The Thanksgiving Offering of Cain and Abel

Rev. A.M. den Boer (1929-2004)

What a privilege we have when we with our families may come together in God’s house to acknowledge the Lord for His care and the blessings which He has bestowed on us. It is the Lord who germinated the seed and gave fruitfulness, heat, and moisture so that the harvesting of our crops was made possible. We know that the Lord is free and sovereign in His dealings; one area received more rain than the other; the one had better crops than the other. Regardless, however, of how the matter stands with respect to our temporal goods, we must all acknowledge with Jeremiah that “it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.” Then we do not open our mouths against the Lord but acknowledge that the least blessing is forfeited by us.

Not only in agriculture and the raising of cattle are we dependent upon the Lord, but the same holds true for all our labor. It is necessary in our days of mechanization and industrialization to see and realize this since man imagines he can do everything without the Lord. Without the Lord, however, we cannot perform anything. It is necessary, therefore, that the Lord receive all the honor on this Thanksgiving Day. The Lord maintained the order in nature. He gave strength for the labor, bread for the eater, and help in all circumstances of life.

True thankfulness does not consist only in words and gifts even though they cannot be missed, but it must be sought primarily in the heart; the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit is pleasing to the Lord. From this we can learn that Thanksgiving may not just become an external custom; more is necessary in order to please the Lord. This marked distinction can be seen in the lives of Cain and Abel.

Both Cain and Abel held a Thanksgiving Day but not in the same way. Cain was the firstborn, and he became a farmer, or as it is written in God’s Word, a tiller of the ground. Abel was a keeper of sheep. When we look at the meaning of their names, it is very well possible that Cain was strong and Abel was weak, so it appears that their profession was somewhat according to their strength. It is not the will of the Lord that all people do the same work, but work is divided according to our individual talents. Because of sin there is also much sorrow in our work, but it is still a blessing when we may fulfill our task with gladness.

In Genesis 4 we can read that Adam and Eve not only taught their sons their trade but instructed them in the service of the Lord, for “they brought sacrifices to the Lord.” Parents, do we do the same with our children? We spend so much time on the education for their trade but often forget the most important thing, that we are born for a never-ending eternity. How great is our responsibility with respect toward our children since the Lord will hold us accountable for their upbringing.

Oh, that the service of the Lord would take up a greater place in our families! Then Thanksgiving Day will not be a day of eating and drinking but a day to acknowledge the Lord for all His benefits. This is what Cain and Abel did. They both brought an offering. Calvin states: “The sacrifice is not invented by man, but the Lord made this known to him and commanded it.” It is a sign of God’s common goodness that He still wants to have communion with man, even though man has sinned and made himself worthy of destruction. The human race lies under God’s displeasure because it has left Him. However, God did not take away His common goodness; He also blessed their labor so that the earth brought forth fruit and the cattle multiplied.

The Lord was the same for us in this past season, but the Lord also did more. He gave man the opportunity to come with those offerings to seek and worship Him. Man could not return unto the tree of life anymore, yet there is a way of returning to the Lord. God did not cut off everything! Man’s acknowledgment that all his goods belong to the Lord must also lie in that sacrifice. God is the owner, and we may use the gifts. We are His stewards. This is applicable to all our possessions. It is necessary, therefore, that we acknowledge the Giver of all good.

Adam and Eve gave the same education to both their children, yet there was a fundamental difference between them. No, externally there was not so much difference between them on this Thanksgiving Day. Both of them brought their gifts before the Lord. The difference is in the fruit of God’s grace only, and we can never find any reason in man. It was grace that brought a division between these two brothers. In essence, there was a great difference between them as the Apostle John says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Cain’s works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous. With Abel it was a fruit of faith; he was urged by true love toward God and His service. In Cain’s life we miss this altogether; there was no faith, no burning love towards God. He did this only out of custom, out of duty, because his parents had taught him to do so, or he tried therewith to buy the Lord’s blessing.

This different inclination is also visible in their sacrifice. Cain took of the fruit of the land arbitrarily, but Abel of the firstlings and of the fat. This was the best that he had received from the Lord. Their gifts were different because they had different occupations. This, however, was not the most important thing. Neither was the quantity important, although we must give according to our wealth. The gift is a symbol. We must give ourselves; we must give our heart to the Lord. He created man, and we should consecrate our gifts to Him.

By nature we sacrifice ourselves to the Prince of Darkness. It is only when the Lord bestows His grace upon us that we can give ourselves to Him. The Lord must be the first in our life, but we are not free of our responsibility if we are not converted. True offering is not only the giving of our goods but also the donation of our heart and life to the Lord. This was the case, by grace, with Abel, but we cannot find this in Cain. He did not bring a sacrifice in the true sense of the word. He only gave the empty peel or skin to the Lord but kept the fruit to himself. Such a sacrifice is not pleasing to the Lord. Such a religion is superficial and cold. The form may be good, but the essence is missing.

