Lesson 8 The First Offerings to Jehovah update 9-16-13

                            The First Offerings to Jehovah

                                           Genesis 4:2b-7

As we have come to see in our study - the triune God - the living and true God made a Covenant with Himself before the eternal ages of time (see Gen.1:26; Is.48:16-17; Jn.1:1-18; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2).  All was planned and done according to the foreknowledge of the all-wise, all-knowing, omniscient Eternal Deity.

God is also all-powerful. What He thinks to do, He will carry out. What He has begun, He will finish (Num.23:19; Is.45:21-46:11). God’s Covenant was made in agreement with all three of the personal beings of Deity. The Eternal had one purpose - to have a Kingdom of sons of God, each one bearing His image (Jn.1:12-13).

As we have also seen, this would take two men (see 1 Cor.15:35-49). The first man, Adam, would be a creation of human flesh in a body of the earth, earthy, a flesh and bone body with the life in the blood (see Gen.9:4).

When God created the heavens and the earth, He initiated all the elements that He would need for ordered life on His earth. In the ground of the earth God put all of the elements for living cells of a body of a frame of bone, and flesh and skin to cover the frame, and all the cells He would need for the internal organs.

When He had finished forming Adam’s body, God breathed Adam into the formed body - a personal being, a soul of life (Gen.2:7). The soul has intellect with which to think, and emotions with desires and affections, and a will as to man’s way of doing.

In order to activate the mind, emotions and will, the soul must be living - have life. That the soul have life - being - God breathed the life He is into the nostrils of the formed body. The life of God is spirit (Jn.4:24). God is a being of spirit, invisible, immaterial. So He made the inner man, the personal being, a soul of life that man might activate his soul and that he might animate the body of flesh with life in the blood.

The material body has an image which is seen and can be touched. The life in the blood is temporary. The earthy body was not designed to live forever. It is only an image of human flesh of the earth, earthy (1 Cor.15:47a). It will die.

All of this we have already been shown in our study. We bring it to remembrance as we come to the place in our narrative in which the gospel of the second man, the last Adam, must be made known to the children of Adam and Eve. The gospel of the coming Anointed Son of God is a making known of the high calling of man born in the flesh of humanity and bearing the image of the earthy, to be born again a son of God in the image of God (see 2 Tim.1:9).

Adam and Eve heard of the high calling of God from Jehovah Himself. Each one chose to personally believe in the righteousness of God through faith in His coming Anointed Son. Hearing and believing, each one chose to receive the Son to be the eternal life of the seed coat of humanity. Having united with the coming Son of God in his death and resurrection, each one, Adam and Eve, was born from above, assured the body in the image of God would be raised up out from the dead.

Adam and Eve, having been taught, believed the gospel of Christ, the Anointed Son of God, the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation unto whosoever believes (Rom.1:16). They would be the teachers of that same gospel to their children born after their kind, human flesh, of the earth, earthy. The children must hear the gospel of the word of the Anointed Son and believe God and receive the coming Anointed Son to be eternal life for the seed coat of their body of human flesh (see 1 Jn.5:11-12; Jn.1:9; Tit.2:11).

The earthy body, the covering of the inner man, is like a seed coat. Any seed has the outer coat which holds or contains the germ cell of life to raise up a body after its kind of life. A germ cell of eternal life will raise up a body in the image of the heavenly Lord from heaven, a body in the image of God that the son of God might live forever. Without the germ of life a seed coat cannot bring forth a body (see 1 Cor.15:35-57).

Adam and Eve would be God’s witnesses to the truth of God’s calling to become sons of God and witnesses to the salvation in the person and work of God’s coming Anointed Son. The Holy Spirit would testify to their witness to convict the heart of the children of human flesh. Adam and Eve had the visible revelation of “the good news” of God’s Eternal Covenant in the glory declared in the stellar heavens, with their signs and seasons (Gen.1:14-19; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6).

The glory of God as seen in the face of God’s Covenant Son was the gospel of salvation known to and believed by Adam and Eve. The righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son is from faith to faith (Rom.1:17).

