In which we discuss the faith of Abel; his brother Cain and their sacrifices; sweaty sacrifices; connecting the Scribes and Pharisees.

Tim: We are now in Hebrews 11 which has been traditionally called the “Roll Call of Faith.” These are brief biographies of Old Testament characters.

“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.”

We note here that Abel offered his sacrifice “by faith.” I’m going to argue that the men and women of old did not expect what they did to be truly effectual. My reasoning is based in the text of Hebrews. Abel offered a sacrifice from the flocks, right? The author of Hebrews has already declared that the blood of bulls and goats – anything from the flock – was unable to take away sins. What the author of Hebrews has already said should govern our interpretation. This helps us to understand what the author means by using the phrase, “by faith.”

Remember that the very last verses of Hebrews declare that whatever acts were performed by the Old Testament faithful, they did not manifest what God had promised. Why is that? Because the promises of God where destined to be fulfilled for the people in the 1^st century, that is, the Christian readers of Hebrews. It was to these people in history that God “…provided something better...” (v. 40).

We note that everyone mentioned in Hebrews 11 were futurists (they believed that the second coming of Christ was in their future). I believe Abel was “by faith” looking at his sacrifice and thinking, “I know this is not what God truly desires, but I trust him that there is something ahead in the future that he will provide for us to take away sins.” We need to understand that they saw their actions as something that heralded a promise in the future, and because of that they gained approval from God. However, their actions at that time did not result in them receiving that promise.

The author has already complained about the Old Covenant sacrifices, that they could not make perfect those who draw near to God. In the theology of Hebrews, Abel understood that. All the Old Testament saints understood that. Abel knew that his sacrifice was no more effectual in taking away his sins than his brother’s was. He understood there was something later that God would provide to take away his sins. Besides, if Abel’s sacrifice was effectual in taking away his sins, what would have been the need for Christ?

Now let’s explore the glaring question before us. What made Abel’s sacrifice superior to Cain’s? The author tells us that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did. What made it better? Let’s revisit Genesis 4 and see if we can get some insights.

We have read the story where Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God cursed the serpent then, addressing Adam, he cursed the ground. After exiling Adam and Eve from the garden, we are told that, “…the man had relations with his wife, Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, ‘I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.’ Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4:1-2).

The Hebrew word used for ground is adama, not the word eretz. Eretz is usually used to talk about the land as in the land of Israel. But if we’re talking about the ground where the crops are cultivated, that is the word adama. Adam was taken from this same ground and because of that he was named Adam. Cain, we are told, was a tiller of this ground.  Keep this in mind.

“So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground” (Gen. 4:3). This was the sacrifice that Cain would offer in contrast to his brother’s, which was a “better sacrifice.” “Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.’ Cain told Abel (or, Cain spoke to) his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” (Gen. 4:4-8)

Ron: That took a turn. God told him to do better and he did the exact opposite. That’s the turn.

Tim: It was indeed! Now, we have a lot to unpack here. Let’s address the question about what made Abel’s sacrifice superior to Cain’s. Remember that Cain was a tiller of the ground. Let’s review what God said to Adam in the previous chapter of Genesis. After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were ashamed about their nakedness and they hid themselves. In verse 17 God says to Adam, “…because you have listened to the voice of your wife and you have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you saying you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you.” Remember, Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Roger: So, he was offering from that was all cursed.

Tim: Right, and what was the curse? Obviously, it does not mean nothing will grow in the ground. It isn’t that kind of a curse. It wasn’t a curse causing barrenness in the soil. The curse had more to do with the tiller than it did the ground. Let’s continue reading in Genesis.

Here is the actual curse: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19; bold added).

So, I think the emphasis to the tiller, the person working the ground is, “You didn’t have to work for this, but now you will sweat to bring about any produce. It will no longer be a simple dependence upon the garden I planted. You will have to sweat now.” Let’s review Genesis chapter 2, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant to the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:4-7).

