And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother’s keeper?
9. And the Lord said, &c.] The condensed narrative does not say whether Cain tried to conceal the body of Abel, or had fled at once from the spot. Apparently Jehovah speaks to him suddenly, when at a distance from the scene of the murder. The process of interrogation may be compared with that in Gen 3:9-13.
I know not: am I my brother’s keeper? ] Cain’s reply consists of ( a) a statement which is a falsehood; and ( b) a question which is defiance. “Keeper,” perhaps with reference, in a mocking tone, to Abel’s occupation as a keeper of sheep. “Am I the keeper’s keeper?”
The first words of the first murderer renounce the obligations of brotherhood. The rejection of the family bond is the negation of love; it is the spirit of murder; cf. 1Jn 3:12; 1Jn 3:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 4:9
Am I my brothers keeper?
Exaggerated individualism
The feeling of our sonship to God in Christ is a topic which requires to be constantly dwelt upon, because our conventional acceptance of such a relationship is apt to be compatible with a life which has no real apprehension of it.
I. Of the dangers which are partly rooted in our animal nature and partly fostered and intensified by the drift of our time, the one likely to press most heavily on us is that of exaggerated Individualism. Where this is not tempered by an infusion of the religious spirit, we find it working with a disintegrating power, and in various ways vitiating both our personal and social life.
II. Almost every advance of civilization which distinguishes our century has tended to give this principle some new hold on the common life. There is no corner of society, commercial or social, political or artistic, which it does not invade. The volume of its force is intensified as wealth increases and easy circumstances become more common. Our time is preeminently a time of materialistic egoism.
III. The evolutionist, telling us of the growth of all our sentiments, taking us back to germinal forms and then leading us upward through struggle and survival, makes the ruling motive in every early life essentially egoistic. The question arises, Where and how is this motive to change its character? Is this last utterance to be still but an echo of the primeval question, Am I my brothers keeper?
IV. But we cannot rest in this conclusion. There is no possibility of rest until we have settled it with ourselves that our higher consciousness gives us touch of the reality of the Divine and everlasting, when it declares that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, joint heirs with Christ. This we believe to be the last word for us on the mystery of our being and destiny. (J. Percival.)
Brotherhood
The first time the relationship of brotherhood is brought before us in Scripture does not present it in the most harmonious or endearing aspect, and yet the very rivalry and resentment which were engendered by it give an incidental sign of the closeness of the tie which it involves.
I. The brother tie is one whose visible and apparent closeness of necessity diminishes under the common conditions of life.
II. Although it is a link whose visible association vanishes, it ought never to be an association which fades out of the heart. There is always something wrong when a relationship like this disappears behind maturer attachments.
III. Whether from the hearth of home or from the wider range of brotherhood which the commonwealth supplies, the pattern and inspiration of true brotherhood is found in Christ, the Elder Brother of us all. (A. Mursell.)
The gospel of selfishness
Am I my brothers keeper? This is the very gospel of selfishness, and a murderer is its first preacher. The gospel of selfishness is, that a man must take care of his own interests; and out of that universal self-seeking, provided it be wise and restrained, will come the well-being of all.
I. This is an age of rights rather than of duties. It is very notable that there is almost nothing about rights in the teaching of Christ. The Lord seeks to train the spirit of His followers into doing and suffering aright. By preaching love and duty, the gospel has been the lawgiver of nations, the friend of man, the champion of his rights. Its teaching has been of God, of duty, and of love; and wherever these ideas have come, freedom and earthly happiness and cultivation have followed silently behind.
II. Our age needs to be reminded that in one sense each of us has the keeping of his brethren confided to him, and that love is the law and the fulfilling of the law. The rights of men to our love and consideration, rest upon an act of Divine love. Their chartered right to our reverence is in these terms: That God loved them, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for their sins; and the Saviour set to it His seal, and signed it with His blood. (Archbishop Thomson.)
Cain and Abel
I. LET EVERY CHRISTIAN FULLY AND WILLINGLY RECOGNIZE THE FACT THAT HE IS HIS BROTHERS KEEPER. There is an old French proverb to the effect that nobility has its obligations, the neglect to remember and act upon which resulted in the rapine and blood of the French Revolution. Position has its special responsibilities, which can not safely be disregarded, and when one is fully convinced of the fact that he is his brothers keeper, he will be anxious to meet the liabilities of the situation. And a right-minded person will not merely accept the fact under compulsion. He will be glad that things are as they are. What wide ranges of usefulness are open before him. What an opportunity he has to impress himself for good upon multitudes around him, and even upon times remote. And that empire of gracious influence is the lordliest and most satisfying of all sovereignties. How the world loves to keep alive the names of single men who have made their personality felt in helpful directions. Scores of Union generals deserved well of their country, but Sheridan, riding from Winchester twenty miles away, and turning disaster into victory by the simple power of his presence, receives the applause of thousands who have forgotten the names of equally loyal leaders. It is a great thing to have an efficient part in determining the destiny of others, to have control of the rudder that may steer them away from dangerous coasts and out into wide seas of prosperity.
II. EVERY CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO MAKE THE DISCHARGE OF HIS DUTY AS HIS BROTHERS KEEPER A MATTER OF CONSTANT THOUGHT AND PRAYER. It is not enough merely to accept our responsibility as an article of creed, and then lay it away on the shelf as a matter proved and concluded. How will this thing, if I do it, or leave it undone, affect others? is a question that ought to be asked and answered all the time. And especially ought we to take counsel of God, not as to how little we can consistently d ,, but as to how much we can possibly do in this direction.
III. IN MATTERS OF DOUBT, A CHRISTIAN SHOULD LEAN TO THE SAFE SIDE. It was a rule of President Edwards never to do anything about whose influence he had a question unless he was equally in doubt as to whether the not doing it might not have as bad, or a worse, effect. That is a hard rule to follow, but it is certainly a safe one. Men will never be turned away from God and religion because we deny ourselves what seem to us legitimate pleasures for fear of the evil influence we may exert. That very sacrifice will evidence a genuineness and depth of conviction which is the strongest of all arguments to the truth and worth of religion. (E. S.Atwood, D. D.)
Earthly relationship the medium of spiritual influence
I. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVE THE DUTY OF SPIRITUAL CARE. Relation, taken in its widest sense, if not the ground of all moral obligation, is certainly intimately connected therewith. No man can be a parent, a son, or a master, without being specially bound to care for his own. Men have to provide for their households in earthly things, and ought to in spiritual. In proportion to the closeness of the relationship is the force of the obligation.
II. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS AFFORD PECULIAR OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DISCHARGE OF THIS DUTY. God has constituted the varied relationships of life for purpose of promoting the moral good of man. Opportunity and power should be voluntarily used. Families have little thought of the opportunity they have of bringing each other to Jesus.
III. THAT ACCORDING AS THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST OR OF SELFISHNESS IS POSSESSED, WILL THIS DUTY BE FULFILLED OR NEGLECTED. Sin, whose essence is selfishness, is a severing principle. But Christs spirit is a spirit of love. We must come to Christ ourselves to get the incentive to this duty.
IV. THAT CONCERNING THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY AN ACCOUNT WILL BE REQUIRED. And the Lord said unto Cain, etc. Vain will be excuse. God will speak. So will conscience.
V. THAT EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS, ACCORDING TO THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE USED, BECOME AN ETERNAL BLESSING OR BANE. (Homilist.)
The word of Cain
All men, the poor, the ignorant, the fallen, the heathen, are our brethren. Such is the Christian notion of humanity. We are, therefore, the keepers of our brethren. Man is two fold; he has a body and a soul. Thence for us a two-fold mission: we are called to alleviate the miseries of the body, and to save souls. Jesus Christ has been brought into contact with both these forms of suffering. Let us examine His conduct in reference to them.
I. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE BODY. Christ has come into contact with them under their two most common forms–sickness and poverty. What He has done for their victims all the gospel tells. We see Him ever surrounded by the poor and the sick. He has a partiality for their society. With what tender solicitude He treats them! And mark the results of this sublime teaching. The faithful Church has always regarded the poor as the representatives of Christ.
II. That is what Christianity has done towards alleviating the miseries of the body; but that is only a part of its mission. ABOVE THE BODY THERE IS THE SOUL. The soul is man eternal. If we must sympathize with the temporal interests of our fellow men, what shall it be when their souls are in question? But if I have understood what is my soul, if I have felt that it constitutes my dignity, my greatness, and my true life, then will I endeavour to awaken that life in others.
III. THIS MISSION, HOW DO WE FULFIL IT? What, in the first place, shall we say of those who do not fulfil it at all? There are people who believe they are saved and who have never loved. If selfishness has never prompted you to utter the words of the text, have you never uttered them from discouragement? There are times when the thought of all that ought to be done pursues and paralyses us. Let us therefore learn of Christ. But I hear your final objection: Yes, say you, we are ready to work, but on condition that our labour shall produce some results. And then follows the sad story of those vain efforts, of those humiliating failures, of those discouragements which every Christian knows and might in his turn recount. To all these objections let me again reply, Look to Jesus! Did He succeed on earth? (E. Bersier, D. D.)
My brothers keeper
I. THAT GOD DOES HOLD MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SAFETY AND WELFARE OF HIS FELLOW MEN.
1. For their temporal welfare.
2. For their moral condition.
3. For their religious well-being.
II. THAT THE WELL-DISPOSED ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY AND ACT UPON IT.
1. By attending to their bodily condition. Hospitals, almshouses, refuges, etc.
2. By caring for their souls. (Homilist.)
The claims of a perishing world upon Christian zeal and liberality founded in human fraternity
I. THAT THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE ARE ONE FAMILY AND STAND IN RELATION OF BRETHREN TO EACH OTHER. To prove this, it is necessary only to remark two things–
1. God has made us all of one blood.
2. We have all proceeded from the same pair.
II. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO CARE FOR OUR BRETHREN.
1. The law of consanguinity requires it. This law dictates affection and sympathy.
2. The law of God requires it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
3. Our common Christianity requires it. It enjoins love to God; but we cannot love God without loving our brother also (1Jn 4:20). It enjoins an imitation of the example of Christ; but Christ so loved the world as to die for it. It enjoins obedience to Christ; but He commands His gospel to be preached in all the world.
III. THAT THOSE EVILS WHICH BEFALL OUR BRETHREN THROUGH OUR INATTENTION ARE CHARGEABLE UPON US. To illustrate this let me suppose a few cases.
1. That any of your brethren were compelled to perform a long and dangerous voyage, and that they were total strangers to navigation, and without a single chart or compass; and suppose that you abounded in charts and compasses, and in skilful navigators; and that you refused to grant them either the one or the other; and suppose these should all perish, to whom would their loss be ascribed? To you. Or suppose–
2. That they were compelled to journey through a land of pits and precipices, abounding in beasts of prey; and that they were ignorant of the path to be pursued, and knew not where the pits and precipices were, and had nothing by which they could defend themselves from the beasts; and suppose you had it in your power to furnish them with a guide and a sufficient defence, but did not, and that they should in consequence perish; their blood would be upon your head. Or suppose–
3. That they were dying of disease, without the knowledge of any remedy; and suppose you were in possession of an infallible one, and that you withheld it; their death would be at your door. In each case the consequences would be as fatal as if you had by some positive act, as that of Cain, destroyed them.
IV. THAT WE HAVE BEEN SINFULLY INATTENTIVE TO THE ETERNAL INTERESTS OF OUR BRETHREN GENERALLY, AND TO THOSE OF THE HEATHEN PART OF THEM IN PARTICULAR. (Sketches of Sermons.)
Gods question and mans answer
I. GODS QUESTION–Where is Abel thy brother? Has God a right to expect this knowledge at our hands? He has; and that on many accounts.
1. For instance, there is the constitution of our nature. When man was created, the whole race were involved in one parent, they all sprang from one root; so that there was provision made for forming a family, and for brotherly feeling among them. God, therefore, reasonably expects that we should all feel a kindly interest and concern in one anothers welfare.
2. We might argue the same from the covenant in which we were all wrapped up, to stand or fall together; from the law, which requires us to love our neighbour; and, above all, from the gospel. Has the great God loved me, pitied me, been patient with me, and at a great, unspeakable cost saved me; and shall I not be ready to deny myself and make sacrifices, in order to save and bless my fellow men?
II. MANS ANSWER–I know not; am I my brothers keeper? Here is a two-fold plea–the first, ignorance; the second, an insinuation that God has no right to expect such knowledge at his hand.
1. Cain excused himself on the ground of ignorance. This is either true or false.
(1) If true, then he is guilty, because he has had abundant opportunity of knowing, and ought to know. And so with yourselves. You know about your neighbours outward estate; should you not know about his spiritual condition?
(2) But Cains plea, I know not, was really false. He did know where Abel was. And so you do know that many around you, perhaps closely connected with you, are tempted, ensnared, perishing.
2. Cain denies that God has a right to expect that he should take trouble about Abel. Am I my brothers keeper? Have I anything to do with him, any charge of him? Can he not take care of himself? Is not this the feeling in many hearts? You say, Am I that poor wretchs keeper? What have I to do with him? He has no claim upon me. I have other work to do, other interests to attend to. But look again, Is he thy brother; and has he no claim upon thee? (J. Milne.)
