The Land of Nod

Then the LORD replied to him, “In that case whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.  And He placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.  Then Cain went out from the LORD’S presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.  Cain was intimate with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch.  Then Cain became the builder of a city, and he named the city Enoch after his son.”  Genesis 4:15-17

I have two grandsons.  Both have gotten into the lego building sets.  The picture above is my grandson Asher.  It is from 2011.  He had just turned 5.  Pop pop and I gave him these massive lego sets which I left for my son-in-law to construct.  They were probably over 1000 pieces in each set.  Needless to say it was a very time consuming task to construct each structure.  If you have a boy or grandson whoever got into these lego sets you know what I mean.  It is very tedious work to go step by step through each page of construction instructions.  The instruction booklet can be over 50 pages in some sets.  As you can tell from the above picture, Pop Pop and I went for the grandiose, and then we said good-bye to allow Adam and Asher to go through the instructions.  Do you know what Asher and Lucas’ favorite pieces are in these sets?  They like the little people that are included with each set.  That is what they play with while you work on putting the minutest pieces together.  Lucas is now 5 and into the lego building sets.  In fact, that is what he bought Pop Pop for his birthday last year.  Pop Pop received Teenage Ninja Turtle battle wagon lego set.  They sat down to build it on Kevin’s birthday, but Lucas got interested in playing with Donatello, Michelango, Leonardo, and Raphael.  This made Kevin loose interest so this set was put away until Magen sat down with patience and put it all together.  As far as I know the battle wagon is still in tact and is in Lucas’ lego play box upstairs.  The star wars lego sets pictured above are in a thousand pieces in a drawer labeled star wars lego’s.  I have a nephew who builds these sets with his son, and he painstakingly super glues each piece together.

Why do I write about laboring so intensely over lego building sets?  And how it seems all the efforts are in vain?  Notice I said “efforts  seem to be in vain.”  No time spent on the floor with your son or grandson building whatever project is ever in vain.  Even if the project doesn’t get completed or it gets torn down and the pieces get used to build a flying car; these moments become memories etched in everyone’s mind and heart.

I think of lego cities as I read “Then Cain became the builder of a city.”

“Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.  Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.”  Psalms 127:1 NLT

What happened to this ancient city? The laborer built the city without the LORD. The city of Enoch was built to honor his son and not the Lord. Cain’s efforts really were wasted and in vain.  The land of Nod is never again mentioned in the bible after Genesis 4:16.  Actually, Nod means wandering.  We find once again, after sin man heads east.  “He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.”  Genesis 3:24 NLT

Cain was never meant to be a wanderer.  We go back to Genesis 4:2, “but Cain worked the ground.”  Cain got his identity from the ground.  The earth and its provision brought permanence to Cain.  “Then Cain went out from the LORD’S presence and lived in the land of Nod.” (wandering)

I can’t get that sentence out of my thoughts.  The life lesson it speaks to me… “Away from the LORD’S presence you will always wander.”  You will never be who you were created to be apart from God.  You will always go searching to find yourself.  You can only find yourself when you are in the LORD’S presence.  Trust me, this is a tried and true statement.  For a long time I was Nikki, Magen and Landry’s momma.  I did all the jobs that come with that title.  Guess what?  When those people turn 18, 19, 20 and so forth, all those jobs diminish in capacity.  You have an empty nest.  Your house is quiet because you don’t have some school function that you have to be at.  You start searching for yourself again.  You begin wandering trying to find an activity to spend energy on that you use to spend on your children.  You forget that God has given each of us a gift to be used for His glory and his purposes.  But then one day you hear that still small voice of the LORD inside of you, and you come back into His Presence, and you hear, “I created you for a purpose.  I have given you a gift to be used for my glory.”  In the LORD’S presence you won’t wander.  He will establish you.  He wants to sit in the floor with you, and help you build a lego project of His choosing.  He will help you construct a lasting project from thousands of little tiny lego building blocks.

I feel our country is in the land of Nod.  Our country has come to a place of wandering.  We have gotten so far from the purposes of God.  God established our country for a reason.  The United States of America was built on Christian principles.  We have wandered far from those principles.  It is time to come back and sit in the Lord’s Presence.

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, seek my face, pray, and will turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sins, and restore their land.”  2 Chronicles 7:14

Reply back with your prayers for our nation