In the proving of the heart each one, Adam and Eve, had failed to obey the truth shown to them. Seeing the lawlessness of transgressing the command of Jehovah, each one had immediately repented and received the eternal life offered in the Covenant Son. Each one had been assured of a crown of life laid up for them. In the resurrection they would again be clothed with skin.

Jehovah Elohim, the Covenant God, greatly desires to make Himself known to every living soul born of the flesh in the image of the earthy (see Ezek.18:23, 30, 32; Jn.1:9; Ac.10:34b-35; Col.1:23; 1 Tim.2:3-6; Tit.2:11; 2 Pet.3:9). Each one is purposed for a son of God. Each one has the freedom to choose to respond to his holy calling. No one is coerced. The righteousness of God and the life eternal to raise up the mortal body out from the dead is a Gift to be received from the God in heaven. The Gift of the Son in whom is righteousness and eternal life to be freely shared is freely given. He must be freely received.

Until Jehovah had His first two prophets of righteousness with full understanding of His ways, He kept His first pair of human flesh separated unto Himself and trained them in the righteousness of God. When Adam and his wife Eve fully understood the truth which must be obeyed, and why it was imperative to obey the truth and be born again, they had then learned to worship God in spirit, that is, in the very being of one’s spirit where the Holy Spirit gives understanding, and one sees with the eyes of his understanding enlightened. Then one worships in truth. God seeks such to worship Him (Jn.4:24).

With His first two sons of God as prophets of righteousness, Jehovah sent them out of the garden to begin to multiply sons of man to fill the earth. They would teach their children the truth, to be born from above of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, that they might fulfill their purpose to follow their holy calling and become sons of God (see 1 Pet.1:17-25).

Here in “The Book of the Law” Moses only gives the necessary details pertinent to the history of man’s redemption. Further details were at first kept through Oral Law and then written in other books. The sons of Israel to whom The Book of the Law is written had understanding of details we are not given. We have all we need to know concerning the righteousness of God and the redemption that is in His Anointed Covenant Son.

In the narrative Moses goes from the birth of the twin sons and the prophecies of the names by which they are called to the occupation of each as they were grown, then to the time of each one bringing his first offering to Jehovah.

No explanation is given as to the Law of the Offerings or which festival season was being celebrated. The sons of Israel would not have needed an explanation. They were well versed in the Law of the Offerings and the festival seasons. Later Israel, God’s nation, was shut up under the Law to preserve it. For details of the Law of the Offerings and their meaning, we must learn from Israel using Moses’ writings in the rest of the books of the Law.

With the Law of the Offerings made known, we see that Jehovah had added a third testimony of the Covenant Son. First Jehovah had written the testimony of His Covenant in the stellar heavens in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Covenant,” where the glory of God is declared in figure and seen in the face of the Covenant Son, who is being shown forth in the figures of the true Son (see Gen.1:14-19; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; Rom.10:14-18). Then God had the verbal witness of His first two prophets, and finally the witness to the glory of the Covenant Son as prefigured in the types and symbols of the offerings and of the Feasts of Jehovah. In the figures of the Law of the Offerings and in the appointed seasons of the Feasts of Jehovah is the witness to what Jehovah Elohim God purposed to accomplish in the Anointed Son of the Covenant (see Rom.1:17; Heb.9:24-10:1).

In instituting the Law of the Offerings Jehovah would need a priest. It would go without saying that Adam was the first priest to minister in the sacrificial offerings to Jehovah. No details are given, as none are necessary.

Moses recorded, “And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it happened that Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground. And Abel, he also brought from the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof” (Gen.4:2b-4a). If Abel brought of the fat, the animals had been slain, blood had been shed. Death had taken place.

“In the process of time” is literally “at the end of days.” This denotes a season of stated days. At that stated season each of the brothers brought a personal offering. This would lead us to believe that formerly the worship was under the head of the family. The family worship was related to the appointed times of the Covenant Son.