The examination of Cain
The world was yet young, and there were no judicatories to take cognizance of offences; therefore did God, who, though His creatures had rebelled against Him, still hold in His hands the government of the world, come forth from His solitude, and make inquisition for blood. But why–omniscient as God was, and, by His own after statement, thoroughly cognizant of the guilt of Cain–why did He address the murderer with the question, Where is Abel thy brother? in place of taxing him at once with the atrocious commission? Assuredly there could have been no need to God of additional information: it was in no sense the same as at a human tribunal, where questions are put that facts may be elicited. And in following this course, God acted as He had done on the only former occasion when He had sat, as it were, in judgment on human offenders (see Gen 3:9; Gen 3:11; Gen 3:13). But the method of question is again employed, so soon as there is again a human offender to be tried. The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? It can hardly be doubted that, in all these instances, the gracious design of God was to afford the criminals opportunity of confessing their crimes. You must be aware how, throughout Scripture, there is attached the greatest importance to confession of sin, so that its being forgiven is spoken of as though it depended upon nothing but its being acknowledged. If we confess our sins, says the evangelist, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And did the crime, then, of Cain come within the range of forgiveness? Supposing it to have been confessed, might it also have been pardoned? The crime had been fearful; and we must believe that, in any case, the moral Governor of the universe would have so treated the criminal as to mark His sense of the atrociousness of that which he had done. But there is no room for doubt that there was forgiveness even for Cain; even then there was blood which spake better things than that of Abel, the blood of Him who, on the cross, besought pardon for His murderers, and who, in thus showing that His death made expiation even for its authors, showed also that there was no human sin which its virtue would not reach. But if Cain might have been pardoned, had he been but penitent, where was the contrite sinner who need despair of the forgiveness of his sins? Ay, it is thus that the questions under review might have served as a revelation, during the infancy of the world, of the readiness of the Almighty to blot out our iniquities as a cloud, and as a thick cloud our sins. But let us now observe the manner in which Cain acted, whilst God was thus graciously endeavouring to lead him to repentance. If we had not abundant evidence, in our own day–yea, in our own cases–of the hardening power of sin, we might wonder at the effrontery which the murderer displayed. Did he, could he, think that denial would avail anything with God, so that, if he did not confess, he might keep his crime undetected? It may be that it was not in mere insolence that Cain affirmed to God that he knew nothing of Abel; he may have been so blinded by his sin as to lose all discernment of the necessary attributes of God, so that he actually imagined that not to confess would be almost to conceal. Under this point of view, his instance ought to serve as a warning to us of the deadening power of wrong-doing, informing us that there is no such ready way of benumbing the understanding, or paralysing the reason, as the indulging passion, and withstanding conscience. But Cain did more than assert ignorance of what had happened to Abel: he taxed God with the unreasonableness of proposing the question, as though it were a strange thing to suppose that he might concern himself with his brother. Am I my brothers keeper? There were then no brothers in the world but Cain and Abel; and he who could insolently ask, Am I my brothers keeper? when that brother was missing, might have been convicted, by those very words, of a fierceness which was equal to murder, and an audacity which would deny it even to God. But we wish to dwell for a moment on this question of Cain as virtually containing the excuse which numbers in our own day would give, were God to come visibly down, and make inquisition for blood. But we have how to consider to what God appealed in the absence of confession from the murderer himself: He had striven to induce Cain to acknowledge his guilt; but, failing in this, He must seek elsewhere for evidence on which to convict him. And where did He find this evidence? He made the inanimate creation rise up, as it were, against the assassin, and dumb things became eloquent in demanding his condemnation. The voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto Me from the ground. Who has not read, who has not heard, how murderers, though they have succeeded in hiding their guilt from their fellow men, have seemed to themselves surrounded with witnesses and avengers, so that the sound of their own foot tread has startled them as if it had been the piercing cry of an accuser, and the rustling of every tree, and the murmur of every brook, has sounded like the utterance of one clamorous for their punishment? It has been as nothing that they have screened themselves from those around them, and are yet moving in society with no suspicion attaching to them of their having done so foul a thing as murder. They have felt as though, in the absence of all accusation from beings of their own race, they had arrayed against themselves the whole visible creation, sun and moon and stars and forests and waters growing vocal that they might publish their crime. And I know not whether there may be anything more in this than the mere goading and imaging of conscience; whether the disquieted assassin, to whose troubled eye the form of his victim is given back from every mirror in the universe, and on whose ear there falls no sound which does not come like the dying mans shriek, or the thundering call of the avenger of blood–whether he is simply to be considered as haunted and hunted by his own evil thoughts, or whether he be indeed subjected to some mysterious and terrible influences with which his crime has impregnated and endowed the whole material system. I cannot help feeling, when I consider the language of our text, as though there might be more than the mere phantasms of a diseased and distracted mind in those forms of fear, and these sounds of wrath, which agitate so tremendously the yet undiscovered murderer. It may be that, fashioned as man is out of the dust of the earth, there are such links between him and the material creation that, when the citadel of his life is rudely invaded, the murderous blow is felt throughout the vast realm of nature; so that, though there be no truth in the wild legend that, if the assassin enter the chamber where the victim is stretched, the gaping wounds will bleed afresh, yet may earth, sea, air, have sympathy with the dead, and form themselves into furies to hunt down his destroyer. But it is not exclusively, nor even chiefly, as indicating a possible, though inexplicable. Sympathy between material things and the victim of the murderer, that we reckon the statement before us deserving of being carefully pondered. Setting aside this sympathy, there is much that is very memorable in the appeal of God to a voice from Abels blood, when there were other witnesses which might have been produced. Had not the soul of Abel entered the separate state? was not his spirit with God? and might not the immortal principle, violently detached as it had been from the body, have cried for vengeance on the murderer? We read in the Book of Revelation of the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And of those souls we are told that they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? It may, therefore, be that the souls of the dead cry for judgment upon those who have compassed their death: why, then, might not the soul of Abel, rather than his blood, have been adduced by God? Even had it been silent, surely its very presence in the invisible world gave a more impressive testimony than the stream which had crimsoned the ground. In answer to this, we are to consider, in the first place, that it did not please God to vouchsafe any clear revelation of the invisible state, during the earlier ages of the world. That Abel had fallen by the hand of his brother was the most terrible of all possible proofs that the original transgression had corrupted human nature to the core. But it would have done much–not indeed to counterbalance this proof, but to soften the anguish which it could not fail to produce–had there been any intimation that the death of the body was not the death of the man, and that Cain had but removed Abel from a scene of trouble to one of deep repose. This, however, was denied them: they must struggle on through darkness, sustained only by a dim conjecture of life and immortality. Indeed, indeed, I know not whether there be anything more affecting in the history of our first parents. Oh, bless God, ye who have had to sorrow over dead children, that ye live when life and immortality have been brought to light by the gospel. Yours has not been the deep and desolate bitterness of those on whom fell no shinings from futurity. Unto you have come sweet whisperings from the invisible world, whisperings as of the one whom you loved, telling you of a better land, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. But alas for Adam and Eve! theirs was grief, stern, dark, unmingled. But, indeed, there are better things to be said on the fact that it was Abels blood, and not his soul, which found a voice to demand vengeance on the murderer. We know not how Abel, the first martyr, died. Oh, I cannot but think that in Gods reference to the blood of Abel as the only accuser there was a designed and beautiful lesson as to the forgiveness of injuries. You know that, in the gospel, our obtaining forgiveness from God is made conditional on our forgiving those by whom we may be wronged. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And was not the same truth taught, by example, if not by word, from the earliest days, seeing that, when God would bring an accusing voice against Cain, He could only find it in the dumb earth reeking with blood, though the soul of Abel was before Him, and might have been thought ready to give witness with an exceeding great and bitter cry? Abel forgave his murderer, otherwise could he not have been forgiven of God; and we learn that he forgave his murderer from the fact that it was only his blood which cried aloud for vengeance. Thus is there something very instructive in the absence of any voice but the voice from the ground. There is also matter for deep thought in the fact that it was blood which sent up so penetrating a cry. It was like telling the young world of the power which there would be in blood to gain audience of the Most High. What was there in blood that it could give, as it were, life to inanimate things, causing them to become vocal, so that the very Godhead Himself was moved by the sound? The utterance, we think, did but predict that when one, to whom Abel had had respect in presenting in sacrifice the firstlings of his flock, should tall, as Abel fell, beneath the malice of the wicked, there would go up item the shed blood a voice that would be hearkened to in the heavenly courts, and prevail to the obtaining whatsoever it should ask. Blessed be God that this blood does not plead for vengeance alone. It does plead for vengeance on the obdurate, who, like Cain, resist the invitation of God; but it pleads also for pardon of the murderers, so that it can expiate the crime which it proves and attests. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Am I my brothers keeper?
The cool impudence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother; and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker. Having committed murder, the hardening influence of sin upon Cains mind must have been intense, and so at last he was able to speak out to Gods face what he felt within his heart, and to say, Am I my brothers keeper? This goes a long way to explain what has puzzled some persons, namely, the wonderful calmness with which great criminals will appear in the dock. I remember to have heard it said of one who had undoubtedly committed a very foul murder, that he looked like an innocent man. He stood up before his accusers as calmly and quietly, they said, as an innocent man could do. I remember feeling at the time that an innocent man would probably not have been calm. The distress of mind occasioned to an innocent man by being under such a charge would have prevented his having the coolness which was displayed by the guilty individual. Instead of its being any evidence of innocence that a man wears a brazen front when charged with a great crime, it should by wise men be considered to be evidence against him. Save us, O God, from having our hearts hammered to the hardness of steel by sin; and daily keep us by Thy grace sensible and tender before Thee, trembling at Thy word. The very same thing, no doubt, lies at the bottom of objections to Bible truths. There are some who do not go to Scripture to take out of it what is there, but seeing what is clearly revealed, they then begin to question and judge and come to conclusions according to their notions of what ought to have been there. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? If He says it, it is so. Believe it. Now, let us look quietly at what Cain said. He said to the Lord, Am I my brothers keeper? May the Holy Spirit guide us in considering this question.
I. First it is to be noted that MAN IS NOT HIS BROTHERS KEEPER IN SOME SENSES. There is some little weight in what Cain says.
1. For instance, first, every man must bear his own responsibility for his own acts before Almighty God. It is not possible for a man to shift from his own shoulders to those of another his obligations to the Most High.
2. And again, no one can positively secure the salvation of another, nay, he cannot even have a hope of the salvation of his friend, so long as that other remains unbelieving.
3. And here let me say, in the next place, that those do very wrongly who enter into any vows or promises for others in this matter, when they are quite powerless.
4. It is proper here to say that the most earnest minister of Christ must not so push the idea of his own personal responsibility to such an extreme as to make himself unfit for his work through a morbid view of his position. If he has faithfully preached the gospel, and his message is rejected, let him persevere in hope, and not condemn himself.
II. So now, secondly, IN A HIGH DEGREE WE ARE, EACH ONE OF US, OUR BROTHERS KEEPER. We ought to regard ourselves in that light, and it is a Cainish spirit which prompts us to think otherwise, and to wrap ourselves up in hardheartedness and say, It is no concern of mine how others fare. Am I my brothers keeper? Far from that spirit let us be.
1. For, first, common feelings of humanity should lead every Christian man to feel an interest in the soul of every unsaved man.
2. A second argument is drawn from the fact that we have all of us, especially those of us who are Christians, the power to do good to others. We have not all the same ability, for we have not all the same gifts, or the same position, but as the little maid that waited on Naamans wife had opportunity to tell of the prophet who could heal her master, so there is not a young Christian here but what has some power to do good to others. Converted children can lisp the name of Jesus to their sires and bless them. We have all some capacity for doing good. Now, take it as an axiom that power to do good involves the duty of doing good.
3. Another argument is very plainly drawn from our Lords version of the moral law. What is the second and great commandment according to Him? Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
4. Yet again, without looking to other mens souls, we cannot keep the first of the two great commands in which our Lord has summarised the moral law.
5. Once more. To the Christian man, perhaps, the most forcible reason will be that the whole example of Jesus Christ, whom we call Master and Lord, lies in the direction of our being the keeper of our brother; for what was Jesus life but entire unselfishness? What was said of Him at His death but that He saved others: Himself He could not save?
6. Let the thought next rise in our minds that we are certainly ordained to the office of brother keeper, because we shall be called to account about it. Cain was called to account. Where is Abel thy brother?
(1) Take first those who are united to us by the ties of flesh, who come under the term brethren, because they are born of the same parents, or are near of kin. Where is John? Where is Thomas? Where is Henry thy brother? Unsaved? Without God? What have you ever done for him? How much have you prayed for him? How often have you spoken to him seriously about his state? What means have you used for his instruction, persuasion, conviction? See to this, that ye begin at once earnestly seeking the salvation of relatives.
(2) But, beloved, we must never end there, because brotherhood extends to all ranks, races, and conditions; and according to each mans ability he will be held responsible about the souls of others whom he never saw. Where is Abel thy brother? Down in a back street in London. He is half-drunk already. Have you done anything, friend, towards the reclaiming of the drunkard? Where is your sister?–your sister who frequents the midnight streets? You shrink back and say, She is no sister of mine. Ay, but God may require her blood at your hands, if you thus leave her to perish. Have you ever done anything towards reclaiming her? City merchant, where are the poor men that earned your wealth?
(3) One thing more upon this calling to account. The more needy, the more destitute people are, the greater is their claim upon us; for according to the account book–need I turn to the chapter? I think you recollect it–they are the persons for whom we shall have mainly to give an account: I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not; naked, and ye clothed Me not.
7. Now, I close this second head about our really being our brothers keeper by saying this–that there are some of us who are our brothers keeper voluntarily, but yet most solemnly, by the office that we hold. We are ministers. O brother ministers, we are our brothers keepers.
III. IT WILL BE HIGH PRESUMPTION ON OUR PART IF, FROM THIS NIGHT FORWARD, WE SHIRK DUTY OF BEING OUR BROTHERS KEEPER.
1. I will set it very briefly in a strong light. It will be denying the right of God to make a law, and to call upon us to obey it, if we refuse to do as we are bidden.
2. Notice, next, that you will be denying all claim on your part to the Divine mercy; because if you will not render mercy to others, and if you deny altogether your responsibility to others, you put yourself into the position of saying, I want nothing from another–consequently, nothing from God. Such mercy as you show, such mercy shall you have.
3. Indeed, there is this about it too–that your act is something like throwing the blame of your own sin upon God if you leave men to perish. When Cain said, Am I my brothers keeper? he meant, probably, You are the preserver of men. Why did You not preserve Abel? I am not his keeper. Some throw on the sovereignty of God the weight which lies on their own indolence.
