DWDP: Gen 4; 9-10 Find a Way

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The blood of innocents cries out from the ground. From Abel's murder to today's abortion crisis, God hears these voices even when we try to silence them.

Dr. Robert "Papa" Jackson delivers a powerful devotional exploring Genesis 4:9-10, where God confronts Cain with the question "Where is your brother Abel?" This seemingly simple question unveils profound truths about accountability, moral responsibility, and our tendency to hide from our sins. Drawing from Psalm 139, Dr. Papa reminds us that nothing escapes God's all-seeing presence – a sobering reality for wrongdoers but a comforting assurance for the righteous.

When faced with our failures, we stand at the same crossroads as Cain – choose humble confession or prideful rebellion. Dr. Papa compassionately observes how this ancient pattern repeats in our communities when believers disappear from church life following moral failures, addiction struggles, or personal tragedies. Yet reconnection requires just one step, regardless of how far we've strayed.

The devotion takes a powerful turn as Dr. Papa addresses America's abortion crisis, noting that 61 million unborn lives have been lost since 1973, with 30-40 babies dying daily in South Carolina alone. With pastoral wisdom, he calls Christians to embrace their responsibility as their "brother's keeper" through concrete actions: supporting crisis pregnancy centers, contacting legislators about specific pro-life legislation, and praying for spiritual awakening among leaders.

This message isn't just biblical exposition – it's a heartfelt call to compassionate action rooted in scriptural conviction. If you're seeking biblical guidance on moral responsibility in today's complex world, this devotion offers both challenging truth and practical wisdom. Subscribe, share, and join us next week for more insights that bridge ancient scripture with contemporary challenges.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more
than enough for the ills thatplague our culture and our
country.
Hosted by author and physician,Dr Robert Jackson.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Papa, can you tell me a story?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Do you really want me to tell you a story?
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell
you a story.
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell
you a story.
Welcome to Devotions with DrPapa.
Gather around and grab yourBibles and let's look into the
written Word, which reveals tous the living Word, who is our

(00:40):
Lord, jesus Christ.
Today we're in Genesis, chapter4, verses 9 through 10.
Let me begin by reading.
Then the Lord said to Cain whenis Abel, your brother?
And he said I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
He said what have you done?
The voice of your brother'sblood is crying to me from the

(01:03):
ground.
Where is Abel, your brother?
First, understand that allthings are open and laid bare
before him, with whom we have todo, with him, with whom we have
to give account.
Nothing is hidden from theomniscient, all-seeing eye of

(01:25):
God.
In Psalms 139, the scripturetells us O Lord, you have
searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down andwhen I rise up.
You understand my thought fromafar.
You scrutinize my path and mylying down and are intimately
acquainted with all my ways,even before there is a word on

(01:49):
my tongue behold, o Lord, youknow it all.
You have enclosed me behind andbefore and laid your hand upon
me.
Such knowledge is too wonderfulfor me, it is too high.
I cannot attain to it.
Where can I go from your spiritor where can I flee from your
presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you arethere.

(02:11):
If I make my bed in Sheol,behold, you are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest
part of the sea, even there yourhand will lead me and your
right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say surely, the darknesswill overwhelm me and the light

(02:32):
around me will be night.
Even the darkness is not darkto you, and the night is as
bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike toyou.
You see, brothers and sisters,there's no way, nowhere you and
I can go to flee from thepresence of God, and there's
nowhere that Cain could go thatGod did not know where he was.

(02:58):
There was nothing he could doto hide his sin from God.
Knowing this should give pauseto the evildoer, but it also
gives comfort to the righteous,for the eyes of the Lord roam to
and fro throughout the earth,seeking whose heart is fully

(03:18):
devoted to him, that he may showhimself strong on their behalf.
Cain knew these things well.
His mind and heart were notobscured by generations of
inherited sin.
He was just one step removedfrom the Garden of Eden, but his

(03:41):
judgment was already clouded byhis personal sin.
He had two choices he couldhumble himself and confess his
sin, as did Adam, his father, orhe could bow up in rebellion,
as we so often do.
When confronted with our sin,isaiah the prophet said

(04:08):
confronted with our sin, isaiahthe prophet said if I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lordwill not hear me.
If I nurture and coddle andprotect a sin in my heart, it
will drive me away from God.
Confession and repentance willdraw me near to God.
How did this play out in Cain'slife?
He came to the place ofsacrifice.

(04:30):
He brought a lamb instead ofvegetables.
He humbly confessed his sin andmade things right between him
and God.
No, sorry, that's not whathappened.
God had to come looking forCain to bring him to account for

(04:51):
the murder of his brother.
How many times have you and Iseen this play out?
I remember when I was incollege that there were two
college kids that were leadersin a college campus Christian
organization and all of a suddenthe both of them just
disappeared and they were gonefor three or four months and

(05:13):
nobody knew where they were.
And they were gone for three orfour months and nobody knew
where they were and then it cameout that the young man had
gotten the young lady pregnantand that's why they just
suddenly dropped out of theChristian ministry.
They just dropped out of sight.
How many times have you seenactive Christian church members

(05:34):
suddenly just disappear fromChristian ministry, only later
to find out that one of them hadhad an affair and now they were
ashamed and embarrassed to bemembers of the local church?
How many times have you seen acouple purchase a beach house or
a mountain house and no longerbe active in the life of the

(05:57):
church because they had to go tothe beach house every weekend.
They had to go to the mountainhouse every weekend?
How many times have you seen acouple where one or the other
had become addicted to alcoholor drugs or sedatives after one

(06:19):
of their children was suddenlykilled in some kind of motor
vehicle accident or some otheraccident and all of a sudden
they drop out of the church,drop out of Christian ministry
because of their personaladdiction to alcohol or

(06:40):
sedatives, because of thatsudden death in the family.
We see things like that playout in our own lives or the
lives of somebody close to us.
Folks don't know how to comeback to God.
Hear me when I say it doesn'tmatter how far or how long we

(07:03):
have walked away from God.
It only that one step.
So when God asked Cain, whereis your brother Abel?
God is not looking forinformation, he's looking for a

(07:26):
confession.
And rather than humblyconfessing, cain pridefully bows
up and he lies to God's facesaying I don't know, knowing
full well where his brother'sdead body lay.

