In 1944, Hallmark adopted the slogan “When you care enough to send the very best.”
Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
Genesis 4:1-5 (NIV)
Why did God look with favor on Abel’s sacrifice, but not on Cain’s?
• Possibilities:
o The nature of the gift
Cain’s offering was not a blood offering
Based on verses like these:
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Leviticus 17:11 (NIV)
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22 (NIV)
God had not yet instituted sacrificial system.
Seems to be more of a thanksgiving offering than a sin offering.
Grain offerings were specifically allowed in the Book of Leviticus.
The Bible is clear that true worship is a matter of the heart, not a matter of form:
"The multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”
Isaiah 1:11 (NIV)
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 (NIV)
With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:6-8 (NIV)
o The quality of the gift
A little boy wanted $100 very badly. He prayed for weeks, but nothing happened. So, he decided to write a letter to God requesting $100.
When the postal authorities received the letter to "God, USA", they decided to send it to the President. The President was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5 bill. The President thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the $5 bill, and sat down to write a thank-you note to God. The postal authorities forwarded this letter on to the President, too.
It read:
"Dear God, Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington, D.C., and those guys deducted $95 in taxes!"
Abel brought the very best of his flocks
"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God...
Exodus 23:19 (NIV)
Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;
Proverbs 3:9 (NIV)
Abel cared enough to send the very best to God.
Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil
It’s obvious that Cain did not care enough to send the very best. But the question I have to ask is this: “Is that the reason God rejected his sacrifice, or is this just the result of some deeper problem in Cain’s life?” Let’s pursue that idea in a little more depth:
o The character of the giver
Although the passage in Genesis doesn’t give us much help in determining why God accepted one sacrifice and rejected the other, let’s look carefully at the wording in verses 4 and 5:
The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
Notice what the passage doesn’t say – God did not look with favor on Abel’s offering, he looked with favor on Abel and his offering. He did not reject Cain’s offering, he rejected Cain and his offering. So it appears on the surface that difference in the way God reacts to the two offerings is not based as much on the offerings themselves as on who brought the offerings.
There are three New Testament passages that shed some light on this issue:
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain…
Jude 1:11 (NIV)
What is “the way of Cain”? John gives us some insight into that:
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
1 John 3:12 (NIV)
According to John, Cain’s actions were evil and his brother Abel’s actions were righteous. There was clearly a difference in the character of these two men and that difference in character was a major factor in how God reacted to their offerings. But what was the underlying reason for the differences in character? To answer that question, we go to the book of Hebrews:
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
Hebrews 11:4 (NIV)
The writer of Hebrews makes very clear the basis on which God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s sacrifice. Abel’s sacrifice was offered in faith – the kind of faith that resulted in Abel being inducted to the faith “Hall of Fame” in Hebrews 11.
We’ve looked at a lot of passages this morning to help shed some light on what happened in Genesis 4, and based on what we’ve learned, here’s what I think happened with the offerings in Genesis 4:
Abel, who was a righteous man, recognized that all that he had came from God. And out of genuine gratitude for all God had done for him, he brought an offering of his very best and offered it before God. This was clearly an act of faith that recognized his dependence on God.
Cain, on the other hand, was an evil man, so in order to try to somehow appease God, he brought an offering, but it was an offering that consisted of less than his very best. Cain clearly lacked any kind of faith in God. His faith was in himself.
And so God accepted Abel and his sacrifice, given in faith, and he rejected Cain, and his sacrifice given without faith.
How do I make sure I care enough to send the very best to God?
1. Focus on relationship, not religion
I believe that Abel’s offering was an act of pure, devout worship that was based on what he knew about God. Somehow, we’re not exactly sure how, God had revealed Himself to Abel and as Abel developed a relationship with God, he wanted to respond to God’s greatness by giving his very best to God.
On the other hand, Cain’s offering seems to result more from a desire to participate in some religious ritual that would somehow appease God.
But before we condemn Cain, maybe we ought to take a look at our own lives. There are some of you here this morning that are only here out of some sense of religious duty. You think if you just come here once a week, sing a few songs, stay awake during the sermon and put some money in the offering plate, you’ve done your religious duty for the week and that will appease God. If you’re one of those people, then I feel really sorry for you, because you’ll never be able to give God your very best. But God wants us to have so much more:
You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.
Exodus 34:14 (NLT)
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God - all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.
Romans 5:11 (NLT)
When we take advantage of that relationship, when we have a deep desire to get to know God more intimately each day, then no one is going to have to coerce us to give God our very best. Out of love and appreciation for all He has done for us, we’ll gladly give God the very best of everything in our lives – time, talents, and treasure.
Illustration: Dating vs. marriage
2. Focus on faith, not form
Abel’s offering was an acknowledgment of his dependence on God. And isn’t that the essence of faith? Faith concedes that I am incapable of coming into a relationship with God based on my own works and that I need God’s intervention in my life in order to enter into a relationship with him.
Cain, on the other hand is a lot like most of us. It would be a whole lot easier if God would just give us a list of things to do and not do, preferably a very short list that wouldn’t keep us from living our lives just the way we want. And then what would we do, we’d skate by doing the very minimum in order to “pass the test”.
Illustration: School grades
But God wants something much better for us:
“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
John 4:23-24 (Message)
“…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)
Faith says, “God I’m so dependent upon you, that I want to give my very best to you out of gratitude for what you’ve done for me.” Form says, “I just want to give you the very minimum I can get by with. If I just get to heaven by the skin of my teeth, that works for me.”
3. Focus on God’s provision, not my possessions
I think that Abel recognized his bountiful flocks were from the hand of God. In fact, they didn’t even belong to him; they were God’s. So when he gave his offering, it was easy to give the very best. After all, everything belonged to God anyway.
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it
Psalm 24:1 (NIV)
But I think Cain was pretty proud of the crops that he had raised and harvested. And since he viewed them as his crops, Cain had a hard time letting go. He kept the very best for himself and gave enough to God to acknowledge that God at least had some small part in his success.
I don’t think that any of us here this morning would have a hard time with the idea that God has His hand in providing and developing our talents, our abilities, our gifts, our wealth and our possessions. But that’s a far cry from believing that all those things actually belong to God, that we are just stewards and that everything I have in my life is available for God to use however He wishes.
I heard about a preacher who tested one of his rich members. He asked the man, "John, if you had 100 pigs, would you give 25 to God?” John answered, "Sure, preacher." The preacher asked, "John, if you had 20 pigs, would you give 5 to God?" John answered, "Sure, preacher." The preacher asked, "John, if you had two pigs, would you give one to God?" John said, "Preacher, cut that out. You know I have two pigs."
