Sacrifice and Worship

Cain and Able

Let’s read this passage,

4 Adam[a] made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.[b] She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth[c] a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 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, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But 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.”

8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

15 But the Lord said to him, “Not so[e]; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden.

17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

One could read this passage and call it the tale of the two brothers.

Adam and Eve, had two sons, the start of a family, the start of civilization, the first society. Yes they were fallen but they still sought after God.

The premise of the story is that both seek to commune, to offer a sacrifice, to worship God. Two brothers to different area of expertise, one a farmer, the other a herdsman.

One offered hi first fruits of his harvest, the other offered the firstborn of his herd. Two seemingly very similar acts.

But here is when we see the underlying conflict, God looked with favor on Abel's sacrifice and accepted it, God did not do the same for Cain’s Sacrifice.

A simple reading of this story make one wonder why Did God not accept Cain’s Worship? Cain’s Sacrifice?

What About Cain’s worship, what about maybe Cain himself, Made God look the other way? It was worship, was Cain just unworthy. what Makes a person’s worship not good, what makes a persons sacrifice to God, not acceptable.

When talking about worship and how we as individual followers of Christ are called to worship God. The questions needs to be asked… what types of worship does God turn away from?

Before we dive more into that question we need to back up… this story we read is not small by any means, this tale of two brothers offers us guidance and insights more the we can cover in one day.

The tale of two brothers, which resulted in the building of one of the first cities on earth.

Cain and Able, the first two brothers to live, the first family, community, is harshly divided by jealousy, and murder, and thus Cain left his family and built the first city.

Cain and Abel were supposed to n

4 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.