The three Feasts of Jehovah pre-figured specific events in the life of the coming Covenant Son of Jehovah Elohim (see Lev.23; Ex.23:14-19; 34:18-27; Deut.16:16-17). In this brief account Moses makes known to us that there were the Feasts of Jehovah, stated times which have been observed from the beginning of the worship of Jehovah Elohim. And as already stated, these festival times were declared in the signs in the stellar heavens.

Moses precedes the bringing of the offerings with the occupation of each brother. Cain became a tiller of the ground. He followed in his father’s calling to become a farmer and till the soil. Abel, the younger of the two, became a shepherd of flocks. That was the task often given to the younger son (see 1 Sam.16:11).

It would seem natural that Cain would bring an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel would bring the firstlings of his flock. But worship of Jehovah is not natural. Worship of the living and true God is in spirit and in truth. Therefore Jehovah Himself had the say as to the offerings that would be acceptable to Him.

“And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering, He did not have respect” (Gen.4:4b-5a). The offerer having identified himself with his offering is shown to be acceptable with his offering or not acceptable to Jehovah Elohim according to the offering with which he identified. Acceptance depends upon the offering being that which satisfies Jehovah Elohim. There is purpose and design in the appointed times and in their offerings, as all prefigure the Covenant Son who is the one offering acceptable to Jehovah Elohim.

The word for “offering” in Genesis 4:3 is literally the word for “gift.” Each offering of the Law set forth the Covenant Son, who is God’s Gift of righteousness and eternal life sent from heaven to His mankind (see Rom.4:25-5:21). The Anointed Son of God’s Covenant is the one Son of man acceptable to Jehovah Elohim, the living and true God. God sent His begotten Son, that whosoever believes into Him and unites in His death and burial might have eternal life and be raised up out from the dead, an immortal, deathless, glorified body to live forever. God gave man the Gift of His Son that he might have an offering with whom he can unite and offer back to God. In ourselves we have nothing to offer God that we might become the righteousness of God and be born again to live forever. Man has nothing that would redeem a mortal body.

The appointed season came when the twins were of an age to bring a personal offering to Jehovah. Until that time each son had been taught by their parents to worship in spirit and in the truth to be obeyed. Since the appointed times were being observed, it would stand to reason that the family of Adam also observed the sabbaths and the new moon festivals (see Ex.20:8-11; 1 Chron.23:31; Ezra 3:1-5; Ezek.45:17; 46:3).

Adam was continually setting before his family, in figure, the coming Covenant Son in whom is eternal life and the absolute imperative of being born from above as a son of God to enter into the Kingdom of God and be in the presence of God (see Jn.3:3-21).

Adam and Eve would have shared with their twin sons concerning the proving of the heart of man. Each son would have heard the personal testimony of the parents. The garden with the two trees was there to be seen. But man was shut out of the presence of Jehovah Elohim. There was One Way into the presence of Jehovah (Jn.14:6). That was the Way of the wisdom of God. These things Adam and Eve would have made clear to their sons.

In the womb of a virgin God would take living flesh and weave an embryo for a body of human flesh, a mortal body for His birthed Son, Jesus. The mortal body was the seed coat for the eternal life of the One who dwelt in it - the eternal life which He would share with man through the death and resurrection of the one Seed-Grain. This is the truth of the faith of the righteousness of God. This is the truth which must be obeyed to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God.

The veil of human flesh represented that which shut man out from the presence of God. Mortal man in a body of sin and death is outside the presence of a holy God and must remain outside as long as he is defiled with sin and death. God had an entrance into His presence through the mortal body, the veil of Jesus’ flesh, which was undefiled with sin and death - a specially prepared body (Ps.139:13-14; Is.49:5-8; Heb.10:5).

But the veil must be rent to open the way into God’s presence. Death is the exodus out from a creation of man in human flesh. Resurrection is in Christ, God’s Anointed Son begotten out from the dead (see Jn.11:23-27). That rent veil of His flesh of humanity is the Way into the presence of Jehovah Elohim, the living and true God (see Heb.10:1-23). All is made known in the gospel of the righteousness of God through faith in the Covenant Son. This is the word of God which Adam and Eve would have planted in the heart and mind of each of their children.

