What is the simple story being told here? How does God react to what is offered? What does He say to Cain?
The two brothers, Cain and Abel, present offerings to God and for some reason God prefers the gifts from Abel. God does not like what Cain has given. Naturally, this upset Cain.
We can look at this story and wonder what the problem was. We can even look at this story and say that it was God who started the feud between the brothers. But we must look at the details of the story.
The implication is that Cain brought an offering that wasn’t much of a sacrifice. He brought “some” of the fruits. Abel on the other hand brought offerings from the firstborn of his flock.
Was the problem a difference between grain offerings and blood sacrifices? I don’t think so. I think the difference is that Abel sacrificed some of his best to God while Cain’s offering seemed to be less sincere.
We all may feel that we give good things to God. We may give of our time. We may give from our wealth. We may give of our talents and skills. We may believe that we do many good things to give God honor. But do we?
The fruits we are to bear for God, the offerings we make to the Lord, should be foremost in our hearts and minds. Our fruit should be given to God first – that is, what we do for God should be something we give willingly and something we give that is of our best efforts. Our “fruit” should not be an afterthought or simply something we can spare.
And if we begin to compare ourselves with others – if we begin to feel that we have given more and better offerings than others – and we feel that God has favored another over us we must recall what God said to Cain. If we have done what is right then what we have done will be accepted by God.
DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you keep a right attitude when offering the fruit of your work to God?
