Did God Reject Cain's Offering For No Reason?

Is there a reason given in the text of Scripture?

Many people wonder why God rejected Cain’s offering. Some say that it was because God chose Abel for eternal salvation and Cain for eternal destruction. Others say there is no reason at all, that it was simply God’s choice to approve of Abel’s offering and reject Cain’s. Still others believe that it was because he did not offer God the first fruits of his harvest. He didn’t give the Lord his best.

Which answer is correct? The third option is the one that represents a faithful interpretation of Genesis 4, although it’s not as obvious on the surface as some might expect. Sometimes the answers to our biblical questions are hidden in plain sight.

Genesis 4:3-5 "In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵ but for Cain and his offering he had no regard."

We can clearly see that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from his fruit harvest. While the text doesn’t say that Cain brought a crummy, half-hearted offering to God, it does say that Abel brought his best – the firstborn of his lamb harvest – a statement that is directly juxtaposed with the one about Cain’s offering.

Clearly, while Abel brought what he rightly considered his best of his herd to God, Cain did not. Interestingly, this is the first time in Scripture where we see human beings presenting an offering to the Lord, the Creator of heaven, earth, and everything in them. Over the course of time, both brothers had learned and discerned, either from their parents or from the Lord himself, that an offering of their yearly increase was required to be given back to the Lord. Now, as then, the people of God recognize that honoring him with the first portion of our increase in the form of a tithe or offering is a demonstration of trust, obedience, and honor, acknowledging him as the provider of all things.

In the ancient world, these offerings did not take the form of money (money may not even have been invented at the time Cain and Abel lived), but rather the important substance to the primitive people who occupied the world: food.

Whether one was a worker of the ground or a keeper of livestock, people were expected to bring the first portion of their increase to God and offer it back to him. Abel brought his first fruits, his very best portion of produce. On the other hand, Cain brought an offering, whatever portion he felt like giving back to God.

Genesis 4:6-7 “The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.’”

To further this point, we read in verses 6-7 that God instructed Cain to offer his best. “If you do well,”  the Lord said to Cain, “you will be accepted.” But if you do not do well – if you fail to bring me your best produce as a sign of trust, obedience, and honor – sin will continue to hunt you down like a predator hunts its prey. Eventually, it will overtake you and turn your heart completely away from me. You are the one who is supposed to master sin, not let it master you.

Unfortunately, sin won the day, and Cain ended up becoming a man opposed to God and God’s purposes; the type of man who murders his brother out of jealousy. The rest of his days were spent away from the presence of the Lord who created him.

Was this preventable? Clearly, it was. God identified Cain’s sin, told him how to correct it, and warned him about the consequences of not doing things right. If anything, this passage is an indication of what can happen to a person when sin is not acknowledged and dealt with, when it is allowed to roam free in a person’s life until it eventually overtakes them.

Genesis 4 is not a passage that is supposed to leave us guessing. There can be no doubt that the reason God rejected Cain’s offering was that he refused to give God his best. Rather than honor God with his first fruits, he wanted to keep it for himself. The results of his disobedience, followed by his open rebellion, were more consequential than he could have ever imagined.

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