it not reasonable to assume that as the blood and water poured from the side of Jesus that it would have spilled upon the soldier as he stood beneath Jesus holding the spear? This signifies no less than the redemption and cleansing of fallen mankind, for it is the blood of Jesus that makes redemption possible (Hebrews 9:11-14; 1 John 1:7) and the water that sanctifies and renews (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:5).

Thus, whether Cain means “acquisition” or “spear” both can aptly apply to him. Cain was a gift from God, a gift that showed physically the spiritual death that had taken place when his parents, Adam and Eve, had disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Cain was also a “Spear” that ended Abel’s life, spilling his blood upon the ground, resulting in his going out from the presence of the Lord. Further, it was the spirit that lived within Cain that was the spear that caused the blood and water to flow from the side of our crucified Lord resulting in the way for fallen humanity to return to the presence of the Lord. It is remarkable how God takes that which ma