4. And again, there is to my mind an utter ignoring of the whole plan of salvation in that man who says, I am not going to have any responsibility about others, because the whole plan of salvation is based on substitution, on the care of another for us, on the sacrifice of another for us; and the whole spirit of it is self-sacrifice and love to others. If you say, I will not love–well, the whole system goes together, and you renounce it all. If you will not love, you cannot have loves benediction.
5. Last of all, it may turn out–it may turn out–that if we are not our brothers keeper, we may be our brothers murderer. Have any of us been so already? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Responsibility for welfare of others
I. That an enlightened regard to the spiritual and eternal interests of others is recognized as a duty by nature and revelation, none of you, I trust, is disposed to question. You have only to look into the law, written by the finger of God, to know that six out of the ten requirements are based upon this very principle. Nor must this interest in the well-being of others be confined to the narrow circle of relatives and friends. How different is the world–contracted, selfish, and reckless of the misery of others, inasmuch as it does not regard the sufferings it may produce, provided its own imagined interests are secured!
II. That all are furnished with means and opportunities less or more available for the discharge of this duty. This duty, as enjoined on human beings, presupposes many evils to be removed, many wants to be supplied, and much suffering to be mitigated and relieved. And where is the individual to whom God has not, in some degree, imparted the means of promoting this great end? (J. MacGilchrist.)
Man his brothers keeper
I. One of the most terrible effects of sin on humanity is the obliteration of the sense of personal responsibility.
II. The tendencies of infidel science in our day are strongly in the line of this perverse and morally stultifying effect of depravity.
III. The family institution was ordained as the first and fundamental condition of society, in order to imbed the idea of responsibility in the very foundation and structure of society.
IV. The strongest tendencies of the times are antagonistic to the sense of personal responsibility.
V. Jesus came into the world to restore and enthrone again in the human mind and conscience the great doctrine of strict individual accountability to God on high. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Man, the keeper of man
The person who first asked this question was a man whose heart was, at the time, filled with evil passions, and his hands stained with a brothers blood. It was Cain. Yes, thou guilty Cain, thou art thy brothers keeper. He was given thee to love. He was given thee that thou mightest do him good.
1. Am I my brothers keeper? each one should say to himself. It is answered, Yes, you are. But how? Take the following as some of the instances in which your brother has a claim upon your kindly offices. You are your brothers keeper, inasmuch as you are bound by ties, both of humanity and religion, to care for him, and to do him all the good you can. The humblest and the poorest can, in some way or other, help forward every agency for good, in the prosperity of which they take a hearty interest. Money may be given–if ever such a trifle, it betokens the mind of the giver. Trouble may be given–wherever pains are bestowed with a good intent, God will return some fruit. And the most destitute can always give prayer–when this comes from a fervent heart, it does great things. In your private sphere you can do much for your brothers good. You can show him little acts of kindness: you can relieve some of his smaller wants: you can help him in one or more of those numberless ways which readily suggest themselves to a benevolent disposition. You are your brothers keeper in the exercise of your influence. Every man has influence. The good man has influence, and the bad man has influence. The rich man has influence, and the poor man has influence. The aged person has influence, and the veriest child has influence.
2. But we will pass on to notice, secondly, the good results which may reasonably be expected to follow a more general and more conscientious observance of this Christian duty. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A little moral, godly principle constantly manifested before the eyes of those with whom you mix, could not fail of diffusing itself, even though it should be your manner of life rather than your words that indicated your possession of it. Your brother would be made to feel that you are his keeper, although he might not openly acknowledge you to be so. You would be the best of preachers, the best of patriots, the best of philanthropists; and many whom your silent influence had won would be sure, at the judgment day, to rise up with you and confess their obligation. (F. W.Naylor, B. A.)
Social duties
Such was the answer of the first Deist, the first infidel, and the first murderer, to Gods inquiry, Where is thy brother? It was not only a lie (for the father of Cain was a liar from the beginning), but it was a daring jest upon his brothers employment. Am I his shepherd? Am I answerable for his life? Am I to take care of him as he does of his sheep? Such is infidelity. It is sin that makes the infidel. He does not believe, not because he cannot, but because he will not. He may talk of morality, and sport himself in his own deceiving, when, like Cain, he says he can worship God as well with the flowers of the field and the fruits of the earth as through the blood of atonement; but when we cut into the core of his heart, we shall find the worm of all rottenness still there, the love of self–we shall find that the only principle of true morality is wanting, the love of God and our brother–we shall find the very element of murder there, the dislike of God and those who love and are like Him. And is not the truth he denied and the principle he rejected this: that man is answerable for his brothers life and his brothers soul as far as his positive acts can injure, or his neglect destroy? I will not stay to prove this. Cains rejection of it is a proof. Parents, how nearly does this principle affect you in your important relation!–the very relation in which God Himself is pleased to place Himself with regard to His own obedient people, His redeemed ones from earth; for while the angels are called the sons of God, the Father hath bestowed on us this wonderful love, that we should be called the sons of God also; and His Spirit–the Spirit of His Son–teaches us to cry, Abba, Father. God has made you parents. Beings who can never die are entrusted to your care. Your childrens character is greatly in your hands. Their eternal destiny hangs on your discharge of duty. Watch for their souls as those who must give account. Masters and mistresses, the principle of which we have spoken bears powerfully on your relation. (W. W.Champney.)
Five questions
1. The first question is this: Is there no one who stands related to you as a brother?–
(1) By kindred.
(2) By religion.
(3) By civil community.
(4) By the common claims of nature.
Have we not all, says Malachi, one father, Adam? and have we not all one mother, Eve? Have we not all the same animal wants? Are we not all exposed to the same infirmities and diseases? Are we not all capable of the same improvements? Are we not all to turn to the same dust? Are we not all heirs of the same immortality? Are we not all redeemed by the same blood of the Lamb? Nothing, therefore, that is human should ever be deemed or felt alien with regard to you.
2. The second question: If you were asked, Where is thy brother? what would truth compel you now to answer? We know what truth would have constrained Cain to answer–Oh! I hated him, I envied him; I drew him into a field, and I murdered him; and he lies there dead. What would you say, if you spoke truth, in answer to this question, Where is thy brother? Perhaps you would be constrained to say, Living a few doors off from the subject of want and indigence and hunger, and I having all this worlds goods, and more than heart could wish, I never send him any supplies. Or perhaps you would say, I have calumniated, I have run down his religion; I have called him a hypocrite, or an enthusiast, or a mercenary. Or perhaps you would say, Oh! I have poisoned his mind with error; or, I have seduced him by my wicked example. Or perhaps you would say, He hath sinned, and instead of reproving him, I have suffered sin upon him; Hellas been a stranger to the advantages of religion, while I was well acquainted with it; and I have never gone to him and said, Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him; Oh! he is ignorant, and I have not been trying to enlighten him. Where is he? Why, living in such and such a dark village, where they are perishing for lack of knowledge; or living in the sister island, enslaved by a vile superstition.
3. The third question: Will not your conduct towards your fellow creatures be inquired into as well as Cains? Can you imagine that you are to live as you please even with regard to your fellow creatures? Is not God your
Governor as well as your Maker? Are you not Gods subjects as well as Gods creatures?
4. The fourth question: If you are guilty, will not your guilt be followed by punishment? Why should God deal with Cain, and suffer you to escape?
5. The last question we have to ask is, If you are guilty and exposed to all this, what should be your concern now? Should it be to seek to deny or to palliate your transgressions? Should you not rather confess your sin, and exclaim with Josephs brethren, We are verily guilty concerning our brother? (W. Jay.)
Cains answer
1. The falsehood of it–I know not. We feel astonished that a man can dare to lie in the presence of his Maker; yet how many lies are uttered before Him by formalists and hypocrites 1
2. The insolence of it–Am I my brothers keeper? This man had no fear of God before his eyes; and where this is wanting, regard to man will be wanting also. Even natural affection will be swallowed up in selfishness. (A. Fuller.)
Human brotherhood
Man is ever a questioner. Man even questions God. But there are different kinds of questioners, as there are of questions. There are docile questioners, there are defiant questioners. Am I my brothers keeper?
1. Human sin says mournfully, Yes. See how this was confirmed by Cains vile action. If you have a right (assumed) to sin against a man, you have a right to love him. If he comes into your life and sphere, all reasonable law claims for him blessing rather than blows.
2. Human sorrow says pathetically, Yes. We have a common heritage of sorrow.
3. Human joy says hopefully, Yes! We cannot tell how much of the joy of life depends upon others.
4. Human success says triumphantly, Yes! No such thing as independence. We only succeed so far as our fellow man will let us succeed.
5. Human philanthropy says benevolently, Yes. Look at the development of philanthropy!
6. Human conscience says righteously, Yes! Conscience is the voice of God within us. But no quiet conscience for him who denies that he is his brothers keeper. (J. E. Smallow.)
Personal relations
Am I my brothers keeper? The success or failure of this world turns on the question, Is the law of self or the law of love adopted? The same is true of individuals. Is it mutual help of all, or every man for himself against all? Is it Ishmael, hand against every man, or Jesus, bearing others burdens, that gives the law of being? Man is constitutionally made to work for and with others. He is full of sympathy, finds in union strength; hence families, railroads, civilization. A thousand minister to the comfort of every breakfast table. Mutual help is the law of angelic nature–they are ministering spirits. Christ carries our sickness and our sins. God is love, and the whole outgoing of love is service. Heaven, the greatest product of the universe, is the outcome of the united effort of men, angels, and God. Cain tries the other way; he destroys what differs from him, that his littleness need not appear, instead of joining the great, and becoming a part of it. That act not only puts away the ideal, destroys the possibility of its help, but also dwarfs him still more. Cain slays himself more than Abel. Sin ravages him more than he can bear. An aristocrat requires a thousand serfs to support him, but slavery harms the master more than the slaves. The latter is simply arrested in his development, the former is developed awry. He cannot see that all art, architecture, agriculture, and literature perishes. So Cain sees not sin, thinks nothing of separation, asks not for pardon, but says, I am punished more than I can bear. He goes from God; all his own nobility is murdered, all his possibility of aspiration after God lies slain. Of the two, the one to be envied is Abel. It is better to have our bodies slain by others, than to slay our own souls. In every relation of life, to servants, workmen, neighbours, households, our nation, all nations, envy must be banished, lest we dwarf ourselves; murder in every degree must be spurned, lest we murder ourselves; love and mutual help must be exercised; for thereby we greaten ourselves. (H. W. Warren, D. D.)
Care for the fallen
A writer in one of the English reviews relates that during a conversation with George Eliot, not long before her death, a vase toppled over on the mantelpiece. The great writer quickly and unconsciously put out her hand to stop its fall. I hope, said she, replacing it, that the time will come when we shall instinctively hold up the man or woman who begins to fall as naturally and unconsciously as we arrest a falling piece of furniture or an ornament.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Where is Abel? Not that God was ignorant where he was, but partly to convince him of his sin, and to lead him to repentance, and partly to instruct judges to inquire into causes, and hear the accused speak for themselves, before they pass sentence.
Thy brother, whom nature and near relation obliged thee to love and preserve.
Am I my brothers keeper? Why dost thou inquire of me concerning him who is of age to look to himself? Is he such a stripling that he needs a guardian? Or didst thou ever make me his guardian?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. I know nota falsehood. Onesin leads to another.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother?…. Perhaps this was said to him the next time he came to offer, he not being with him: this question is put, not as being ignorant where he was, but in order to bring Cain to a conviction and confession of his sin, to touch his conscience with it, and fill it with remorse for it; and, for the aggravation of it, observes the relation of Abel to him, his brother:
and he said, I know not; which was a downright lie; for he must know where he had left him or laid him: this shows him to be under the influence of Satan, who was a liar, and the father of lies, as well as a murderer from the beginning; and that he was so blinded by him, as to forget whom he was speaking to; that he was the omniscient God, and knew the wickedness he had done, and the falsehood he now delivered, and was capable of confronting him with both, and of inflicting just punishment on him.
[Am] I my brother’s keeper? which was very saucily and impudently spoken: it is not only put by way of interrogation, but of admiration, as Jarchi observes, as wondering at it, that God should put such a question to him, since he knew he had not the charge of his brother, and his brother was at age to take care of himself; and if not, it rather belonged to God and his providence to take care of him, and not to him: so hardened was he in his iniquity, he had stretched out his hand against his brother, and now he stretched it out against God, and ran upon him, even on the thick bosses of his buckler.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Defiance grows with sin, and punishment keeps pace with guilt. Adam and Eve fear before God, and acknowledge their sin; Cain boldly denies it, and in reply to the question, “ Where is Abel thy brother? ” declares, “ I know not, am I my brother’s keeper? ” God therefore charges him with his crime: “ What hast thou done! voice of thy brother’s blood crying to Me from the earth.” The verb “ crying ” refers to the “ blood,” since this is the principal word, and the voice merely expresses the adverbial idea of “aloud,” or “ listen ” ( Ewald, 317 d). (drops of blood) is sometimes used to denote natural hemorrhage (Lev 12:4-5; Lev 20:18); but is chiefly applied to blood shed unnaturally, i.e., to murder. “Innocent blood has no voice, it may be, that is discernible by human ears, but it has one that reaches God, as the cry of a wicked deed demanding vengeance” ( Delitzsch). Murder is one of the sins that cry to heaven. “ Primum ostendit Deus se de factis hominum cognoscere utcunque nullus queratur vel accuset; deinde sibi magis charam esse homonum vitam quam ut sanguinem innoxium impune effundi sinat; tertio curam sibi piorum esse non solum quamdiu vivunt sed etiam post mortem ” (Calvin). Abel was the first of the saints, whose blood is precious in the sight of God (Psa 116:15); and by virtue of his faith, he being dead yet speaketh through his blood which cried unto God (Heb 11:4).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Cain’s Punishment. | B. C. 3875. |
9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; 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.
