Hebrews 11: 4 - Learning from the faith of Abel

In verse 4, the author talks about Abel, the son of Adam who was murdered by Cain, his own brother. The author wants us to learn from his faith in God. In order to understand the illustration of Abel and Cain, we need to go to Genesis 3. In Genesis 3:21, we see that God provided the first sacrifice of an animal, to cover man after he had fallen. This indicated that man in and of himself could never deal with his own sin. God provided the covering through the death of an animal, signifying that blood had to be shed for the sin to be forgiven and covered.

Presumably, God must have indicated to both Cain and Abel the necessity for animal sacrifice. Hence, God did not accept the sacrifice of Cain simply because there was no shedding of blood. Cain chose to come to God on his own terms. He offered fruit and vegetables without the shedding of blood. In this, he had disobeyed God. Abel, on the other hand, offered the best of his animals and God accepted it because of the shedding of blood.

What’s the point of all this? Abel and Cain exemplified the kind of acceptable worship and unacceptable worship to God. Abel’s life illustrates a person who believes in God's revelation, and worships God according to divine instruction. Cain is likened to a person who has not believed the revelation of God, but chooses to come to God on his own self-centered terms. This is the reason that Cain's offering was not acceptable to God.

The same situation still exists today between two kinds of worshippers. Those like Abel, who would choose to come to God by faith, acting on His instructions; or those like Cain, who deign to worship God on their own terms. God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering indicated that Abel did so on God’s terms. Although dead, Abel’s blood still speaks. Like him, we can only have a right standing with God because of the shed blood of Christ. And only people like Abel can please God. His act still speaks to us today, concerning the need to come to God through Christ, and His sacrificial and completed works at Calvary.