Introduction
This chapter was written to encourage some believers who were having a hard time. These examples of faith were meant to inspire them to keep on trusting and living for God even though they could not yet see the things they were believing God for. The first example of that is Abel.
When you have children you are amazed how 2 kids from the same parents can be so alike but also so different. Cain and Abel were very different. I’m sure that Adam and Eve were amazed at the contrasts between their offspring as all parents ever since have been. When they grew up Cain became a farmer, Abel a shepherd. But they also related to God differently. When you’re children relate to God differently it’s not your fault. Children are individuals, with minds of their own. The time came for Cain and Abel to make an offering to God. The nature of the offering that they were to offer was one of worship, of homage or allegiance, like that which was later brought to a king. It was an acknowledgement of lordship, a sign of submission. God accepted one but not the other. Why this was so the writer picks up here in Hebrews 11. Cain was so mad about it he killed his brother. So we see that the very first family was a dysfunctional one – which I find encouraging!
1. God looks at the person not the sacrifice
Many people have said that Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable because it was a blood sacrifice, Cain’s wasn’t. In all the references to this incident there is no inkling of this. Indeed it seems somewhat unfair on Cain. Besides it was an offering not of atonement, but homage. It’s acceptability was not in blood or not, but in the man himself. The acceptance of our service, our worship, our sacrifice to and for God does not lie in the offering itself but in us. The problem with Cain’s offering was not the offering but Cain’s heart. So - what are we doing for God? Giving, worship, prayer, fasting, reading bible? Do you live a godly life? Do you serve God? Good – but why do you do them? Do you do it to gain God’s favour? Are you striving for it? Are you like the sparrow in the story? A man who was traveling on his donkey came upon a small fuzzy object lying in the road. He dismounted to look more closely and found a sparrow lying on its back with its scrawny legs thrust upward. At first he thought the bird was dead, but closer investigation proved it to be very much alive. The man asked the sparrow if he was all right. The sparrow replied, "Yes." The man asked, "What are you doing lying on your back with your legs pointed towards the sky?" The sparrow responded that he had heard a rumor that the sky was falling, and so he was holding his legs up to catch it. The man retorted, "You surely don’t think that you’re going to hold it up with those two scrawny legs, do you?" The sparrow, with a very solemn look, replied, "One does the best he can." It is not necessary because it is not the offering but the person that counts. Specifically…
God wants our worship before our works – the story of Mary and Martha illustrates this. Martha desperately trying to get preparations done as Jesus was coming to dinner. Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Which would you have been doing – honestly? He wants our devotion before our duty and our love before our labour.
He looks at the heart not the outward appearance. Take Saul and David. Saul was appointed the first king because the people wanted a king. God gave them what they wanted, a king that looked good. Saul was a head taller than all the other men. People are impressed by all sorts of things; looks, ability, charisma. But not God, He looks within. You can’t fool God. Revels! This can be seen when Samuel went to get a replacement for Saul after God rejected him. The older brothers of David were all fine young men. But it was a boy, David, who was overlooked by his family whom God chose because his heart was right before God.
He desires obedience not sacrifice – Wholehearted obedience is the sacrifice that God really desires e.g., Saul in 1 Sam. 15:22. Saul was rejected as king because instead of obeying God’s clear command he did what he wanted to do and then sacrificed to God.
2. God looks for faith
All this points to this fact: God is looking for is faith – this is what pleases him. This is what makes us acceptable to God. It’s not about works. Abel was acceptable & Cain was not because of faith. Faith means different things in the bible. Different writers used the term differently. To James faith = believing something is true; to John and Paul it means personal trust and commitment (that is the reason for the apparent disagreement between James and Paul – one says we are justified by faith alone the other says not. It is obvious they mean different things by the word). It is obvious here that to the writer faith is more than believing in God Cain believed in God and brought an offering.
To the writer here it means something different – v.1. In some ways I think that his definition of faith is similar to Paul’s definition of hope. It is the ability to see the reality of the unseen world of God and to make it the goal of one’s life. The person of faith is a person who does not believe that this world we see is all there is. They believe that there is another world we cannot see – that is just as real, more real even. He lives for that. Time and again we will see this in this chapter. Faith is living for another world. Do you have faith? To answer that you have to ask “Am I living for another world or for this one?” That is a tricky question. When things are going well it is easy to get into a position where you live for this world not the next. You are comfortable, heaven on earth. When things are not going so well you can start to long for the Second Coming, you may start to think that heaven sounds like a great place. Beam me up Lord Jesus! The secret perhaps is when things are good not to forget that we are passing through and when things are not going so well not to forget that there is still a job to be done here. It’s like someone working hard, saving up for that special, dream holiday. It may take years to save, up, sacrifice and self-denial. But they are living for that. Putting in extra hours. They are living for another world. Similarly faith is living for another world. The difference is that we don’t get there by extra effort, but by faith. Seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness. This Abel did, Cain did not. They both believed in and worshipped God. Perhaps Cain was just going through the motions of religion, but his heart was fixed on other things. But Abel lived for God, he looked beyond the immediate, he set his heart on God, served him, loved him. This is what God is looking for. This is what pleases him.
Conclusion - Faith makes our service pleasing to God.
When we have this faith in God, in the unseen, when we are living for the next world not this one any offering made to God was acceptable. Our giving, our worshipping, our serving is all acceptable however imperfect it may be it proceeds from a heart of trust and reliance upon God.
We may well be motivated to serve God with zeal, but all our work for God – be it living a holy life, praying, bible study, giving, praying, fasting, serving, sacrificing – all of it should not be done to gain God’s favour. WE already have that by faith. It should be done because of our faith. Because we are living for another world we tithe. Why else would you give away 1/10 of your income? Why would you fast! Why would you sacrifice and serve God? We do these things because we believe in another world. When we do them God is pleased by them, not because of the offering itself, but because it comes from a heart that is fixed on God. This is what Abel discovered and as the Message puts it “After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.” Let your notice be caught by these truths. God is looking at you not what you do for him or bring to him. He wants to see a life where we live for him and eternity. Then all that we do for him will be acceptable to him.