But now pay attention to verses 8-9 with some emphases: “The Lord God planted a garden toward the east and Eden; And there he placed the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground (adamah) the Lord caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; The Tree of Life also was in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

Here the Lord God established his garden that was abounding and lush, and he placed his creation, the man and his wife, in this garden to enjoy that fruit. There was no toil or sweat on the man’s part here. They were fed by God and spent their time walking and communing with their heavenly Father.

Dwight: It does say down in verse 15 that God put man in charge of the garden to cultivate it

Tim: True. This is actually the same Hebrew word used in the post-fall activities of Adam and Cain regarding agriculture. This was what Adam was supposed to do to the ground after his exile from Eden (Genesis 3:23).  But in Genesis 2, there was no mention of any sweat and toil on man’s part. We see a parallel verse in Genesis 1:29 where God said, “Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.” So, in other words, the fruit of the ground was something that was a gift of God. It was there in the Garden when the man and woman arrived.

There is no mention here about Adam having to toil and sweat for it. This food was graciously given by God without man having to work for it. I think this is how we understand the spiritual sense of Genesis. We are to understand that in the Gospel, every spiritual nourishment originates from God himself and not by our own works. This was emphasized our last study that the New Covenant is unilateral, that God swore by himself to establish his love for humanity. Like God planted the garden and then placed the man and woman in there to enjoy the fruit, so in the Gospel God established the New Jerusalem in Christ and his people are to enjoy his grace. To sweat and toil for God’s love is the mark of fallen humans.

Valori: Right, because one of his promises is that he will provide for us.

Tim:  Exactly! So, let’s return to Cain and Abel. Cain was a tiller of the ground, but it’s already been established that God has cursed the ground, that anyone tilling the ground would have to do so by sweat and effort. This is not the way it is in the Gospel.

In John 6:26, The crowds were asking him what they needed to do that they “…may work the works of God.” They were wondering what kind of toil, sweat, and effort they could perform to be fed by God. They were inquiring about a Cain-like sacrifice. Jesus told them that the only work they had to put in was to believe on him who was sent by God, an Abel-like sacrifice.

Valori: It’s telling us that God wants to give us life; if we want to work for it there will be sweat and tears.

Tim: Indeed! This will become more evident as we go on, so keep that in mind. Another aspect we need to address is Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves.

Roger: Their nakedness was due to shame. God took animal skins then clothed them, so in a way it’s like Cain repeating what Adam and Eve did before God took care of it. Cain was trying to do with his sweat and toil in the fields rather than an animal like God used. This is Cain imitating his father Adam where Abel imitated God. Abel followed the pattern of what God did and offering an animal from the flock.

Tim:  Let’s examine that further because I think there’s something interesting there. Cain is usually portrayed as being a dishonest and conniving person. I remember seeing an old movie where Cain and Abel were preparing for their sacrifice. Cain was gathering his grain in a basket all filled up to the brim, then he looks around and starts taking some out like he’s not going to offer the whole amount.

I disagree with that portrayal. I think Cain was proud of what he grew. He worked hard and sweated for this offering. He took what God had cursed and brought forth an offering from it. To him, this was a virtue. He was thinking, “This is a good offering for God and he should accept it, because I poured my sweat into it and have calluses on my hands in bringing this forth. How can God not be pleased?”

This has the markings of self-righteousness. He gave the best of his portions as an offering to the Lord, but his mistake was in thinking that an offering gained by his sweat and labor from a ground that was cursed by God would actually be pleasing to God.

Valori: So, what was Cain’s supposed to do? Go out and steal a sheep from Abel?

Tim: Let’s table that question for now and come back to it. Cain truly thought he was bringing his best, and that was an offering produced by the sweat of his brow. Let’s ponder the application of this. The need for a sweat-offering is taught in some evangelical and Catholic churches today. The exhortations that, “You don’t do enough for Jesus; you haven’t worked hard enough for Jesus; you haven’t been out winning enough souls for Jesus. You must put more work into your faith. You must read your Bible and pray more. You must come to more church meetings.” So, when there is the exhortation from the pulpits to work harder in your faith, this is a call to give to God an offering like Cain was giving. God looks at all of our deeds like filthy rags just as he saw Cain’s offering as being unacceptable.

