MONDAY 8th
Genesis 4:1-16
Today we turn to verse 4 of Hebrews 11, ‘By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.’
Our example today and tomorrow is that of Abel, ‘By faith Abel offered’.
I will call todays devotion ‘Faith Versus Works.’
What we discover about Cain and Abel in this chapter is that they both worship God and they both bring a sacrifice to God, Cain’s sacrifice was from the fruit of the ground and Abel’s sacrifice was through the sacrifice of an animal, Cain’s sacrifice was rejected by God while Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God
The end result was that a jealous Cain on seeing his sacrifice rejected and Abel’s accepted became very angry and his outward expressions became contorted and God gives this verdict in v7, ‘Sin lies at the door of your life and you are allowing it to control you rather than you controlling it.’ Later Cain catches up with Abel and the sin that lay at the door expressed itself in an even greater measure to the point that Cain killed or murdered his brother Abel. V8 shows us how one sin can lead onto another. Cain then lies to God as to the whereabout of his brother to which God in response punished him by saying his future labour would be decreased in what it produces and that he would become a vagabond and a fugitive, never finding a place to rest or settle. V16 is a sad verse, ‘Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord’.
What can we learn from this account?
Hebrews 11:4 answers the question for us, ‘By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice.’
It could be said that although Cain brought FRUIT as a sacrifice to God it was a sham because the fruit that was expressed through his life and his character was far from anything that it should have been if he had had a genuine relationship with God.
We should challenge ourselves here – as we seek to worship God and bring our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to him, in particular on a Sunday morning worship service would it be acceptable to God if it was contrasted to the kind of fruit we may have been showing during the week? We cannot live one way in the world during the week and then act differently when we come together on a Sunday. The fruit of our lives, the fruit of our lips should be the same 24/7.
The difference in the two sacrifices these brothers made is symbolic as to how mankind will try to seek to come to worship or to reach God throughout history. It will be one of two ways:
The way of Cain which is through works or the way of Abel which is by faith.
Cain’s sacrifice was a result of his works, that is working and toiling with the ground. Abel’s sacrifice came through the shedding of blood, he took from the firstborn of his flock.
Cain represents all the man-made religions of the world that seek to come to ‘God’ through human effort, through works centred religions and isms. Abel represents all that will come by faith to God through the blood sacrifice that Christ has made on their behalf.
The one through works the other through shed blood. And God will only accept the one way, the better way, the way of the cross and not the way of works. Isaiah clearly portrays for us that all our own efforts are like filthy rags, or polluted garments, ‘We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.’ (Isaiah 64:6) This verse clearly portrays that even our very best of efforts cannot redeem us, or as Paul later says in Ephesians 2 that even with the very best we can give in the way of good works this will never be sufficient to save us. ‘For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.’ (Ephesians 2:8)
Going back to Cain and Abel, you can imagine Cain picking the very best of the produce, proud to present his very best before God – sounds good doesn’t it, we would think that it seems a good thing to do, yet it was rejected. When Abel took his sacrifice, it would have been bloodied and marred and in all honesty not really a very pretty sight, nothing really to be able to boast about and yet God accepted it. Abel’s sacrifice reminds us of Isaiah 53 ‘He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men would hide their faces . . . Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.’
Psalm 149:4 ‘For the Lord takes pleasure in his people, he adorns the humble with salvation.’
Psalm 138:6 ‘For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows afar off.’
Cain’s murder of Abel comes about because of the rejection by God of his works orientated sacrifice and of his refusal to come the same way as his brother Abel did, the way of faith. This is also symbolic of the struggle, strife, hatred and persecution that faith-based Christianity has faced and still faces from the works-based religions of the world. As Cain persecuted Abel even to death, so the Church throughout its history has been persecuted by all who reject the way of faith.
What we can clearly learn from the lesson of Cain and Abel is that all who base their religion in the same way as Cain, will go the same way as Cain, they will be cut off from the presence of God for eternity but all who go the way of Abel because of faith in the blood sacrifice that Christ has made on our behalf, even though we will die we will be raised to be with God throughout eternity.
John11:25-26 ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’
Grace! ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear;
Heav’n with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.
Saved by grace alone!
This is all my plea:
Jesus died for all mankind,
And Jesus died for me.
’Twas grace that wrote my name
In life’s eternal book;
’Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.
Grace taught my wandering feet
To tread the pilgrim road;
And new supplies each hour I meet
While pressing on to God.
Grace taught my heart to pray,
And made my eyes o’erflow;
’Tis grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.
Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in love the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.
Oh, let that grace inspire
My heart with strength divine;
May all my powers to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine.
P Doddridge CCLI788682