Cain and Abel: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
I’ve often wondered about this story. Why did God favour Abel’s sacrifice?
And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain.
“With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man,” she said.
Later she gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil. So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the Lord, while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.
And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
“Why are you angry,” said the Lord to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”
Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
“What have you done?” replied the Lord. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
But Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
“Not so!” replied the Lord. “If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold.” And the Lord placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.
So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
What arguments Adam and Eve must have had!
Poor Adam and Eve. Thrown out of the garden of Eden, which truly was a paradise, into a place with thistles and thorns and troubles and sorrows and misery aplenty. I feel sorry for them; their marriage must have been very difficult; what arguments they must have had!
Adam: “Why did you give me the fruit to eat?”
Eve: “Well you ate it.”
Adam: “Well you gave it to me. It’s all your fault that we’re in this mess.”
Eve: “Well you could have stopped me. You were standing right there. Why didn’t you say something? You had plenty of opportunities. Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”
And then, despite all this, they had a son, so they must have still loved each other enough for that to happen.
Eve: astonished by the fact that she brought forth a son.
Being the first mother to ever have a child, Eve is so astonished by this, she calls him Cain, which means spear but her explanation makes a sort of a verbal and visual pun in Hebrew because “brought forth” is Kanah, and Cane is Kayin.
“… gave birth to Kayin…. With the help of the Lord I have Kanah a man”
And she says, “with the help of the Lord” — this shows that Eve still had faith in God — for she gives the credit to God for her giving birth to Cain.
This might have been the first example of a mother spoiling her son
Whereas Cain means “brought forth” or “spear”, Abel’s name is Hebel, הבל, breath or vapour. This is the same word that is often translated “vanity” or “meaningless” or “useless”, a word that is most famously used at the start of Ecclesiastes:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. Ecclesiastes 1:1-5
It may well be the perfect archetypal example of a mother favouring the first born son over the next one. Abel is regarded as a useless son, the important one is Cain. It must have been very devastating for this boy, who was after all one of the first four humans on the earth, to feel that he was just a breath, a vapour, a nothing, really, in his mother’s eyes.
The King must have an “heir” and a “spare” - Abel was just the spare.
And it may be that because she spoilt Cain, that was why the elder son felt so entitled, and was so very offended when God chose the son who was named “vapour”, who was a nothing in his mother’s eyes. Thus so do people treat Christians today: “Why should God choose a nothing like you?” is what they say in their hearts. It should comfort us, if we are despised and nothing in the eyes of the world;
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are 1 Corinthians 1:28
Why did God approve Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s?
Until I realised that Abel’s name meant nothing, it puzzled me: why was the sacrifice of Cain more acceptable to God than the sacrifice of Abel? I used to think to myself, isn’t that a bit unfair of God, to favour Abel over Cain? Is God being mean?
This is partially answered in the naming of the two boys: I think it is very clear that Abel’s name indicates that he was overlooked by his mother and regarded as useless: this neglect turned his heart towards God, who favoured him with his grace, whereas Cain became proud and intractable.
But, the reason why Cain’s sacrifice was not regarded was in front of me all the time: the scripture actually tells us the reason Abel’s sacrifice was favoured:
So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the Lord, while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.
And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
Cain’s sacrifice was just lip service
Cain’s sacrifice was just a ho-hum, I’ll just bring a few oranges and pears and one of the smaller pumpkins, that should do — it wasn’t really a sacrifice at all, just a few leftover vegetables maybe. It’s so easy in life to just give lip-service to God, just give him a few little token sacrifices, but keep our whole lives for ourselves, just don’t you interfere with it, God. Especially when you think you’re good enough already, as Cain did. “My mother tells me I was such a gift from God. I was the one she brought forth. You are just a vapour, Abel, a nothing.”
Abel’s sacrifice was a real sacrifice
But Abel was the reverse of Cain: he sacrificed the best portions of his flock. This was over and above the call of duty, really: he actually sacrificed his whole future to God. Each one of those lambs that he sacrificed was the best lamb from that part of his flock. Each of those lambs, had he not sacrificed it, would have been the father of many more generations of flawless, perfect lambs: that is why I say, Abel literally sacrificed his whole future.
That this was indeed an act of faith is seen in the fact that Abel is trusting God to provide for him, through the weaker and less presentable lambs.
