He had no regard for Cain's fruit sacrifice because it was a bloodless sacrifice...
Hebrews 11:4a
"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
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Now we have to go back to Genesis chapter 4 for that account. Im not going to do it with all of these faith people in Hebrews but we are for some. But lets come all the way back to Genesis chapter 4 where we have the account of this first bringing of an offering by these two brothers Cain and Abel. Now we dont know how old they were but they were old enough to have already established their own lifestyle. One was a sheepherder and the other was a farmer. And, thats about as far as we can go with their occupation. But, the clue to all of this is verse 3.
Genesis 4:3a
"And in the process of time
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And that is more or less implied, I think, from the Hebrew that it was a time of instruction. Now remember, God is never unfair. God would not expect these young men, Cain and Abel, to do something that He had never told them to do. If that was the case then it wouldnt be faith. But He had instructed them and no doubt knowing the God of this Book, He instructed them explicitly on how to approach Him with the blood sacrifice, which is already set as an example in Genesis 3, with Adam and Eve.
In that chapter, God killed the animal and so He no doubt instructed them on exactly how to kill the animal, and how to present or sprinkle the blood. It wasnt haphazard. It was intrinsically instructed. All right, so both young men have the same Word from God on how to approach Him. If youll notice in Scriptures, we have the natural man first. So we deal with Cain first, the natural. And so, Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, whatever it was. To begin with, there are two major points here.
Number one, it was a bloodless offering. Number two, he was bringing that from the ground that from which one day Abels blood would be spilled and it was cursed. Now it hadnt happened yet, but it will and so Cain now is stepping off on the wrong foot by bringing a bloodless offering.
I have to emphasize that because several years ago our own Jerry Pool wrote to his Sunday School material supplier and called to their mind, "Why didnt they point out in the childrens quarterly, that the reason Cain wasnt accepted was because he didnt bring a blood offering," Well, Jerry showed me their response. Now you talk about dancing around the subject without ever saying anything, thats what it amounted to. Wasnt it Jerry? And all they could say, was, "Well that didnt have anything to do with it, Cain just simply had a bad attitude." No, it wasnt Cains attitude, although that was certainly involved in the fact that he had no faith! He didnt take anything that God said into account. And so he rationalized and he said, "Well surely, if God knows how much sweat I have already dropped on all this, Hell accept it. I dont have to go over and barter with my brother to get a lamb." And so Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, whatever it was. It was bloodless. Remember one of the absolutes in Scripture that we learned in Hebrews 9:22?
Hebrews 9:22b
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and without the shedding of blood is no remission." And so "God had no respect unto Cains offering." So by faith, as Hebrews chapter 11 reminds us:
Genesis 4:4a
"And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock
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Well now you dont have vegetables called flocks, so whats implied? Sheep or goats. More than likely a sheep. And God had instructed them on how to present that animal sacrifice. And so Abel, because he believed what God said, did it as God instructed and he was accepted, and for that act of faith, will have eternal life.
Now whenever I taught Genesis years ago, or in my classes here in Oklahoma, I make this statement. Cain may have been a nicer guy than Abel. Cain may have been an easier guy to get along with in everyday things than Abel, we dont know. But that wasnt what counted. What counted was that Abel did what God said to do and he was accepted. Cain went his own way and he was rejected, see? All right, so read verse 4 again.
Genesis 4:4a
"And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:"
In other words, Abel brought the very best and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain he had no respect. Why? Because it wasnt what God had instructed. Thats all.
http://www.lesfeldick.org/lesbk51.html
I love the way the Bible always points towards THE blood sacrifice.