Key: Blue=Bible, Red=Author notes
Hebrews 11:3
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.
Good Day World!
A lot of craziness is going on right now! We got North Korean crisis, #Charlottesville, apparently artificial intelligence is taking over, and this is all in America! But, through all the entire craziness that is seen, one thing remains constant. That is JESUS! Jesus knows the heart of man is dirty, but through him we can become clean! So, for anyone reading, please remember Jesus. He died so that we can be saved. The world has always been crazy, but Jesus came to save the world. Let’s follow him as we move through all this craziness!
Now back to Abel! Abel is our first person on the list of the Hall of Faith. But who is Abel?
Abel is the second son of Adam and Eve. Abel was a keeper of the flocks, while his older brother, Cain, worked the soil. One day they both gave offerings up to God. But God favored Abel’s offering more than Cain. Cain was very angry and eventually killed Abel. God than punished Cain, but at the same time protected him, so that no one who would find him, would kill him (which makes me think, was there other people besides Adam, Eve, and Cain? Not sure).
That’s the gist of the Cain and Abel story. I will break this up in account of what Hebrews 11 says about Abel:
- 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
- By faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
(DISCLAIMER: I stated in the first post, I’m not a bible theologian. What I speak of comes from what I learn from the Bible, from my life, and from my heart. Feel free to comment or message me with any questions!)
- By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did.
What does this mean? Well let’s go to the bible!
Genesis 4:4-5 => And Abel also brought an offering- fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
So we see here that the author of Hebrews was stating what was said in Genesis. The Lord looked at Abel’s offering with favor, but did not look at Cain’s offering with favor. But what does it mean to actually give an offering? 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 talks a lot about God’s opinion on giving and offering. Specifically, 2 Cor 9:7 states that God loves a cheerful giver, which I believe is shown here. We know that WHAT we give isn’t what God really cares about, for he says in Hosea 6:6 that he would rather have mercy and acknowledgement than sacrifices and burnt offerings (Also in Jer 6:20, Is 1:11-13, Ps 50:9-13). But why did God favor Abel’s offering more than Cain? Do you want a hint? It’s literally in the statement in number 1! It’s because of Abel’s faith!
To be honest, I’m not 100% sure how Abel felt about giving his fatten portions of his firstfruits to God, but I do feel like I can relate. There was a time after graduating college, I was making money and having a great time. I was also studying the bible at the time and I read parts about tithing. I never tithed before, so since I had money, I started tithing. Funny story, I didn’t know tithing is based on your income, I thought it was based on the amount of money I had. So, at the time I had probably around $500 in the bank. Even though I made like $50 a week, I tithed $50. In my head, I was giving 10% of what he gave me. My mom soon corrected me and I stopped tithing based on my bank balance. However, I was always super happy when I tithed. I loved giving to the Lord. I know I cannot repay him back, but I felt a lot of joy and peace from giving back to God. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I also had the faith that even though I give 10% of what I have, God will reward me abundantly…maybe not in this life but in the next.
That faith is the same faith I believe is shown here. I feel that Abel knew that what he gave to God probably won’t matter, since God created the animals used…but he still wanted to give his best, because he had faith that God would be pleased and faith that God will reward him. Malachi 3:8-12 kinda goes more into that!
Why was God more pleased with Abel’s offering over Cain’s? It’s because of the faith shown by Abel for Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
- By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings
(Please leave comments. I know number 1 was quite long. I’ll keep these shorter.)
How do I know if I was commended as righteous…well if God is pleased with me! Have you had any times in your life when you feel that God is pleased with what you have done? I can name maybe a couple…but what about the times when you know God wasn’t pleased with what you have done? That is too many for me to count!!!
Here it says that Abel was commended as righteous. What does it mean to be righteous? Ezekiel 18:5-9 uses an example of a righteous man to explain the concept between parent’s sins and children’s, but we can still use it to understand what God considers righteous! In conclusion, to be righteous is to be obedient with God (Romans 6:16). Abel’s offering was considered as righteous, and we see that based on God’s response to Cain!
Genesis 4:6-7 => Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
(ALSO FUN FACT: This is also the first time sin has ever been mentioned in the Bible. God was the first person to put a name to it. If you don’t know what is sin, one of my favorite scriptures kind of talks about it, James 4:17 (read whole chapter))
Just as Romans 6:16 says, sin leads to death. Here we see that “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door” and much later in the bible it says that sin leads to death. BUT it may not be the death of you…here the first murderer ever in the entire human race (according to the Bible) was Cain. Cain became the first human to ever kill another human. Did God cause that? NO!!!! IT WAS SIN!!!!!
In conclusion, why was Abel righteous? Because he obeyed God and gave him his best. Cain’s response to what God had done, was not righteous, and that lead to the downfall of his brother and himself.
- By faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
Now what does this mean. What did the author mean by saying Abel still speaks even though he’s dead? Here’s what God showed me!
Genesis 4:8-12 => Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work for the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will become a restless wanderer on the earth.”
As you may have noticed from the underlined portion, God explains that the blood of Abel cries out to him. Out of everything described earlier, this has been the deepest for me. This is the first time God witnessed death. This is the first time God had seen another person killing another person. It is hard to completely comprehend who God is, but I think we can all agree, God was not happy about what went on. Perhaps Cain cannot hear it, but God can. He can hear our cries, even when we die.
This is deep! The Lord seemed here to have a very egregious response to the action. He has already judged Adam and Eve for disobeying him, but now he must judge their children. One who is now dead, and the other who killed him. Romans 11:34 -> Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or Who has been his counselor? Yet, still through all of this, God was still faithful to Cain and Abel. He sentenced Cain to become a restless wanderer, but protected him from being killed, and allowed him to get a wife and have children. He allowed Abel to be the first person on the list of faithful people in Hebrews 11 (lol), but who knows what Abel will receive up in Heaven… I guess we will find out when we get there.
Thanks for reading!!! We have finish our first part of the Hall of Faith series. Stay tuned for the next person, Enoch! (That’s gonna be short one lol) I hope you enjoyed what was shared! But here are 3 take-away points I’d like all readers (Including me!) to focus on.
- Be a happy giver!
- Fight Sin! Don’t let it take over you! Rule over it!
- Even when we fail, God still loves us and will protect us!
God loves you,
Ayodeji Alaketu
