Bible Q&A: Why did God reject Cain's offering?

January 17, 2003

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Bible Question: "Why didn't God accept Cain's offering, but accepted Abel's offering?"--A.S.
Bible Answer: There really is no short answer to this question. To understand what's going on, you have to back up a bit and read Genesis before Cain and Abel were ever born. After Adam and Eve had sinned, and God cast them out of the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:21 says "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them."
At first blush, that doesn't appear to have a lot of meaning. God appears to just be showing a preference to skins for clothing versus the fig leaves Adam and Eve tried to cover up with when their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked.
But one of the most important principles in the Bible is illustrated here. In order for God to get skins, some innocent animals had to die. The animals didn't sin, Adam and Eve did.
But innocent animals were killed in order to cover the nakedness -- or sins -- of humans.
The principle of innocent blood being shed to cover the sins of men is continued throughout the Old Testament with the sacrificial lambs killed on Passover to atone for the sins of the Jewish people. God also illustrated that principle to Abraham, when He provided a ram for a sacrifice to take the place on an altar for Abraham's only son, Isaac.
And the principle culminates in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Revelation 13:8 says. He was the first innocent human who ever lived, and willingly laid down His life on the cross to atone for the sins of the human race.
So to understand what was going on with Cain and Abel, we must assume that Adam had told both his sons they should make an annual sacrifice of an animal for their own sins.
Genesis 4:2-5 says, "Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell."
We must assume that Abel did what Adam had told him he should, as God had instructed, bringing the offering of the firstborn of his flock, an innocent lamb to die for his sins.
But Cain apparently didn't see the need to exchange his crops for a lamb, but instead presented the works of his own hands to God, and expected God to accept it anyway, though it was contrary to what he undoubtedly had been told God required him to do.
It's the same way we all are. We would rather try to earn our way to heaven with the works of our own hands, than seek forgiveness of our sins by pleading the innocent blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. We would rather do anything other than face the facts of our own sins, and our own inability to ever do anything about our sin nature.
It's works versus grace, trying to do for ourselves what only God can do for us, save us.

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(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)