The Offerings of Cain and Abel

Having seen the origin of sin in our world, ve have now the origin and progress of things as they at present are amongst mankind, or of the world as it now is.

Ver. 1. Adam has a son by his wife, who is called Cain; viz. a possession, or acquisition: for said Eve, hate gotten a man from the Lord! Many learned men have rendered it, a man, the Lord; and it is not very improbable that she should understand the seed of the woman, of her immediate offspring: but if so, she was sadly mistaken! However it expresses what we have not seen before, i. e. Eve’s faith in the promise. Even though she should have had no reference to the Messiah, yet it shews that she eyed God’s hand in what was given her; and viewed it as a great blessing, especially considering what a part she had acted. In this she sets an example to parents, to reckon their children an heritage

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from ike Lord. But she also affords an example of the uncertainty of human hopes. Cain, so far from being a comfort to his parents, proved a M-icked man; yea, a pattern of wickedness, held up like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, as a warning to others — Not as Cain, xcho was of that zvicked one, and slexo his brother /* ‘Ilic joys attending the birth of a child require to be mixed with trembling; for who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man, or a fool?

Ver. 2. Eve bears Adam another son, who was called Abel, or Hebel. In these names we probably see the partiality of parents to their first-born children. Abel signifies vanity, or a vanishing vapour. Probably he was not so goodly a child in appearance as Cain, and did not seem likely to live long. The heart and hopes of the parents did not seem to centre in him, but in his brother. But God seeth not as man seeth. In bestowing his blessing he has often crossed hands, as Jacob did in blessing Ephraim and IVIanassch. He chooseth the base things of the Morld, that no flesh should glory in his presence. — These two brothers were of different occupations; one a husbandman, and the other a shepherd: both primitive employments, and both very proper.

* 1 John iii. 12.

Ver. 3 — 5. In process of time the two brothers each present his offering to God: this speaks something in favour of their parents who had brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ainsworth renders it, “at the end of the days,” and understands it at the end of the year, which was then in Autumn, the time of the gathering in of the harvest and the vintage. The institution of a solemn feast among the Israelites on this occasion, (Exod. xxiii. 16.) seems therefore to have borne a near resemblance to that was practised from the beginning.

In the offerings of these two first-born sons of man, we see the essential difference between spiritual worship and that which is merely formal. As to the matter of which their offerings were composed, it may be thought there was nothing particularly defective; each brought what he had. There is indeed no mention made of Cain’s being of the best of the kind, which is noticed of Abel’s. And if he neglected this, it was a sign that his heart was not much in it. He might also no doubt have obtained a lamb out of his brother’s flock for an expiatory sacrifice. But the chief difference, is that which is noticed by the apostle: ‘’ By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” (Heb.

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xi. 4.) Cain’s offering was just what a self-righteous heart would offer: it proceeded on the principle that there was no breach between him and his Creator, so as to require any confession of sin, or respect to an atonement. Such offerings abound amongst us; but they are zcithout faith, and therefore it is impossible they should please God. The offering of Abel I need not describe: suffice it to say, It was the reverse of that presented by Cain. It was the best of the kind; and included an expiatory sacrifice.

The result was, the Lord had respect to Abet and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. The one was probably consumed by fire from heaven: the other not so. This we know was afterwards a common token of the divine acceptance. (Lev. ix. 24. Psal. xx. 3, margin.) The order of things is worthy of notice. God first accepted Abel, and then his offering. If he had been justified on the ground of his good deeds, the order should have been reversed: but believing in the Messiah, he was accepted for his sake; and being so, his works were well-pleasing in the sight of God. And as Abel was accepted as a believer; so Cain was rejected as an unbeliever. Being such, the Lord had no respect to him: he was under the curse, and all he did was abhorred in his eyes.

