My Brother's Keeper (Gen 4:1-16)

MY BROTHER'S KEEPER (Gen 4:1-16)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2017

Sibling rivalry is especially common when kids are young, so the challenge is often to find an activity they can do together without fighting.

Soon after the grandparents purchased a new front loading washer and dryer with all the "bells and whistles," their two young and energetic grandsons came for a visit. The boys chased each other through every room in the house for awhile, then it became unusually quiet. The grandparents looked all over until they found them. The boys had taken their little chairs into the laundry room and were sitting in front of the washer and dryer. When the grandparents asked what they were doing they said... "We're watching the laundry channel."

The challenge is often to find an activity normally competing siblings can do together without fighting. That challenge may become greater as they get older unless they learn their mutual responsibility to look out for each other, to be My Brother's Keeper.

 

The story of Cain and Abel is about two men and about the responsibility one has for the other, about the age-old question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

I. Abel is different than Cain (4:1-5).

A. He has a different occupation (vv. 1-2).

Gen 4:1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

1. Abel was a shepherd. ¹
2. Cain was a farmer.

Theirs was not necessarily the first society,² merely the first recorded society. It was not a hunter-gatherer culture, which relies on foraging to secure food, but an agrarian culture, which relies on farming to secure food. Nothing in the text suggests that one food source or one occupation was better than another.³ Later, the biblical author writes...

• About the sons of Javan, who were sailors, perhaps traders, and how "from these [men] the maritime peoples spread" (Gen 10:5)
• About Nimrod, who was "a mighty hunter before the LORD" (Gen 10:9)

 As societies grew and spread so did the occupations that supported them. In this story, though, there were only two.

From the beginning, people called upon the Lord in worship, and they expressed their devotion by bringing to Him a portion of what they had, which Abel does when...

B. He makes a different offering (vv. 3-5).

Gen 4:3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.⁴ The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,⁵ 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Some commentators have compared the two offerings and concluded that God accepted Abel's but not Cain's because the Lord required a blood sacrifice (Sailhamer 1990:63),⁶ yet there is no such demand in the context. Besides, there are occasions later in the sanctuary when God required not an animal offering but a grain or a drink offering. The difference in God's acceptance here is more likely not because the offerings were different but because the brothers were different, and one offering was deficient

• Abel's offering was better than Cain's because it represented a better priority: It was the "firstborn."

"Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock" (Gen 4:4).

• Abel's offering was better than Cain's because it demonstrated a better perspective: It was in "faith."

"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did" (Heb 11:4a).

"One gave because it was time and custom to give—pure formalism; whereas the other gave the best—pure, devout worship" (Leupold 1942:197). Cain made an offering to the Lord that did not meet God's level of excellence. It is not that the quantity of Cain's offering was insufficient—the tithe did not become standard until the sanctuary⁷—rather the quality of Cain's offering (or his attitude) was substandard.⁸
 

Application: God's people still make offerings today. They may not be from the garden or the herd, but they are still expressions of devotion to Him. There is no set amount, although a tithe of one's earnings, originally established for regular upkeep of the temple, has carried over into the church and become standard. In any case, the tithe is one way you can show your commitment to God, but it is not the only instruction about giving. The apostle Paul writes,

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:6-7)

Although, He also accepts from a grouch.

II. God questions Cain about Able (4:6-12).

A. He asks about his attitude (vv. 6-7).

Gen 4:6 The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry?[9] 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 master it."

How God communicated His displeasure is unclear, but somehow He did. Cain realized that his offering was unacceptable, and he was not happy. God told Cain how to fix the problem: "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" (v. 7). Notice that God considered even the disappointment of rejection as an opportunity and obligation for Cain to grow: "You must master it" (v. 7). Cain saw it differently though: God should have been satisfied with whatever offering He got. After all, it was free. The answer Cain really had for God's rhetorical question is: "Yes, I have right to be angry."¹⁰

B. He asks about his brother (vv. 8-9).

Gen 4:8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And 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?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The brothers' meeting in the field, away from witnesses, ends in fratricide. Cain seems to think that God is unaware of his attack on Abel: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Although Cain may intend this as a rhetorical question (expecting a negative response), God does not view it as such. Both He and Cain know what happened to Abel. God's unspoken answer to Cain's question is, "Yes, you are your brother's keeper."

C. He asks about his deed (vv. 10-12).

Gen 4:10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

God confronts Cain with the truth of his act, and there is no denying it. When God says "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground," He does not mean that Abel is speaking from the grave but that the land itself testifies to the crime.¹¹
 

The eventual punishment for premeditated murder is death. For some reason God does not explain why He does not require here what would become the standard sentence.¹² It could be that this being the first case, God did not want to strain the social consciousness by introducing the concept of murder,¹³ or it could be that God wanted to give Cain an opportunity to repent (Leupold 1942:206).¹⁴ For whatever reason, Cain's sentence is relatively mild (work and wandering), although he does not consider it so.¹⁵
 

Application: Do Christians ever think that God should be satisfied with whatever (little) they put in the offering plate? After all, He did not work for it; they did. Besides, He does not need it. He owns "the cattle on a thousand hills" (Ps 50:10).¹⁶
 

...It is not what He requires from you, which is nothing, but what He requests from you, which is your devotion. As Moses says to the Israelites in the wilderness, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deut 6:5). He is completely self-sufficient; you are not.

III. Cain complains about his punishment (4:13-16).

A. He thinks it is harsh (vv. 13-14).

Gen 4:13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.¹⁷ 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

Cain acknowledges that his crime estranges him from both man and God, but he assumes that all contact with God is lost to him at this point. He seems to connect the Lord with the land, as if God is only there, and Cain's banishment will separate him from God. Cain may not realize that God is omnipresent. He then attempts to mitigate the affect of his punishment by appealing to God for a lighter sentence.¹⁸

B. He receives a protective mark (vv. 15-16).

Gen 4:15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.¹⁹ 16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Even for the most despicable, for a man who has killed his own brother, even for such a one God shows concern.²⁰ Perhaps He is hoping that Cain will yet repent.

 

Application: Have you been praying for someone close to you to turn to the Lord? Do not give up. As long as there is life there is hope. "Jesus told his disciples...they should always pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1). Are you still hoping that someone will change? Good. Keep hoping and keep praying.
 

Although the Bible does not record that Cain repented,²¹ he had a son Enoch who probably learned about the Lord from his father, and Enoch "walked with God" (Gen 5:24), a phrase that describes a close relationship with the Lord.²² In other words, the story of Cain and Abel may not end on such a depressing note, for godliness emerges despite the sin of murder. Cain answered his own question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (v. 9), with a resounding "Yes!" although not as he originally intended it. Cain was his brother's keeper, continuing that godly line through his own son.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.