From the beginning of time, man has struggled with giving God his best. Too often, we settle for giving God our someand keeping the best for ourselves. We see this all the way back in the account of Cain, Adam and Eve’s first child, and Abel, his younger brother.
“When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.” (Genesis 4:2-5)
There are a couple of things that we must point out before we move forward. First, Abel gave his best to God while his brother Cain gave some of his crops.
Second, God accepted Abel and his best, but he did not accept Cain’s gift.
At first glance, you might think, “Hey, that’s not very nice, God. Why couldn’t you have accepted Cain’s gift? Wasn’t it good enough for you?” The short answer to that is no. Cains’s gift wasn’t good enough for God. He is never satisfied with our some. He always wants our best.
Does that mean you need to start giving more for God to accept you? No. You can never give enough to make God accept you. But he still wants your best and nothing less.
So how do you become more like Abel and less like Cain? How can we be accepted by God instead of rejected?
Here are three things we can learn from Abel to give our best instead of the some God doesn’t want.
Give with the right heart.
The difference between Cain & Abel comes down to a heart issue. They both knew what was right in God’s eyes. Cain just chose to ignore it. That’s why he threw a fit and looked so sad.
Jesus teaches us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) Cain cared more about his stuff than he did surrendering his heart to God. Don’t let that be you.
Remember that what you give is holy, so give your best.
It would have been one thing if Cain only gave his brother some of his crops. That would have just ended up as a family issue. Abel could have said, “Hey, what do you expect? It’s Cain. He’s always been selfish” at the next family reunion.
But Cain wasn’t giving to his brother. He was giving to God, which makes all the difference in the world. That makes the gift holy.
For Cain to give some to God and pretend it was holy was like a slap to God’s face. It basically meant that Cain found whatever was lying around and the stuff he thought he wouldn’t use for himself and gave it to God as a holy gift. It was actually shameful.
That’s what separates Abel. He gave the best of the best to God. He remembered who he was giving to and that the gift itself becomes holy when you give to a holy God.
Leviticus 27:30 teaches us, “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” So, when you give to God, always remember that it’s a holy gift to a holy God.
Give in faith and repentance.
If you notice, Cain gave fruit while Abel gave a sacrificial lamb. It was a faith offering of blood. This tells us that Abel came to God with a heart of faith and repentance, asking God for his mercy and forgiveness.
“It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s 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.” (Hebrews 11:4)
Abel’s offering speaks to our need to come to God through faith in Jesus Christ. For we know that “without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6) Cain had no faith, but Abel did.
Abel recognized that materialism couldn’t buy his way into a right relationship with God. Only faith could do that. The same goes for you.
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. Through faith in him, we offer God our best.
