A Failure to Look with Favor...

At the church where I serve, we are spending our time together in a sermon series entitled curse and consequences. During this series, we are spending our time together wrestling with a fundamental question. And that fundamental question is this: If the Bible tells us that God created everything that exists out of nothing...and it was all very good! If God created humanity to reveal and represent Him as they live in relationship with Him and one another... and it was all very good! If God created marriage to engage one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment that reveals and reflects God’s love for us…and it was very good! Then what happened?

This week, I would like to pick up where we left off last week. And as we continue looking at a section of the book of Genesis, we will discover two timeless consequences that the curse of selfishness and rebellion brings to humanity. And in the midst of these consequences, we will discover how God continually pursues humanity and extends grace and the opportunity for forgiveness and relationship with Him. So let’s do that together, beginning in Genesis 4:1:

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD." ² Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

After God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as a consequence of their selfishness and rebellion and to extend grace so that there could be an opportunity for humanity to be rescued from an eternity separated from God, we see the couple begin to build a family together. Moses, who is the writer of the book of Genesis, explains that as Adam and Eve experienced the intimacy of marriage according to God’s design, the result was the birth of two sons. The firstborn son the couple named Cain. The couple then experienced the birth of another son, whom they named Abel.

While we are not given much detail when it comes to their childhood, Moses tells us that Cain grew up to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer, while Abel grew up to became a shepherd who took care of domesticated animals. After providing us the context, we then enter into the story of Cain in Abel in Genesis 4:3:

 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

Now to fully understand what is happening in this story, we first need to ask and answer two questions. The first question that we need to answer is “what exactly were Cain and Abel doing when Moses says that they brought an offering to the Lord?” When we see the phrase “brought an offering” in the Bible, this phrase refers to an act of worship. You see, throughout the pages of the Bible, we see people respond to the provision of God with worship of God.

As an act of worship that recognizes God as Creator, owner, and provider of all that they have received, we see people offer up, which means to give back, a portion of the resources that they have received back to God. That is why we worship the Lord through giving. When we worship the Lord through giving, we are acknowledging God as the one who owns everything and as our provider, and we are responding to the generosity of God by reflecting His generosity as an act of worship.

And just as God’s people today worship the Lord by giving back a portion of the financial resources we have been given, we see Cain and Abel give back a portion of the resources that they had been given. Cain responded to God’s provision to him as a farmer by giving back a portion of the produce that God had provided him. Abel also responded to God’s provision to him as a shepherd by giving back a portion of the animals that God had provided him. When Moses tells us that Abel gave the firstlings of the flock, this phrase means that Abel gave the firstborn of the animals to God.

Yet, while both Cain and Abel responded to God’s provision by giving back to God a portion of the resources that they had received as an act of worship, we see God have differing responses to their acts of worship. Moses explains that “the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.”

Now this leads us to the second question that we need to ask and answer, which is “what does Moses mean when he says that the Lord had regard for Abel’s offering, but had no regard for Cain’s offering?” The word regard literally means to gaze at or look with favor towards someone or something. In other words, the Lord looked with favor towards and accepted Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s offering.

But why would the Lord do that? What was so different about Cain’s offering that God would refuse to look favorably and reject it, while responding favorable and accepting Abel’s offering? Now throughout history, there have been many explanations given in order to explain the difference in God’s response to Cain and Abel’s acts of worship. Some have suggested that the difference in the Lord’s response to Cain and Abel’s acts of worship was due to what they offered in worship. Others have suggested that the difference in the Lord’s response to Cain and Abel’s acts of worship was due to how they offered their act of worship.

However, as we will discover this week, the differences in the Lord’s response had nothing to do with what they offered in worship or how they offered their act of worship. The difference in God’s response to their worship is about something much deeper than externals. We begin to see a glimpse as to why the Lord responded differently to Cain’s act of worship by his response to the rejection of his worship in verse five.

You see, Cain responded in two powerful ways to the rejection of his act of worship. First, Cain became very angry. Cain literally was burning with anger; he was fired up that God had rejected his act of worship. Second, Cain’s countenance fell. This phrase literally means that his face fell. Cain was crestfallen and downcast in his body language. Cain burned with anger it was evident in his attitude, his actions, and even his posture.

Tomorrow, we will see God engage Cain in his anger…