Today we begin Genesis Chapter Four.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James Version, click here.
Today we will go over one of the more famous stories in the Bible.
The story of two brothers named Cain and Abel.
The older brother was Cain and the younger was Abel.
In this chapter of Genesis, we witness the first murder ever recorded in the Scriptures as we see Cain become so enraged with jealousy over his younger brother that he ends up taking his life.
It all began on a day when Cain and Abel had brought offerings to the Lord.
Cain was a farmer who had offered up to the Lord a crop from his fields.
Abel was a shepherd who had offered up a sheep.
What happened afterwards is that the Lord looked with favor upon Abel’s offering but for some reason he was displeased with Cain’s offering.
Why?
The simplistic Gentile interpretation is that since only blood can atone for sin, Cain’s offering was not appropriate because it was an agricultural sacrifice and did not involve the shedding of blood.
I don’t think this interpretation is correct.
First, while it is true that only blood can atone for sin, sacrifices were also offered up for other reasons besides sin atonement.
For example, sacrifices could be offered to express gratitude to God for all of His blessings.
Sometimes they were presented to ask God to provide victory during an upcoming war or for divine help in overcoming a difficult situation.
In this situation, there is no mention that Cain and Abel had committed any specific sin necessitating the offering up of a blood animal sacrifice.
Second, I don’t see anywhere implied where God rejects produce sacrifices in favor of animal sacrifices.
In fact, in the Book of Leviticus, produce sacrifices are introduced as an acceptable part of God’s sacrificial system.
So what’s the real reason why God rejected Cain’s sacrifice?
I believe the answer can be found in the teaching of first fruits as explained in the Book of Deuteronomy.
“Take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket.”-Deuteronomy 26:2
Keeping this idea in mind, let’s compare the nature of Abel’s sacrifice with Cain’s sacrifice.
ABEL: “…Abel too brought from the firstborn of his sheep, including their fat.”-Genesis 4:4
CAIN: “In the course of time Cain brought an offering to Adonai from the produce of the soil.”-Genesis 4:3
So Abel brought the first fruits of what he had and that was acceptable to the Lord.
However, in contrast, the Scripture tells us that “in the course of time” Cain brought his offering to the Lord.
Actually, if you look at the original Hebrew, literally it says “in the end of days“!
It doesn’t mean the end of one day but means after the end of many days later Cain finally brought an offering to the Lord.
THIS WAS A BIG NO-NO!
When we give to the Lord, we are supposed to give our first and our best and we’re supposed to give it immediately because delayed obedience is disobedience.
What Cain did was that he looked at what he had in his crops, and then AFTER determining that he had enough finally gave an offering to the Lord.
Such an attitude betrays a lack of faith.
So the reason for the Lord’s disfavor had nothing to do with the fact that Abel gave an animal sacrifice and Cain didn’t.
It wasn’t what Cain gave.
It was how he gave what he gave.
He disobeyed by not giving the first fruits of his crop offering.
This was disobedience plain and simple and reflected a lack of faith in his heart.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“By faith Abel brought God
a better offering than Cain did.
By faith he was commended as righteous,
when God spoke well of his offerings.
And by faith Abel still speaks,
even though he is dead.”
-Hebrews 11:4
I love this explanation…..makes so much sense. Thank you
Thanks for reading Sandy and please forgive me for this super late reply to your kind comment. Be blessed and shalom!
what I think from this passage, God is not interested with what you do to Him, the issue is who is doing this to Him. No wonder many will claim to Jesus what they have been doing and He will tell them get away from me. I never know you. Matthew 7:21
This is the first time that i have read the explanation of why יהוה Elohim accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. Brilliant one, Moreh!
Hi Sueki, (I think we know each other from our Facebook exchanges!). I’m glad you found this article both eye-opening and enlightening.
I accept, this revelation for this scripture as this is the intereptation I got from it.
1- The bible made particular reference to both their occupation.
2- All words in scripture must be analyse and not inferred.
3- Cain and Abel was not responsible for the sins of their parent as the Lord had already redeemed Adam and Eve by the shedding of the animal as they were already clothed.
The bible went on to say that in the process of time, which means a period for growth and a period of harvest.
When Abel’s first flock came of maturity he made his offer to God.
1- Abel chose the best
2- It was from his first flock which represent honor and respect.
