A Tuesday Reflection by Pastor Nene
12 October 2021
Text: Genesis 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Last week we mentioned that one of the most interesting puzzles of the Bible is found in the passage of Genesis 4:3-4.\u00a0\u00a0 Thereat, the First Brothers – Cain and Abel – offered each an Offering to the LORD, apparently for the first time since there is no mention of a prior act of offering from the\u00a0 First Family before this. Cain, the elder brother, worked the field as a farmer while his younger brother Abel cared for livestock, possibly sheep and goats.\u00a0 Both occupations were then (as now) considered honorable, so perhaps it was not surprising that Cain would offer his field harvest of plant, grain and\u00a0 fruit; whereas Abel would offer an animal from the herd as sacrifice. However we are told from Genesis 4:3-5(AKJV)\u00a0 that Abel \u201cbrought a gift \u2013 the best portions of the lambs from his flock\u201d and the LORD \u201caccepted Abel and his gift.\u201d On the other hand, when Cain \u201cpresented some of his as a gift to the LORD.. \u201cthe LORD did not accept Cain and his gift\u201d (v 5). This favorable acceptance of Abel\u2019s gift by the LORD and His rejection\u00a0 of Cain\u2019s gift initially presents a puzzle to us readers,\u00a0 until the Bible in Proverbs 21:27 mentions that, \u201c The sacrifice of an evil person is detestable, especially when it is offered with wrong motives.\u201c So, this could be one conclusion: from the very beginning Cain was a sinful, wicked man, under the control of satan ; unrighteous\/not right with God. Cain was already all of these even before he presented his gift to God. God had warned Cain when he displayed anger at the snub of God of his offering, in verse 7: \u201dYou will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.\u201d (v 7). In other words, if Cain doesn’t rule over the sin in his life, sin will rule over Cain. The phrase, \u201csin is crouching at your door\u201d means that Cain’s sin had made an opening in his heart. Sin is like a demon ready to pounce on Cain and dominate him. Tragically, it happened because later he was in the field with Abel and he murdered him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Blood Sacrifice. <\/strong>But what made the gift of Abel pleasing to the LORD? To my mind, two things, namely: (1) Abel\u2019s Sacrifice as a Type of Christ\u2019s Sacrifice<\/strong>. BOTH the sacrifices of Abel and Christ\u2019s on the cross involve a BLOOD SACRIFICE. Blood was spilled. In the case of Abel, it was the blood of the lamb that he offered to the LORD. Although it may not have been clear to the First Family then, blood sacrifice was the way to do it. Blood sacrifice involves FAITH. A Tuesday Reflection by Pastor Nene12 October 2021Text: Genesis 4 ____________ Last week we mentioned that one of the most interesting puzzles of the Bible is found in the passage of Genesis 4:3-4.\u00a0\u00a0 Thereat, the First Brothers – Cain and Abel – offered each an Offering to the LORD, apparently for the first time since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,25,6,7,26,9,8,5],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ptr-nene-rubrico","tag-abel","tag-cain","tag-church-of-the-risen-lord","tag-crl","tag-genesis","tag-spiritual-refreshment-of-the-day","tag-upcemi","tag-upcrl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Scripture has already noted in Hebrews 11:4 that \u201c It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel\u2019s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.\u201d Abel\u2019s blood sacrifice is more acceptable than Cain\u2019s plant sacrifice because this type of sacrifice makes Abel righteous in the eyes of God.\u00a0 And God imputed\/credited His gift of Righteousness unto Abel because of his faith in God. \u201c In the Old Testament, the phrase \u201cThe just\/the righteous shall live by faith\u201d (Habakkuk 2:4) was credited to the Israelite Remnant\u00a0 that underwent the Babylonian Exile and went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple and restart the worship of Yahweh.\u00a0 In the New Testament, in the time of the apostle Paul, this statement of faith became a full-blown doctrine of salvation in Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11.
(2) God Himself initiated the first animal sacrifice as an Act of Grace.<\/strong> Genesis 3:21 says, \u201cThe LORD
God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Prior to this, Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame and nakedness with fig leaves they themselves fashioned. But GOD would have none of that. He would have killed some animals (perhaps lambs, to make into lambskins for inner and outer clothing to suit in that kind of weather). But His intent was clear: God responds to Adam and Eve\u2019s failure, to their sin and disobedience with grace! An animal sacrifice was made to clothe Adam and Eve, foreshadowing the eventual sacrifice of Jesus, our perfect Lamb of God, to clothe us in His grace, hope, and forgiveness forever!
Supplement: T<\/em>he Jewish Sacrificial Sacrificial System. <\/strong>A member of our OBSM group had recently inquired about the difference between the Widow\u2019s Mite Offering and the OT sacrifice, so I am reposting my reply to him here as a supplement to our topic, to wit: \u201c@edwin\/All: Your question on the \u2018widow’s mite\u2019(Mark 12:41\u201344, Luke 21:1\u20134 2; a mite is the smallest denomination of money) as an OT \u2018sacrifice.\u2019\u00a0 We should realize that the Jewish Sacrificial System was mainly institutionalized in the book Leviticus thousands of years after <\/em>Cain\/Abel\u2019s gift offering.\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, there are 5 types of Levitical offerings: 1) burnt offering; 2) peace offering; 3) grain offering; 4) sin offering; and 5) treasury offering. Each\u00a0 offering has specific purposes too complicated to follow. Even the portions can be 3 parts – God’s, the priest’s, and the offerer\u2019s. The widow’s mite sounds like a sin offering to me, in lieu of 2 turtle doves that she could not even afford to buy from the animal market that thrived within the temple grounds – much to the anger of Jesus! However, it could also be a treasury offering or ‘amot’ for the temple priests or Levites, because Jesus contrasted it to the rich temple offering of the\u00a0 Pharisees that Jesus labeled \u201chypocritical,\u201d I don’t really know! Additional info: the offerings were either voluntary (kuno)\u00a0 or mandatory . The sin offering was mandatory because it was for the atonement of one’s sins, and should involve blood sacrifice- in this case, the birds’ blood – if you can afford to buy the birds in the first place!\u201d
FOR WHATEVER PURPOSE, THE WIDOW\u2019S POOR OFFERING WAS \u2013 Like ABEL\u2019S \u2013 DEEMED ACCEPTABLE TO GOD BECAUSE OF THE INTENT OF THE HEART OF THE PERSON OFFERING. Amen. \u2013 pn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"