Cain and Abel Offer Their Sacrifices by Gustave Dore
Do you remember the brothers Cain and Abel, the first two children born to Adam and Eve after God banished the couple from the Garden of Eden? Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman, and at some point, the brothers each brought an offering to God. Cain offered some of his crops, and Abel offered some of the first-born of his flock. “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,” Genesis says, “but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor” (Genesis 4:4-5 NIV).
At this place in the story, anyone following closely has a question: Why did God approve of Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s? It’s not a simple question to answer, especially if you limit yourself to the facts of the story as told in Genesis.
I remember learning in Sunday school that God accepted Abel’s offering because it included the shedding of blood, and foreshadowed Christ’s death, which would one day be God’s solution to all the problems his parent’s sin brought into the world. Cain, with his grain or fruit, brought the wrong kind of offering, so God rejected it. While we can’t rule out this answer to the question, the text of the story doesn’t mention it. What’s more, when God eventually instituted the Old Testament sacrificial system, he included both animal sacrifices and grain offerings. If God permitted grain offerings after the law was given, why would he not accept one from Cain?
Others answer the question by pointing to the degree of personal sacrifice required for each particular offering. God approved of Abel’s offering, they say, because he brought his best to God—something that really cost him. Cain, on the other hand, brought his leftovers. The Genesis account doesn’t exactly spell out this answer either, but it may hint at it when it says Abel brought “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock,” and Cain brought just “some of the fruits of the soil” (Genesis 4:3-4).
We have to go to the New Testament, to hall of faith in Hebrews 11 for a more direct answer to the question of why Abel’s offering pleased God but not Cain’s. “By faith,” we read, “Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead (Hebrews 11:4 NIV).”
Abel gave his offering in faith, the author of Hebrews said, and Cain, presumably, didn’t. God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering and rejection of Cain’s did not depend as much on the content or quality of each offering as it did on the motivation for giving it. Abel was certain God would keep his promises (see Hebrews 11:1), so he trusted him, and offered up the first-born of his flocks as an act of worship.
Since the Genesis story doesn’t mention Abel’s faith as the reason God accepted his sacrifice—it doesn’t, in fact, say anything at all about his faith— it may seem as if the author of Hebrews plucked his conclusion about Abel’s faith out of thin air. But he was actually an attentive scripture reader and careful thinker. Two verses after this he will write, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Because both Abel and his offering pleased God, he concluded that Abel acted in faith when he brought his offering. And just a few verses before this, in Hebrews 10:38, the author quoted a line from Habakkuk that says, “[M]y righteous one will live by faith.” As he understood it, when God approved of Abel’s offering, he was, in effect, calling him righteous, and according to Habakkuk, those who are righteous live by faith.
Taking Abel’s faith as the primary reason God accepted his offering doesn’t necessarily rule out either of the other possible reasons. Perhaps God had already given instructions for bringing animal offerings, instructions that are not recorded in scripture. Or maybe Adam and Eve told the brothers that God had provided animal skins to cover them after they sinned, and the family concluded that covering sin required killing an animal. If Abel somehow knew that God specifically desired animal sacrifice, then his animal offering was a sign of his faith.
Or what if Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock because he wanted to bring his best to God? Wouldn’t this prove his love for God? Wouldn’t it show that he trusted God’s ability to provide more lambs or kids for his flock? Wouldn’t such an offering exhibit faith?
Of course, when the author of Hebrews gave Abel’s faith as the reason behind his better offering, he implied that Cain did not bring his offering in faith. When we read the rest of the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:5ff), Cain’s lack of faith becomes obvious. We would expect someone whose offering was rejected by God to be contrite, at least if they loved God, trusted him, and wanted to please him. But Cain was anything but contrite. He was angry—angry first, it seems, with God for not commending him, even though, deep down, he must have known the sin in his own heart.
Still, God responded graciously to Cain’s rebellion. He offered him a way out of his bitterness and into God’s acceptance. Cain, God said, didn’t have to let his anger rule him. He could—and should—rule over it instead. But rather than repenting when God admonished him, or seeking God’s help to control his sin, Cain doubled down. He let his anger with God grow into jealous rage toward Abel. Then he let his rage grow into murderous hatred. Finally, he acted out the hatred in his heart and killed his brother.
And so Cain became the world’s very first murderer. He was included in the Hebrews hall of faith only as foil for his righteous brother Abel. When the Bible mentions him, it is to warn us to not be like him (See 1 John 3:12 and Jude 11.) Cain is remembered, not for his faithfulness, but for his shocking sin.
But Abel? His life was short (at least in comparison to those around him), and he died near the beginning of history, but he is mentioned in the hall of faith as an example of faithfulness. The author of Hebrews used Abel’s story to encourage his first readers keep on believing. They were tempted to turn away from Jesus, but he wanted them to be like Abel, who was approved by God because of his faith. He wanted them to keep trusting, to keep worshiping and serving Jesus, and to build their own track record of faith. By his faith, Abel, “though he is dead,” spoke to them. And since his story is told in Genesis and included in the hall of faith, Abel continues to speak to us, too.
A few generations after we die, chances are no one will remember us. If Ancestry.com is still up and running, our descendants may know our names, but they will likely know little else about us. Still, if we are faithful like Abel, our lives can speak even after we are dead, probably not for thousands and thousands of years, but certainly to our children, and maybe their children, and to anyone else we have influenced in this life. Our track record of faithfulness may spur others to faithfulness, too.
Abel’s short life reminds us that it’s never too soon to consider the story of faith we will leave behind.
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