Sep29 Written by:Nathan Williams
Monday, September 29, 2008
I have heard (and perhaps claimed myself) that God told Abel what to sacrifice. The argument goes like this:
1. The Lord had regard for Abel's offering, but not for Cain's (Genesis 4:4-5). In those verses it explains that Abel offered of the firstlings of his flock and Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.
2. The REASON God had regard for Abel's sacrifice was because he offered it by faith (Hebrews 11:4).
3. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).
THEREFORE, the conclusion becomes this: God had obviously told Cain and Abel what type of sacrifice He wanted, and Abel was the only one of the two brothers who offered the RIGHT sacrifice.
That may be so, but that's not what the Scriptures say. We should be very careful to not jump to unprovable conclusions and state them as fact. The application is still valid. Faith does come by hearing the word of God, so we know God had told these two men what He wanted by way of sacrifice. It could be that both animal AND grain offerings were acceptable before God. Let us not forget part of true faith is the attitude of the heart. It very well could be Cain had a bad attitude. We see his attitude became so bad that he rose up and killed his brother over the issue!
Whatever the case, we can know God had informed both Cain and Abel what kind of sacrifice He desired. Abel offered his by faith. Cain did not. One was accepted by God, and one was not. We stand before God today by faith. Only God and I know if my faith is true. Only God and you know if your faith is true. Our faith comes by hearing and then is proven by doing. If we never get around to DOING, perhaps we never had faith in the first place...
Keep the faith,
Nathan
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