We have here a full account of the trial and condemnation of the first murderer. Civil courts of judicature not being yet erected for this purpose, as they were afterwards (ch. ix. 6), God himself sits Judge; for he is the God to whom vengeance belongs, and who will be sure to make inquisition for blood, especially the blood of saints. Observe,
I. The arraignment of Cain: The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? Some think Cain was thus examined the next sabbath after the murder was committed, when the sons of God came, as usual, to present themselves before the Lord, in a religious assembly, and Abel was missing, whose place did not use to be empty; for the God of heaven takes notice who is present at and who is absent from public ordinances. Cain is asked, not only because there is just cause to suspect him, he having discovered a malice against Abel and having been last with him, but because God knew him to be guilty; yet he asks him, that he may draw from him a confession of his crime, for those who would be justified before God must accuse themselves, and the penitent will do so.
II. Cain’s plea: he pleads not guilty, and adds rebellion to his sin. For, 1. He endeavours to cover a deliberate murder with a deliberate lie: I know not. He knew well enough what had become of Abel, and yet had the impudence to deny it. Thus, in Cain, the devil was both a murderer and a liar from the beginning. See how sinners’ minds are blinded, and their hearts hardened by the deceitfulness of sin: those are strangely blind that think it possible to conceal their sins from a God that sees all, and those are strangely hard that think it desirable to conceal them from a God who pardons those only that confess. 2. He impudently charges his Judge with folly and injustice, in putting this question to him: Am I my brother’s keeper? He should have humbled himself, and have said, Am not I my brother’s murderer? But he flies in the face of God himself, as if he had asked him an impertinent question, to which he was no way obliged to give an answer: “Am I my brother’s keeper? Surely he is old enough to take care of himself, nor did I ever take any charge of him.” Some think he reflects on God and his providence, as if he had said, “Art not thou his keeper? If he be missing, on thee be the blame, and not on me, who never undertook to keep him.” Note, A charitable concern for our brethren, as their keepers, is a great duty, which is strictly required of us, but is generally neglected by us. Those who are unconcerned in the affairs of their brethren, and take no care, when they have opportunity, to prevent their hurt in their bodies, goods, or good name, especially in their souls, do, in effect, speak Cain’s language. See Lev 19:17; Phi 2:4.
III. The conviction of Cain, v. 10. God gave no direct answer to his question, but rejected his plea as false and frivolous: “What hast thou done? Thou makest a light matter of it; but hast thou considered what an evil thing it is, how deep the stain, how heavy the burden, of this guilt is? Thou thinkest to conceal it, but it is to no purpose, the evidence against thee is clear and incontestable: The voice of thy brother’s blood cries.” He speaks as if the blood itself were both witness and prosecutor, because God’s own knowledge testified against him and God’s own justice demanded satisfaction. Observe here, 1. Murder is a crying sin, none more so. Blood calls for blood, the blood of the murdered for the blood of the murderer; it cries in the dying words of Zechariah (2 Chron. xxiv. 22), The Lord look upon it and require it; or in those of the souls under the altar (Rev. vi. 10), How long, Lord, holy, and true? The patient sufferers cried for pardon (Father, forgive them), but their blood cries for vengeance. Though they hold their peace, their blood has a loud and constant cry, to which the ear of the righteous God is always open. 2. The blood is said to cry from the ground, the earth, which is said to open her mouth to receive his brother’s blood from his hand, v. 11. The earth did, as it were, blush to see her own face stained with such blood, and therefore opened her mouth to hide that which she could not hinder. When the heaven revealed Cain’s iniquity, the earth also rose up against him (Job xx. 27), and groaned on being thus made subject to vanity,Rom 8:20; Rom 8:22. Cain, it is likely, buried the blood and the body, to conceal his crime; but “murder will out.” He did not bury them so deep but the cry of them reached heaven. 3. In the original the word is plural, thy brother’s bloods, not only his blood, but the blood of all those that might have descended from him; or the blood of all the seed of the woman, who should, in like manner, seal the truth with their blood. Christ puts all on one score (Matt. xxiii. 35); or because account was kept of every drop of blood shed. How well is it for us that the blood of Christ speaks better things than that of Abel! Heb. xii. 24. Abel’s blood cried for vengeance, Christ’s blood cries for pardon.
IV. The sentence passed upon Cain: And now art thou cursed from the earth, v. 11. Observe here,
1. He is cursed, separated to all evil, laid under the wrath of God, as it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, Rom. i. 18. Who knows the extent and weight of a divine curse, how far it reaches, how deep it pierces? God’s pronouncing a man cursed makes him so; for those whom he curses are cursed indeed. The curse for Adam’s disobedience terminated on the ground: Cursed is the ground for thy sake; but that for Cain’s rebellion fell immediately upon himself: Thou art cursed; for God had mercy in store for Adam, but none for Cain. We have all deserved this curse, and it is only in Christ that believers are saved from it and inherit the blessing, Gal 3:10; Gal 3:13.
2. He is cursed from the earth. Thence the cry came up to God, thence the curse came up to Cain. God could have taken vengeance by an immediate stroke from heaven, by the sword of an angel, or by a thunderbolt; but he chose to make the earth the avenger of blood, to continue him upon the earth, and not immediately to cut him off, and yet to make even this his curse. The earth is always near us, we cannot fly from it; so that, if this is made the executioner of divine wrath, our punishment is unavoidable: it is sin, that is, the punishment of sin, lying at the door. Cain found his punishment where he chose his portion and set his heart. Two things we expect from the earth, and by this curse both are denied to Cain and taken from him: sustenance and settlement. (1.) Sustenance out of the earth is here withheld from him. It is a curse upon him in his enjoyments, and particularly in his calling: When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. Note, Every creature is to us what God makes it, a comfort or a cross, a blessing or a curse. If the earth yield not her strength to us, we must therein acknowledge God’s righteousness; for we have not yielded our strength to him. The ground was cursed before to Adam, but it was now doubly cursed to Cain. That part of it which fell to his share, and of which he had the occupation, was made unfruitful and uncomfortable to him by the blood of Abel. Note, The wickedness of the wicked brings a curse upon all they do and all they have (Deut. xxviii. 15, c.), and this curse embitters all they have and disappoints them in all they do. (2.) Settlement on the earth is here denied him: A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. By this he was condemned, [1.] To perpetual disgrace and reproach among men. It should be ever looked upon as a scandalous thing to harbour him, converse with him, or show him any countenance. And justly was a man that had divested himself of all humanity abhorred and abandoned by all mankind, and made infamous. [2.] To perpetual disquietude and horror in his own mind. His own guilty conscience should haunt him wherever he went, and make him Magormissabib, a terror round about. What rest can those find, what settlement, that carry their own disturbance with them in their bosoms wherever they go? Those must needs be fugitives that are thus tossed. There is not a more restless fugitive upon earth than he that is continually pursued by his own guilt, nor a viler vagabond than he that is at the beck of his own lusts.
This was the sentence passed upon Cain and even in this there was mercy mixed, inasmuch as he was not immediately cut off, but had space given him to repent; for God is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 9-15:
1) God’s first recorded question to man was, “Where art thou?” He addressed this to Adam (Gen 3:9). His first question to Adam’s son was, “Where is thy brother?” Neither of these questions was asked for the sake of information. They were designed to bring the conviction of personal accountability and to cause the guilty to become aware of what they had done.
Cain’s reply reflects his character. (1) He was a liar; he denies knowing what had happened to Abel or where he was. (2) He was presumptuous; he thought he could hide from Jehovah what he had done. (3) He was selfish; he saw no need to care for his brother. (4) He was obstinate; he did not confess his sin. Subsequent events in Cain’s offspring reflect these same character traits.
(2) God’s, second question to Cain was similar to His second question to Adam. He did not ask this question for His own information. He asked it to bring home, in a vivid way, the enormity of Cain’s sin, and to impress upon the guilty soul the futility of trying to hide from God.
Abel’s blood cried out from the ground with a demand for justice upon his murderer. This is a common expression of the Scriptures regarding not only murder but other sins as well, see Gen 18:20-21; Exo 3:9; Jas 5:4. The crime of murder corrupts not only the one who commits it, but it pollutes the very land in which it is committed and calls out for Divine justice upon the guilty, see Lev 18:25-27; Num 35:9-34.
God informed Cain of the consequences of his deed. First, the ground itself would refuse to yield its fruit to his efforts. This was not an additional curse to what God had promised as the result of Adam’s sin. It appears to be specifically upon Cain and his descendants.. Cain was a farmer. Because of what he did to his innocent brother, his efforts and the efforts of his descendants would not prosper. This could be one reason why Cain’s descendants became the first city builders, and why they turned to mechanical inventions.
The second aspect of Cain’s judgment was that he would become “a fugitive and a vagabond,” literally moving and wandering about the earth with no permanent home. This wandering was due to two factors: (1) his remorse over a guilty conscience; and (2) the earth’s denying him the fruit of his labors. The earth itself became an instrument to minister judgment.
Cain’s reply to God’s pronouncement of judgment was not one of confession and repentance. His concern was not for the fact that he had sinned by murdering his brother. It was for the severity of his punishment Cain spurned every avenue of grace.
Cain complained of the four-fold consequences of God’s judgment: (1) he would be expelled from “the earth,” literally, the “ground” or the land area around Eden; (2) he would be shut out from God’s face, or from Divine providential care; (3) he would be perpetually a vagabond, a wanderer with no permanent home; and (4) he would be subject to death at the hand of anyone with whom he might come in contact. This implies that there were many descendants of Adam beside Cain and Abel, and that they had already begun to disperse over the earth to settle in other regions.
The Lord made a special promise to Cain, that he would be protected by a “mark” or sign, and that He would enforce a sevenfold vengeance upon any who would slay him. This special provision in no way mitigated Cain’s circumstances, or indicated that God disapproves of capital punishment. Rather, it emphasizes the principle, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom 12:19); and it serves as a stern warning against the sin of murder.
Jehovah placed a special identification upon Cain. “Mark” is oth, translated, “ensign.” twice, “token” 14 times, and “sign” 20 times. The Septuagint semeion has the same I meaning as the Hebrew oth. Many opinions have been advanced, as to what this “mark” might have been. All opinions are but speculation; there is no way to determine what it was. It seems evident that it was some visible mark, that would readily be apparent to any whom Cain might encounter. Whatever it was, it was at least Cain’s reminder the rest of his life he was guilty of murdering his own brother.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. Where is Abel ? They who suppose that the father made this inquiry of Cain respecting his son Abel, enervate the whole force of the instruction which Moses here intended to deliver; namely, that God, both by secret inspiration, and by some extraordinary method, cited the parricide (242) to his tribunal, as if he had thundered from heaven. For, what I have before said must be firmly maintained that, as God now speaks until us through the Scriptures, so he formerly manifested himself to the Fathers through oracles; and also in the same meaner, revealed his judgements to the reprobate sons of the saints. So the angel spoke to Agar in the wood, after she had fallen away from the Church, (243) as we shall see in the eighth verse of the sixteenth chapter: Gen 16:8. It is indeed possible that God may have interrogated Cain by the silent examinations of his conscience; and that he, in return, may have answered, inwardly fretting, and murmuring. We must, however, conclude, that he was examined, not barely by the external voice of man, but by a Divine voice, so as to make him feel that he had to deal directly with God. As often, then as the secret compunctions of conscience invite us to reflect upon our sins, let us remember that God himself is speaking, with us. For that interior sense by which we are convicted of sin is the peculiar judgement-seat of God, where he exercises his jurisdiction. Let those, therefore, whose consciences accuse them, beware lest, after the example of Cain, they confirm themselves in obstinacy. For this is truly to kick against God, and to resist his Spirit; when we repel those thoughts, which are nothing else than incentives to repentance. But it is a fault too common, to add at length to former sins such perverseness, that he who is compelled, whether he will or not, to feel sin in his mind, shall yet refuse to yield to God. Hence it appears how great is the depravity of the human mind; since, when convicted and condemned by our own conscience, we still do not cease either to mock, or to rage against our Judge. Prodigious was the stupor of Cain, who, having committed a crime so great, ferociously rejected the reproof of God, from whose hand he was nevertheless unable to escape. But the same thing daily happens to all the wicked; every one of whom desires to be deemed ingenious in catching at excuses. For the human heart is so entangled in winding labyrinths, that it is easy for the wicked to add obstinate contempt of God to their crimes; not because their contumacy is sufficiently firm to withstand the judgment of God, (for, although they hide themselves in the deep recesses of which I have spoken, they are, nevertheless, always secretly burned, as with a hot iron,) but because, by a blind obstinacy they render themselves callous. Hence, the force of the Divine judgment is clearly perceived; for it so pierces into the iron hearts of the wicked, that they are inwardly compelled to be their own judges; nor does it suffer them so to obliterate the sense of guilt which it has extorted, as not to leave the trace or scar of the searing. Cain, in denying that he was the keeper of his brother’s life, although, with ferocious rebellion, he attempts violently to repel the judgment of God, yet thinks to escape by this cavil, that he was not required to give an account of his murdered brother, because he had received no express command to take care of him.
(242) “ Parricidam citaverit.” The word parricide is contrary to its original import, applied to the murderer of any near relative. — Ed.
(243) By leaving the family of Abraham, in which alone the true service of God was maintained. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 4:9-16
THE BITTER CURSE WHICH SIN BRINGS UPON AN INDIVIDUAL LIFE
We have been thoroughly educated in the nature and effects of sin by the sacred narrative, not by philosophical instruction, but by the interesting events and transactions of daily life. We saw in the garden that sin consisted in a wandering thought from the word of God, and also in disobedience to the divine command; now we behold it in full development, as a dire passion, and as a social wrong. Sin is a progress in the history of peoples. In different men it manifests itself in different forms. One man sins by disobedience; another man by murder. When once it makes an entrance into a family none can tell how it will affect them, or predict where it will end. But these narratives in Genesis solemnly and emphatically teach that sin makes men wretched, that it is a loss rather than a gain, that it is a delusion, and that it is followed by a life-long curse. Surely such a revelation concerning sin ought to deter men from it. But the curse it will bring in the next life it is impossible for human pen to write. Look at the curse it involves in this life.
