#DailyDevotion Do You Give To God In Faith?

Genesis 4²Then she had another child, Abel, Cain’s brother. Abel grew up to be the shepherd of a flock, but Cain became a man who worked the ground. 3After some time Cain brought some products of the ground and made an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought some firstborn animals of his flock, especially some of the fat pieces. The LORD looked kindly at Abel and his offering, 5but He didn’t look kindly at Cain and his offering. Then Cain got very angry and wouldn’t look up.

When Eve gave birth to her second son she named him Able which means “in vain” for she thought Cain was the Savior and what need is there of another male child. I guess she wasn’t thinking in terms of populating the earth or maybe she was thinking a female child was more necessary for Cain. In any case both grew and they took up two different vocations, Cain a farmer and Abel a shepherd.

Somewhere written in our spiritual dna or perhaps the Lord had given instruction to Adam and Eve, in any case they knew they should offer up sacrifices to the Lord for what he had blessed them with. We see that Cain offered ‘some’ of his produce of the ground while Abel brought some firstborn animals, especially some of the fat pieces. In this offering, the Lord looked favorably upon Abel’s sacrifice but not so much Cain’s. So why was that? Hebrews tells us, 11^4“By faith Abel brought to God a better sacrifice than Cain and was declared to be righteous, when God approved his offerings. He died, but by his faith he is still speaking to us.” Again Hebrews says, ^6“But it is impossible to please God without faith.” So we see that Abel offered up his sacrifice with faith but Cain did not. You may be wondering how the author of Hebrews knows this. Well certainly he is writing by the mouth of the mouth of the Holy Spirit but there is something else we can by their offerings.

Cain just offered up ‘some’ of his product of the field while Abel offered up some of the ‘first born’ and ‘fatty pieces.’ Now in the Law of Moses certainly there were offerings of ‘some’ of the products of the fields in freewill offerings, but given when these sacrifices were made I think we can assume that close to the beginning of the harvest. It was God’s will in the Law of Moses that the Israelites bring the first-fruit offerings from the field just as the LORD commanded that the firstborn of all the livestock and of the women belonged to him (firstborn children were to be redeemed). So what’s the big deal of offering first-fruits? Just this, when you offer up the first-fruits and first born to the LORD, you are trusting in him to provide more to come. If you only offer to the LORD after you’ve gotten in all your crops, you would been seen as not trusting the LORD to provide the rest of the crop. If you only offered up other offspring of your flocks and not the first born, you were not trusting the LORD to bring you more livestock from that animal. You in both cases were waiting to see if the LORD would give you more. On top of that, Abel also gave the LORD the fatty pieces of the animals he sacrificed. We all know the fatty pieces taste the best. Not only that, but in subsistence homesteading, you would want that fat for energy. But in faith, Abel offers the fatty pieces to the LORD, he offers the best. Such offerings of the fat would also be in the Law of Moses.

Now the LORD himself, God our Father, would follow suit with Abel in sending his son, our LORD Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for us. Paul writes, Col. 1^15“He is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation,… He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead to become alive that He may be first in everything.” Jesus, the only begotten of God and the Firstborn the Father offers up in sacrifice on the cross so that you may believe in his great love for you and receive him in faith, hope and love. He offers up is first and best for you. What will you offer to him?

Heavenly Father, as you have offered up your Son Jesus Christ to be our sacrifice, grant us such faith in you that we in faith offer back you acceptable sacrifices in thanks and praise. In Jesus’ anme we pray. Amen.