Many other children would have been born by this time. Jehovah had promised Eve multiple births (Gen.3:16). Moses does not mention this, as it is not relevant to the narrative at this point. The sons of Israel for whom The Book of the Law is written would have known other children were being born (see Gen.4:17).

The point of the narrative is that of the first twins born, one chose to continue turned to his own way, and went his own way. The other repented and, with his mind changed through the hearing of the Word of God, he turned and went God’s Way. Each one had the testimony of their parents concerning the one proving of the heart of man in human flesh. All had been proved to be under sin and turned to his own way, with a body consigned to return to the dust of the ground (Gen.3:19; see Rom.5:12-14). Each person born of the seed of man is born in a body under a law of sin and death (see Eph.2:1-3).

Both Cain and Abel had been born of the same parents. Each one born on the same day, minutes apart, brought forth from the same conception (Gen.4:1-2a). They grew up in the same household, a godly household with righteous parents concerned for the soul of each son. And from a very early age the brothers would have been taught the gospel of the truth which must be obeyed. The brothers would have been taught the names and the meanings of the signs in the heavens with their constellations (see Job 9:8-9; 38:31-33; Ps.147:4). They would have been able to name the sign or the stars in the sign in the order of their magnitude.

In this gospel of the Covenant Son shared with them by their parents, each son was shown their high calling to become a son of God. The parents had full understanding of the gospel of the Anointed Covenant Son. They would have made clear that the sin and the lawlessness of the heart of man in the flesh and the death passed through to all is not the issue.

The Covenant Son had sin and death covered. In God’s Covenant, planned and purposed in eternity past, the Son took care of sin. All is done in eternity past to be played out in time. In the offering of Himself in sacrifice, the Covenant Son  put sin away once for all, taking the sins of the whole world on His body on the cross (see Jn.1:29; Rom.6:10; Heb.7:26-28; 9:22-28; 1 Pet.3:18). When His Father consumed the sacrifice of the Son, sin was burned out, consumed to the ashes of death. In resurrection, the death of the body was overcome with eternal life. For God it was done. The lamb was slain before He founded the earth (Rev.13:8). It only remained to be carried out in time.

All must be done before sin came into the world and death through the sin. Jehovah must have a way to pass over the sins committed before the Word, who is God, became flesh and did die for our sins, and was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (Jn.1:1-14; 1 Cor.15:3-4).

Justification, having become the righteousness of God through faith in His Anointed Son to become acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt, is by God’s grace through the redemption that is in His Anointed Son, Jesus. God set His Son forth as the Propitiation, the meeting place with God. There the Gift of the Son is freely offered to be freely received. God can be the Justifier of whosoever believes and freely receives the Gift of righteousness and life eternal. He is just in doing so (Rom.3:21-26; 1 Tim.2:4-6; 1 Jn.2:2; 4:9-10).

In our text in Genesis 4 the time had come for the proving of each heart of the brothers. Each one having been given to understand that man in the flesh is born outside the presence of the living and true God who created him. And that God Himself had prepared a Way to come to Him and be born from above to become a son of God and live with Him forever. Each one born in the flesh of humanity has the freedom of choice to either come to God His Way, walk in the light, or continue to go one’s own way and remain in the darkness with the spiritual realities unknown, hidden.

If one chooses to remain in darkness and refuses to obey the truth of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of the Covenant Son, he will remain forever excluded from the presence of Jehovah Elohim, forever outside the Kingdom of God.

Jehovah Elohim had called each son by a name prophetic of the way each one would take. As Adam and Eve watched their sons grow up, they would have been aware of the thinking of their sons and would have forewarning of the prophecies being played out in each life. Finally the full exposure came when each son brought their first personal offering to Jehovah Elohim. The offering exposed the heart.

Each son would have been taught that Jehovah accepts the offerer in the offering which he brings. Jehovah Himself provided His creation of mankind with the Gift of the one offering which He finds acceptable - the offering of His Son, Jesus, in the sacrifice of Himself.