3- The presentation and packaging the fat, which Eli was greatly rebuked for.
4- Abel offering was in timing.
So Abel was more in tune with and God’s righteousness.
Cain made is offer,
1- The bible did not say first fruits as it says for Abel, his first flock.
2- Abel’s offer was presented first.
3- Remember Cain was the first born so it shows that Cain decided to make his offer after he recognised what his brother did, so it was not a planned nor prepare offer more on the term of competition.
Thank you for your insightful comment Sherine. Nice summary!
Hi Shrine, I to confirm my agreement with this revelation also. However, I would like to suggest that it is interesting that from the beginning when Adam (Iysh) and EVE (Iyshah) sinned that God did provide a covering for them and I think it’s safe to say it was a Blood Sacrifice. Now I know that the scripture does not teach that Iysh taught or told his kids about the Fall but I’m sure he did teach his kids about God. I arrive at this because in the new testament it says Abel offered his offering by Faith, and we know faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. I perceive that it is only reasonable to think that Ish taught his kids about their covering blood sacrifice and first fruits.
I don’r agree that it’s “safe to say” it was a blood sacrifice. I feel that if the first killing had to be done, that would have been a bigger deal that some implication through inference. YHWH is certainly able to make coverings. Personally, I believe that, having been made in the image and likeness of the Almighty, the folks’ light had “gone out” with sin and therefore they were able to see themselves for the dust they were and received actual skin from YHWH.
I also interpret the Cain and Abel debacle differently–and simply as a matter of Abel bringing that which man had Yah-given dominion over–the animals. Cain brought of the curse–the land–of which man was now a servant.
In addition to that, the Bible teaches that all creatures have fallen sin and defiled over the glory of God. This is because Adam and Eve who are our ancestors and direct biological parents to Cain and Abel, will always be their a need of reconciliation with our father by repentance through the blood.
In Old Testament, the blood of animals, and in the new Testament, the blood of Jesus Christ.
The fact that Cain would have presented an animal before the Lord, gives sense, but where could he get it? Would it be by exchanging his first yields with good sheep by his brother Abel, or the issue of bringing first yields expecting it to represent the lamb of God?
It’s quiet clear that what they were offering to God had a direct attitude with the art of building relationship with God by being forgiven their sins and that’s through blood only.
Thank you.
Why do you make assumptions that for God to clothe Adam and eve .he had to sacrifice or slaughter an animal…really?…I cant beleive that God took a knife blodied himself as he skinned an animal…he ia the almighty God….made the heavens and the earth by his words….what is a skin to him?…cant he make that too?
The Orthodox Christian understanding has always been based on scripture that both offered entirely legal Sacrifices under the inferred law but Abel simply cared and appreciated giving a sacrifice while Cain just did what he had to do to get by. Therefore Cain lacked care. In Hebrew scripture both offerings are named by a Hebrew word that means lawful sacrifice. It was nothing to do with what they offered as you said but again it was how they offered it out of the heart. It has to do with the ego of men because God doesn’t need sacrifices we need them. Sacrifices were to clean our conciense having little to no effect on the disposition of God.
I love your comment.
What is the difference between a tithe and an offering? Also is our first fruits as of today based on our personal income? For example .. I payed into SSI for many years and the government withheld and I payed 10% tithe on my net income.. does that mean when I get a SSI check each month now I should take 10% and give that to the Lord as my first fruits? Little confused!
Hi Ronny, A tithe is “set” or “established” amount that God has ordained be given to the Levitical Priesthood and to be honest with you, I’m not so sure if it’s valid today as there is no Levitical Priesthood. I am still studying this issue. (So I cannot answer the question regarding your SSI check. Please pray on this matter.) On the other hand, an offering is a NOT a set amount nor is there an obligation attached to it. You give as your heart desires and as you feel led by the Lord to give. Admittedly, this is one of those areas where there is a lot of confusion and that causes a lot of heated debates.
Richoka.. how do you read Malachi 3:8,9?? in reference to tithes.
I think in our present day if we observe tithes we’ll be observing the law which is hard to keep up with I think with a new covenant tithe will appear to be works
Hi Rich, first of all excuse my English as it is not my first language. Now back to the discussion:
In the old covenant God established His kingdom here on earth to live together with man. That was the purpose of the temple. Now because of the sinful nature of us humans (remember what happened when Moses went 40 days to get the ten commandments, how the people rebelled against God by making a golden calf), God set apart Levites to be priests, establishing a royal priesthood. It was a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD because God Himself was the king, ruling from the temple. That was Eden brought back.
