Your True Keeper

Last week I preached Genesis 4, the first murder in human history.

It’s a tragic story of sin and violence. Seven times the text states, emphasizes, the word “brother.” The first murder was brother killing brother. Fratricide. Elder brother Cain rose up and murdered his younger brother Abel.

Just like he did with Adam after Adam’s sin in the garden, God pursues Cain with questions. Instead of responding to God’s questions with a confession of sin, Adam’s son slurs a question back at God:

…am I my brother’s keeper?

“Keeper” here in Genesis 4:9 is a translation of the same Hebrew verb (shamar) used in Genesis 2:15, where God gives Adam his job description in the garden:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Like his father before him, Cain failed to keep—failed to guard and protect what was entrusted to his care.

In times of difficulty, when the brother we have trusted to keep us actually fails and betrays us, we ask the same question as the ancient psalmist (Psalm 121):

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?

Answer:

My help comes from the Lord.

Tell me more. Who is this Lord? We’re told the same truth 4x. Again, a translation of the same Hebrew word (shamar):

The Lord is your keeper

The Lord will keep you from all evil

he will keep your life

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore

Even your older brother might fail to keep you. But at the cross we see the Lord our keeper, the claims of Psalm 121, in full expression. At the cross we encounter our true keeper—Jesus, the elder brother who gave up his life in order keep your life.

…am I my brother’s keeper?

Jesus has a different answer than Cain.

See his arms spread wide on the cross. See your true keeper. See a brother who will never fail you. Only then can we live as the brothers and sisters that God has called us to be.

The Lord is your keeper. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.