Old Testament Studies

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

By Robert C. Crowder

It is interesting that very little is said in the Bible about Cain and Able and yet almost everyone could quote Cain, Son of Adam; “Am I my brothers Keeper?

In Chapter four of Genesis we find that Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve and Eve was so happy that she named him Cain, meaning “I have gotten a man from the LORD.”  We find in verse two that Cain was a “tiller of the ground.”

Some undisclosed time later Adam and Eve are recorded as having another son, Able.  Able was “a keeper of sheep.”

Verse three gets right down to the issue at hand. 

“And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” 

For a lot of people, this short passage is hard to swallow.  We find that the two sons have grown and now they are bringing an offering unto the LORD.  We do not know the circumstances surrounding this act, only that both Cain and Able were participants.  We learn that both brought of their vocation.  Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and Able of his flock.  The only disparity listed is that Able brought of the “firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.”  We do not know how the two boys were aware to bring the offerings.  We can only assume that Adam and Eve shared stories of their walking in the garden and the communing with the LORD.  We don’t know what was in the two boys hearts, the words they said, the attitude about the offering, the joy in preparation or within their very souls their desire to please GOD with this offering.  No we just know they brought it.

It is also interesting to know that we do not see that the two boys were shocked when GOD showed up to inspect the offerings.  We see that the LORD had respect for Abel’s offering and not for Cain’s.  We do not know how the LORD showed his “respect” or “had not respect.”  We just know that Cain became very upset (wroth) and his countenance fell.  This is a good old-fashioned term for his total attitude including his face and body language.  The LORD asked him “Cain why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.  And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”

Both men return to their work but Cain was still smarting over the rebuke.  He internalized the words of the LORD to such an extent, that when the two were out in the field (garden or grazing area?) that Cain “rose up against Able and slew him.”

Quickly, we see that GOD asks the haunting question, “Where is Able thy brother.”  Where is the brother that you played with, laughed with, wrestled with, ate with?  Cain responds with those words, “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? 

And the LORD said, “What hast thou done?  The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.  And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; 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.” And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.  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. 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. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.” 

So what do we make of this story of two brothers?  Why was the LORD so harsh with Cain?  I mean he did participate in the offering.  He showed up with the fruits of his labors.  He worked hard, planted, pulled weeds, watched for rain and worried about his crops like every other farmer from this time forward.  He harvested his crop and brought it unto the LORD.  Just looking at these verses it would be hard to understand, but something caused the LORD to find Cain’s offering with no respect.  We read of other places in the Bible where Cain’s name is mentioned and we find a different character than what we at first see.  In Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”  Cain did not provide an “excellent sacrifice.”

In his book “Systematic Theology” R. L Dabney states “That bloody animal sacrifice was of divine appointment at this time, we argue, first, presumptively from the fact that natural reason would not have suggested it, as a suitable offering to God. The doctrine of substitution, however honorable to God when revealed, is not, and cannot be, a deduction of the natural reason. Whether the Sovereign Creditor will be pleased to accept a substitutionary payment of penal debt, is a question, which He only may answer. Again, doubtless the natural reason of Adam and his family saw the obvious truth, which is stated as self-evident in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that “the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.” The mere animal has neither the dignity, nor community of nature, which would suggest even the possibility of its life being an equivalent for an immortal soul. Left to itself, we therefore do not believe that human reason would ever have devised such a method of appeasing God, as can be illustrated by the rationalistic will worship of Cain. Not having suitable conviction of guilt, regard for God’s rights as requiring satisfaction in order to pardon, nor faith in the future, apparently obscure sacrifice of the “Woman’s Seed,” Cain did what all other will worshippers since have done. He exercised his own rationalistic ideas of the suitable, and his own esthetic sentiments, in devising another oblation. He probably thought the bleeding and burning flesh unsuitable, because it was abhorrent to natural sensibility, and even to the instincts, and the senses of sight and smell. Does God find pleasure in the death pangs of an innocent, sentient creature? How much more appropriate the inanimate fruits of His bounty, for an oblation, the brilliant flowers, the blushing fruits, the nodding sheaf, all redolent of peace, abundance and fragrance. But it was precisely this rationalism, which, we are told in Genesis, caused the rejection of his offering. Here we find a strong proof that Abel’s was not will worship, but the fulfillment of a divine ordinance.

This is strongly confirmed by the language of Heb. 11:4, which tells us, that the preferableness of Abel’s offering arose from this: that he “offered it by faith.” Now faith implies a revealed warrant, without this it is presumption. This text virtually tells us that animal sacrifice was by divine appointment. This conclusion is also strengthened by the truth, clearly implied in Gen. 9:3, 4, that, until after the flood, animals were not killed for food by God’s people. Yet in Gen. 3:21, Adam and Eve are, by God, clad in the skins of animals, in lieu of the frail coverings of fig leaves, which they had devised for themselves, to conceal their shame. Whence came those skins? They might possibly be stripped from the corpses of those that died natural deaths, or were slain by beasts of prey. But it is much more probable, that they were the skins of the sacrifices Adam was then and there taught to offer.[1]

In speaking of being aware of ungodly men, Jude writes to the early brothers and sisters, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ…Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain,..”

So what do we learn about Cain.  He did not give an excellent sacrifice, he was an ungodly man, he murdered his own brother, was marked for life and was condemned to be a vagabond all his life.

Separation

The separation shown in Genesis on this passage is that 

·         On one day, Adam and Eve lost their two sons.  They were separated by death from Able and by curse on Cain. 

·         Cain was separated from his occupation as that was cursed. 

Cain was separated from his homeland.  Cain married and had a son Enoch.  As far as we know, grandpa and grandma were separated from the joy of watching their grandson grow.  Cain built a city and named it after his son.

ã 2002 bobsbiblestudies