Why did Cain and Abel bring an offering?

[Bear.Fr00t]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

 

[St_Worm2]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

We can only assume God commanded the offerings be made and that He also commanded the manner in which they were to be made (since both Cain and Able: 1. brought an offering before Him and 2. one offering was pleasing to God and the other was not).

The commands themselves are not recorded in Scripture, detail that the Lord, for reasons only He knows, decided not to include. In fact, as I'm sure you've already noticed, there's nothing written about either brother from their births until they're both responsible, independent adults, busy at their occupations.

--David

 

[John Stefanyszyn]

Cain and Abel brought an offering before God because they were taught about Him, either by Adam and Eve or by God himself. However, that is not the most important. What is important to note is that each one knew that the Creator was real.
Abel knew that God was real and he believed that Our Father was first and foremost in all things. He therefore gave God the best and he died for it.
Cain also knew that God was real but decided that he wanted to keep the best for himself and give God a secondary quality. Cain placed the belief in and the desire for his own self-will before that of Our Father. Cain followed the way of Satan which Adam and Eve also embraced...to embrace the freedom to decide for oneself what is good and evil, what is right in their own eyes.
Today, many Christians are like Cain. They know of God, they also bring offerings to God, they say that they believe in Christ but they also believe in and live by another way of life which gives them the freedom of rights, to decide for themselves what is right or wrong.

Freedom of rights, freedom of religion, universal values is a belief that many live by in their every day lives. On the surface it seems like a great way...like a lamb of peace, like a burning lamp. They also use it to defend their freedom of "religious belief". Since when does the Creator, Our Father, the Truth need another "man-made" belief to defend Himself?

Suffice it to say that The True God, Father of Jesus Christ, is the One and Only and that His Way, and Only His Way, is true and good. Let us stand for this, just as Christ did, the apostles, and all the true disciples that died for this. Christ was ressurected for this and for His love for man. The others will also be resurrected at His return.

Christ did not live by another belief and did not compromise His faith with the ways of the Jewish priests, who also claimed the God of Abraham to be their God.

Let us stand and not deny the One truth, Our One and Only True King.
If not, He will deny us.

 

[St_Worm2]

Cain followed the way of Satan which Adam and Eve also embraced...to embrace the freedom to decide for oneself what is good and evil, what is right in their own eyes. Today, many Christians are like Cain. They know of God, they also bring offerings to God, they say that they believe in Christ but they also believe in and live by another way of life ...

Hi John, first off, I see you're still pretty new here so, welcome to CF ..

As to your post (for clarity's sake), you said that, "Today, many Christians are like Cain". You qualified that by saying:

1. They follow the way of Satan
2. They believe in and follow their own paths rather than God's, deciding for themselves what is good or evil
3. They know of God, pay homage to Him, and claim to believe in Christ, but show by their actions that their hearts are far from Him (believing in and living by another way of life than His)
​

These are .. "Christians" ..

 

[ForceofTime]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

Kind of implied:

Genesis 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

with the implication that they must grow something. Perhaps the first sin offering?

 

[TR23]

It can be inferred from genesis that god informed adam of his promise of salvation, and by faith in this hope they walked in obediance to god.
He also kiled animals and used the skins to temporarily cover their skins. A picture of the sacrifice that would be continually offered to cover the sins of the world until christ could come.

This adam taught to his sons, which is why they sacrifice.

Adam was basically the first priest, and probably the patriarch leader king at the same time of the clan family, instructed in the plan of god and what god wanted them to do until the plan came full circle. THis he taught his family, and they taught theirs.

It is also said in jewish history that Adam and Seth were the ones who mapped out the understanding of the heavens and such, and then used it to encode constellations which told the story of the world from beginning to end, which is why today christians have looked at the constellations and remade those connections (because although the constellation's original meanings were corrupted by various cultures as it spread, the basic constellations and oftentimes the pictures used for them remained remarkably the same, pointing to some ancient prehistoric source that all recorded history has drawn from.

This is why it has been theorized that Melchizedek of the bible was part of the unbroken line of priest-kings from adam to seth who passed down the uncorrupted truth of god's law and his promise.

We also can see in Job how there is referance for a longing for the one who will deliver him:
Job 19:25: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that
in the end he will stand upon the earth.”
So there is evidence that this knowledge of the messiah as a promise to make right what was wrong was carried down the generations long before the recorded prophets of the tanakh came onto the scene.

We do know that abraham obeyed god's laws before the torah existed.

 

[Heavens]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

It would have all been greatly detailed to Adam from God within these subsequential occurrences;

(Gen 3:21) Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

You know that when God replaced their leaves with slain skins (probably lamb?) He would have explained what was and wasn't acceptable.

Adam, the head of the family, would have explained it to his sons. But as always, there is that "I'll do it my way" personality, and his name was Cain. Cain obviously ignored God's way. Able was obedient to the acceptable sacrifice though.

Here, Cain is "reminded" by God what would be acceptable;

(Gen 4:5) But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Then again, God gave him a chance to accept the lamb offering sacrifice way to life;

(Gen 4:7) If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

But Cain ignored three recorded attempts of God to save him, then he killed his brother.

So yea, he had plenty of teaching. He just ignored it and did it his own way. Like so many people do...

