Verse study
Am I my brother's keeper?
Cain's question is an evasion, and Scripture answers it anyway.
Loading Genesis 4:9…
הֲשֹׁמֵר אָחִי אָנֹכִי
hashomer achi anochi
The word for keeper is used of guarding and watching over, including the garden in Genesis 2:15.
How Cain uses it
The question comes attached to a lie. Cain says he does not know where Abel is, and then asks whether he was supposed to be watching him. It is deflection, and God does not treat it as a genuine enquiry.
How Scripture answers it
The law forbids hatred in the heart and commands love of neighbour (Leviticus 19:17-18), and it forbids a closed hand toward a brother in need (Deuteronomy 15:7-11).
Jesus answers the neighbour question with a story about a man who spends and returns (Luke 10:25-37), and John says love means action rather than words (1 John 3:16-18).
Christ connection
Jesus is the shepherd who keeps what is given to him and lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11-15). Cain's refusal and Christ's keeping are the two answers Scripture puts before a reader.
Where this runs in Scripture
- Leviticus 19:17-18
Responsibility for a brother stated as command.
- Proverbs 24:11-12
Removes the defence of not knowing.
- Luke 10:25-37
Neighbour defined by what is done.
- 1 John 3:16-18
Love in deed and truth rather than in word only.
Carry this today
Name the person you have quietly filed as not your responsibility, and do one concrete thing for them this week.
Continue through Genesis 4
sin crouches at the door
The first time the word sin appears in the Bible, it is pictured as an animal waiting at a threshold.
Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain
Scripture states what the sign was for and says nothing at all about what it looked like.