Hebrews 11 - Abel
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Hebrews 11 - Abel
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Brother against brother and a lesson in humility.
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Brother against brother and a lesson in humility.
[Darris McNeely] We're continuing on in our series in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter of the Bible. A fascinating chapter that chronicles some tangible examples and evidence of this important matter of faith when it comes to a relationship with God. We talked in the first of this series about the fact that in verse 1 of chapter 11 Paul talks about the evidence of things not seen. And that evidence is something that God does provide for us, even of things that are not seen in order to help us understand what is.
Faith is something that we don't see. It's like righteousness or sin. It's one of these intangible spiritual qualities that you just can't necessarily you know see and demonstrate, put your hands around and fingers upon, but it is very real nonetheless as Hebrews 11:1 tells us. As Paul goes through chapter 11 he begins to unveil stories about individuals from the Bible that tell us exactly what faith is by these examples and these stories. He later will say that they are a great cloud of witnesses who've gone before, and that's exactly what he leaves us.
The first one that he goes to in verse 4 is the individual from the book of Genesis named Abel. Abel, the story that we remember from the book of Genesis was the first one to be murdered by his brother Cain. They both brought sacrifices to God, but it was Abel's that was accepted. Cain's was not. Cain, however, rose up in anger and envy against his brother Abel and he killed him. And it says here in chapter 11 and in verse 4 of Hebrews, "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)
One verse, very succinct, and yet shows us that Abel was righteous before God and that his sacrifice was accepted. That's the real story here between Cain and Abel and what we find out about Abel is that his sacrifice was accepted. It really doesn't matter what kind of sacrifice it was. It tells us that it was an animal sacrifice, but what's most important when you understand the subject of sacrifices from God's point of view is that He is more concerned about what's in the heart, how we feel, and the sincerity with which we bring a sacrifice.
Psalm 51, David writes that the sacrifices that God likes are those of a contrite spirit and humility, a humble heart. That's what Abel had. That's what he brought, and that's what God accepted. And that is the complete opposite of what his brother Cain did. And so faith, what it tells us here from the story of Abel is that faith begins in the heart in a complete, total sacrifice and giving of ourselves to God and putting our life in His hand and beginning to develop a relationship with Him, which is what Abel did and why God accepted him and Cain was not accepted at that particular point in time.
The first step in faith is to make sure that we have a contrite spirit and a humble heart.
That's BT Daily. Join us next time.