Worthy of Commendation

January 3 (Genesis 4) 

            We live in a world where life is so cheap to some people.  The prevalence of media makes it seem like things are worse than ever before, but the world has always been full of anger which leads to murder. The story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4 is not just a reminder that we need to not let anger or jealousy lead us to the point of destroying others. 

True as that is, the real message of Cain and Abel is found in what the Bible says about them much later.  Cain, the older of the brothers, grew up to be a farmer. Abel was a herdsman, raising animals. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself. They both brought offerings to the Lord, Cain bringing an offering of his harvest, Abel bringing an offering of his herd. There’s nothing wrong with either of those.  But the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but had no regard for Cain and his offering. Because of that, Cain became angry and killed his brother. 

            Hebrews 11 tells us that Abel “offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.”  The problem with Cain was not his offering. To our knowledge, God never made any stipulations or commands for people to offer animals over plants. Adam himself was a tiller of the ground when he was first created.  The problem was with Cain’s character. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted because God saw the character of the man GIVING the offering.

            The true lesson of Cain and Abel has to do with what God seeks in people that causes them to be approved by him.  And the key word, at least in the book of Hebrews, is the word, “faith.” Abel offered God an acceptable sacrifice which was approved by God because of his faith.  His sacrifice was approved by God because HE was approved by God. 

            A lack of faith is what caused Adam and Eve to walk their own way and make the choice to put their trust in the words of a deceiver.  And it is that same lack of faith that causes a deceived world to look past the evidences of God’s reality and mock those who have eyes to see spiritual realities that defy human comprehension.