And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat. And Jehovah looked upon Abel, and on his offering;
Two brothers bring God an offering out of their own work. Only one of them is welcomed. This raises the oldest religious question of all. How can a sinner come to God and find a welcome?
Death Behind the Offering
The detail about the fat is not decoration. It tells us the animal had died, and it points back to something God had already done for Abel's parents when He clothed them with animal skins.
Abel's offering involved the death of the sheep, as the words "and of their fat portions" show. Read Hebrews 11:4 at this point. It shows us that his offering was an act of faith — the first one on record. Now faith lays hold on what God has revealed. What had God revealed for Abel's faith to grasp? Only what we have in Genesis 3:21. Abel grasped the meaning of the coats of skins. So his offering admitted two things. He was a sinner under a death sentence. He could only come to God through the death of a victim.
Another writer puts Abel's confession into words. Abel came admitting he could not come as he was.
He was accepted by blood. His offering said this: I cannot come to God as I am. I am shut out of paradise. Sin stands between me and God. So death, "the wages of sin," must stand between me and God too, or I cannot come at all. He put death between himself and God — the death God's justice required, carried out by killing the victim. Then he came into God's presence as a worshipper God accepted.
Not Abel's Idea
Abel did not invent a clever way of pleasing God. The very shape of what he brought shows he was following instruction.
What he brought shows that sacrifice was God's own arrangement: "By faith Abel offered." It was not worship of his own inventing. No human mind could have guessed that such a gift would please God. Apart from its inner meaning, it would have had no fitness and no welcome from Him. The coats of skin were His own design. They are clear proof that the whole thought and plan came from Him.
Why Cain Was Passed Over
Cain's fault was not the size of his gift. It was where the gift came from.
Cain brought of the fruit of a cursed ground, the product of his own skill and labour. God turned him away, not simply because he was a sinner, but because his gifts could do nothing for him. They came from a wrong source. Cain as much as said, "I can bridge the distance between my soul and God. I can bridge it from my side to His. I can by my own efforts and works retrace my steps to God." What arrogance and ignorance! This is what thousands are doing today.
Nothing has changed since that first day: "God rejects man's patchwork and accepts Christ's one offering. It must always be so." (F. B. Hole)
Why the Fat Is Mentioned
The verse names the fat on purpose. Later, God gave that same part a meaning of its own.
It is striking that the account names "the fat" as given to God in this, the first sacrifice on record. We know how God loves to guide those who believe, far beyond their measure of knowledge. More than two thousand years later, God kept back for Himself the fat as well as the blood. He did this above all in the peace offerings. In those offerings, fellowship with Him was the point more clearly than anywhere else in the law given through Moses. The fat pictured inward richness given to God. It stood for more than what turned away His judgment.
Abel and His Offering Together
God's regard falls on the man and on what he brought, and the two cannot be separated.
Abel was not accepted apart from the firstlings of his flock... Only God knew the full value of the offering. Abel stood before Him accepted according to all of that value. And Cain could see, and did see, that an accepted sacrifice had been that day presented to God. How close Cain stood to the accepted worshipper! Yet in his soul, how far he was from God!... The fact of a sacrifice having been accepted avails nothing for anyone who is not identified with it.
Commentators differ on which comes first in the order of the verse. 56-word grade-28 sentence; third quote in one section
The Lamb, Not the Fighter
The animal Abel chose says something about how God would deal with the serpent.
He brought of the firstlings of his flock, a lamb to die. It was no offering of power, not a wolf nor a lion nor a bear to fight the serpent; but on the contrary a little lamb to die. "And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering." Did He not see, as always, what was still dim to every believer? He saw the Lamb without blemish or spot, known to Him before the world was made, and later shown to us in Christ and His blood.
Summary
- Death first. The mention of the fat proves the lamb died. Abel came admitting the death sentence was on him. So he placed a victim's death between himself and God.
- Faith, not invention. Sacrifice was God's idea, not man's invention. The coats of skins show the whole plan came from Him. Abel was taking God at His word.
- Fat as well as blood. The fat pictured inward excellence given to God, not only what turned away His judgment. It is the part He later kept for Himself in the offerings of fellowship.
- Joined, not near. Cain stood beside an accepted sacrifice and gained nothing. Abel was one with his offering, and God accepted him according to all its worth.
- A lamb, not a warrior. Abel chose a lamb to die. That was the first dim light on the spotless Lamb through whom acceptance would come.