Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous… I. In his action there was NO RELATION MEASURABLE BY HUMAN REASON BETWEEN MEANS AND ENDS. Where something is done perceptible to the senses, and the result is also perceptible to the senses, then reason can see that there is a relation between means and ends. But here, while the something done is perceptible to the senses, the result is in no way perceptible to any natural faculty of man. To the pure rationalist, the killing of a beast in sacrifice must ever seem an aimless, resultless act, always a mere superstition, always a waste. It is rational to kill a beast in self-defense, and plausible reasons may be urged why beasts should be killed for food; but there is no reason, save that of a deep, inward, authoritative impression, why a beast should be killed in sacrifice. Abel certainly could give no other reason. And yet, looked at in the light of the subsequent death of Christ, certain great principles of sacrificial action are seen in this first recorded sacrifice, and all the numberless similar ones which followed. There is the acknowledgment of human fault as well as of Divine goodness. There is the acknowledgment of Divine goodness in giving back to God what God first of all had given. But this might have been done by an offering like that of Cain. There has to be something more, and it is reached when a life is taken. The innocent suffers for the guilty. Granted that Abel's state of mind is one inconceivable to us, one which we cannot imagine being produced in us, yet it may have been appropriate enough to that stage in human history. If we had been in Abel's place we should have done right in following Abel's example. II. THE FAITH THAT IS REQUIRED FOR THE TAKING AWAY OF ANY LIFE, Life is taken away recklessly, thoughtlessly, upon very slight occasion - even human life. And yet, as a child is reported once to have said, it ought to require great faith to put a man to death - a very clear conviction that the thing is right and necessary. Liberty, if wrongly taken, can be restored. Life, however taken, is gone forever. And there should be consideration, surely, in taking the life of even a brute beast. Hence, whenever there was real obedience in such a sacrifice, there must have been a very deep faith. Faith that what looked like waste was really using a brute life to the very best purpose. The natural life was yielded up, and there came back an accession of spiritual life. The brute was for the time of greater service as a sin offering than in any other way. III. THE EXTENT OF ABEL'S FAITH. It cost him his life. He died through it. The first example of faith that the writer finds is one where the believer loses his life through his faith. Moreover, he loses his life through faith that had Divine testimony borne to it. God makes it plain that he accepts the true obedience, but he does not preserve the natural life of him whom he thus accepts. The path of faithful obedience may be the path to natural death. IV. CAIN'S UNBELIEF. By the results of that unbelief Cain still speaks. He did not believe that a sin offering was needed. Then came the results of the unbelief. 1. Non-acceptance of what he did offer. 2. Consequent envy and malice of his brother, who had been witnessed to as righteous. 3. Malice leads to actual murder. 4. Cain, filled with remorse, looses the links that bind him to his fellow men. Abel's faith has to be looked at, not only in its results to him, but in contrast with the results of Cain's unbelief. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. |
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