Devotional 16 July 2025

July 16, 2025 • Steve Torres

Hebrews 11:4.jpg

"By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks." (Hebrews 11:4, ESV)

Abel never says a word in the Genesis narrative, yet his actions speak volumes. He is the first person in Scripture whose offering is said to please God—and the first witness in Hebrews 11’s great hall of faith. His sacrifice, though seemingly simple, was by faith, and God honored him for it.

The contrast with Cain is striking. Genesis 4 doesn’t describe Cain’s offering as careless or inferior, only that God had no regard for it. This tells us something important: God is not looking merely at what we bring, but at the heart with which we bring it. Cain gave something to God, but on his own terms. Even after seeing what God accepted from Abel, he made no attempt to learn, to change, or to seek God’s will. His pride would rather demand that God accept his way.

Faith, however, humbly seeks what pleases God. Abel didn’t invent the idea of offering the firstborn and the fat portions, he must have learned, discerned, or received it in some form of faithful obedience. He did not give God what he wanted to give, he gave what God desired. In doing so, he honored God, and God commended him.

This is the first great lesson of faith: Faith does God’s will. It listens. It obeys. It does not try to shape God’s approval around human preferences. As Paul warns in Romans 14:22, “Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.” It is not our approval that matters, but God’s.

We are now those who live under the new covenant. Born again, filled with the Spirit, called to reverse the rebellion of Eden through daily obedience. The Christian life is not about improving ourselves according to our standards, it is about doing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. Like Abel, let us search God’s Word to know what He approves of. Let it be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). Let us offer our lives as living sacrifices, acceptable and pleasing to Him (Romans 12:1).

Abel, our first witness of faith, still speaks. May we have ears to hear.