I. That it renders a man subject to the solemn and convincing enquiries of God. And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? All men are liable to the solemn interrogations of God, even when their lives are pure and good, but especially when they have involved themselves in guilt. Thus Adam was questioned after his disobedience. The good welcome these divine questionings as moments of glad communion with the Infinite; the guilty tremble before them as the herald of yet more terrible doom. The questions of God touch the inner vitalities of our moral life and conduct. None can evade them, though many try. They demand an immediate reply. In the case of Cain:
1. This enquiry was solemn. God did not ask Cain about his tillage of the ground, or about the fruits of his manual toil. He does not ordinarily question men on such topics. These are the subject of human interrogations rather than divine. God questions men about their moral feelings, about their conduct. He is cognizant of every sin we commit, and may at any time inquire of us its meaning and intention. It is well for the moral safety of society that wicked men are arraigned before authoritative tribunals, or human passion would depopulate the world. It is certainly a most solemn experience for a human soul to be interrogated by God about its sins.
2. This enquiry was convincing. It implies that although the question was asked, that God knew all about the murder which the passionate brother had committed. God does not interrogate human souls to obtain information respecting their sins, as though he were ignorant of them. His inquiries are intended to produce deep conviction of mind, to awaken men to a proper sense of guilty shame, and sometimes to lead them to Himself, that they may be forgiven. A question from God, like the look from Christ, has broken many souls into refreshing tears. It is well for a man to confess his sins to Heaven. This is the best way to get rid of them.
3. This enquiry was retributive. It was not merely intended to awaken Cain to a consciousness of his late deed, but also to vindicate the memory of Abel. God does not allow his saints to be slaughtered at the caprice and passion of man, without a retributive interview with the murderer. When nations have slain the good, then it is that God has held terrible controversy with them. It is not always the law of heaven to prevent or turn aside the stroke of anger, but it is always the law of heaven to avenge it. It is foolish as well as criminal of the world to slay its best worshippers; to put out its brightest lights. Cain deeply felt the retribution of this inquiry.
4. This enquiry was unexpected. Cain felt the passion of envy. He slew his brother. He probably expected that that would be the end of it, or, it may be that he did not calculate as to the consequence of his deed. However, no sooner was the wicked murder perpetrated, than God appeared to avenge it. The dream of sin is soon dispelled by the dawning light of the Divine presence. Sinners are always exposed to the intrusions of heaven. They cannot hide themselves from God. They must listen to His voice. They feel a condemnation they cannot remove.
II. That it sends a man on through life with the most terrible memories of wrong doing within his soul.
1. Cain would never forget the hour in which he slew his brother. The circumstances of the deed would ever remain new and vivid in his remembrance. The whole picture would live within him. He would be the constant spectator of it. None could blot it out, none could hide it, and none could give him relief from its awful torment. Such mental pictures are the anguish of a wicked life. What more terrible curse could come upon a man than this. Then this deed would be aggravated to himself by the thought that he had slain his brother. No long standing enemy had fallen victim to his rage, no foreigner, but the son of his own mother. Surely this was an aggravation of his crime. It would also be aggravated to himself by the thought that his envy toward his brother, had been occasioned by the superiority of his brothers service to God. The purity of his brothers character and the fidelity of his offering would rise to the vision of his remorseful soul. He would feel that he had slain the innocent. But the deed was done. He could not alter it. It must remain the dread companion of his life. This is one of the greatest sources of punishment to the sinner.
(1). It is rendered so by the memory of man. There is no forgetfulness to man. Though the days pass, he carries their moral history in his soul for ever.
(2). It is rendered so by the conscience of man. The mere remembrance of a deed would be but little torment to a man, if his conscience did not refer him to its moral wrong. Conscience always points the murderer to his innocent victim.
(3). It is rendered so by the will of God. God has so ordered the faculties of man that they shall inflict punishment upon the wrong-doer. Truly then Cain is introducing an element of sadness into his life by this crime, the poignancy of which he is little aware. By one sinful act men may make themselves wretched for ever.
III. That it often ruins the temporal prosperity of a man.And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand; when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. Thus the temporal prospects of the murderer were to be ruined. Sin often destroys the trades and professions of men:
1. It destroys their reputation. In business, reputation is worth as much to a man as capital. If he is once detected in wrong doing or dishonesty of any kind, his trade will decline. Goodness is an enriching policy.
2. It wastes their earnings: There are multitudes of men who would be rich if they were only morally good and steady. What they earn by industry, they spend in revelling at night. They are drunken. They are improvident. They are reckless. Trade cannot long survive this.
3. It enfeebles their agencies. The ground was not to yield Cain its wonted produce. By sin men weaken their bodies, their minds, their souls, and all their instrumentalities of trade. Thus their temporal prospects are ruined thereby.
IV. That it commits a man to a wandering and a restless life.A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
1. Sin makes men restless. It awakens within them restless impulses, ever changing moods, and strange fancies. They are as the great billows sweeping on from one rock to another in their ceaseless flow. Piety alone can render manhood stable and strong. But of this the wicked are destitute. Hence they are unpeaceful. Sin makes men restless:
(1). Because they have in a very brief term to seek new employments. Wicked men cannot remain long in the employment of one master, they are soon detected. Their past character follows them.
(2). Because they have soon to find new friends. The friendships of wicked men are not enduring. They are transient. They soon terminate in feud. And residence is very much determined by friendship, and the social feeling that is known to prevail amongst a people.
(3). Because he has to avoid old rumours. Whenever the fugitive is conscious that the story of his past life and conduct has followed him, another change of locality becomes necessary. Hence wicked men are the worlds fugitives.
V. That it crushes man with a heavy burden and almost renders him despairing.And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. The sinner is deeply conscious of his punishment, knows that it is equitable, and has no power whatever to resist it. Sin is a burden oppressive to the soul. It marks men so that the world knows and avoids them. It sends them into solitude. It fills them with despair. Their misery few can pity. The murderer should dwell alone. LESSONS:
1. That sin is the greatest curse of human life.
2. That God is the avenger of the good.
3. That the sinner is the greatest sufferer in the end.
4. That good men go from their worship into heaven.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THE TWO BROTHERS; OR, EARTHLY RELATIONSHIP THE MEDIUM OF SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE
Am I my brothers keeper?Gen. 4:9.
And he brought him to Jesus.Joh. 1:42.
Gen. 4:9. Of the first two brothers who lived on this earth, the one hated and slew the other; and when arraigned before God and his own conscience, denied the obligation of fraternal care. Of the first two brothers mentioned in the New Testament, the one, having found the Messiah, hastened to fetch the other. These brothers are representative men. Cain is the embodiment of the spirit of hatredselfishnessthe world. Andrew of the spirit of loveself-sacrificing zealof Christ.
I. That earthly relationships involve the duty of spiritual care. Relation, taken in its widest sense, if not the ground of all moral obligation, is certainly intimately connected therewith. No man can be a parent, a son, or a master, without being specially bound to care for his own. Men have to provide for their households in earthly things, and ought to in spiritual. In proportion to the closeness of the relationship is the force of the obligation.
II. That earthly relationships afford peculiar opportunities for the discharge of this duty. God has constituted the varied relationships of life for purpose of promoting the moral good of man. Opportunity and power should be voluntarily used. Families have little thought of the opportunity they have of bringing each other to Jesus.
III. That according as the Spirit of Christ or of selfishness is possessed, will this duty be fulfilled or neglected. Sin, whose essence is selfishness, is a severing principle. But Christs Spirit is a spirit of love. We must come to Christ ourselves to get the incentive to this duty.
IV. That concerning the performance of this duty an account will be required. And the Lord said unto Cain, &c. Vain will be excuse. God will speak. So will conscience.
V. That earthly relationships, according to the manner in which they are used, become an eternal blessing or bane.(Homilist.)
Hypocritical persecutors think to bury the saints and all their persecutions out of sight.
Jehovah will have an account of His saints, though He leave them to be killed by such cruel ones.
Hypocrisy and infidelity make men as impudent in denying sin as bold in committing it.
Hypocrisy makes sinners deal proudly with God.
Gen. 4:10. When Cain thought that he had won, that he was now alone the beloved child, that Abel was wholly forgotten, then did the latter still live, stronger and mightier than before. Then does the Majesty on High assume His cause; He cannot bear it. He cannot keep silence when His own are oppressed. And though they are crushed for a little while, they only rise to a more glorious and stronger state; for they still live [Cramer].
It is not for slaughtered sheep and cattle slain that God asks; it is for a slain man that He inquires. It follows that men have the hope of a resurrection, the hope in a God who out of the bodily dearth can bear them up to everlasting life, and who asks after their blood as a very dear and precious thing. (Psa. 116:15). What can be that still small voice which comes up from the earth, and which God hears high up in heaven? Abel had, hitherto, whilst yet in life, endured violence with gentleness and silence; how is it that now when he is dead, and rudely buried in the earth, he is impatient at the wrong? How is it that he who before spake not one word against his brother, now cries out so complainingly, and, by his cry, moves God to action? Oppression and silence are no hindrance to God in judging the cause which the world so mistakenly fancies to be buried [Luther].
When man is in covenant with God nothing can overcome him; he has Omnipotence on his side. Jehovah is the God of His dead saints.
Gen. 4:11-12. God followeth sin close to the heel with vengeance.
The person of the sinner must bear the punishment of his sin.
The earth will not be quiet till murderers receive their doom.
The place of sin God sometimes makes the place of vengeance.
Adam had already become a stranger in the earth; Cain is now a fugitive [Calvin.]
Gen. 4:13-16. Gods sentence upon sinners makes them sensible, however senseless before.
Terrors come invincibly upon hypocritical persecutors of the Church.
Mans habitation can give him no shelter when it is cursed by God.
Jehovah is the Sovereign Dispenser of the life and death of His enemies; it hangs upon His word.
Jehovah may exempt persecutors from the stroke of man, but not from His own wrath.
Mysterious is the providence of God in continuing and taking away the lives of His saints and enemies. That Abel should die and Cain live, and yet Cain be cursed of God and Abel blessed.
Gods threatenings of wrath end in execution of the same.
Banishment from Gods favour, temporal and eternal, is the doom of impenitent persecutors.
In all this it is evidently implied that the law according to which the murderer is to be slain by his fellows, is the original law of conscience and of nature. Cain, when his conscience is in part awakened by the dreadful denunciation of Divine wrath (Gen. 4:11), has enough of feeling to convince him that his fellow-men will consider themselves entitled if not bound to slay him. And he does nothe dares not quarrel with the justice of such a proceeding. God, on the other hand, clearly intimates that but for an express prohibition, the murderers fear would infallibly and justly have been realized [Dr. Candlish].
When God is against a man the whole world is against him.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(9) And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?It is the beauty of these early narratives that the dealings of the Deity with mankind are all clothed in an anthropomorphic form, for the reasons of which see Note on Gen. 2:7. It seems, then, that Cain at first went away, scarcely conscious of the greatness of his crime. He had asserted his rights, had suppressed the usurpation of his privileges by the younger son, and if he had used force it was his brothers fault for resisting him. So Jacob afterwards won the birthright by subtilty, and would have paid the same fearful penalty but for timely flight, and rich presents afterwards. But Cain could not quiet his conscience; remorse tracked his footsteps; and when in the household Abel came not, and the question was asked, Where is Abel? the voice of God repeated it in his own heart, Where is Abel, thy brother!brother still, and offspring of the same womb, even if too prosperous. But the strong-willed man resists. What has he to do with Abel? Is he his brothers keeper?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Where is Abel God’s judgment with Cain, as with Adam, begins with the searching WHERE? Comp . Gen 3:9.
I know not It is easy for a murderer to lie.
I my brother’s keeper Am I his shepherd, to watch over him? A word of daring impudence and defiance; a sort of retort on the Lord’s care of Abel. “How is it that thou, who hadst delight in him, and didst show him such favouritism, hast not watched over him!”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s shepherd (guardian).” ’
The question parallels the ‘where are you?’ of Gen 3:9. Again God is giving the man an opportunity to express his repentance. Cain’s reply demonstrates how far he has fallen. Unlike Adam and Eve he does not run to hide. He tries to brazen it out. ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s guardian?’ There is little remorse and something surly and unfeeling in what he says and the way he says it. The answer to his own question should, of course, be ‘yes’, as all the readers would immediately accept. But his use of the term ‘guardian’ demonstrates his sense of guilt. Why should he think that his brother needs a guardian?
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God’s Judgment upon Cain
v. 9. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? v. 10. And He said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. v. 11. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. v. 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. v. 13. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. v. 14. Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me. v. 15. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Gen 4:9. I know not: am I my brother’s keeper? There is no wonder, that he, who from such vile motives could murder his brother, because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous, 1Jn 3:12 should, with an impudent sullenness, give the lie to his Maker. See the dreadful effects of the fall immediately indicating themselves, to display which, was probably one great reason of recording this history. Again, Abel, as Calmet observes, unjustly murdered by his eldest brother, admirably denotes the violent death of the Lord Jesus Christ by the hands of the Jews. St. Paul says, that the blood of Jesus speaketh better things than that of Abel, Heb 12:24.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: [Am] I my brother’s keeper?
Ver. 9. I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?] As if he had bid God, Go look. Let us not think much to receive dogged answers and disdainful speeches from profane persons. When they have learned to think better, they will speak better. As till then, pity and pray for them. These churlish dogs will be barking.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 4:9-15
9Then the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? 10He said, What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. 11Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. 13Cain said to the LORD, My punishment is too great to bear! 14Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. 15So the LORD said to him, Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
Gen 4:9 Am I my brother’s keeper? The great problem with Cain was his unrepentant heart. The term keeper can mean shepherd (BDB 1036, KB 1581, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE), which may be a play on the occupation of Abel (cf. Gen 4:2).
Gen 4:10 The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground This phrase is very significant (crying BDB 858, KB 1042, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE). For the Hebrews, the life force was in the blood (cf. Lev 17:11; Rev 6:9-10). The word blood is PLURAL in Hebrew. Rashi says that the PLURAL refers to Abel and his potential seed. The PLURAL also shows intensity.
Gen 4:11 Now you are cursed from the ground This is the first direct curse on man. With Adam’s sin the ground was cursed. It is significant that Cain, being a farmer, can no longer use this as his occupation. He is banished into the desert which is the abode of demons and with it, the absence of agriculture activity.
