Articles

Hebrews / Chapter 11 / V4

By faith 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. ~He 11:4

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The biggest difference between the Old and New Covenant would be the Old Covenant was kept through the ritualistic practicing of the Laws, whereas the New Covenant was kept through faith. Hebrews Chapter 11 cited many giants of faith from the Old Testament which testified the forefathers of the Hebrew Christians who gained the Lord’s favour through faith. It was through this faith that they believed in God’s promises, experienced His miraculous works in their lives, and also received abundant blessings from Him. For the Hebrew Christians to receive the same blessings, they ought to model after them taking on the same journey of faith. What they should have done immediately was to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and to depend upon Him to live their daily lives.

Among the cloud of witnesses mentioned by the author, notably was Abel, who offered a better sacrifice by faith. Abel was Cain’s younger brother, and they were sons of Adam and Eve. The book of Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 to 16, gave an account of these two brothers. Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil for a living. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, and Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock as offering. However, the Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but not on Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” One day when they were out in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Why did the Lord find favour only with Abel’s offering and not with Cain’s offering? Several explanations had been given. One of them explained that the offering of Abel was the image of the sin offering that the Lord would institute in the future, and the offering required the blood of an animal as a sacrifice. However, there are some difficulties with this explanation. No doubt Abel was righteous, but for him to have understood that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” and thus chose to make an offering with an animal, would have stretched the argument too far. The sacrificial system was something that would only be established by the Lord for the Israelites in the next thousands of years. Considering that all things spiritual are initiated by God – never through the realization of man – and more often than not require clear teachings, detailed explanations, and repeated reminders, prior to comprehension. For Abel to have understood the sacrificial law from the far future would have been highly implausible.

Otherwise, could it be a mere coincidence that Abel kept flock? And offered something which managed to please the Lord? Absolutely not! Both Cain and Abel made an offering from the fruits of their labour, if the Lord were to judge based purely on a “coincidence,” would He not be deemed unjust? If this had happened, Cain would have deserved our utmost sympathy for he was dealt with unfairly by the Lord.

What was it then, that was unique with Abel’s offering that caught the Lord’s attention? During that time, the first born was considered the choicest of the flock and the fat portions were the best part of an animal. What Abel had offered were not from the ordinary flock, they were meticulously picked from the entire flock and only the finest among them were chosen. By going further to retrieve the fat portions to be offered to the Lord, how could the Lord not be moved by the heart and soul put in his offering? The Lord was pleased not only with Abel’s offering, but also his attitude. From the amount of effort put into his offering, it was not difficult to understand how important the Lord was in Abel’s heart, and how he must have loved and revered Him.

Cain similarly made his offering, however, he had only offered from the ordinary harvest. They were neither the first fruits nor was special effort involved in making the offering more appealing. In response to his offering, the Lord said, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” Evidently, Cain did not do what was right to offer up his best to the Lord. He did not consider his offering to the Lord of paramount importance, but had treated it lightly as something trivial. He who harboured such a disrespectful attitude towards God, so how could he expect the Lord to be pleased with his offering?

The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering because he did what was right, but not on Cain and his offering because he did what was wrong. The Lord’s displeasure with Cain had nothing to do with Abel. It was not a case of comparison which Cain offered up something good but Abel even better, which resulted in the Lord not looking favourably upon Cain’s offering. Because even without Abel’s offering, Cain’s offering still could not please the Lord; for the reason that he did not use all his heart, all his soul, all his strength, and all his mind to offer up his best to the Lord. Regrettably, Cain did not see his own shortcoming and even ascribed his failure to Abel. Being consumed by jealousy over Abel’s approval by God, he sought the death of his own brother. He thought that by eliminating his brother, left without a worthy contender, his offering would have no competition and naturally be deemed the best by the Lord. But he had thought amiss.