I suppose the problem with Cain was, his heart wasn’t in it.
This is very bound up with many of our problems today: I think there’s a lot of people whose heart isn’t in it, with their marriages or their jobs, but most of all, with Christians’ faith in God: and it’s a good question to ask. Is my faith all just lip service?
How can I know?
Jesus gives us the solution to this problem.
There is a great solution to this kind of problem that never fails — dear Christian, if you’re wondering if your heart is in it — if you’re asking yourself, “do I really love God?” — Jesus gives the answer:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
To the degree that we put our treasure into earthly things that we can obviously lose, well, to that degree our hearts will be in those things.
Jesus’ saying reminds me of those fairy tales, where an Ogre or a magician puts his heart into an egg or a stone. When the magic egg is destroyed, the magician dies (the Firebird suite by Stravinsky is based on such a legend.) and it is surely the case that when people put their whole heart into earthly things, they die with them.
But how do we put our treasures into heavenly things?
Simply by giving generously to God’s work, to the spreading of the gospel, or to our church. This is the cure I have found to lack of fervour and lack of devotion to the Lord: when I’m in a hole of spiritual malaise it’s a sure sign that I haven’t sacrificed enough to God. Ultimately we need to be ready to give everything to Jesus if we follow Him.
Abel’s faith was seen in his actions
And that’s what Abel reminds me of: those people who give up everything to follow Christ, giving up their jobs, travelling to another country, risking insecurity or rejection or even being ready to give up their lives to follow the Lord. Think of it: Abel was the son of the first farmer.
Abel was the first shepherd, perhaps, to tend a flock of sheep. He gave the best of his flock in sacrifice to God. What are you and I prepared to give? The practical answer to that — by which I mean, what we do with our wealth and our treasure and our time and the energies of our heart, mind, soul, strength, will be the answer to the question, “Where is my heart going to be in relation to God tomorrow? Will I love God tomorrow? Will I want to serve God tomorrow?”
In other words, Abel’s faith was seen in his actions.
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commendedas righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
Those who are ungenerous towards God in their actions can end up angry and bitter and unhappy and twisted, and that was ultimately why Cain ended up killing Abel: not just because his heart wasn’t in his sacrifice, but because his sacrifice was stingy and second-rate, it wasn’t even a sacrifice, his real treasure was still on the apple tree or in the fruit baskets at home or on the threshing floor of his barn.
Perhaps because of the all-encompassing approval of his mother, Cain was the sort of person who thought to himself, “I’m a good person, really. Not like that useless brother of mine. He’s just a nothing. Why should God favour him? I’m the important one. I’m the first. I’m the one God gave to Eve, the mother of all life, my mother.”
And rather ironically, Cain lost it all, ultimately; he ended up being a fugitive, wandering the earth. And Eve lost her son. All because her spoiling him made him too stingy and unbelieving to give God the first-fruits of his harvest, in other words, the best he had to offer, and so he ended up bitter and twisted and full of hate and ready to murder.
But you know, that’s not the end of the story, because it doesn’t depend on us. It depends on Jesus. None of us can do it, really, except by faith in Jesus. We can’t make a big enough sacrifice, actually, to bring us the peace with God that we need.
We can’t pay the price, ultimately, for our lives, because He has already paid it.
The greatest sacrifice is the sacrifice of Jesus
Jesus left His heavenly home, where He dwelled in eternal comfort and consolation, and came to earth, and dwelled among us. Like Abel He made a sacrifice and His sacrifice was indeed His whole life, on the cross, on our behalf.
Jesus’ life was an offering to God for our sin.
Jesus did what the rules of the Jewish Torah could not do, and what our own generosity and sacrifice cannot do either, He saved us. And actually it was Jesus who saved the Israelites too, in the Exodus, and that was before the Torah was given.
I mention this because it may seem like a contradiction, but I am convinced that the gospel is a quintessentially Jewish message, that the God of the Jews, i.e. Jesus, can do for us what we cannot:
For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm; to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken. For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:11-17
This is such good news! Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than Abel: Abel’s blood spoke of vengeance. Jesus’ blood speaks of forgiveness.
So in the end, it’s all about love. Love one another.
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.
By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? 1 John 3:11-17