The death of the offering is absolutely necessary. Without the shedding of blood, there is no putting away of sin, no putting away the lawlessness of the heart of man in human flesh, a created body (see Heb.9:22-28). The life of the body of flesh and blood must be laid down, to be taken up again in a new form. The shed blood is proof death has taken place.

Apart from union with God’s Anointed Son in His death, one does not become the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son [Jesus] (2 Cor.5:21). If one does not become the righteousness of God through faith in the One who died for us, one cannot be acquitted of his sin and guilt (see Rom.4:25-5:11; Col.1:12-22; 2:13-14; Tit.2:11; 1 Pet.2:24). Having not united to Jesus, the unbelieving one did not take the exodus out of the creation in Adam, out from the body of human flesh. Apart from the death of the body of human flesh in union with God’s Anointed Son in His death, there can be no new birth through water and spirit. In Adam, one is yet in his sins. The body must return to the dust of the ground.

When one unites with Jesus, God’s Anointed Son, and offers God the Gift of His Son in his stead, God sees that the eyes of the understanding have been enlightened to the truth by the Holy Spirit. Through the light of the knowledge of the glory of God having been shined into the heart, the one believing God has come to worship in spirit, in the very being of his person (see 2 Cor.4:4-6). He has seen and believed into the One who is life eternal. He accepts the Anointed Son to be his Substitute, as having come to die in man’s stead. He understands that Jesus took his place in the death of the mortal body of the earth, earthy, and died in his stead. Not instead of him, but Jesus died in the place of Adam, His creation of man (see Heb.2:9-17; 1 Cor.15:21-22).

Our old man Adam, the old man of all of us, was crucified with Christ that each one born in Adam might make a choice to believe into Jesus Christ and die to the sin (see Rom.6:6-23; Gal.2:20). Jesus, the Anointed Son, is man’s exodus out from the mortal body of flesh and blood, and of man’s having been made safe from the condemnation of the second death. The exodus is the death of God’s Anointed Son, Jesus. He opened the way out of the image of the earthy body of the first man, the human flesh which will die and return to the dust of the ground.

Each one born of the flesh of man must personally follow Jesus into death to make his exodus. Each one must follow Jesus through the opening He has made. The opening leads into the presence of God (Jn.14:6). It is the Way into the Kingdom of God. One must be born again or he will not see the Kingdom of God (Jn.3:3). Cain did not choose to enter God’s Way. Death and resurrection in God’s Anointed Son is man’s only means of salvation. Uniting with the Son in His death and resurrection is absolutely imperative to every soul of flesh of man.

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground as his offering unto Jehovah. And Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat. “And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering He did not have respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell” (Gen.4:4b-5).

Each brother came identified with his offering and each one had the expectation of being accepted as a worshiper of Jehovah Elohim. The Hebrew word translated “had respect to” is one word, “looked.” The Hebrew word has the meaning “to look,” “to look with interest and approval.” It is never used with a casual glance.

Jehovah looked with approval upon Abel, but there was no approval of Cain. Where was Jehovah looking? On the heart of each brother (see 1 Sam.16:7; Ps.17:3; 44:21; Prov.21:2; Jer.20:12). The offering showed the thinking of each son of Adam. One yet turned to his own way.

Abel is named first. Jehovah saw the fat of Abel’s firstlings. Death had taken place. In the New Testament, the witness of Hebrews 11 tells us, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaks” (Heb.11:4).

Jehovah looked on Abel and witnessed that Abel had become the righteousness of God through faith in God’s Covenant Son. The “sacrifice” and the “fat” spoke of Abel having united himself to the Anointed Son as being his Substitute in death and of his having received the Gift of eternal life into the seed coat of his mortal body of human flesh, that a body of eternal life be raised up in the resurrection of the righteous. Nothing is said of the blood in either Genesis 4:4 or Hebrews 11:4. The emphasis is on the death. Shed blood is the evidence of death. Death is the issue.

