Sarah and I are starting a new Bible reading plan together. We are going through the Bible chronologically. Obviously we started in Genesis. I noticed something new in the story of how sin came into the world. Well, actually it wasn’t new. It was revelatory for me, but it is the same old sin issue we see through out the Bible.
At the climax of Cain’s rebellion he yelled at God, “Am I my brother’s keeper!?”
When God was moving big in Israel during the days of Elijah, king Ahab muttered out the most pitiful insult, “You troubler of Israel!” And then he went crawling back to his wife Jezebel to do the dirty work. In turn she sent out an order for Elijah’s head, to stop him from “troubling” Israel.
When Paul speaks to the marital problems in the church at Ephesus he commends husbands to give themselves for their wives and to present them blameless before God, he is speaking about taking responsibility.
All of these times the root that causes the bad fruit is an issue with responsibility.
When Eve is tempted by the serpent the original Hebrew makes obvious what Satan is doing. He says “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” The word you there is a plural you. But English does not have a plural you form so we don’t notice what is going on here. If there was a SEV Bible (Southern English Version), it might more accurately be translated, “Did God really say y’all must not eat…?” Satan questioned what God said by replacing the singular you with the plural you. He was trying to divide the two.
God initially addressed Adam with the command to not eat from the tree of good and evil. He did not address Eve. In chapter 2 of Genesis Eve is not yet in the picture. Did God have another meeting after Eve came about to address the issue of the tree? The Bible doesn’t say, but I doubt it. God gave Adam the responsibility to lead his wife.
God addressed Adam and it was Adam’s responsibility to lead her. Just as Paul told the Ephesian church husbands to present their wives blameless before God, the same was true in this moment.
In all of these instances of sin in the Bible, it boils down to the problem of responsibility. With Adam he refused to take responsibility for protecting and leading his wife. With Ahab he refused to take responsibility for leading Israel. With Cain he refused to take responsibility for keeping his brother safe. In Ephesus, the husbands were not taking responsibility for leading their family.
Some times our faith gets mixed in with our American cultural values. Our God is not an individualistic God. John said true religion is to take care of widows and orphans in their distress. God’s greatest act of love was taking responsibility for the separation that man caused, and He won us back even unto death.
Today, ask God how you can be your brother’s keeper; for whom do you need to take responsibility?
