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Cain and Abel Why was Abel s offer accepted and Cain s offer rejected? One of the questions that came to my mind when I read the story of Cain and Abel was why God accepted Abel s offer but did not accept Cain s offer. The text itself does not tell us why Abel s offering is more palatable to the Lord than Cain s offering. Cain, as a farmer, brings to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, a vegetable offering. Cain could have done better, but he chose not to for some reason. I think this way because in the story, God confronted Cain.
God told Cain that if he did well, his offer would be accepted and that he would have nothing to worry about. However, since God did not accept his offer, and his mind was filled with worries, it could be said that he did not do his best. Perhaps he thought that the all-knowing God would not notice. Abel, as a shepherd, brings to the Lord the first of the fruits of his flock, a blood offering. Though we may be tempted to place value on blood offering above that of vegetable offering, there is really no supportive evidence for that evaluation. Both offerings were honorable actions.
However, it is not so much what is offered that is valued but the spirit behind the offering. Sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reasons and then try to hide behind our actions, lying to God and ourselves about our intentions. I did the right thing, we will tell others, and ourselves and we fail to acknowledge our self-centered motivations behind the actions. Just doing the right thing is never enough in our relationship with God.
We are called to become increasingly authentic. As we do that, God blesses us. As we withhold that, God cannot bless. Perhaps Cains only sin at this point is that he is trying desperately to win Gods acceptance instead of being faithful and humble. Offering acts to God with the selfish desire that he would receive payment for his actions brings with it a rather horrible feeling of being unacceptable. Deep down perhaps we know of our impure motives and we feel some shame at what we do.
This reminds me of an issue of my growing up years, an issue of trying to win approval. My parents were basically affirming in their child rearing but somehow I grew up really needing approval. I thought I had to be very good at everything I did so that the approval would keep coming. Others, with the same need, act out in rebellious ways, testing the approval and unconsciously giving parents reason to withhold love so that what is feared most will be brought about. Amazingly children brought up in the same household will turn out radically different. Some people just seem to need a lot more love than others and they do some crazy things in that pursuit.
And some children seem to need much more love than their siblings, even more than their parents have to give. Some children have a consuming need for love, and no matter what the parents do, the child is not left feeling loved. It is easy to blame the parents for not finding a way to love them but sometimes children are so desperate for love that they wont let themselves be loved. Perhaps Cain is this way. The Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament may give us a key to understanding when it says, by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.
Perhaps the difference here is faith, Abel offering a sacrifice and trusting in God to make him acceptable, Cain offering a sacrifice trusting only in his own abilities to make him acceptable. My first hand experience is that, when I trust in my own abilities to offer the perfect act, I always am left feeling unacceptable. God has regard for Abel's offering but no regard for Cains, just why we are left wondering. Cain, feeling unacceptable, reacts with anger and resentment.
God comes to Cain with the challenge to address his own life and reason for living. He reminds him his job is to do his best and trust God. He also tells Cain about sin, describing it as a predatory animal couching at the door. And he holds Cain accountable, telling him he is responsible for his actions no matter what the nature of sin is or what feelings he may be experiencing.
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