Am I My Brothers Keeper? Series

Some people are thrilled with the prospect of being their brother’s keeper. Just the thought of getting to meddle in the affairs of others makes their pulse race with excitement.

They can’t wait to identify a problem in the life of somebody so they can tell them how to take care of it.

To those who love to point out others faults Jesus said, "Mt 7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

(Make sure that the plank in your own eye is out of the way before you go trying to pick the speck of sawdust out of your neighbor’s eye.")

I think the other extreme is "The way other people live their life is up to them." Those who follow this philosophy think it’s highly offensive to go sticking your nose into other people’s business.

They think it’s important just to keep their own nose clean and let others worry about themselves.

This is the person you are very likely to hear asking that classic rhetorical question from Cain: "What, am I my brother’s keeper?"

God asks, “What have you done?” Once more God gives Cain the opportunity to confess what he has done and Cain remains silent a sign of rejecting the offer.

This is the same QUESTION that God asked EVE Gen. 3:13

Even in his condition as a murderer, God was giving Cain one last chance to turn around.

The love of God for man knows no bounds but God knows when the heart of a man has gone too far and grown too hard to ever turn back to him in repentance. Cain had reached that point!

GOD’S JUDGMENT IS HANDED DOWN,

“now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”

The curse for Adam’s disobedience was on the ground but for Cain it is on him.

What a tragedy this was. This not only was the first murder, but this was the very first time that any man, made in the image of God, had died.

One day that power of death shall be broken.

One day there will be no more dying, no more graves, no more leaving our loved ones in a cemetery to never see them again. No!

One day soon Jesus, who has already taken the keys of death and hell from the devil, will shake them in his face in victory.

Death and the grave will be cast into the Lake of Fire too.

That’s when eternal life will reign forever under the power of the Resurrection!

12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear

We see Cain was punished for what he did.

Cain was a farmer and from this day forward when Cain cultivates the ground his labors will no longer be productive and provide the necessities of life.

From this day forward he will be a vagrant and wanderer, he will have no permanent residence.

He was given time to repent. Will he?

Cain’s response to the sentence is a complaint; his punishment is great to bear.

Cain saw his murdering Abel as no big deal.

Now he sees the punishment as unjust, not deserving, when in reality mercy was extended to him.