The rejection of Cain and his offering operated upon him very powerfully. If the love of God had been in him, he would have fallen before him, as Joshua and his brethren did when Israel was driven back; and have pleaded, ‘* Shew me wherefore thou contendest M’ith me? “But he was wroth and his countenance fell. This is just what might be expected from a self-righteous, proud spirit, who thought so highly of his offering as to imagine that God must needs be pleased with it, and with him on account of it. He was “very wroth” — so Ainsworth; and that no doubt against God himself, as well as against his brother. He went in high spirits, like the pharisee to the temple; but came away dejected, and full of all foul passions, of which his “fallen countenance” was but the index.

Ver. 6, 7’ Cain having returned home, the Lord, perhaps in a dream or vision of the night, expostulated with him. fVhi, art thou wroth f What cause is there for this enmity against thy Maker, and envy against thy brother? Doubtless he thought that he had a cause; but when interrogated of God, he found none. If thou doest well shalt thou ?iot be accepted f And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule ever him. By doing well he means doing as Abel did, offering in faith, which is the only well-doing among;

36 CAIN AND ABEL. [Dis. %

sinful creatures. If Cain had believed in the Messiah, there was forgiveness for him no less than for his brother; and he should also have had the excellency attached to the first-born, which he reckoned he had a right to, and the loss of which galled him. If thou doest ‘not well, sin lieth at the door;* unforgiven, to go down with thee to the grave, and to rise with thee, and appear against thee in judgment.

Observe how things arc ordered in the dealings of God with men. Abel was not accepted of God far his McU-doing; neither faith nor obedience was that on account of which he was justified; but the righteousness of him in whom he believed. Yet it was in well-doinfj that he obtained eternal life. (Rom. ii. 7-) Though faith was not the cause of the Lord’s having respect to him, nor his having offered in faith, of his having respect to his works; yet each was a necessary concomitant. And this, while it secures the interests of righteousness in the righteous, serves to silence the wicked, and make them feel the justice of their condemnation. Thus at the last judgment, though every one who is

* This clause, which is in the middle of ver. 7> I suppose should be in a parenthesis. I have therefore placed the first and last in connexion, and introduced this after them, by whicK the sense is clear.

Gen. 4.] gain and aeel. o7

saved will be saved by grace only, yet all will be judged according to their works. Things will be so ordered that the righteous will have nothing to boast of, and the wicked nothing to complain of, inasmuch as the decision in both cases will proceed according to character.

But though Cain was silenced by the Almighty, yet his malice was not subdued, but rather inflamed. If the life of God had been within his reach, he would have killed him: but this he could not do. From that time therefore his dark soul meditated revenge upon Abel, as being God’s favourite, his own rival, and the only object within his power. This is the first instance of the enmity of the Seed of the Serpent breakins: out ao-ainst the Seed of the Woman: but not the last! Observe the subtlety and treachery with which it was accomplished: Cain talked uith Abel his brother. He talked with him, probably upon business, and in a very familiar manner, as though he had quite forgotten the affair which had lately hurt his mind; and when they were engaged in conversation, persuaded him to take a walk with him into his field; and having got him away from the family, he murdered him! Oh, Adam, thou didst murder an unborn world; and now thou shalt see some of the fruits of it in thine own family! Thou hast never

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before witnessed a human death: g’o, see the first victim of the king of terrors in the mangled corps of Abel thy son! — Poor Abel! Shall we pity him? In one view we must; but in others he is an object of envy. He Mas the first of the noble army of martyrs, the first of human l.ind who entered the abodes of the blessed, and the first instance of death being rendered subservient to Christ. When the serpent had drawn man into sin, and exposed him to its threatened penalty, he seemed to have obtained the pozccr of death: and had man been left under the ruins of the fall, he would have been continually walking through the earth; arm in arm, as it were, ■<vith the monster, the one taking the bodies and the other the souls of men. lUit the Woman’s Seed is destined to overcome him. “By death he destroyed him who had the power of death, and delivered them who must otherwise, through fear of death, have been all their life time subject to bondage.” heb. ii. 14, 5.