Thursday: The Family Web of Humanity
With the arrival of sin, it did not take long for the world to break down further. Sparked by jealousy, misunderstanding, and anger, the first murder involved the first pair of brothers. When God questioned Cain about his sin, his reply is probably ironic and rhetorical—“Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9)—and the answer implied by God’s initial question was, “Yes, absolutely, you are your brother’s keeper”.
Read Proverbs 22:2. What is implied in this apparently simple statement? What does it tell us about our relationship to our fellow human beings?
Cain slays Abel
Everyone we meet is one of God’s creatures, created in His image, and part of the network of relationships that connects us all in God’s creation, fractured and broken though it might be. “We are all woven together in the web of humanity. The evil that befalls any part of the great human brotherhood brings peril to all”. – Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 345. Like it or not, because of this common link, we have a God-given responsibility to God and to each other (see Matt. 22:37-39).
Throughout the Bible, the claim that God is our Creator is recurring. For example, it is one of the reasons given for remembering the Sabbath (see Exod. 20:11) and for worshiping God in the end time (see Rev. 14:7). It is also a primary motivation given for caring about others, for being concerned for the less fortunate.
We are all linked by the bond of our common origins in God. Whoever “oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (Prov. 14:31, NIV). How much clearer could that link be?
God as our Creator has a claim on us that demands our entire life, including our worship and our service and care for others. As difficult and frustrating and inconvenient as it might be at times, we are, indeed, our “brother’s keeper”.
| Why do you think God’s claims as Creator are such a recurring theme throughout the Bible? Why is this so important, and how should this reality affect how we treat others? |
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Am I my brother's keeper?
I am going to give you a one-paragraph summary of transaction theory this morning. A transaction is a series of operations on records in a database. You can either read a record or write (modify) a record. In a typical transaction, you may read and write to several records. At the end of the transaction, you must look back over all the records that you have touched and see if you have broken any of the rules. If not, you can commit all the changes to the database, otherwise, you have to roll-back the changes to leave the database in an unchanged state. During the course of the transaction you have to keep a log of all the records you have read or modified and we do this using a mathematical construct called a dependency graph or web of interactions.
Our lives are a bit like a transaction. We go through life, reading information from some people and modifying the lives of others. We essentially create a dependency graph of our interactions. There is one very big difference between life and a database transaction. We do not have a rollback operation if any of the rules are broken. Once we have read information from someone else, we cannot erase that interaction, and likewise, if we modify someone else by our interaction with them we cannot erase that modification. Our dependency graph of interactions follows us through the whole of life. That is a scary thought!
God created us to be social creatures, to interact and share with one another. While each person has ultimately to take responsibility for their own actions we cannot ignore the effect that others have on us and that we have on them. In that sense, we are our brother's keeper, and that has consequences that we need to consider, particularly when dealing with those we perceive are in need.
God has created us from one blood.
It does not matter what color, race, and social status we have acquired; we are all the same in the sight of God.
We are all created in the image of God.
Therefore, as Christians our mission is to save the world In Christ.
We do care about our fellow human beings because they are the same with us.
What is the prayer of Jesus as He was getting ready to face the cross teach us, let them be one with us.
Division and fragmentation is brought fourth by satan to keep our focus not on the purpose of God.
Please read the entire blog by Maurice Ashton
Maurice Ashton on June22, 2019 at 12:52 pm said:
"One of the speakers was the Division Ministerial Secretary, who apart from being a good speaker, was an accomplished Biblical scholar. He delivered a number of studies during the week and was the appointed speaker for the last Sabbath of the camp meeting. Every one expected him to give a stirring finale to the discussion on the Investigative Judgement. Instead, he took as his verse for his final sermon Malachi4:6:
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
It was a change of direction that was most appropriate at the time. In all our discussion about doctrine, we had lost sight of one another and the relationships we have with our children. I have never forgotten his message that morning as he reminded us that our most important task is to build family relationships."
Abide, abide, abide In Christ, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
It is so nice trying to save everyone in the community and work places. But let me remind our selves while we do so, let us also work and pray for our own homes and those closest to us ( children, sibling, spouses and parents). Many times these are the hardest to pray for or witness to. Satan uses them to try our faith and our confidence in Christ. As a result we gave up on them and count them out as lost souls. Many times we become at odds with them if we don’t see eye to eye with them on religious or biblical values. Many of them once embrace the faith but have turned away. Keep praying.
God actually created human beings mainly for companionship, but the challenging part is God created knowledge first before creating anything and this actually made man to sin.
As humans, we are interconnected. Our daily decisions and actions affect lives around us and the multiplier effects of these, affect the world around us. If we care for each other and "be our brothers/sisters keepers", a lot of the ills of this world would stop and our maker would have been delighted. May God help us to do our part of the task of ruling and having dominion over all that is created. Amen!
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation1:
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
"The evil that befalls any part of the great human brotherhood brings peril to all”. – Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 345
Evil not addressed will consume all
I like the comment by Newbegin. Many times we see and behold evil but do not speak up or speak out because it does not affect us or our families, or even our ethic group or our religion. Even in our religion we turn a blind eye. Many Christians believe we are interconnected as humans. So are my non Christians friends ( Muslims, etc). But how do we relate to others who don’t believe like us or look like us? Do we secretly or openly follower the teachings of Jesus? Bible EGW gave us a powerful explanation of Jer 17: 9. Encourage reading. My personal testimony- came from a place where skin color, creed, or ethnicity did not matter all lived in harmony. Now living in a place where one ethnic group in bombarded daily and treated as lower class, paid less and told they are lower class. One day the thought came to me that I am of a higher class than them. At that moment, I ran to Jesus and started pleading and praying for help. I didn’t realized where my heart was. Many times do we know where our heart is. I pray daily for a renewal of my heart, to understand the Bible in its true context and to live it in my daily life. Satan sets us up for failure and we fall for his lies thinking maybe we are our brother keeper but we don’t have to give account like Cain.
We all have the same origin, but we are born different. Thus, we all have different habilities! In this sense, some people may think that are greater than others. This happens everywhere, at home within the family, at work among colleagues, at the house among neighbors, etc.
When we level everyone to the same state, the same planet, differences don't matter anymore. "We are all under the same sun!"