Tyrone: May I make a comparison? I keep thinking of Mary and Martha. Martha is going around the household doing all the hard work at cleaning and setting the dinner table. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him the whole time. This makes me ponder the difference between Cain and Abel. Abel copies what God did to clothe his parents in the garden. Cain puts in the sweat and toil from the ground that’s been cursed and he’s not offering anything by faith, he’s living by the flesh because he’s eating whatever the ground gave him.

Tim: I think that’s an excellent comparison and if we went through the Gospels, we would find many more illustrations like that. Consider Ezekiel’s vision of the temple in chapter 44. In this vision, he is describing a glorified temple and the priesthood. I think he is seeing a New Covenant temple like the one Peter describes as being made of living stones. This vision goes on for several chapters, but we’re interested in the place he is talking about the priests and their ministry. Specifically, he is referencing the sons of Zadok. Zadok’s name is derived from the Hebrew word for “righteousness.” He is saying these are the sons of righteousness that are ministering in the temple. Listen to this:

“It shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; And wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house. Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; They shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat” (Ezekiel 44:17-18; emphasis mine).

I thought this was interesting! In this New Covenant vision of the temple, he says sweat is not something that is allowed when ministering in the holy of holies. We can compare this to Jesus encounters with the scribes and the Pharisees, and his rejection of their sacrifices. Let’s look again in Matthew 12:1-7.

“At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples became hungry began to pick the heads of brain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.’ But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the House of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, “I desire compassion and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent.’”

Look at Jesus’ attitude towards sacrifice! Jesus was bringing the Pharisees to task. First, he rebukes them for condemning the disciples who were innocent. He quotes from Hosea telling exactly what God truly desires. It is compassion! I think this was the advantage of Abel’s sacrifice over his brother’s. This underscores that even the most zealous of Christians can be ignorant about what truly pleases God.

Jesus is prosecuting the Pharisees because they were pushing his disciples to deny their hunger to honor a ritual. They were making the labor more intensive here by demanding they stop plucking the grains. They were demanding that the disciples suffer more for God’s glory. “God will be pleased with you only if you stop working and your stomach is empty.” This was Cain’s attitude. “I worked hard for this!” Yet God says of his hard work, “You wasted your time. I’m not taking anything that is produced by sweat.”

Roger: It’s also missing the meaning of the Sabbath, because the next verse tells us that the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. We could say that the son of man is the perfect fulfillment of the Sabbath, the fulfillment of the picture of the Sabbath day’s rest. God did his work in six days on the Sabbath then he rested. Under the law, we labor and sweat and toil to make our offerings, but under the Gospel we rest.

Valori: There needs to be faith to accept God’s provision. God provided in the garden a lush supply of food, but Cain apparently rejected that.

Tim: Ty provided a good illustration and I think there are many more in the Gospels. Let’s look at Luke 18. “And he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all I get.” But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, “God be merciful to me, the sinner!” I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.’”

This is a perfect illustration of self-righteousness, and this was the problem with Cain. Cain brought his sacrifice that he had grown by the sweat of his brow. He thought that deserved the attention of God, so he viewed his brother with contempt, as we see in his later actions. It makes you wonder what Cain and Abel we’re talking about when standing in the field that led to Abel’s murder. It doesn’t take too much speculation to believe there was contempt toward Abel on the part of Cain. Cain was like the Pharisee who boasted about his good works but despised the tax collector and his worship.

I can imagine Cain saying to God, “I thank you that I am not like my brother who just sits around watching his flocks. These animals feed themselves and he just leads them around. What I do, I sweat for.” In Jesus’ parable, the Pharisee proudly recites the things he’s accomplished by the sweat of his brow. He’s boasting that he works hard at being a good guy, he puts a lot of work into his religion, and he’s not like those who lay around doing nothing. He is proud to not be like other people.

