"Am I My Brother's Keeper:" The Story of Cain & Abel

“Am I My Brother’s Keeper:” The story of Cain & Abel (A Lesson on the 6th Commandment) By: Ebony Williams

th 6 Commandment During the time of Moses, God gave us 10 Commandments (as well as other rules) to live our lives by.

These commandments tells us what we must do and the things we are forbidden from doing.

We’re going to focus on the 6th commandment today and how it was broken by discussing the story of two brothers by the names of Cain and Abel.

th 6 Commandment Exodus 20:14 “Thou shalt not kill” The definition of kill is to take life from someone. You may ask yourself what will draw someone to want to do such an awful thing?

God knew that we would be emotional beings and emotions such as anger, jealousy, envy and hatred could lead to breaking the 6th Commandment.

So in essence, when anger comes into your heart and it is not controlled it could turn into jealousy, envy and even hatred and you would then be guilty of breaking the 6th commandment (you have now killed).

I’ll show you how by sharing the story of two brothers named Cain & Abel.

Adam & Eve (The Parents) Once there was a man named Adam and woman named Eve. These two people were husband and wife.

They decided to have a family together so their first child was born and they named him Cain. Then came along Abel, Cain’s younger brother.

I’m sure these parents were proud having their first two children that the Lord had blessed them with.

Cain & Abel (The Brothers) When Cain and Abel grew up and was old enough and strong enough to work, Cain became a tiller of the ground (he made certain that the ground was nice and healthy in order to grow good strong crops) and Abel was a Shepherd (he took care of the flock in the field).

I’m sure they both did their jobs very well and worked long hard hours to assure their work was of good quality (after all this is how they survived).

Cain & Abel (The Brothers) One day the brothers were to bring an offering to God. Cain decided to bring fruit and Abel decided to bring one of his flock.

When the offerings were presented to God, God was extremely pleased with Abel’s offering and displeased with Cain’s offering.

Cain & Abel (The Brothers) The problem was: Abel brought an offering to God from the firstling of his flock (this was a first born flock, and Cain brought fruit but his offering wasn’t his best because God frowned upon it. He obviously, did not take time out to find the very best of his work to present to God (and God wants your best quality work). God does not want you to present or offer something to him that you just threw together.

However, Abel apparently took his time to select the best out of all his flock (he wasn’t slothful about it and wasn’t a chore to him) so that he would present his very best to God. After all, this was an extremely important thing to do!

God Questions Cain When God did not accept the offering of Cain, he noticed how wroth Cain had become and how his countenance had fallen.

So, God asked him: “Why art thou wroth?” “and why is thy countenance fallen”?

God then began to lecture Cain by telling him that if he did well then he would be accepted but if did not well he would not be accepted.

However, Cain could not bare the toughness of that lecture and was still extremely bitter!

Where is Abel?

As time went on, the two brothers were talking and working in the field. When suddenly, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him!

Cain killed his baby brother Abel!

The Lord’s then called for Cain and asked him “Where is Abel thy brother” and Cain said, “I know not”, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

God Punishes Cain God then tells Cain that he could hear the voice of his brother’s blood crying from the ground.

God knew that Cain had killed his brother therefore, he punished Cain greatly.

He made his work as a tiller to become increasingly difficult and also caused him to become a fugitive and a vagabond (a man on the run and a beggar) for the horrible sin that he committed.

Moral of the Story Cain’s anger overtook him.

He was more than angry, he was outraged, jealous, and envious).

His anger had turned into malice. When those emotions (anger, jealousy, and envious) are bundled up, they make for a very bad combination because you became guilty of breaking that 6th commandment. Therefore, you are a killer.

Cain, physically killed his brother by taking life away from him. But, he had already killed him when he became jealous and envious of his brother due to his acceptance to God.

Definition Breakdown Anger is an emotional state. You feel upset and bothered.

Jealousy is when you are upset that someone has something.

Envy is when you are upset that someone has something AND you covet what they have (want what they have).

Malice is hatred.

Cain’s Downfall So let’s see what went on inside of Cain’s heart.

He became angry, he was jealous of his brother’s offering, his jealousy obviously turned into envy, and then he became malicious (hateful).

So he killed!

A heart corrupted with sin!

Don’t Tread This Road!

Anger leads to jealousy Jealousy leads to envy Envy leads to malice Malice leads to breaking the 6th Commandment!

Be careful of your anger!

The End!

Questions?

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