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Word from Nairnshire
by Sandy Shaw
“Where is your brother?” is the question God posed to Cain after he had taken Abel out into the fields and murdered him.
“I don’t know” was his reply, implying that I am not interested and I don’t care and he is not my responsibility.
He verges on being impudent and cheeky towards God. His flippant remark was an attempt to evade his crime.
This was the first murder. No human saw it, but God saw it, and shed blood speaks to God, and God sees and hears when we think we are totally on our own.
God was concerned and God placed Cain under judgment. He sentences Cain.
From now on Cain is a fugitive, on the run, a misfit who is unable to settle down.
He was sorry for the punishment, but not for the sin. He wanted out of the consequences, but showed no signs of repentance. He is full of self-pity and has no feelings for his parents.
He was sorry he had been found out. Many are in that situation.
Cain thought he could get away with it.
In these early chapters in Genesis we see sin rippling out.
Sin affects the individual, then the family, then society and the whole world. Sin spreads imperceptibly, like yeast.
The sin that ruined the first man caused the second man to kill the third man. Serious conflict had now come into the world.
“Where is your brother?” is regarded as the great social question.
Jesus Christ taught that loving God and being concerned about our brother are inextricably linked.
Jesus came to restore what had been broken, and to reconcile relationships that had been severed.
He went on to redefine family bonds by teaching that whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
Sandy Shaw
Nairn Christian Fellowship
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Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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