Cain’s offering spoke of a body raised up out of seed, but there was nothing to speak of death. Cain had not received the Gift of eternal life in the Covenant Son. Cain had not put his faith in the Covenant Son to become the righteousness of God. Jehovah could not approve the heart of Cain. The inner man was wearing a dead seed coat. There was no germ cell of eternal life to raise up a body of eternal life after the kind of the Covenant Son (see Rom.8:5-11). Cain had not chosen to obey the truth which had been witnessed to him concerning the Covenant Son. He was not born from above.

The Seed of the Woman is the crux of Jehovah’s desire to have man in His image. It is the most important point. The “seed,” the living flesh of the womb of the virgin, is the most essential part of God’s Covenant plan. Seed of living flesh of a woman is the only way to bypass the death passed through to all bodies of flesh of humanity conceived of the seed of man.

All bodies of human flesh born of man’s seed bear the image of the first Adam. They are of the earthy, earthy. All, each one, is consigned to return to the dust of the ground and perish, unless it is enlifed with incorruptible Seed of eternal life.

The Covenant Son purposed to take on Himself the likeness of man (Phil.2:5-8; Rom.8:3). Birthed in a mortal body of the earth, earthy, a body of human flesh, the Covenant Son would be the Substitute for His creation of mankind. He could die the death which came through the sin and passed upon all born in Adam.

The consignment to death of all bodies of human flesh must be bypassed. How to have a body of human flesh as the seed coat for a seed grain of eternal life? The body would be the seed coat. The birthed Son of Jehovah, the Covenant Son, would Himself be the germ cell of eternal life (Jn.12:23-32; see Jn.5:24-26). He is Eternal Life (Jn.1:4). In the birthed Son Jehovah would have a Grain of Wheat to fall into the ground and die to bring forth much fruit of sons of God. How could this be?

In the one Seed-Grain, the birthed Son, Jesus, God has seed grain for a body of flesh and bone, a flesh and bone body of eternal life, a body after the kind of the germ cell in the seed coat. A body of eternal life, the life that God is. Out of the one Seed-Grain, God has a begotten Son, a Son begotten out from the dead seed grain, the body of the birthed Son. The begotten Son bears the image of who He is - God.

First the Word who is God became flesh. He took the likeness of man that He might be raised up the first begotten Son of God. Today God has one begotten Son - One raised up out from the dead. In resurrection He will have the much fruit of the one Seed of the raised up body of flesh and bone of eternal life (see Is.53:10-12; Rom.1:1b-4; 1 Cor.15:44; Lk.24:33-43; Jn.20:19-27).

The Covenant plan was: Jesus would take the likeness of man - a body of mortal human flesh. In that body He would do no sin (1 Pet.2:22; Jn.8:28, 46). Death would not have any claim on that body. When the body stopped breathing and became lifeless, death could not hold onto that body (Ac.2:24). But death already has claim on all bodies of human flesh born of man’s seed (Heb.9:27). The prepared body of Jesus in the likeness of man could not therefore be born of man’s seed .

The body for Jehovah’s first man, Adam, was prepared and formed by Jehovah Elohim (Gen.2:7). God Himself also prepared and formed the body of Jesus in the womb of a virgin (see Is.7:14; Ps.22:9a; 139:13-14; Is.49:5-8; Mt.1:18-25; Lk.1:26-35; Heb.10:5). Any part of living flesh of humanity has cells of life of humanity. Living flesh of a virgin womb would furnish the seed to bring forth the seed coat of humanity, the body, in the likeness of man - sin apart (Rom.8:3). The body would die, but the germ cell of eternal life of the person in that body would raise it up again - but changed.

The raised body would be in the image of God - a deathless, glorified body of eternal life. The living flesh of that body of eternal life would serve as Seed for many bodies of sons of God. The good news of the Seed of eternal life - the hope of living forever - would be planted in the hearts of man in bodies of human flesh. There it is to be germinated through faith. When any son of man hears the word of God’s Anointed Son and believes God and freely receives the eternal life in the Son offered as a Gift, that one has been born again and will enter the Kingdom of God as a born son of God begotten out from the dead (see Mt.13:3-23). He has received the germ cell of eternal life into his seed coat. This is the gospel of the faith and the truth which must be obeyed. It is the only way to become a son of God and live with Him in His Kingdom forever.

