IDEA: Abel's death continues to speak across the centuries about the obedience of faith.
TEXT: "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4).
PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that we must come to God in His way, not our own.
Thornton Wilder, in his play Our Town, paints a scene in a cemetery outside Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. The people in the cemetery talk to one another about life as they had lived it while they were alive.
Do you think that dead people can talk to one another after they die?
I. What do you make of the statement by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews that seems to say that dead people do speak?
Hebrews 11:4 states, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks."
Reputations continue to speak after we have died.
Dead people do talk through their reputation. You have an impression of me; everyone who knows me has an impression. If all these impressions were put together, you would have my reputation. As long as someone remembers me or as long as there is a record of my life, my reputation will continue.
Abel, even though he died centuries ago, still speaks. What do you think he says?
To understand the event, we must reconstruct the event from the predawn of history in Genesis 4:
"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, 'I have acquired a man from the LORD.' Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.' Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' And he said, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?' And [God] said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground' " Genesis 4:1-10).
II. Abel brought a sacrifice that pleased God because of his faith; Cain brought a sacrifice that did not please God, and Cain refused to change.
Both men worshiped God and Abel's sacrifice pleased God because he made it in faith that God was worth the very best he had. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says that he offered it "by faith."
The general tenor of Scripture indicates that the superior quality of Abel's offering derived from the integrity of his heart rather than from the offering itself.
Abel fulfilled the conditions found in Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Those conditions clarified what happened to Enoch as well as to Abel. Abel really wanted to know God and receive His reward.
Cain's sacrifice did not please God. Why?
God gave Cain an opportunity to change. Instead, he grew angry with God and murdered his brother. If he had responded as God asked, do you think his sacrifice would have been accepted?
What do you think that Abel is saying to us today?
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews does not use the Greek word baon as in the LXX translation of Genesis 4:10, but the word lalein which means "to speak". It is never used in Hebrews of speaking to God. Abel's faith continues to speak to us through this written account of his actions in Scripture. Although Abel died, his voice continues to speak of the faith that wins approval from God.
You don't decide your religious response on the basis of what you think is tasteful and appropriate. You find out whatever God wants and offer that to Him.
It is by Abel's faith and not by his blood that he continues to speak. He testifies that God rewards an attitude of faith and obedience.