It didn’t take very long for things in the new earth to hit rock bottom. Strife surfaced pretty quickly between Adam and Eve’s first children.
We see the two making an offering to God. It is a voluntary offering just as we do in our church services today. The problem arose with God’s acceptance of one and not the other. The first impression I get is that God was very personal with these boys. He was speaking with them one on one. God was please with the offering brought by Abel, but not the offering brought by Cain. He must have expressed as much to the two boys. This lead to Cain feeling rejected, although that was not the case. God did not reject Cain. God was speaking very closely with the boy, but none the less he felt very put out.
What was the difference in the two offerings? Why did God receive one and not the other? The text is short but pretty telling of the two gifts. The giving of gifts is a touchy point with most of us. It is also a touchy point with God. The importance of God in our lives is very easily seen by the way we give gifts to Him. Our giving to God reviels our true thoughts about Him, His worth to us. So what was the difference in the two offerings? We are told in the passage that Cain brought an offering of the fruits of the ground. It just happened to be some of what Cain had on hand, nothing special really. Abel on the other hand brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. Abel had brought to God the first and best of what he had. He did not bring to God some of the left over of his belongings. This shows God what we think of Him. Do we fear Him? Do we love Him? Do we trust Him to provide for us? God expects our best, not the left overs. Cain had already consumed the best of the first fruits and so God was not pleased with the offering that Cain brought. Many times in my own life I have done exactly as Cain did. I looked at my bills, the things that I may have liked to have, covered those things, then given to God if there was anything left. This does not show any reverence for God. Then I complain when nothing seems to go right, I feel rejected just as Cain did. God expects us to trust Him with all of our life, yes even with the material possessions.
Cain became jealous of Abel to the point where he called Abel out into a lonely field and Killed him. We have a tendency to blame shift. We like to find a reason for why things are not the way we want them. Cain had decided that Abel was the reason that God had rejected his offering, and the only way to fix it was to murder him.
I find it very interesting that God approached Cain in the same way He had approached Adam and Eve when they had disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit. God asked Cain “where is your brother Abel?” God knew full well where he was, but He put the question to Cain. This has not changed in how God deals with us. He want’s us to confess our failures to Him, to ask His forgiveness. We too have not changed, we try to deflect God, to deceive Him. God knows everything, He can not be deceived. The result of our pushing God away is always more pain, more suffering. If we do not do right sin waits at the door, sin will take us.
God want’s us to trust Him.
God knows everything, there is nothing that can be kept from Him. He is the judge of the world, He made it all and He has the right to judge it.