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I recently read The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, and I loved it. Anytime that I’ve read or heard anything about the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the focus has always been on the younger son, who demands his inheritance from his father, squanders it on wild living, and then, when he hits bottom, has to swallow his pride and go back home.
But there was another brother in this story, as Keller focuses on in his book. The older brother had done everything right, he thought, and he resented it when the dad rolled out the red carpet for the younger son to welcome him back home. One of Keller’s main points of the book is that each brother represented a different way to be alienated from the Father. The older son may have looked like he had it all together, but he didn’t.
My friend Rhonda and I are going to study this book together, and it looks like I’ll be leading a women’s group at my church in a study on it as well, so this afternoon I was re-reading the first chapter and then digging a bit in Scripture for more material. When it comes to biblical brothers, Cain and Abel are maybe the most well known, so I turned to Genesis 4 to read their story again. To correlate with Luke 15, Cain is the older brother–Abel the younger. Their story takes a BIT of a departure, though, when Cain, angry that God the Father is more pleased with Abel’s sacrifice, kills his brother, Abel.
What struck me as I read about them is that several times, God talks to Cain. “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry?….” “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?” “The Lord said, ‘What have you done?” The Genesis account doesn’t include any responses from Cain to God. The Lord is talking to Cain, and on the other side of the conversation … crickets.
Each time God spoke to Cain, He asked him a question. AS IF He didn’t already know the answers. So why is He talking to Cain, asking him this stuff? Maybe because He’s trying to maintain their relationship. They clearly had one, because the punishment for Cain’s sin is to be a restless wanderer, cut off from God. Finally, a response from Cain: “Today You are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from Your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” He’s worried about his life, but I think he’s also sad that he’s going to be separated from God.
The Lord assures Cain that if anyone does kill him, they will suffer some serious vengeance, and He actually puts a mark on Cain so that no one will kill him. Cain still had to bear the consequences of his sin, but the Lord protected him.
I just love it that God kept the dialog going, or at least tried. In a similar way, the father in Luke 15 went to both of his sons, not just the younger one, inviting them to the celebration banquet. What a loving Father. He doesn’t want us to be restless wanderers; He wants us to rest in Him and wonder at His grace.