Abel heard the word of the coming Anointed Covenant Son and he believed God and passed from death in trespasses and sins to eternal life. Abel saw the opened way of death in union with the Covenant Son as the exodus out of a condemned race of humanity and the way into the presence of Jehovah Elohim through being raised up out from the dead in an immortal, imperishable, glorified flesh and bone body - and he took it.

Through faith in the One who became sin for him and put away sin once for all, Abel became the righteousness of God (2 Cor.5:21). That is what God saw when He looked with interest at Abel. And we have God’s witness to the righteousness of Abel recorded in the Hall of Faith chapter in Hebrews 11 (v4).

Jehovah looked on the heart of Cain. He saw an unregenerate heart. Cain had hardened his heart against the voice of the Holy Spirit testifying to the witness of his parents. He had not mixed the gospel of the Covenant Son with faith. Cain had heard the facts, the true facts. He had had the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shined in his heart, but he remained turned to his own way. Cain thought about what he had been shown in the way he desired it to be. He refused to take the truth into his very being and make it his. It is in the gospel of the Covenant Son that Jehovah makes Himself known to man (see Jn.1:18; 14:7-11).

Man is designed to know His Creator-Redeemer. Man has intellect, the mental ability to think thoughts and to consider facts and to pay attention to what he hears to discern, is it true? Is it good? Man not only has the power of knowing, but he has emotions for desire to know and to respond to the drawing of the love of God. Man has a will to make a choice to buy what he hears or to not buy what he hears.

The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is shined into the heart that one might know God, not just know things about Him, but to truly know God personally (Jn.1:9; Col.1:23; 1 Tim.2:4-6; Tit.2:11). It is in receiving the Covenant Anointed Son that one has life to know the living and true God as He is declared by His Son.

Once one has understanding in his very being of the imperative of taking the exodus out of the body of the creation of human flesh of the earth, earthy, he obeys the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. He then takes his place as a learner and learns of God from the Holy Spirit, who is God (see 1 Cor.2:9-15). What the Holy Spirit shares of the deep things of God is directly communicated from His spirit to the spirit of man - to man in his very being, where it is personal.

When it is personal, one changes his thinking concerning God and also concerning himself. The understanding has power to influence, that mere knowledge of facts cannot exert over the soul. With understanding, one’s faith has substance. Understanding sees the evidence of the truth of the faith. The words of the Covenant Son are spirit and life to the soul (see Jn.6:63).

The offering of each son, Abel and Cain, revealed whether the eyes of the understanding had been opened, that the offerer offer his whole heart. Cain did not have a heart for God. He had his own way of looking at things of life and his own desires and ambitions. He was willfully turned to his own way (see Jude 11).

Cain could not claim ignorance of the truth. He had had both the verbal spoken witness of his parents and the seen witness. But  he did not choose to believe into the Covenant Son, united in the death of the Son, that he might make his exodus out of the condemned body of human flesh in the image of the earthy to be born again to be raised up out of death in a body in the image of the heavenly Lord from heaven - a son of God in the image of God. Cain had missed the true issue: The exodus from the image of the earthy is the way into the presence of Jehovah, bearing the image of the heavenly. It is the only Way - a living Way (Jn.14:6; see 1 Jn.5:1-13).

Therefore Jehovah could not have respect unto him. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. The festival was a joyous occasion and this was the first time Cain had come to the appointed time with his own offering. In his mind he had every reason to be accepted for who he was.

Jehovah did not accept him and his offering. He could not. Not having understanding, Cain did not see a reason to not be accepted. His face glowed greatly and his happy countenance changed, reflecting how angry he was at Jehovah Elohim.

Jehovah understood the problem. He would give Cain the reason why He could not accept him with his offering. “And Jehovah said unto Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And unto you shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him’” (Gen.4:6-7).

