CAIN and ABEL
One of the earliest stories in the Bible is the one of the two sons of Adam: Cain who became a farmer and Abel who became a keeper of sheep. Now both of these are honourable professions but when they came to offer homage to God, He rejected Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground at the same time honouring Abel’s offering of the first of his flock.
Now it is said that: “the life (soul) of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11) and “without shedding of blood there is no remission (of sin)” (Hebrews 9:22) so this has been given as the reason for God’s rejection of Cain’s offering. Did Cain really realize this? Did Adam explain it out properly? Did Cain just make an error in judgement?
After all, the fruit of the ground would be used as a wave offering to God (Leviticus 7:28-30) and even God Himself indicated that the blood of bulls and goats was not what He really desired (Psalm 40:6). So was the nature of Cain’s offering the problem or was there something else?
There was no indication that God was angry with Cain or that He even actually rejected his offering but that it was not respected. He implied that if he improved that everything would be accepted, that he had made a mistake in believing that something that man had done could take the place of what God had mandated.
But Cain became angry, upset, and crestfallen. It was this anger and Cain’s apparent refusal to be corrected that led to God saying: “if you do not do well, sin lies at the door” ready to pounce and devour.
I believe that God can accept and forgive honest mistakes. But when one refuses to acknowledge such errors and develops an attitude which precludes the possibility of change, that’s when sin enters and takes hold.
In studying this Biblical story, that’s really what we should be thinking about.
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