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1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. ~ Genesis 4:1-5
Today, we transition into Genesis 4 where we have the first conflict between the seed of the devil and the seed of the first woman, Eve. Here, we have the first set stage where we can practically see the hope of a woman looking for her return to paradise and then her dejection when she realized that she must have misunderstood what God had previously said.
In v.1-2 of today's passage we read, "1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have acquired a man from the Lord.' 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."
In Genesis 3 when the Lord cursed the devil, God said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
When that curse was pronounced, Eve stood right there and she heard every word. In that moment, Eve heard that her Seed would be the One to undo the treacherous works of the devil. And to prove it, when Eve had her first son, she named him Cain. It was when she gave birth to Cain that Eve said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord."
The structure of this sentence reveals that Eve was taking credit for what she thought would be the delivery of her Deliverer. Eve's idea that she had something to do with her salvation was completely misguided. It is only the Lord who works out our salvation. Frankly, the only role we play in our salvation is to receive it and then to realize it. There will never be any standing for any human to ever boast that we had any hand in our salvation. Our only boast is and will ever be in the Lord Jesus who laid down His life for anyone willing enough to believe.
Immediately after naming Cain the very next words were words of hopelessness. The Bible doesn’t tell us how old Cain was when Abel was born, but he was old enough for Eve to see that he wasn’t the one to restore her to Eden. We know this simply by the meaning of Abel’s name which is "breath" which is what we watch disappear on a cold day. In the book of Ecclesiastes, this very same word is translated "vanity."
By the time Abel arrived, Eve's outlook on life had gone from being the boastful woman who had a part of her own salvation to the unhappy surrender of a dejected soul that would spend the rest of her days on earth never returning to the bliss she had known in the Garden of Eden. To Eve, all was vanity or disappearing vapor in a cold and meaningless world.
Genesis 4:2 ends with the instructive words of, "Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." Both of these professions, tending flocks and harvesting grain, are used symbolically throughout the Bible to give us insights into the workings of God in general and the work of the Lord Jesus in particular. When we follow these agricultural themes closely, we will better understand the Creator’s dealings with man.
In v.3-5 of today's passage we read, "3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell."
The offerings that Cain and Abel brought to God reveal a significant difference between the two. Cain's offering of fruit was instantly rejected by God; but Abel's offering of a lamb was instantly accepted. How that rejection and acceptance was indicated we are not told in this passage. But, a careful study of the Scriptures bares forth the reasons; the first reason is given to us in Hebrews 9:22 which reads, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins."
The problem of sin is no light matter. It cannot be handled by a good resolution or an earnest resolve or a dogged determination to be good. Our sinful condition is not solved by simply deciding to turn over a new leaf, or to change our outlook on life. It is something that is embedded in our souls and touches us at the deepest levels. This problem of sin can only be solved by death. That, of course, is what ultimately explains the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His coming, He could not merely show us the way to be emulated, imitated or followed. No, He had to die to deal with our problem of our sin.
According to Hebrews 11 we also learn that the difference between these two offerings was their faith. More specifically, the object of their faith. Both, Cain and Abel had faith but what made up the difference was that Abel had biblical faith which is that the object of his faith was the God of the Bible. It was Abel's faith that made his offering a more excellent sacrifice as we are told in the book of Hebrews.
In Mark 12:41-44 we read, "41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.'"
Religion, if we let it, will convince and enslave us to believe that God wants some kind of activity from us in order for us to be acceptable to Him. Yet, the Scriptures tells us that the only thing that pleases God is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is where our hearts come into the formula. God always looks at and accentuates our hearts. As we see with this poor widow, nobody was watching her, yet, God says the kingdom of God is advanced most by her heart response to Him. The Lord Jesus has always had an eye for the insignificant among us. But, who wants to choose insignificance? The difference in this poor widow was she was being defined by the God who embraced her through her misery. This is what changed the woman; this is what enabled her to see as God sees. This is one of those times when less is more. This "poor" woman "gave out of her poverty, she put in all that she had, her whole livelihood." The rich didn't miss a cent of what they gave that day, but, this poor woman didn't either! She didn't miss it because she wasn't being defined by any of her possessions. She was complete and whole through the grace of God and her value was not wrapped up in her money.
Since the Lord looks at the heart, it was the faith that came out of the heart of Abel that pleased God that day. Cain’s offering was lacking faith in the God of the Bible and the Bible clearly bears out that the rest of Cain's life was one of lacking faith as well. His faithless deeds testified against him then, and they still testify today, some 6000 years later. Faith is trusting what our eyes cannot see. It is through our eyes that we see storms but it is through our hearts that we see our God. It is through our eyes that we see our faults but it is through our faith that we see our Savior.