Because the priests were to keep themselves holy before God (who was ruling from the holy of holies), they were not to work, instead a system to support them was established and it is what we call TITHES. Today we are all priests, a royal priesthood of believers. We save in the temple where Jesus is our high priest, standing in the presence of God just as the high priest did in the old covenant. Therefore we are to receive tithes, NOT give. Then who gives us the tithes?
Mat 10:7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Mat 10:9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
Mat 10:10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
Mat 10:11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.
Mat 10:12 And when ye come into an house, salute it.
Mat 10:13 And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
Now, since we are the citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we do not have to worry about how we can survive, we only need to have faith in God. That is what it says in Mathew 6:
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Because we are citizens of the kingdom under our king Jesus Christ, everybody works to provide for ourselves and our families, but while doing the king’s command. proclaiming the GOOD NEWS of the kingdom of God. If we have faith in God we shall want nothing. Just remember without faith, it is impossible to please God. Let us have faith in our king and He will provide for us.
Rinny, in my humble opinion, tithing is part of the Law, and as Christians, we are no longer bound by the Law.
Hi..thank you for your article. I’ve been searching for an answer to this for awhile. In fact I just read another article on another site that stated Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because it was not made “by faith”, however it didn’t explain what that meant and just said that was the reason. It didn’t explain anything further. I’m wondering if both reasons may apply? Thank you again. This was very helpful.
Thanks for reading! I’m glad you found this article helpful. Please read others and SHARE! Shalom!
I have held the same views as the author- that God’s rejection of Cain’s sacrifice had nothing to do with blood, otherwise Moses would have stated it clearly in Genesis 4.
if God rejected Cain’s offering because it had no blood, then it would imply that any time Cain wanted to offer something to God he would have to buy one or two sheep from Abel.
Yes, it is true that God did cover Adam and Eve, but there again, we read into the text by assuming he killed an animal- what if he just sheared some sheep and used the skin- he purposely made sheep’s skin for that!
I think we read a lot into the text.
For many years I have believed that Cain and Abel brought free will offerings. Even though God had not taught them the principle of first-fruit God used the opportunity to teach them he wanted the first and best.
That is the principle taught here. To insist that God rejected Cain’s offering because of the absence of blood is reading too much into the text.
Kudos Richoka
Your articles are very inspiring and helpful please keep it up. may bless you.
Thanks!
Thank you so very much for your explanation , I heard a Jewish teacher taught a lesson o this subject, it’s really an impact .Thanks again.
Shalom
Thanks for reading Gwenneth.
Hi Rich!
It’s Jay Viernes from HTC. How are you? Hope you are doing well and in God’s grace.
I just read your Abel and Cain offering interpretation blog and it completely did a full U turn on my perspective on why we should give our first fruit to the LORD our God right away!.
Thank you so much for changing something in my way of thinking about the holy scriptures.
I am totally blessed that I have met you.
Sincerely:
Jubilant Viernes
PS. I’m going to start reading your blogs my friend and I look forward in meeting up with you someday soon after our HTC program 😀👍 May in Yeshua a Christ the Holy LORD our God bless you always my friend. See you next class and talk to you soon.
Hey Jay,
Thanks for reading my blog and sharing your comment.
Did you know that in the Hebrew language there is no word for “coincidence”.
Do you know what I think?
I think the Lord may have brought us together for brotherly fellowship through the HTC program.
You never know, that could be the case.
I’ll be praying for you that you will be a success in the program.
And pray for me as well.
Shalom,
Rich
Lovely, I thank God for giving you the opportunity to using your time to do a work like this, in the middle of the night, this question came to my mind, thank God I’m satisfied with the answer I got hear, I pray God gives us all the grace to apply the lesson there of.
Thanks!
This explanation makes a lot of sense,thank you
Glad you enjoyed this. Be blessed and shalom!
But what about this?
Both of them gave offering after the words At ends of days…..why should we exclude Abel from it but make it responsible alone for Cain?
My 5 cents. Because faith comes by the word of God and Abel did sacrifice by faith(while obviously Cain did not) Abel and Cain needed to hear the word of God either directly or as told by parent/s(Adam and/or Eve) who heard it from God.