The issue of acceptance is a matter of doing well and, as seen by Jehovah’s words, Cain has been taught to do well. If Cain does well, he will be “raised up.” In verse 7 the Hebrew word translated “accepted” in most Bible versions has the meaning of “rising up.” Some translations say, “Will there not be exaltation?” Either way, it is a reference to the future Resurrection of Life.

The word “do well” comes from a primitive root, “to make well,” “to be well,” “to make sound.” If Cain does well, as he has been taught and makes it well with his soul and unites in death with the Covenant Son through the sound teaching of his parents and the testimony of the Holy Spirit, he will have a body of eternal life raised up out from the dead earthy body of human flesh. He will be forever clothed in a deathless glorified body in the image of God. The purpose of his having been brought into being will be fulfilled.

When Jehovah looked at Cain and his offering, He saw a man yet at enmity with Jehovah Elohim in his mind. There must be a change of mind. Jehovah made clear where the problem lay. If Cain did well, all would be well. If he did not do well, if he did not receive the eternal life the only way it could be offered to Him in the Covenant Son, all would not be well with his soul.

The Gift of the Son begotten from the dead is Seed of eternal life, Seed for a body to be raised up out from the dead in resurrection unto life. If Cain does not receive the Seed of eternal life of the Son, he will not be born again. The mortal body of human flesh will die and unless the eternal life of the begotten Son has been freely received as a Gift, the body of human flesh will return to the dust of the ground from which it came, to await being raised up to face the second death and the lake of fire (see Jn.3:16-21; 5:24-29; Rev.20:11-15).

It is a matter of choice: Receive eternal life in the Son or die in your sins (see Jn.8:23-24). Only born again sons of God bear the image of God and go into the Kingdom of God to be in the presence of Jehovah Elohim forever. The issue is obedience to the truth and it a matter of Life or Death.

If Cain does not do well, sin lies at the door. Sin is having one’s own will over the will of his Creator-Redeemer, who would deliver one from sin and death. Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). Cain must rule over his lawlessness. He must change his mind and obey the truth, or lose his own soul (see Mt.16:24-27). Cain has been taught the well-being of the soul. He must turn from his own way, and go God’s Way.

A “door” closes an opening to an entrance. If Cain does not rule over his own thinking of the things of life and death, and turn and go through the opening of the veil of the body of human flesh, the body of the likeness of man taken by the Covenant Son, he cannot come into the presence of God the living Way provided for him by Jehovah Elohim (see Jn.14:6; Phil.2:5-11; 1 Jn.5:9-13).

There is no other way to enter into the holies but through the blood of Jesus, the Covenant Son. The lifeblood of that body of human flesh was laid down in death, that it might be taken up again in the raising up of the body of eternal flesh and bone, the Son begotten from the dead, Seed for much fruit of sons of God in His image.

Jehovah lays out the crux of the matter. Either the self-will of thinking for himself as he chooses to see the things of life and death will rule over Cain - or - he will submit himself and obey the truth and subject himself to be taught of the Holy Spirit for true understanding of the ways of God. The only way to rule over the lawlessness of one’s heart is in becoming the righteousness of God.

Thus far in Cain’s life, he has yielded to the desire of his own self-will to live in the imagination of his heart, where he looks on life as he sees it, the way things look to him, as it seems like to him. Things are never what they seem to be. Life in the imagination of the heart is trial and error and searching to find out - with no well-being of the soul, no true heart satisfaction.

For Cain, the proving of his obedience to the truth has come. Before him are set Life and Death and it is his choice. Will the lawlessness of his heart continue to have the rule and master him - or - will Cain choose that grace may reign through righteousness unto eternal life through God’s Covenant Son?

Before him, Cain’s parents had failed to receive the eternal life in the Covenant Son. But through having the eyes of their understanding opened to what they had not done, each one, Adam and Eve, repented, and immediately received the Son with eternal life as the Gift from Jehovah. Even before they were confronted, the parents, in seeing their failure, changed their thinking and made all well with their soul.

Cain did not like being confronted with his failure. He did not want to reason with Jehovah. Nothing is recorded of Cain agreeing with Jehovah Elohim.

This concludes our lesson.