Gen 4:12 it will no longer yield its strength to you This is a Hiphil JUSSIVE form (BDB 414, KB 418). Many commentators have asserted that this is why Cain’s line developed urban life as over against rural life (cf. Gen 4:16-24).
you will be a vagrant and a wanderer These two similar sounding terms (BDB 631, KB 681 and BDB 626, KB 678, cf. Gen 4:14) describe Cain’s nomadic life. They are word plays on the land of Nod (BDB 627 II). These word plays show the literary shaping of these early chapters.
Gen 4:13 My punishment is too great to bear! Cain is not sorry for his act but he is sorry for its consequences.
Gen 4:14 driven me this day from the face of the ground This is the occupational result of Cain’s sin while the next phrase from Thy face I will be hidden is the spiritual result (cf. Gen 3:8) of Cain’s sin.
whoever finds me will kill me Cain feared for his own life. The rabbis say that he was afraid of the animals. However, the context seems to imply that his own relatives, who would be go’els (blood avenger) for Abel, would kill him. This would imply that Adam and Eve had many unnamed children.
There is a very interesting discussion of Adam and Eve’s relationship to other pre-historic humanoids in Kidner’s The Tyndale Commentary on Genesis and Bernard Ramm’s discussion of anthropology in The Christian’s View of Science and Scripture. This verse implies many other rational creatures. For a discussion of humanoids and their dates of occupation of the ancient Near East see R. K. Harrison’s Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 147-163 and Who was Adam? by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross.
If Cain married a non-homosapien without God’s Spirit, then Gen 6:1-4 would be a mixing of God’s special human creation with bipedal animals instead of humans with angels.
Gen 4:15 vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold The term sevenfold seems to mean complete vengeance (BDB 988). Apparently God left Cain alive as an even more poignant sign of sin. The rabbis say that God will take vengeance on him in seven generations which would be Lamech. There is a rabbinical legend that Gen 4:23 refers to Lamech and his son, Tubal-Cain, killing Cain by accident.
appointed a sign for Cain This was either a sign (BDB 16, a mark) of (1) God’s mercy amidst judgment or (2) God’s sustaining His judgment through time. The rabbis say that God put an animal horn in the midst of Cain’s head. However, it seems more probable that it was a mark on the forehead (cf. Eze 9:4; Eze 9:6).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Cains Career
Gen 4:9-26
Gods first question to the soul is, Adam, where art thou? The next, Where is thy brother? We are our brothers keepers. All related to us, within our reach, or needing our help have a claim. We must not take advantage of them. Their well-being and our own are inseparable. God keeps an inventory of His saints, and will avenge them. Their blood will cry to God against those who have wronged them. There is only one cry in the world which is stronger-the blood of Jesus. See Heb 12:24. It cries for mercy and pardon. A numerous family sprang from our first parents, and as these intermarried a large population began to people the early seat of human life. Cain founded a city, dedicated to all that ministered to sensuous enjoyment. This was the way of Cain, brilliant but godless, away from the presence of the Lord.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Am I my Brothers Keeper?
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brothers keeper?Gen 4:9.
Matthew Arnold was never tired of reminding us that while we go back to the ancient Greeks for lessons in art and beauty and culture, we must go to the Hebrews for instruction in religion and conduct. Every one now agrees that he was right. We feel that the Hebrew people had a genius for religion. We can trace it all through their literature. Whatever be the subject-matterwhether it be poetry, history, philosophy, legend or imaginative prosewhen touched by the Hebrew genius it is charged with a passion for righteousness, and becomes a vehicle for lessons concerning ethics and religion which are the permanent heritage of the race. Gradually as the people developed and became self-conscious, the best of them felt that this national genius was not theirs by accident, but that they had as it were a mission for the worldto teach men to know God. And they looked forward to the day when the earth should be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. The topic before us is instinct with such religious instruction.
Take a glance at the picture. Abel lay on the green grass, and earths innocent flowers shuddered under the dew of blood. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he saidfor the first murderer is also the first liarI know not; and he insolently addedfor the first murderer is also the first egotistAm I my brothers keeper? But the Lord sweeps aside the daring falsehood, the callous question. And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now thou art cursed. And Cain fled to the land of his exile, with the brand of heavens wrath on his soul, and on his brow.
The lesson which the Old Testament narrative teaches is, obviously, the sin of social irresponsibility. We may conveniently approach the subject from the positive aspectResponsibility, and the duties which it involvesand deal with it in three parts:
I.The Responsibility of every Man for his Brother.
II.The Special Responsibility of the Christian.
III.The Responsibility of the Church.
I
The Responsibility of Man for Man
i. Gods Question
The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
1. This is not Gods first question, for He had already addressed to Adamas to the representative of the human racethat personal inquiry which the Holy Spirit still brings home to every heart convicted of sin, to every man when he first realizes that he is naked before God and longs to hide himself from Him: Where art thou? No! this is Gods second question, Where is thy brother? And just as the first question was addressed to man upon his first conviction of sin, so this second question is addressed to man after his first struggle with his fellow-man. It is asked of the victor concerning the vanquished in the cruel competition of life, Where is thy brother?
2. We are all concerned in this question. Let us take it as addressed to ourselves individually.
(1) First of all, we may consider the question so far as it relates to all those who are near and dear to us; all those whose names and faces are familiar to us; all those who are connected with us by the bonds of kindred or affection; parents, wife, husband, children, all that inner circle of friends and relations, all whom we acknowledge to have been, in some sense or other, committed by God to our safe keeping and care.
The family is our ideal of all love and service. Almost all our thoughts of affection and union begin and associate themselves with the family. The home,the hearth,the family altar,the nursery,the early childhood,the far-off memories,the sisters tenderness,the brothers care,the mother,the father: are any words so eloquent to the heart of man? The family is the cradle of love.
The theme of Christina Rossettis Goblin Market is a sisters devotion, and if we want a picture of love in the home it would be difficult to find a more simple or more beautiful one than that of the closing lines of this poem
Days, weeks, months, years
Afterwards, when both were wives
With children of their own;
Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
Their lives bound up in tender lives;
Laura would call the little ones
And tell them of her early prime,
Those pleasant days long gone.
Then joining hands to little hands
Would bid them cling together,
For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.
(2) Responsibility, however, reaches further out than this. Responsibility rests upon us, in some way or other, with regard to every one with whom we are brought into contact: the friends and acquaintances of our life; all those with whom we have business relations; the various members of that circle of society in which we move; our more casual acquaintances; the fellow-travellers we meet on our journeysthere is a responsibility resting upon us with regard to them all. Where is thy brother? Where is he, morally and spiritually, so far as the influence, however slight it may have been, which I have exercised over him goes? To have laughed at the evil or profane joke; to have spoken the thoughtless, the foolish, or the angry word; to have exhibited irritability or impatienceto say nothing of far more grievous stumbling-blocks than thesemust have had some influence over others. Who is there that has not, at some time or other, said and done something the effect of which was evil on some one else?something which tended to deface in the soul of another the image of God; something which tended to lead that soul into temptation, if not into sin. What marvellous opportunities have been afforded us in life of helping others to resist temptation, and to stand firm! How have these opportunities been used? Have we used them at all? Where is thy brother? The question is a very searching one.
To an Englishman it seems a matter of little or no consequence who his neighbours are, and if he be a resident of a city he may occupy a dwelling for a year in ignorance even of the name of the family next door. But in China it is otherwise. If a crime takes place the neighbours are held guilty of something analogous to what English law calls misprision of treason, in that when they knew of a criminal intention they did not report it. It is vain to reply, I did not know. You are a neighbour, and therefore you must have known. In a memorial published in the Peking Gazette a few years ago, the Governor of one of the central provinces reported in regard to a case of parricide that he had had the houses of all the neighbours pulled down, on the ground of their gross dereliction of duty in not exerting a good moral and reformatory influence over the criminal! Such a proceeding would probably strike an average Chinese as eminently reasonable.1 [Note: A. H. Smith, Chinese Characteristics, 228.]
I thought in my own secret soul, if thus
(By the strong sympathy that knits mankind)
A power untried exists in each of us,
By which a fellow-creatures wavering mind
To good or evil deeds may be inclined;
Shall not an awful questioning be made:
(And we perchance no fitting answer find:)
Whom hast thou sought to rescue or persuade?
Whom roused from sinful sloth? whom comforted, afraid?2 [Note: Mrs. Norton.]
ii. Cains Answer
I know not: am I my brothers keeper?
1. The first part of Cains answer, I know not, was a lie, as most selfish answers are, and behind the lie was the sin of irresponsibility. And do we not continually betake ourselves to these refuges of lies in the bitter hour of remorse, in the dreary consciousness of self-degrading fault? I am not responsible; this tendency to evil, intemperance, gambling, impurity, is the burden of heredity. I might as well blame myself for the shape of my head or the colour of my eyes as for the inevitable dispositions which determine my conduct. I am not responsible. And all the while we are proving the falseness of the excuse we urge. Why the need to urge an excuse if, indeed, we are not responsible? Did we ever find ourselves compelled to seek such excuse for the shape of our head or the colour of our eyes? Whence, then, this necessity here, where morality is in question, when our own behaviour is at stake? The parallel, in truth, is demonstrated to be a false one by the very process of its assertion. This plea of necessity is but a refuge of lies to which the guilty fly; for conscience does make cowards of us all.
2. The second part of Cains answer, Am I my brothers keeper? was an insult. To what a shameful pitch of presumptuous insolence had Cain arrived when he could thus insult the Lord God. A man may blaspheme and blaspheme frightfully, but it is usually because he forgets God, and ignores His presence. Cain, however, was conscious that God was speaking to him. He heard Him say, Where is Abel thy brother? and yet he dared, with the coolest impertinence, to reply to God, I know not: am I my brothers keeper? As much as to sayDo you think that I have to keep him as he keeps his sheep? Am I a shepherd as he was, and am I to take as much care of him as he did of a lame lamb? The cool insolence of Cain is an indication of the state of heart which led up to his murdering his brother; and it was also a part of the result of his having committed that terrible crime. He would not have proceeded to the cruel deed of bloodshed if he had not first cast off the fear of God and been ready to defy his Maker. Having committed murder, the hardening influence of sin upon Cains mind must have been intense, and so at last he was able to speak out to Gods face what he felt within his heart, and to say, Am I my brothers keeper?
3. Thus, first with a lie, and then with an insult, Cain replies to Gods question. But the question is not a negative one, and it cannot be answered negatively. Men often urge the innocence of their conduct: they say, they are sure that they have never done any one any harm. The excuse is a salve to the conscience of careless people, who are using their lives here for mere pleasure and frivolity. Almost all such persons will tell you that they are doing no harm; and this is not to be wondered at, because every one who does what is foolish and shortsighted must have some way of justifying himself, otherwise he would hardly act in a foolish and shortsighted way; and this plea that he is doing no one any harm is the simplest and most plausible that can be set up. But is it likely to be true that a maneven the best of menhas never hurt his neighbour by word or deed? Many men think so, and there is much to strengthen them in their belief; it is the commonest thing in the world to hear the most loose and ungodly lives excused upon this plea, that such an one was after all a good kind of man and never did any one any harm. Look closely at this notion of doing no one any harm and see what it is worth. How far will it bear examination? Is it not really a repetition of the old excuse of Cain, Am I my brothers keeper? If we spend all our time taking the weeds out of our garden, we shall certainly not gather any flowers; so, if we never get beyond the principle of doing no harm to our neighbour, it is just as certain that we shall do him no good. The question is a positive one, and in some way or othereach mans conscience knows best howGod expects from each one of us the positive answer, I am my brothers keeper.
The chief assertion of religious morality is that white is a colour. Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel or sparing people revenge or punishment: it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not seen.1 [Note: G. K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles.]
Cain lives to-day, and the blood of Abel still cries to God. And there is the Cain spirit in every man who does not accept his responsibility for his brother; living it out honestly and earnestly in everything through the whole seven days of the week. There are dead men and women and children crying with an awful cry. How these cries go up to God. Men who go far up in balloons tell us that they reach a height where the silence is intense, deep, oppressivea thing that can be felt. The roll of the city is all unheard, the roar of the sea, the hubbub of our busy lifeall is silenced. But startling in its suddenness comes sometimes the shrill cry of a child. Ah! the things that God does not hear: the things that do not go up to heaventhe empty prayers; the pretences and pride of us men and women and ten thousand other things. But the thousands of girlsalmost every one of them having to tell a bitter story of betrayal, an anguish of shame, a hell of despairtheir cry goes up to Heaven! The cry of the downtrodden, the wronged and injured, the overworked and underpaid. Listen to the words of St. JamesGo to now, ye rich men, weep, howl. Your gold is cankered, your garments are moth-eaten. Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields is kept back, and the cries of them have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
Outside the Bible no one has interpreted this great principle more splendidly than Victor Hugo in his wonderful portrait of Jean Valjean. For nineteen years the State held Jean Valjean between its palms as a boy holds a butterfly, and when the palms were parted there had been no change of character. For nineteen years the State held him a criminal in the galleys as a boy holds the humble-bee in the sweet cup of the hollyhock. And when the penitentiary doors opened and the State parted its fingers, and the criminal buzzed out into society again, the sting was as sharp and the poison as virulent as ever. The reason was that character cannot be changed by outside pressure alone. Jean Valjean went out into the world with his heart full of hate and bitterness, and in that spirit he came to the door of a friend of Jesus Christ. The good bishop, Hugo tells us, had a great heart. He was not a great thinker. He felt that the world was suffering from a cruel disease. He felt the fever, he heard the sobbing, of the patient. He did not spend his time trying to find out how sin came, nor why; but he tried to help a little. So he opened the door to this wicked man and welcomed him. While the bishop slept the criminal in the man awoke, and he stole the silver from the bishops house and escaped. The next morning he was brought back again by the police, and the bishop saved him and sent the police away. And when they were gone he looked into the poor, astonished mans face, and said, Jean Valjean, my brother! I have bought your soul from you. I have drawn it from black thoughts that lead to perdition. I have given it to goodness. And the man, redeemed by the words, My brother, by the quick tear of sympathy, by the Christ in the heart-throb of this large-hearted man, went out to lead a new life. And Jean Valjean became Father Madeleine.1 [Note: L. A. Banks.]