In the end, Jesus says the Pharisee failed in gaining the righteousness of God. I see this as a parallel to Cain and Abel. Let’s finish the story. Genesis 4 is a tale about two guys that come before God with their sacrifices. Abel is the one who brings his offering from the flock, a picture of the future blood sacrifice of Christ, and pleads with God to be merciful to him, the sinner. I see Abel as being a man who is humbled and broken. He is looking at this blood sacrifice and saying, “Lord, that should be me!”

Valori: It is kind of counterintuitive. I mean, here we are human beings raised to work hard, we’re told not to be lazy, so to just rely on God without effort is incongruent.

Tim: Yes, and I think that’s where we find walking in the liberty of Christ so difficult to live out, because somehow it is in our mind that you don’t just get free things from somebody else without strings attached. The things you get, you work for, you earn, you pay back. You feel like for every gift there needs to be a return of sweat or sacrifice back into it.

Tyrone: We might think another way to look at Cain and Abel is that what their offering was isn’t really the issue. We don’t know what Abel’s attitude was after he made his offering and it was accepted, but we do know what Cain’s attitude was and there was a frustration that God did not accept his offer. He would say, “I worked really hard for this; I sweated a lot for this offering and you didn’t like it! Maybe I’ll just give up.” God speaks to him and he not only doesn’t appreciate it, he goes out and murders his brother. I think the most important part of the story is how Cain reacts. Maybe he is resentful because he can only work with what he’s been given. We can make things worse if we complain or get jealous of others. We are jealous that they did not put in the effort and mistakes can be made. That’s the way I’m looking at this.

Tim: I think those are good insights. When we understand this in light of institutional religion or Old Covenant religion, it is the theology of bilateral agreement. “If you do this, I will bless you; and if you don’t do this I will curse you.” In this theology, effort was required. The agreement was that you needed to put some sweat into your religion if you are going to be successful. In that model, Cain brings his offering and it is unacceptable, disregarded by God whereas Abel’s offering given by faith was accepted.

Roger: Abel was looking forward to the real sacrifice. His “by faith” sacrifice was accepted because he looked forward to the better sacrifice that we see in Hebrews.

Tyrone: Doesn’t Paul mentioned this in Romans? He’s referring to those who eat vegetables only and I think that’s a great thing. “Fine,” he would say, “if you don’t want to eat meat, that’s fine, but don’t make it something that everybody else has to do.” Life with God is not about your own efforts. If we’re in Christ, there’s nothing we can do that will prompt God to love us more than he does. We just accept that we are loved by God, right? We believe that and accept it and we don’t have to add anything to that. Trying to add to that brings jealousy and frustration.

Tim: Let’s consider something Valori said earlier. When we get up in the morning and we haven’t done a single thing either good or bad, the Gospel declares that at that moment the Father loves us deeply, widely, thoroughly, and forever. You were in his presence and if you have a bad day, the truth of his love has not changed one bit. You have not lost the love of the Father and it has not been diminished. If you get up and have a great day – you spend time in prayer and in Bible reading; you’ve had great insights into God – the Gospel still declares that God does not love you any more because of that. All of your laborers may certainly benefit you, but the love of the Father is still as rich as when you began the day.

Those who offer the sacrifice of Cain are expecting that this will impress God more, that his estimation of you will be greater. You wind up thinking maybe that you’re better than the other guy, “I thank you, God, that I’m not like those who missed their quiet times, who did not spend time in prayer, who were not out sharing Jesus with others.” In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, it was the humble guy who was broken before the father that went down to his house justified rather than the guy who sweated for his religion and was proud of his works.

In all of his boasting, the Pharisee failed to impress God and fell short of justification. That’s a hard thing to accept, just like it was a hard thing for Cain to realize his offering was not acceptable. We can be downcast if we realize that our best efforts have not moved God one bit to increase his love for us because his love has already been bountifully poured out in his Son. His love is at the brim of our cup before we can ever break a sweat. We can’t bring anything to him that will budge the needle higher for his love, because Jesus was that better sacrifice that brought the full bounty of the Father’s love to us without any sweat or toil on our part.

