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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Genesis 4:1:

Genesis 4:1-5
Excerpted from: What Is an Offering?

First, making offerings to God is an ancient practice, and after obedience, it is the second act of worship that is mentioned in Scripture. Now, Adam and Eve did not do very well in the obedience part, but it is implied there that they did obey God before they disobeyed God. The important point here though is that offerings started at the very beginning.

The second point, offerings are tied to the work that Cain and Abel did in their normal lives. The offerings came from the fruit of their labors. So, Cain was a tiller of the ground, and he gave something from that. And Abel was a shepherd, he kept sheep, and he gave of that, of what he had done.

Third, a very important point, the most important point in terms of our relationship with God, is that God does not respect all offerings. He makes a judgment. Something about Cain's offering did not please God.

Now, we teach that Cain gave an offering of the fields and so it was most likely a grain offering. And you have to know what these offerings in the Old Testament symbolize, but the grain offering symbolizes love toward man. The person that was sacrificing, giving an offering, would normally give a burnt offering and the grain offering went on top of it and all the other things were combined on this particular offering. But Cain only gave the grain offering, which meant that his viewpoint, if you will, his motives were toward man. He was the first humanist, we might say.

While Abel gave a burnt offering from the flock and that symbolizes love toward God. That his first priority was God. And so he gave a life, not just, you know, plant life that is a lower form than a sheep or or a lamb. And in this case, Abel gave a better offering than Cain did because Abel showed that his love was toward God first, whereas Cain said his love was toward other men first.

So seeing Cain's attitude in the whole story, the greater problem then, as God clearly saw, was in his heart, it was in his character and in his motives. God saw and judged that Cain's offering was not a worthy offering, and so he rejected it.

And so he gave a bad offering. He gave wrongly.

Genesis 4:1-5
Excerpted from: Lessons From the Animals

There is a little aside here that we should get to before we go past it, but it will not take long. When these verses are combined with Genesis 1:28-29 and Genesis 4:1-5, it shows that this is not mankind's introduction into eating animal flesh. You can read verse 3 in chapter 9. But in Genesis 1, what God is doing is showing that all life, animal and human, ultimately depends on vegetation: I have given you all the green herbs to eat. And that is true.

Remember Genesis 4:1-5. Abel brought to God an animal sacrifice. That shows us that God had already showed them that their dominion over animals extended to the place that they were able to take an animal's life. God was well pleased with Abel's animal sacrifice. He was so well pleased that it is recorded back in Hebrews 11 that it still witnesses. So God was not overly concerned about the killing of an animal, but what we need to understand is that they understood about sacrificing, and some of the sacrifices had to be eaten. That was a requirement of God. The sin offering was to be eaten, part of it anyway, and the peace offering was to be eaten.

Genesis 4:1-7
Excerpted from: What is God Looking For in an Offering?

Now from these verses, there is certainly a lot that is not stated, but we can understand that Abel's offering was indeed respected and Cain's was not. Cain obviously did not do the right thing. God tells us, "If you do well, will it not be accepted?" There are clear indications that Cain not only brought the wrong offering, but the way in which he brought it forth was equally incorrect.

Articles

'As It Was In the Days of Noah'  

Essays

Cain's Assumption (Part One)  

Sermons

The Two Great Commandments: First Principles  
Grace, Mercy, and Favor (Part Three): A Faithful Witness to God's Mercy  
Faith, Hope, and the Worship of God (Part Three)  
Do Little Things Not Count?  
Anger (Part 2)  
What's Your Attitude?  
The Doctrine of Israel (Part Twelve): Joseph  

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