(07:46):
Then he challenged God's rightto even ask the question, to
even question him, by saying amI my brother's keeper?
You understand now what Isaiahmeant about regarding about
nurturing sin in our hearts andhow it hardens our hearts and

(08:11):
separates us from God andprevents our good judgment.
A loving God may have intendedto extend mercy and loving
kindness if Cain confessed andrepented, but all that dried up

(08:33):
with Cain's harsh response.
Now Cain receives judgment.
Cain could ignore the prophetic, truth-telling voice of his
brother Abel, but the voice ofhis blood crying out from the
ground could not be silenced,and holy God heard the voice of

(08:58):
his brother's blood crying outfrom the ground.
Cain suffered a severepunishment for shedding innocent
blood.
He was banished from civilsociety by God, himself,
destined to be a vagabond and awanderer.
In the book of Proverbs, godlists seven deadly sins, a list

(09:25):
of seven things that God hates.
On that list is hands that shedinnocent blood.
If you read the prophets, likeIsaiah and Ezekiel, you will
comprehend that God broughtjudgment on Israel in part
because of shedding innocentblood.
One particularly odious thingthey practiced was child

(09:50):
sacrifice, making their childrenpass through the fire as a
sacrifice to Molech the pagangod of the Ammonites.
God thundered through theprophets that such a thing never
even entered into his mind.
Well, we in America haveallowed 61 million unborn

(10:14):
citizens to be murdered byabortion since 1973.
Sacrifice to the God ofconvenience.
How many times have my patientstold me they were obtaining an
abortion because it was simplynot convenient to be pregnant at
this time?
They willingly murdered anunborn human being to salvage a

(10:38):
high school soccer career or acollege scholarship or their
family reputation, and the voiceof their child's blood cried
out from the ground.
In South Carolina, 30 to 40babies die by abortion every day
, 3,000 plus nationally everyday, and their blood cries out

(11:04):
from the ground.
God hates the shedding ofinnocent blood.
God hates abortion.
Abortion breaks the great heartof God.
If 30 to 40 children died inSouth Carolina every day due to
a faulty medication or sextrafficking or motor vehicle

(11:25):
accidents, our state leaderswould be up in arms.
But no one seems to care that30 plus unborn citizens die
every day by abortion, eithersurgical or medical, and their
blood cries out from the ground.
I would suggest to you, veryhumbly and very respectfully,

(11:47):
that the church needs to repentof uncaring and we need to
repent of our uncaring and ourinaction.
We need to talk to Jesus aboutwhere we can fit in.
We need to talk to Jesus aboutfinding our niche in protesting

(12:08):
the killing of unborn citizensin South Carolina.
We need to call our legislatorsand say to them find a way.
I remember when I was in highschool my football coach would
say to us at halftime if we werebehind he would say boys, find
a way.
In South Carolina we have apro-life Republican majority in

(12:30):
both the House and the Senate.
They all ran on a pro-lifeRepublican platform and there's
no reason why our legislatureshould not end abortion in South
Carolina.
We should write to them kindlyand respectfully and say to them
find a way to end abortion inSouth Carolina.
We should say to them that theyshould support Senator Cash's

(12:54):
pro-life bill, which would dojust that.
All of us should support ourlocal crisis pregnancy centers,
either with a financial donationor as volunteers, and we should
pray daily to end abortion inour state.
And we should pray forspiritual awakening amongst our

(13:15):
legislators, amongst our pastorsand spiritual leaders, because,
trust me, it's going to take aspiritual revival in the state
of South Carolina for us to seethe leadership in our state rise
up in righteous indignation andbring an end to the killing of

(13:35):
unborn children in our state.
Cain said I don't know where heis and am I my brother's keeper?
Listen to me, dear listener.
You and I, we are our brother'skeeper.
We are responsible as Christianpeople for the unborn citizens
in the womb.
Our legislators are in aposition of responsibility, a

(13:56):
position of power, and they areresponsible for the 30 to 40
children who die every day inthis state.
They have the power to put anend to that and they cannot just
look God in the face and say amI my brother's keeper and we
need to call them to account.
Pray that God would changetheir hearts, call them and say

(14:18):
to them find a way.
You're listening to Devotionswith Dr Papa.
If you like what you hear, Ipray that you would call a
friend and suggest to them thatthey would listen in, follow,
like or share, and we'll be backagain next week.
And until then, may the Lordbless you real good.
Thank you for listening.
May the Lord bless you realgood.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Thank you for listening to this edition of
More Than Medicine.
For more information about theJackson Family Ministry or to
schedule a speaking engagement,go to their Facebook page,
instagram or webpage atjacksonfamilyministrycom.
Also, don't forget to check outDr Jackson's books that are
available on Amazon.
The Family Doctor Speaks theTruth About Life in his first

(15:01):
book, and the Family DoctorSpeaks the Truth About Seed
Planting Equipping Believers forEvangelism is his second.
This podcast is produced by BobSloan Audio Productions.