Roger: The sweat and toil is synonymous with Cain. He looked for righteousness through his own efforts. He loved working in the field and sweating for the crops more than he loved his brother, because he murdered his brother in the field where he grew his offering.

Tim: There is another passage in 1 John 3 which deals with this. Here, we are warned to not be like Cain because he was of the evil one and slew his brother. The motive, says John, is that Cain’s deeds were evil, but his brothers were righteous. Cain was not out in the world murdering people. We need to look at what led to that killing which was that he was trying to impress God by his work centered sacrifice.

So if you take that into account, it’s not that he was out there on a crime spree, murdering and killing. The issue was that “his deeds were evil.” That’s what led to the killing, which being that he tried to impress God, by his work-centred sacrifice.

Valori: Well, was it the sacrifice that God didn’t accept, or was it his attitude in the sacrifice?

Tim: I think examining the lives of the Pharisees would bring us many comparisons to Cain. They worked hard their religion and insisted that others work as hard as they did. They would stand on the street corners praying and lengthening the tassels on their robes. Along comes this upstart, Jesus, telling them that they are wasting their time because God would much rather have them show compassion to the people then he would their performance of self-righteous deeds. So, it’s not just the grains or the fruit of the ground that Cain offered that was the issue, it’s the heart and attitude that go along with it. It’s a misunderstanding of what pleases God and what he finds acceptable.

Valori: This is particularly hard for me since I was raised in a farming culture and this illustration is agricultural. My grandparents worked very hard to till the soil, but they would feed and came to the door. It seems that this is the attitude of the Gospel.

Tyrone: This is why I think it’s not about the offerings but about the way they reacted to God in making their offerings. In the story, it is mentioned that Cain’s countenance fell; in other words, he adopted the wrong attitude. He is saying, “God, you didn’t like what I offered you. Why are you rejecting my offering?”

Roger: All the way until AD 70 the Old Covenant law was still in effect. Whatever they did in worship, they would not receive any righteousness. Jesus spoke to the crowds and told them regarding the scribes and the Pharisees, “…all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them” (Matthew 23:2). We are not to do according to their deeds because those were rooted in the Old Covenant. Jesus kept the Old Covenant, fulfilled it, and never broke that Old Covenant.

Tim: No, he didn’t. He fulfilled it, brought it to an end, and closed the contract out. My friend with whom I worked at Barnes and Noble has had issues in her family with mental illness. She told us a story about going to a seminar where a guy gives a testimony. He said that for ten years, he believed that people were following him. He was always looking over his shoulder and was scared to leave his house out of fear. One day, it came to him that nobody was following him. He said that that was a delusion in his mind and he sought help. He said it took him 10 years to achieve a balance in life.

There is what I call bipolar Christianity. In today’s Christian culture run by institutional religion, it is planted in the mind of Christians that God loves them but he is upset with them for lack of performance. They are convinced they are under his curse and are being punished for things they did. They become convinced that the devil has been turned loose on them and the solution is for Jesus to return and fix everything.

Yet, the heavenly reality is that the grace of God has been completed in Christ which removes the fear, cleanses the conscience, and liberates the soul from this bipolar mentality. I think this spiritual bipolarism is illustrated in Cain who believes that he needs to impress God with his sweaty offering. Abel sees the reality through faith and says, “No, it is not this sacrifice of an animal which does anything for me to take away my sins. I get that. It does show me a picture of something God has planned. There is God making a promise that one day my sins will be taken away.”

I think that’s why Abel presented a better sacrifice than Cain, because it was not a sweat-based work, or offering, or sacrifice. I think that’s why Abel presented the better sacrifice than Cain, because it was not a sweat-based work, offering or sacrifice.

I do want to go back sometime and discuss what Ron was pointing out about Cain being in the field with his brother and rising up and killing him. We see this same conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of the day. Jesus was proclaiming the Gospel of the true sacrifice while the Pharisees clung to their animal sacrifices thinking this was pleasing to God. They spent three years talking together before one rose up and killed the other. As they said, it’s better that one man perish than a whole nation.