Genesis 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

We cannot say after how long this took place. Obviously, they had grown to adulthood. Cain is mentioned first; he was the first to bring an offering, and you might think that would make him the most devout. He brought the fruit of the ground, from his crops, ‘an offering unto the Lord.’ It does not say what he meant to do by that offering. The Hebrew word for offering is a word which means gift. In the covenant on Sinai, the word is only used of bloodless offerings, such as the grain offering (Leviticus 2:1). Here it includes Abel’s offering which was a lamb from his flock, and the offering should therefore be understood of a gift to God of some kind.Sacrifices did not make an appearance in the world until after the fall. Before then, man had fellowship with God without interruption, and without need for propitiation. But after the fall men and women universally had consciousness of sin and knew that they could no longer approach God without a gift. We can be sure that, because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, God had revealed to mankind, perhaps to Adam, that this was a right way in which to worship him, for the elements of worship which are acceptable to God can never be and have never been designed by man; they must always be revealed by God. Hebrews 11:4 tells us that Abel offered his sacrifice by faith, and if it was by faith then it was in obedience to something which God had commanded.God himself had killed an animal in order to provide skins with which to clothe Adam and Eve, and he had even before the Noahic covenant placed the life of animals in the hands of man. However, there is no statement explicitly stating that they were to make sacrifices because these represented or symbolised something that God would do so that sin could be forgiven and righteousness be bestowed by God. We are not told anything like that, but anyway, Cain brought an offering. Each of the brothers brought an offering from the produce that came from their particular sphere of agriculture. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. There is no suggestion in the text that he was at fault in bringing an offering from the ground rather than a lamb as Abel did. Both animal sacrifices and grain offerings were acceptable under the law.