The author wisely takes the believers back to the Old Testament in revealing characters who by their actions and words were looking for the New that was to come. The reason he does this is some believers had already returned to Judaism and the Pastor is showing that if you go back to that old system of works then you will discover in that history people displaying what they were called to live by now and that is of course faith.
So we start with Abel, the second son of Adam, he was a shepherd and his brother Cain was a farmer. They were both believers in God. One day Abel brought an offering to God and it was the firstborn of his best animals that he sacrificed. Cain brought vegetables that he had grown on his farm.
“By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11 v 4)
This was not about animals being better than vegetables. It was about faith. Abel probably didn’t know what his offering was pointing towards. He hadn’t seen how everything in history points to the sacrifice of the Son of God on a cross. Neither had Cain either. They didn’t know about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But when these 2 offerings were given God accepted one and rejected the other. We do not know how this was known but maybe it was fire from heaven which generations later would become the norm within the Temple.
Cain brought the work of his hands as an offering. This approach still exists today. It did for the author writing to the community of believers who were being tempted to return to a works based system of worship, Judaism. For us, it still exists also. Cain put his trust in his own reasoning and his own efforts. He thought his work would impress God.
Abel offered his by faith. What does that mean? His was a blood sacrifice. His was a substitute sacrifice, it pointed to Christ of course. His offering had died in order to bring worship to God. This was not about Abel but it was about the animal. There was nothing in Abel that he could bring but his offering was acceptable because of the life in the blood of the sacrifice. Very early in history Abel had understood even in a basic form that approaching God something had to die.
The key point is this: we cannot approach God with our own efforts or in our own strength, but by the blood sacrifice of another. Don’t return to the Old Covenant, the New is far better, because it is fulfilled in the superior sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not by our own works. We never approach God by what we have done but through what He has done for us. This is why I trust in God and this is why Abel still speaks today.
Missions Paul 