I closed my hands upon a moth,
And when I drew my palms apart,
Instead of dusty, broken wings,
I found a bleeding human heart.
I crushed my foot upon a worm
That had my garden for its goal,
But when I drew my foot aside,
I found a dying human soul.2 [Note: Dora Sigerson Shorter.]
4. For every man therefore the question is, What is the best thing that I can do? Whether in the city or in the country, I, in my little sphere, with my limited ability, have my life to live, and how am I to answer Gods question? Well, if we live in the city; let us not lose ourselves in the thought of its vastness. The great world of London is so apt to swallow one up, to paralyze one with a sense of helplessness. We listen to its statistics, and they appal us if we take them in, which most of us do not. Thank God for the men who have problems and theories for its salvation, but they are and must be subjects of controversy. The one thoroughly good thing we can do is to know the Lord Jesus Christ, to call Him Lord, and then, looking into His face, to say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?
If every one who professes to care about the poor would make himself the friend of one poor person, there would soon be no insoluble problem of the masses, and London would be within measurable distance of becoming a city of happy homes.3 [Note: Canon Barnett.]
It is not much
To give a gentle word or kindly touch
To one gone down
Beneath the worlds cold frown.
And yetwho knows
How great a thing from such a little grows?
O, oftentimes,
Some brother upward climbs,
And hope again
Uplifts its head, that in the dust had lain,
And sorrows night
Gives place to mornings light.
Because of hands
Outstretched to helpa heart that understands,
And, pitying,
Counts it a Christlike thing
Not to despise
The fallen one who at the wayside lies
But, for His sake,
A brothers part to take.1 [Note: E. H. Divall, A Believers Rest, 67.]
II
The Special Responsibility of the Christian
1. The question, Where is thy brother? comes to those who follow Christ, not only as it comes to other men, but also with another meaning, a meaning which enables us to give a very blessed answer to it. Abel was a type of Christ. Abels sacrifice is the first recorded type of the sacrifice on Calvary. He who died on the cross is our Brother. As we hear the voice of God calling to us, Where is thy brother? we answer, Here is our Brother, crucified for sin, buried, risen, ascended, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ever interceding for us. It is a new demand, a new question.
O sweetest Blood, that can implore
Pardon of God, and heaven restore,
The heaven which sin had lost:
While Abels blood for vengeance pleads,
What Jesus shed still intercedes
For those who wrong Him most.
2. And not only is Jesus the Brother about whom the question is asked of each of us, Where is thy brother? but in Him we all are brethren. Again, the question comes with a new meaning. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. Accordingly the perfect life does not consist in the cultivation of an isolated personal perfection. Christ lived in God; He was detached from the world, He spent whole nights in prayer; but the account of Him is incomplete until we add, He went about doing good. He came to seek and to save the lost. As I have loved you, He said. In these solitary hours which He spent in communion with the Father He renewed the fires of His love for men, maintained and augmented His strength for serving them. While deepening His own delight in the Fathers love, He added intensity to His passion for raising the most miserable of mankind into the same transcendent blessedness. And so the true imitation of Christ includes not only the discovery of the immeasurable strength which a devout soul may find in God, but the actual use of that strength for the service of mankind.
There is a passage which I dare say some of you may remember in one of Cardinal Newmans sermons, preached and published before he left the Anglican Communion, in which he presses upon his hearers with all his characteristic earnestness the obligation to attempt the ideal Christian life. He asks, Where should we find that ideal Christian life? and he answers: In the humble monk and the holy nun, in those who, whether they remain in seclusion or are sent over the earth, have calm faces and sweet plaintive voices, and spare frames, and gentle manners and hearts won from the world and wills subdued, and for their meekness meet with insult, and for their purity with slander, and for their courtesy with suspicion, and for their courage with cruelty; yet they find Christ everywhere, Christ their all-sufficient portion, to make up to them both here and hereafter all they suffer, all they dare for His names sake. Now, God forbid that I should withhold sympathy and reverence from saintly men and women who in evil times have forsaken the world in order to find God. No doubt among those who have taken the vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience there have been many who took them not merely to make sure of eternal blessedness for themselves, but that they might be free to serve others. Honour, all honour, to their memory! But in Dr. Newmans account of the men and women who have maintained the Christian tradition from Apostolic times to our own, the passion for serving and redeeming man receives no place. By prayer and fasting, and poverty and severe discipline, they have overcome temptation to sin, and become saints. There is something wanting in the picture. A few years ago I met with a young woman earning eleven or twelve shillings a week in a Birmingham warehouse, who had been filled with affectionate pity for another young woman, a member of my church, who had worked with her and who, through illness, had lost her situation and her wages. She took the sick girl to her own poor lodging, fed her, nursed her, cared for her. I am afraid my friend had not the gentle manners and the sweet plaintive voice of Dr. Newmans charming picture. But that seems to me the true imitation of Christ.1 [Note: R. W. Dale.]
I remember, too, another young woman who came to me in great trouble, and told me that her father was drunk two or three times a week, that he insisted on having a large part of her earnings to spend it in drink, and that when he came home at night with drink in him he often beat her; life was becoming intolerable to her. She wanted to know whether it would be right for her to leave him. Her mother was dead; her father, if she left him, would be alone; was it her duty to stay? I told her that in my judgment his treatment of her had released her from the obligation, but I asked her whether it would be possible for her to be happy at night if she went elsewhere, whether she would not be always thinking that in his drunken fits her father might come to harm, and whether she could not regard the care of this unhappy man, with all the suffering and misery it brought upon her, as the special service to which Christ had appointed her. She looked up, hesitated for a moment, and then said, I will. I do not think she would have made a good model for an artist painting a saint. She did not live in a picturesque convent, but in a back court in Birmingham. Her dress was not picturesque, but the somewhat unlovely dress of a poor working girl. Yet that seems to me to be the true imitation of Christ. Let me finish the story. She came to me three months later, and told me, with the light of joy on her face, that her father had never come home drunk since that night she had resolved to care for him for Christs sake.2 [Note: Ibid.]
How many souls of strongest powers
To selfish solitude consigned,
Have whiled in idleness their hours,
Nor nobly sought to serve mankind!
But not to such the Muse may give
Her sacred wreath, the Patriots pride!
Since for themselves content to live,
So for themselves alone they died.
Happy the man who for his God
Has left the world and all its ways,
To tread the path the saints have trod,
And spend his life in prayer and praise!
Unhappy, who himself to please
Forsakes the path where duty lies,
Either in love of selfish ease,
Or in contempt of human ties.
In vain have they the world resigned
Who only seek an earthly rest;
Nor to the soul that spurns mankind
Can ever solitude be blest.1 [Note: E. Caswall.]
3. There is yet another encouragement to the follower of Christ to consider his brother, and it is a most wonderful and gracious one. Whatever service he renders to a brother he renders to Christ Himself.
I bend to help a little straying child
And soothe away its fears,
When lo! the Wondrous Babe, all undefiled,
Looks at me through its tears.
Beside a cot I kneel with pitying eyes,
A dying brow I fan
The pallet seems a cross and on it lies
One like the Son of Man!
The way is long, and when I pause to share
My cup, my crust of bread,
With some poor wandereroh, vision rare!
A halo crowns his head.
Oer sins dark stream there comes a drowning cry,
Its woeful tide I stem
And grasp for one who sinksthe Christ is there,
I touch His garments hem.
O Presence, ever new and ever dear,
My Master, can it be
In Thy great day of coming I shall hear,
Thou didst it unto Me?
III
The Churchs Responsibility
i. The Corporate Life of the Church
1. The instinct of social work, the idea of self-sacrifice for the many, of united effort for the common cause which is the good of all, is perfectly satisfied by the conception of the Holy Catholic Church. It is true that to many the Church has come to mean simply an institution for the spiritual advantage chiefly of the wealthier classes; but that, surely, is a grotesque parody of the Church, which in its fulness and glory means nothing else than a spiritual society founded by our Lord Himself, to be His Kingdom on earth. The Church is a great Mutual Benefit Society, the greatest which has ever existed among men, and the salvation which the Church offers is no selfish or solitary thing. And if we realize what is involved in being members of the Holy Catholic Church, we cannot rest until we are doing something, however little it may be, towards making this mutual helpfulness a more real thing than it was before. The Bible comes to us with lessons tending in this direction on every page. We are members one of another; Let him that loveth God, love his brother also; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; Bear ye one anothers burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. St. John is the strongest and clearest of all the inspired writers on this great lesson of mutual love and social service. He makes it a test: By this we know that we have passed out of death into life. Why? How? Not because we have accepted the Christian Creed, not by participation in the Sacraments, but because we love the brethren.
She sits in beauty by the worlds Sin-Gate,
Where pass the hopes that come not back again,
Lorn hearts and lonely, souls of love and hate,
Sad women, weary children, broken men;
And evermore her Masters royal love
Goes down among the dark and hopeless bands,
Bids drooping souls rejoice, and look above,
And trust, unfearing, to His wounded hands.1 [Note: L. Maclean Watt, In Poets Corner, 66.]
2. But our practice falls painfully short of what it ought to be and might be. Some of us have shaken off the fetters of Individualism. We have accepted, with our lips at least, this much more glorious creed of mutual service and co-operation; but how little there is really of social life even in the best organized Church! Very few of us consider that the fact of being fellow-communicants creates any real demand on our sympathy or help. Most of us worship year after year in a church, seeing the same faces round us, kneeling next to us at the altar, and yet go out into the world and treat them as strangers.
Again and again complaint has reached me from young men who have come up to London to seek their fortune; they have left home and friends and all companionship behind them, and have come up to hard toil in this grasping, grinding city. They are cut off from all the enjoyments and amenities of a young mans natural life; and the Church is just the place where they might find what they need. The Church might supply a young man with these natural enjoyments, all the more delightful because they would be pure and good. But does the Church? That is the point. Again and again it has been said to me, I have found such and such a church; I like the preaching and the ritual; I make my Communions there; but I dont know anybody. Nobody has taken me up. Nobody has shown me any help; nobody has said anything to me; nobody is interested in me. Well, there is a way in which every one of us could do something to realize the social ideal of the Catholic Church. We could stretch out the right hand of fellowship to our brother-worshippers, and do something to break down a little of our national English stiffness and shyness, and enable people to realizewhat, as a matter of fact, they do feel in their heartsthe bond which unites all those who meet together in the mystical Body of Christ. Very different would be the aspect of the world if we all did that.1 [Note: G. W. E. Russell.]
I sat a little while ago in one of the chambers of the National Gallery, and my attention was caught by the vast miscellaneous crowd as it sauntered or galloped through the rooms. All sorts and conditions of people passed byrich and poor, the well-dressed and the beggarly, students and artisans, soldiers and sailors, maidens just out of school and women bowed and wrinkled in age; but, whoever they were, and however unarresting may have been all the other pictures in the chamber, every single soul in that mortal crowd stopped dead and silent before a picture of our Saviour bearing His cross to the hill. And when the Church is seen to be His bodyHis very body: His lips, His eyes, His ears, His hands, His feet, His brain, His heart: His very bodyand when the Church repeats, in this her corporate life, the brave and manifold doings of Judaea and Galilee, she too shall awe the multitude, and by Gods grace she shall convert the pregnant wonder into deep and grateful devotion.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]
How far we are from reaching the Christ ideal! James Russell Lowell was a poet, a statesman, a man of the world. You know his poem, A Parable:
Said Christ our Lord, I will go and see
How the men, My brethren, believe in Me.
Great organs surged through arches dim
Their jubilant floods in praise of Him;
And in church, and palace, and judgment-hall,
He saw His own image high over all.
But still, wherever His steps they led,
The Lord in sorrow bent down His head;
And from under the heavy foundation-stones,
The Son of Mary heard bitter groans.
Have ye founded your thrones and altars, then,
On the bodies and souls of living men?
And think ye that building shall endure,
Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor?
Then Christ sought out an artisan,
A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,
And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin
Pushed from her faintly want and sin.
These set He in the midst of them,
And as they drew back their garment-hem,
For fear of defilement, Lo, here, said He,
The images ye have made of Me!
ii. The Missionary Duty of the Church
1. There is another aspect of Church life. Christ Himself has laid the responsibility of missionary service upon the Church, and therefore there cannot be sound and healthy life in the Church where it is ignored. We must think of the word missionary in its true sense,it matters not whether we apply it to work at home or abroadthe Church must go out to seek and to save that which was lost.
We have found in the Old Testament the blackest picture of a brothers sin. We can find in the New Testament a very different picture. Andrew, the First Apostle, has always been chosen as the illustrative type of a missionary because he brought his brother to Christ. The two brothers, thus placed in juxtaposition, show the completely different (and yet by no means unusually different) view which two men could take of the relations and duties of brotherhood. Just as the stars shine brightest on a dark night, so the dark background of Cains selfishness and jealousy serves to enhance the brilliance of Andrews conduct, whose first thought was to find his brother and to make him the sharer of his own happiness.
Complete as is the difference between the light and dark, and complete as is the contrast between the action of these two men, the essence of the difference between the careers of the Apostle and the fratricide lay in this one pointa matter which men are used to look upon as very much a question of degree, and influenced immensely by differing circumstancesthe way in which they respectively regarded brotherhood as a relationship entailing, or not entailing, certain natural duties. Am I my brothers keeper? said Cain, and when he asked that question, he seemed to take it for granted that he had made a defence of himself to which no exception could possibly be taken. Where is Abel thy brother? I know not: am I my brothers keeper? seemed unanswerable. But with Andrew it was just the opposite. His first thought, on making the great discovery of Christ, was to make his brother the partner of his good fortune: He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias.
A brothers heart had Andrew. Joy beyond
All joy to him, the promised Christ to find:
But heavenly joy may not to duty blind;
He cannot rest, his bliss is incomplete
Till Simon sits with him at Jesus feet,
His brother then by more than natural bond.1 [Note: G. T. Coster.]