 

[juvenissun]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

The question should be asked is: what is the offering for?

First of all, I don't think it is for the cleansing of sin. Because there was no such rule (law) yet.

If it is not for the sin, then what is it for?

My thought is that it is done only to show respect and gratitude to God (thanks to the fruit of "wisdom"). It explains a human nature that we all try to remember our ancestors, from whom we came from. So both of them offered the best they have. We should remember that they could no longer "see" God. But I believe they certainly know God better than anyone on the earth.

Cain's problem is not on his offering, but is on his proudness, which is evil.

 

[granpa]

It was probably passover.

Yes, I know that passover supposedly didnt start till exodus.

we also the the dates 2-15 (passover for those that cant keep 1-15) and 7-15 (tabernacles) occurring in the flood story.

 

[40creek]

We can assume God made comandments and laws for man that were not written in the bible. As for Why the offering of Cain was unacceptable was not because it was grain instead of meat. He was a farmer after all. Abel was the shephard. We get the answer to this puzzling question in Hebrews chapter 11:4. It was the mental frame of mind that Cain had. He offered is offering with a lack of faith wereas Abels offering was offfered in faith.

Now I can surmise that although God revealed himself to Adam and Eve Their children never had this revelation. At least not until Cain killed Abel. I can chuckle at the thouhgt of his face at that meeting LOL. Until then I assume Cain and Abel only heard stories of God from their parents. Abel believed and Cain figured they must be a little bit touched in the head.....suprise.

 

[Kaitlin08]

It's just a mythic story, meant to ground certain principles and values of the community. The offering of a sacrifice was one of those principles.

 

[granpa]

I think the important part of the story is the city he built

 

[GloriousWords]

God instituted a system of animal sacrifices to point forward in time to the sacrifice of Christ. From the lamb which was used to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve (to "atone" for their sins) the image was to set in the mind of man that the spotless Lamb of God would one day do the same for all of humanity. By do the same I mean be offered up as a sacrifice. There is no indication of God instructing Noah to sacrifice or many of the patriarchs but we can see that there was an understanding.

In Abel's sacrifice we see the sincere desire to accept the merits of the Lord's sacrifice and his willingness to give the best of what he had to God.

Cain, harboring a spirit of rebellion, presented a different form of offering to God in place of the divinely established requirements. We know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. (Hebrews 9:22) The ancient sacrifices prefigured Christ. We cannot fairly assume that the only sacrifices intended to represent God's Lamb were those instituted after the Exodus. Cain's rebellious offering was no different the offering up of strange fire by Nadab and Abihu. (Leviticus 10:1, 2)

*Humbly written...God bless.*

 

[Tim Myers]

I always thought it was a literary device to convey a moral lesson.......

 

[cyberlizard]

Just wondering what compelled Cain and Abel to bring and offering unto the Lord? God never commands them to do so, as far as I can see.

They brought their offerings because it was the time that would later be known as Passover.



Steve

 

[ittarter]

I always thought it was a literary device to convey a moral lesson.......

NO NO NO NO NO.

What would the moral lesson be, exactly? The text is so ambiguous as to the reason for the sacrifices, why God liked one and not the other, Cain's emotional state when he killed his brother, and the rationale for God's very strange response to the murder.

Moral lessons must be clear and unambiguous. Biblical narrative is neither. This is mainly why I believe the Bible was NOT written for children. (We as adults must became "as children" before God, though!)

Genesis 4, like much of the book, is difficult to interpret. Personally I read it in context of the wider rhetoric of the book -- for example, God's ongoing mitigation of evil resulting from human decisions, and more importantly, the way God challenges social standards (i.e. the eldest son is no longer divinely blessed by default; cf. David's older brother, whom God passes over, although we are not told why; similarly God does not respect Cain's sacrifice).

If the passage is saying something clearly about sacrifice, then I'm missing it, but by virtue of the presence of sacrifice throughout the book, it's probably saying something important about that, too.

 

[ittarter]

They brought their offerings because it was the time that would later be known as Passover.

This makes a lot of sense. I'm subscribing to this position until further notice

 

[ittarter]

It's just a mythic story, meant to ground certain principles and values of the community. The offering of a sacrifice was one of those principles.

Seems unlikely. Such a grounding is better suited for Genesis 2-3 or the advent of Abraham in chapter 12 (and it can be argued that sacrifice is found in both cases). Since both Cain and Abel died they have no progeny to follow in their footsteps.

 

[cyberlizard]

They brought their offerings because it was the time that would later be known as Passover.



Steve

This makes a lot of sense. I'm subscribing to this position until further notice

i know exactly why I hold this opinion, but does anyone else know why I hold to it?


Steve

 

[Kaitlin08]

Seems unlikely. Such a grounding is better suited for Genesis 2-3 or the advent of Abraham in chapter 12 (and it can be argued that sacrifice is found in both cases). Since both Cain and Abel died they have no progeny to follow in their footsteps.

Perhaps you mean that the location of the sacrifices is unlikely, and not that the story is mythic is unlikely, but I'm not clear on how offspring would factor into the purpose of including the sacrifices here, instead of later in the narrative. The narrative, at this point, is still very childlike, because it is a founding myth, and I think the author was very likely unconscious of why he included the sacrifices.