Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Sacrifice of Abel

Genesis 4:1-5

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."
Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. 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, b
ut He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

I'll be honest, this verse has rocked me, the whole nature of the sacrifices we offer to God. The Bible says that it is possible to offer sacrifices that God does not even look at (Isaiah 1:11). Why didnt God respect Cain's sacrifice? Why Abel's? It appears that God has given us many other verses and principles in the Bible to explain.

When i was a kid, I used to think that God just didnt like fruit, but that is not the case and there is actually alot more to why Abel's sacrifice was respected and Cain's wasn't.

We live before a God that has commanded offering and sacrifice and yet at the same time, He is worthy of offering and sacrifice. In our lives today, we as Christians come before the Lord and offer offerings to Him, sometimes money or possesions, time, activities, ministries etc. The question is, 'what does God want?

I wont lie, this can be a struggle with me. I want to offer Him what pleases Him, there is no feeling I have ever known better than the feeling of knowing that God is pleased. The Church, especially in this age in our country, can get really ritualistic, we can just do the same things over and over and not really be walking in a real relationship. Christianity is knowing God, real and active relationship, anything other than that is just a joke and a routine.

What is Abel's sacrifice? I hope to write about it more in a series of posts....

Lord, please help us...

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