2. Missions! Christianity alone could give birth to them Men may be disposed to disparage them, but have they ever seriously reflected what civilized Europe would have given to pagan populations, if Christian missionaries had not been there? Alas! what would it have brought to them? Rifles and other fire-arms wherewith to destroy each other; brandy and opium, to brutalize and to degrade! But amongst those European conquerors, in the very refinement of their vices more barbarous than their victims, there are those who have at heart a strange love. They come to these pagans. They tell them of the Father in heaven who loves them, and of brothers on earth who wish to save them. They relate to them the marvellous history of the love of the Son of God. They are persecuted. They are reviled. They may be murdered. But soon, on the earth watered by their blood, Christian Churches are seen to flourish. It is thus that the net of the gospel, formerly borne by twelve fishermen of Galilee, finds its extremities meet after having compassed the whole earth.
The platted thorns that pierced His bleeding brow,
The cross of shame, the spikes that tore His palms,
Are blazoned oer her banners, treasured now,
All consecrate with martyrs dying psalms.
Sweet daughter of the King!her beauty bright
Hath yet the bloodstains starred upon her vest,
Of faithful hearts, who, through a loveless night
Of flame and sword went gloriously to rest.1 [Note: L. Maclean Watt, In Poets Corner, 66.]
Literature
Aitchison (J.), The Childrens Own, 271.
Assheton (R. O.), The Kingdom, and the Empire, 51.
Brooks (P.), The Law of Growth, 115.
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 288.
Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, 4th Ser., 272.
Ingram (W. C.), Happiness in the Spiritual Life, 228.
McClure (J. G. K.), Loyalty the Soul of Religion, 71.
Miller (J.), Sermons, Literary and Scientific, 1st Ser., 202.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, 2nd Ser., 123.
Robinson (F.), College and Ordination Addresses, 62.
Sinclair (W. M.), Christ and Our Times, 297.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxiv. No. 1399.
Thomson (W.), Life in the Light of Gods Word, 200.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xxi. No. 1199.
Walters (C. E.), The Deserted Christ, 139.
Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 280 (Pearse).
Church of England Pulpit, xlvi. 265 (Henson).
Church Pulpit Year Book, vi. 265 (Waters).
Churchmanship and Labour, 31 (Russell).
Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., ix. 354 (Dale).
Lombard Street in Lent, 28 (Farrar).
Oxford University Sermons, 351 (Percival).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Where is: Gen 3:9-11, Psa 9:12
I know: Gen 37:32, Job 22:13, Job 22:14, Psa 10:13, Psa 10:14, Pro 28:13, Joh 8:44, Act 5:4-9
Reciprocal: Gen 9:5 – and at Gen 18:9 – Where Gen 18:15 – denied Gen 33:9 – my brother Num 22:9 – What men 1Ki 21:19 – Hast thou killed 2Ki 5:25 – Whence Luk 16:2 – How
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE UNBROTHERLY BROTHER
Am I my brothers keeper?
Gen 4:9
Whether the story of Cain and Abel be literal history or profound allegory, it conveys deep and abundant lessons. In the fact that, so headlong was mans collapse from his original innocence, of the first two born into the world the elder grew up to be a murderer, and the younger his victim, we have a terrible glimpse into that apostasy of mans heart of which we see the bitter fruits in every walk of life. All national history; all war; every prison and penitentiary; all riot and sedition; the deadly struggles of capital and labour; anarchy and revolution; all the records of crime, brutality, suicide, and internecine strife, which crowd our newspapers from day to dayare but awful comments on these few verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis, and indications of the consequences which follow the neglect of their tremendous lessons.
The first murderer was the first liar (Where is thy brother? I know not); he was also an egotistAm I my brothers keeper?
I. Apart from other serious considerations, this last utterance of Cains impresses a great principle, and a solemn duty.
We each of us ask in our words and in our lives, Am I my brothers keeper? God answers usYou are! The world, with all its might, answersNo! I am not. Vast multitudes of merely nominal Christians, all the army of the compromisers and conventionalists, while they say, or half say, with reluctance, Yes, I am my brothers keeper, yet act and live in every respect as if they were not. There is little practical difference between their conduct and that of the godless world. Our Lord illustrated this in the parable of The two sons. If some, like the sneering lawyer, interpose an excuse, and ask, Who is my brother? the answer is the same as Christ gave in the parable of The good Samaritan. Yes, all men are our brothers; and when we injure them, by lies, which cut like a sharp razor, by sneers, innuendoes, slander, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, by want of thought or by want of heart, by neglect or by absorbing selfishness, we are inheritors of the spirit of the first murderer.
II. But let us confine our thoughts to those who most pressingly need our servicesto the great masses of the poor, the oppressed, the wretched, the hungry, the lost, the outcast. Among them lies, in some form or other, a great sphere of our duty, which, if we neglect, we neglect at our peril.
There is an almost shoreless sea of misery around us, which rolls up its dark waves to our very doors; thousands live and die in the dim borderland of destitution; little children wail, starve, and perish, and soak and blacken soul and sense in our streets; there are thousands of unemployed, not all of whom are lazy impostors; the Demon of Drink is the cause of daily horrors which would disgrace Dahomey or Ashantee; these are facts patent to every eye. Now God will work no miracle to mend these miseries. If we neglect them, they will be left uncured, but He will hold us responsible for the neglect. To the callous and slothful He will sayWhat hast thou done? and it will be vain to answerAm I my brothers keeper?
III. There are many ways of asking the question of Cain.
(a) There is that of coarse ignorance; of men steeped in greed, who say outright that the poor in the lump are bad.
(b) There is that of the spirit which robs even charity of its compassionateness, and makes a gift more odious than a blow.
(c) There is that of the spirit of indifferent despair; those who cryWhat good can we do? and Of what earthly use is it?; who find an excuse for doing practically nothing by quoting the words of Deuteronomy: The poor shall never cease out of the land; but (conveniently) forget the words which follow (Deu 15:11). This despair of social problems is ignoble and unchristian.
(d) There is that of unfaithfulness, domestic sloth (of narrow-mindedness and narrow-heartedness); if such do not challenge God with the questionAm I my brothers keeper? they act as if they were not. There is a danger lest our narrow domesticity should enervate many of our nobler instincts by teaching indifference to the public weal as a sort of languid virtue. God has made us citizens of His Kingdom. Many a man, in his affection and service to his family, forgets that he belongs also to the collective being; that he cannot, without guilt, sever himself from the needs of his parish, his nation, his race, from the claims of the poor, the miserable, and the oppressed. If he is to do his duty in this life, he must help, think for, sympathise with, give to, them. The Christian must man the lifeboat to help lifes shipwrecked mariners; if he cannot row, he must steer; if he cannot steer, he must help to launch; if he have not strength to do that, then
As one who stands upon the shore
And sees the lifeboat go to save,
And all too weak to take an oar,
I send a cheer across the wave.
At the very least, he must solace, shelter, and supply the needs of those rescued from the wreck. The meanest position of all is to stand and criticise, to say that the lifeboat is a bad one, or that it is being wrongly launched, or wrongly manned. Worst and wickedest of all is to stand still and call those fools and fanatics who are bearing the burden and heat of the day. The best men suffer with those whom they see suffer. They cannot allay the storm, but they would at least aid those who are doing more than themselves to rescue the perishing. They would sympathise, help, and, at the lowest, give. It is love which is the fulfilling of the Law. There is but one test with God of true orthodoxy, of membership of the kingdom of Heaven. It is given in the last utterance of Revelation by the beloved disciple. It sweeps away with one breath nine-tenths of the fictions and falsities of artificial orthodoxy and fanatical religionism. It is He that doeth righteousness is righteous, and He that doeth righteousness is born of God. It is only by keeping the commandments that we can enter into life.
Dean Farrar.
Illustrations
(1) Of the dangers which are partly rooted in our animal nature and partly fostered and intensified by the drift of our time, the one likely to press most heavily on us is that of exaggerated individualism. Where this is not tempered by an infusion of the religious spirit, we find it working with a disintegrating power, and in various ways vitiating both our personal and social life. Almost every advance of civilisation which distinguishes our century has tended to give this principle some new hold on the common life. There is no corner of society, commercial or social, political or artistic, which it does not invade.
(2) No character in the Old Testament represents to us guilt and infamy so readily as Cain; he is surpassed only by Judas in all the Bible. For to the heart of man it is not incredible that at so short a distance from Paradise, or even at the still shorter distance from Cains glad childhood, so foul a deed as this was done. The heart of man knows its own deceitfulness, and how soon sin brings forth death.
And besides all this, there is no possibility of understanding the punishment that Cain had to endure if he were not a murderer in intention as well as fact. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Certainly He will never err on the side of vengeance, for it is mercy, not vengeance, He is said to delight in. If Cain receives his punishment, it may seem to him greater than he can bear, but it is not greater than he deserves.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
He Yet Speaks! Abel is dead, but he still speaks ( Heb 11:4 ). His blood calls for vengeance, thus speaking ( Heb 12:24 ; Gen 4:10 ). However, it seems he speaks more clearly through his example of obedient faith. God caused Moses to record that faith for all time in the pages of his inspired word. His example tells us God’s favor is always upon those who obey his will ( Mat 7:21 ).
In stark contrast, we see God’s punishment for Cain. Cain said it was more than he could bear ( Gen 4:12-13 ). He was cursed and condemned to be a fugitive. God would not allow anyone to kill him. He placed a mark on him to warn others (4:14-15).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Gen 4:9. Where is Abel thy brother? Not that God was ignorant where he was, but he asks him that he might convince him of his crime, and bring him to a confession of it; for those that would be justified before God, must accuse themselves. And he said, I know not Thus in Cain, the devil was both a murderer and a liar from the beginning. Am I my brothers keeper? Is he so young that he needs a guardian? Or didst thou assign any such office to me? Surely he is old enough to take care of himself, nor did I ever take charge of him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where [is] Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: {h} [Am] I my brother’s keeper?
(h) This is the nature of the reprobate when they are rebuke for their hypocrisy, even to neglect God and outrage him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
As in chapter 3, God came investigating the crime with questions (Gen 4:9-10). [Note: See P. A. Riemann, "Am I My Brother’s Keeper?" Interpretation 24 (1970):482-91.] There the result was God cursing the ground and people generally, but here the result is His cursing Cain, another evidence that wickedness was worsening.
Cain’s punishment consisted of his being banished from God’s presence and unable to enjoy his family’s company and the fruitfulness of a settled pastoral life (Gen 4:11-12; Gen 4:14). He would have to wander from place to place seeking food rather than living a sedentary life. This punishment was just since he had alienated himself from his brother and God.
"Cain is not being condemned to a Bedouin-like existence; the terminology is too extreme to describe such a life-style. Rather it seems likely that the curse on Cain reflects the expulsion from the family that was the fate in tribal societies of those who murdered close relatives. . . . ’To be driven away from the land’ (cf. Gen 4:14) is to have all relationships, particularly with the family, broken. Moreover, it is to have one’s relationship with the LORD broken . . ." [Note: Wenham, p. 108.]
"Nomadism according to the Sumerian flood story is a plight from which the gods rescued man; according to the Bible a nomadic existence was a judgment imposed on the first murderer. This contrast fits in with the overall optimism of Mesopotamia which believes in human progress over against the biblical picture of the inexorable advance of sin . . . It would seem likely that the other human achievements listed here-farming, metalwork, and music-are also seen by Genesis as somehow under the shadow of Cain’s sin." [Note: Ibid., pp. 98-99.]
Cain’s response to his punishment was self-pity rather than repentance and an expression of remorse over the extent of his iniquity. [Note: See Waltke, Genesis, p. 98; Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 114.] No one would be his keeper (cf. Gen 4:9).
Cain’s sin resulted in his being "driven" out (Gen 4:14; cf. Gen 3:23). Note again that sin results in broken relationships and alienation, and alienation from God leads to fear of other people (cf. Job 15:20-25). God in grace allowed Cain and his family to continue to live under His care, but apparently without salvation. Note also that human immorality again impacted earth’s ecology (cf. Gen 3:17).
The commentators have interpreted Cain’s "sign" or "mark" (Gen 4:15) in a variety of ways. One view is that it was partial paralysis, based on the meaning of the word used to translate "sign" in the Septuatint. An old Jewish interpretation understood it to be the word "Yahweh," and another viewed it as a long horn growing out of the middle of Cain’s forehead. Some medieval paintings represent Cain with a horn on his head following this view. Other ideas are that it was some other identifying mark on Cain in view of parallels with other marks that identify and protect their bearers in Scripture (cf. Eze 9:4; Rev 7:3; Rev 13:16-18; Rev 14:1). [Note: Mathews, p. 278; Wenham, p. 109; Waltke, Genesis, p. 99.] Still other interpreters believe that the mark was a verification of God’s promise to Cain. This last view rests on the usual meaning of "sign" in the Old Testament (cf. Jdg 6:36-40; 2Ki 2:9-12; et al.), which the Hebrew construction supports here. [Note: See Bush, p. 104.] The text does not identify the sign, but it was some immediate indication that God gave Cain to assure him that he would not die (cf. Gen 21:13; Gen 21:18; Gen 27:37; Gen 45:7; Gen 45:9; Gen 46:3 with Gen 21:14; Gen 44:21). Whatever it was, Cain’s mark served to protect him as well as to remind him and others of his banishment.
"Nod" (Gen 4:16) means "wandering," so the very name of the place where he lived also reminded Cain of his sentence (Gen 4:12).
"The ungodly here are portrayed as living on in the world (with a protective mark of grace . . .) without being saved. Their sense of guilt was eased by their cultural development and their geographical expansion." [Note: Ross, "Genesis," p. 33.]
Cain was a man who did not care to please God. Because he did not, God did not bless him as He did Abel, who was a man of faith. Cain’s anger and jealousy over Abel’s blessing brought disaster on himself. God has preserved his example to help us avoid it. Those who worship God must have as their goal to please Him rather than letting envy and hatred ruin their lives.