Hebrews 11:4: By Faith Abel
2023-07-01
Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4)
Let us first consider the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:1-12. This story happened immediately after the fall of humankind. Curses were pronounced against the man, the woman, the serpent, and the earth. There was a glimmer of hope, though: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The woman would have a son who would destroy the devil and his works.
Moreover, we can see that the man and woman believed the promise of God, because after all that bad news, they clung to that hope: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).
They believed the promise, but they thought the promises to be a lot nearer than they were. In Genesis 4:1-2, we can see it in the naming of their children. When Eve said, “I have gotten a man from the LORD,” it suggests that she believed that this son, Cain, was the promise of Genesis 3:15. Though she had many children (Genesis 5:4), this also suggests that Cain was the firstborn son. His name means “spear”; the same word as used here: “And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David” (2 Samuel 21:16). He was given a name of strength.
The firstborn was often considered the strength of the father.
“Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power” (Genesis 49:3). Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob, and he was called these lofty titles. Of course, he had issues that had consequences, but we see him as Jacob’s strength here.
“If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his” (Deuteronomy 21:15-17). There were rigid rules as to who was called the firstborn and who was given the inheritance. In the family of a polygamist, regardless of who was the favorite wife, the firstborn, the main inheritor, was whoever was born first (go figure!). Only God could reverse the order, such as Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh, and David over his older brothers.
“And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham” (Psalm 78:51). By the Lord destroying the firstborn of Egypt, it was a statement of Him destroying their strength.
How much more was this preeminence given to the firstborn of the first man, who would be the one to bring them back into Eden! Since Cain, the firstborn, would be their deliverer, calling him Spear and Strength, who then is Abel? He is superfluous. The name Abel is also translated elsewhere as vanity, as translated here: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:21). “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). You might as well call your sons Hero and Worthless. Imagine growing up in a family like that?
However, Abel did not care about all that nonsense. Surely, there were times he was hurt by that. But he heard the stories about how God would provide a way of redemption. He heard how God provided animal skins to replace the fig leaves they tried to cover their own shame and nakedness with. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). He understood that the shedding of blood was required to cover his shame, and he ordered his entire life around this pattern. Abel the so-called vain one became a keeper of sheep while Hero Cain became a farmer.
Abel clearly had faith. Cain was providing for his family with the harvest, toiling in the cursed earth day by day amid thorns and thistles. Abel kept his sheep. He likely could not eat of the flock; there is no mention of people eating meat until Genesis 9:3. Maybe he could shear the wool for clothing? Whatever he did, he ordered his life around something that would please the Lord, substitutionary blood sacrifices, and not necessarily please himself. Cain was just living life, surviving the curse the best he could, in his own strength.
When it came time for sacrifice, not only did Abel bring the right sacrifice, but he brought the best of what he had. Cain brought his vegetables. We know later there were sacrifices that involved that which was from the harvest. “And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon” (Leviticus 2:1). However, that was much later. The only pattern ever given to Adam and his family from God to that point was the animal skins.
Surely, we cannot turn our nose up at Cain’s offering. It was a “sacrifice” in the sense that he gave up food that he worked hard to obtain. However, God accepted Abel and rejected Cain, and Cain was angry. He worked hard for what he did, only to have it rejected. In his anger, there was a great danger that sin could rule over him. God warned him about this and encouraged him that he could still do what was right. There was great grace here.
However, Cain was hardened in his anger. He was supposed to be the Hero that would save the day, right? Mom and Dad told him that. Why is little Vanity getting the glory? Then he thought, if God was so satisfied with a blood sacrifice, and I do not have access to one without bargaining with little brother Worthless, I know the perfect sacrifice to make. “And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him” (Genesis 4:8).
Since God knows everything, he asked Cain a rhetorical question to elicit a confession to his murder. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). Unlike his parents, there was no confession and no remorse. Cain was condemned to be a wanderer, though he even fought against that by building his own city. His farming career would no longer work out. He left the Lord’s presence and never returned.
But there is something interesting about Abel. Perhaps Cain killed him, but in some way, he was still alive. “And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). The blood, the lifeforce of every living thing, still spoke. Abel cried out to God what happened. The ground received the blood of Abel, and therefore the ground would reject the work of Cain.
When we go back to our verse of interest, Hebrews 11:4, when we see that “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice,” this faith was not a one-time thing. Abel did not wake up one morning and have a bit of faith to offer this great sacrifice. This sacrifice was a lifetime in the making. He was told he would live in the shadow of his brother as a superfluous person. He flushed all what his misguided parents said and trusted in the Lord’s promise and provision. He ordered his life around it. This one sacrifice showed his entire righteous character. And the fleshy Cain whose identity was tied up in managing the cursed ground, being hardened in his pride of thinking he was the redeemer, destroyed him.
By faith Abel could see the truth and promise of God through all the lies everyone else had told him.
The sacrifice he made demonstrated a righteous character. The works in a single point of time demonstrated a life of faith.
Because he was righteous by faith and worked righteousness because of it, even when his slain body was tossed to the ground by the world, he still spoke, he still cried out to God, because the faith of the righteous never perishes, ever. He is crying out to God today and forevermore.
We will discuss this further when we reach Hebrews 12:24.