Now consider Abel. He cannot understand when he looks upon himself that the Lord has blessed him in the past. He is such a great sinner. He has a debt which reaches unto heaven, and he is worthy of death. It is too much for him. His eye of faith is not only fixed upon the Lord as the Creator and Giver of all this good, but he especially needs Him as his Redeemer. Being a lost creature, he cannot find deliverance; there is no way out for him anymore. Then it is God’s time. As a lost sinner, he learned that there was a way of deliverance in Another. How did he learn this? By the sacrifice that he had brought to the Lord! His offering was an animal which had been killed. This sacrifice pointed to Christ, the Seed of the woman, who was to come in the fullness of time.

Only when we find reconciliation in the sacrifice of Christ are we pleasing to the Lord and can we bring the true sacrifice of Thanksgiving.

A sacrifice is a gift to the Lord. So Christ has given Himself, the best He could give, to restore the attributes of the Father, representing a Triune God by His passive and active obedience and thereby bruising the head of Satan. Christ is the difference between the two men. He is set for the fall and rising again of many. Only when we find reconciliation in the sacrifice of Christ are we pleasing to the Lord and can we bring the true sacrifice of Thanksgiving. The Lord is the first in our life to call us from death to life, but He also opens the way of deliverance in Christ. This is not the deliverance which we hear so much of in our days. That is often only a historical knowledge.

When we, by faith, may flee to Christ and know Him for salvation, it is different. Then we receive discovering grace, lose all our foundations, are cut off by the Holy Spirit from all of our works, and come to Him as poor sinners. For such an afflicted sinner, Christ is a refuge. This was Abel’s experience; “He obtained witness that he was righteous.” A person can never be righteous before God without Christ and His merits. It is so necessary for all of us to come to that same place. Not our self-righteousness is pleasing to the Lord, but we must possess Christ’s merits. This will be given only to poor sinners who cannot help themselves anymore. What a blessing if we may be able to hold Thanksgiving in such a blessed state.

Abel obtained witness of the Lord, but Cain did not. How the Lord showed this is not written in God’s Word. Some believe that the Lord answered by fire from heaven as happened to Solomon at the dedication of the new temple. Others think that it was the smoke that went upwards. Since it is not written in the Bible, we cannot give the exact answer, but most believe it was a testimony of the Lord in Abel’s soul that he was righteous, and that fact was not hidden from his brother Cain. We think of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his only son, born to Sarah, to the Lord. Then the Lord testified, “Now I know that thou fearest God.” By faith, Abraham experienced the eternal love of God in his life. Such a testimony is a gift from heaven and gives peace in the heart. Of these things we must speak! “Come; listen to what the Lord has done.”

The blessing given to Abel worked discontentedness in Cain. He became envious of Abel. It stirred up his wrath. Why for him, and not for me, since I am not a greater sinner than he is? The work of grace in Abel did not work a holy jealousy in Cain but devilish hatred which ended in the killing of his brother. Herein we see pictured the enmity between the seed of Satan and the Seed of the woman. Cain lived under the means of grace. The Lord spoke to him, but he went his own way and murdered his own brother, thereby to get revenge upon the Lord. After this he fled from the Lord, hardening his heart unto the end. How terrible it will be to then appear before the Lord! When we die as an unrighteous person, missing the righteousness of Christ, we will then be lost for that never-ending eternity.

Do we follow the example of Cain and withhold that which belongs to the Lord? He will then certainly punish us when we go in this way. If we withhold the fruits of the land, it is possible that the Lord will withhold fruitfulness in another year. If we withhold of the treasures of business and industry, the Lord can give unemployment in the future. If science is separated from God’s Word, it is very well possible that the time will come that our schools will be closed. If we withhold our heart and life from the Lord, the Lord will visit this, too, with times of adversities, and when it becomes eternity He will withhold His favor, and His wrath shall be kindled against us forever. This will be so terrible that the Apostle cried out, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ...” Nahum says, “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.”

For many people, religion is only form and nothing more. Where is the love and the holy jealousy for God’s house? Often it is left waste, so that we have more to spend on ourselves with the things of the world. May the Lord grant a reformation among us so that we may return to the living God who is so worthy to be served. The sacrifice which pleases the Lord is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. When we see our terrible sins in the light of the Holy Spirit, then we begin to ask the Lord if He will enable us to live to His honor since we can never do that in our own strength.

Abel has been dead for about six thousand years already, but there is still spoken of him, “The memory of the just is blessed.” He received the crown in the heaven of heavens and is forever with the Lord. There is no Prayer Day there anymore, only an endless Thanksgiving Day to glorify the Lord for all the benefits bestowed upon him.

May the Lord look down upon us and our children in Him who brought the most excellent sacrifice, namely, Jesus Christ. In Him our unrighteousness will be taken away, and we shall be clothed with His merits. How understandable, then, is the word of the poet for us, “What shall I render to the Lord, what shall my off’ring be, for all the gracious benefits He has bestowed on me?”

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