When God rejects Cain’s offering, Cain becomes angry, and angry at his brother Abel in particular who has done nothing wrong. I think this fact alone shows us that for Cain, worship was not really about God. It was always about Cain. If I bought my wife a gift, and she was offended by it, how should I respond?

The first sin in the Bible is Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree, then running from God’s presence and passing along the blame. The second sin in the Bible is Cain’s anger at and murder of his brother. This story is both incredibly relatable, as is seen from the scores of families that have been strained, divided, and ultimately ripped apart from envy, anger, and jealousy. Yet it is also confusing. It’s confusing because it isn’t immediately obvious why God is displeased with Cain’s offering.

Several theories have been proposed, and I have a theory of my own to throw in at the end. I want to work through each of these and examine the strengths and weaknesses of each position. Not all positions are mutually exclusive, and it’s possible that the correct answer is a combination of two or more. As I see it, there are at least four explanations that can be offered:

The Wrong Kind of Sacrifice

One of the most popular reasons given why Cain’s sacrifice was rejected was because he brought vegetables, whereas Abel brought a lamb. On this view, Cain should have known better, either because God had told him so (in a conversation that we don’t have record of) or because he should have recognized that God made an animal sacrifice. This would also tie into the broader biblical theme of the need for a blood sacrifice to pay for sin. On this view, Cain was too proud to ask his brother for a lamb that he could offer, so he gave an inappropriate offering.

This view I find to be the weakest of the lot. I can’t say definitively that it’s wrong, but God’s response to Cain seems to assume that Cain knew better. I do find it somewhat compelling that the story of the Bible will focus on the sacrifice of the Lamb, but that doesn’t mean sacrifice of vegetables or grain is wrong. In fact, Israel will later be given rules regarding how to offer the fruit of the land as an offering to God. So while this plays well into the overall themes of Scripture, I have a hard time making sense of this passage on this ground.

Intentional Ambiguity

One idea I’ve heard offered is that the story doesn’t tell us why God rejects the offering on purpose. The point is that sometimes we don’t know what God is displeased with us. Sometimes life, and even God, seem unfair. The question being asked here, then, is what do we do in such situations? Do we become bitter against God and blame Him? Do we lash out against those who seem to have it better than us?

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