The difference in interpretations comes mostly from what did God say.
Because blood sacrifice was required to be done by Abel(Abel who obeyed), it was shadow of things to come e.g. pointing to the ultimate sacrifice of “the One who is to come”.
From Scripture I don’t remember how to know what did God say to Cain and here you can speculate by mind or got told by Holy Spirit.
Yoir interpretation says that God said to Cain to offer firstfruits of grain and that he missed by not obeying “firstfruits” part. And to Abel he said to offer blood sacrifice from firstfruits.
And that Cain missed firstfruits part.
Classical interpretation just says that God said the same to both Abel and Cain the same.
Because you can err if you do not know the scripture And power of God(Holy Spirit), the only way is that Holy Spirit quickens what is true to you.
“The simplistic Gentile interpretation is…”
I have never been in a church that taught this. In fact, several I have been to that taught on this have made is clear that the ‘firstfruits’ designation was the key. Perhaps you could reword this to not cat aspersions on is all?
Sorry, but my auto-correct mangled that last sentence.
Every gentile church I’ve been has taught this…including a vast majority of Christian commentaries.
Thank you so much for this explanation. I have pondered this question for years. This explanation explains the intentional disobedience that Cain displayed. Bravo and may good continue to bless you with knowledge, health and abundance in all things.
Crystal Webb
Glad you found this helpful Crystal. Be blessed and Shalom!
Good day.
Thanks for your explanations.
However, the answer to why God had respect unto Abel’s offering or sacrifice but rejected that of Cain can be found in Genesis 3:17.
God had cursed the ground thus anything from the ground is unacceptable to God.
That includes our flesh (body) and all our efforts to please God is futile and filthy before God. God accept only JESUS CHRIST perfect sacrifice.
Cain symbolic of man relied on his human effort but was rejected and the real nature of man showed up where he killed his brother Abel.
On the other hand, Abel symbolic of Jesus offered what God has already prepared.
May the HOLY spirit stir up your heart to know and understand this truth that ONLY BY JESUS WORKS!
AMEN!
MAGDALYN KYONA
See Genesis 3:17.
The answer is God cursed the ground because of Adam’s disobedience.
So anything from the ground is under curse & cannot be accepted by God. – this symbolizes man’s efforts, zeal and desire to please God. That’s why God rejected Cain’s offering.
On the other hand God accepted Abel’s offering because Abel offered what God wants and that is what he has already prepared before the creation of Adam.
Today how do we go before God?
As Cain or as Abel?
Jesus Christ is the lamb without blemish, already prepared by God for us, only if we believe. God bless you more IJN AMEN.
Hebrews 11:4 states: ‘By Faith’ Abel offered up a greater sacrifice. Which means God searched Abel’s and Cains heart to determine if they both put faith their offerings, this is only logical conclusion. Therefore it was determined by God that Abel exhibit ‘faith’ in his offerings and Cain did not. Abel’s faith in his offering to God determined that his offerings was of greater value. How does God determines our Faith? By examining our hearts. Psalms 26:2, 139:23.
I have question regarding Cain’s rejection, how can God receive an offering from the the same ground He cursed? Did that not make the offering cursed? Someone please explain this to me.
Hi
I have also found it hard to narrow in on what exactly led to approval of one sacrifice over another. Reading comments still left me thinking there was a deeper issue, a heart issue. And caused me to think of why someone else’s success would lead to murder, .
A look at Esau was favored by his father for providing meat had me thinking this may also have played into the depravity of Cain’s heart at God’s disapproval.
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
I John 2:9-11
I believe Cain had jealously that grew into bitterness and blinded him to murder his own brother.
Huh yes sure but the thing is if both sacrifices were to be accepted would he still have murder his brother? No! God never did be nice to him and what results do we as humans get when our parents pick our brother or a sister leaving us hanging, it’s hatred. So I think cain is somehow someway in his decision. The God brought it all
Looking at what Genesis potrays between cain and Abel, I can specifically say that God brought separation amongst the brothers and it bled hatred in Cain’s resulting in murdering his brother. Taking this incident into real life, when your parents accepts the life of one brother or a sister and despise the other it brings hate and separation between the siblings. God had to accept each sacrifice if indeed he was truthful, all knowing and all seeing to prevent the incident from happening