My Brother's Keeper

⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?  But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”  While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

¹⁰ The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” – Genesis 4:6-10

How many times does this identical scene play out in every human relationship?  Our sin nature first wants to get what it wants, then it shoves us into a position of confrontations where we must decide to answer honestly or not, then it eventually requires our delivery to authority.

Cain is downcast because God has not accepted his offering of less than his best.  His answer is to kill the guy who has given his best.  He didn’t immediately offer his best, but sought to bring down the guy who did it with the right heart.  Isn’t this something we see all the time in people?  Instead of accepting their reality of doing less than their best or doing what is right, they would rather tear down people who are doing it right so they don’t look so bad or so they don’t have to do what is right because they don’t want to. 

For parents, this is Parenting 101.  Before you are ready as a parent and when your precious child is way too young, it is evident that they want what they want and will cry out with fake cries to get it.  They might throw a tantrum to see if you will yield to their wants.  They might hold their breath or fake some other crisis.  But the truth is they want your authority which tells them what they can and can’t have.  Cain is no different and neither is anyone who consciously does what they know God specifically instructs not to do.  He wanted God’s authority to decide whose heart giving what sacrifice was worthy.

Cain simply could not accept that his heart condition, one that gave to God what he wanted to and not the very best of what he had, was not good.  But we immediately see that the heart that is unthankful and not grateful for the very life he had as a blessing from a loving God was willing to disrespect all life, including the life of his brother.  Jealousy, envy, despising, hate, and an abnormal love for himself led him to commit the worst of sins, the destruction of life that can only be given by God.

The crux of this event is when God, the perfect Father, specifically ask Cain where is Abel.  Cain is confronted with his very sin.  He can fall on his knees and ask God to forgive his heart condition, something God has already made him aware.  He can say the truth, “I killed him and he is in the field.”  Or, he cannot step into his reality and pretend it doesn’t exist, “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?”  God did not avoid this conflict, but Cain avoided the truth until God wouldn’t allow it anymore. 

If you keep reading you see where Cain pleads with God for mercy believing his punishment is too severe.  Here he is, having killed Abel, and yet he believes his punishment is too severe.  He never asks for forgiveness.  Again, I see so many parallels to people today.  We are no different than when we were created, we just have technology and there are more of us.

I pray today that I will be willing to give God my first fruits, my very best.  I pray that I will be thankful and grateful for everything, for the very life I get to live today, as it is more than I deserve.  I pray that when I have sinned, I am willing to be confronted and to accept it, and to respond with a heart that wants to be where God wants it to be.  Though the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus I pray.  Amen.