Before digging into this blog, lets look at the Word of YHVH so we can lay some ground work.

Genesis 4:2-8 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

² In addition she gave birth to his brother Hevel. Hevel kept sheep, while Kayin worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Kayin brought an offering to Adonai from the produce of the soil; ⁴ and Hevel too brought from the firstborn of his sheep, including their fat. Adonai accepted Hevel and his offering ⁵ but did not accept Kayin and his offering. Kayin was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶ Adonai said to Kayin, “Why are you angry? Why so downcast? ⁷ If you are doing what is good, shouldn’t you hold your head high? And if you don’t do what is good, sin is crouching at the door — it wants you, but you can rule over it.” ⁸ Kayin had words with Hevel his brother; then one time, when they were in the field, Kayin turned on Hevel his brother and killed him

As I was driving to work this morning, this was the passage that popped in my mind. I began to think on it, and while doing so, it just came to me to contrast this passage of Scripture with the church today. Ok, don’t go crazy on me, I’m trying to be good this time, lol. Sooooooooooo, compare the story of Cain and Abel to today’s church. Well, I thought on it for a while and begin to focus on the highlights. First of all, both of the brothers knew YHVH personally. They both undoubtedly loved Him as Creator, Master and God. They knew His will, and most importantly that He was to be honored in their willingness to give. Honestly, when looking at all of this, you really, can’t see any fault between the two in how they see YHVH. As I continued to meditate on the two brothers, keeping in mind not much is really said about them before Abel was murdered, I wondered, what in the world could spark that much anger that one man would kill another? Not just any man, but his blood brother. I mean, this was not even a thousand years from creation when this happened. Things were still relatively new on the earth. Maybe I look to deep into things, I don’t know, but there is definitely something there. Anyway, as I thought on, I came to the pivital point in the story. We see that both brothers knew the appointed time to present their offering to YHVH because judging by the story, it would appear they both went about the same time. This is where it gets interesting. The Bible says that YHVH had respect to Abel’s offering, but not to the offering of Cain. Cain’s face was clearly not thrilled about this. How could YHVH accept Abel’s offering, but not mine? I gave Him an offering just as He required, but He wasn’t pleased. Seeing him so distraught, YHVH sought to console and encourage Him, but to no avail. Cain was beginning to have some serious ill intentions towards his brother. The last thing he wanted in the world was to feel rejected by his God. Yet YHVH did not reject him, just his sacrifice. But why?

The answer can be found further in the verse. Verse 4 says that Abel brought forth of the firstborn of his flocks and the fat as well. Basically, he brought the best of the best, clearly understanding that that was exactly what YHVH required. Cain on the other hand brought of the yield of his crops, but what it doesn’t say is that he brought of the best of his crops. It could be viewed in a few ways. One, he may have brought some of the better of the crops to YHVH and divided it between them both. If this was the case, Cain messed up because giving your best is not giving half and keeping the rest. He may have even given YHVH some of his fruit, but kept the best for himself. This too, would be wrong in the sense of giving as it relates the YHVH. One has to remember, the Earth is the YHVH ‘s and the fullness thereof. Had it not been for Him giving the latter rain, or even the fertile soil, there would be no crops for anyone to feast on. In either scenario, Cain was wrong. When making a contrast between the two brothers now, what becomes evident is this. Both brothers gave at the appointed time of YHVH, however, one gave in accordance to the will of YHVH, and the other gave in accordance to his own will. Now we are getting somewhere. Giving is a good thing, obviously. But, when giving to YHVH, what He delights in is when we give the way He instructs us to. Apart from giving His way, everything else pales in comparison. Cain was guilty of giving his way, and the result was that YHVH had no respect for what He offered. He did not reject Cain, nor did He disown Cain, He simply encouraged Him to do better. So now we can get to the comparison of the church.

Well, I want to make something clear. I am not trying to come off as a “church basher” or hater or anything like that. I love the Church of YHVH. My prayer is that Spirit of Revelation will set in and illuminate the leaders of the church and reveal to them that YHVH ‘s Torah still applies. Notice that I said “church”, not churches. This was down to point out that Yeshua has “one” church, not many. Furthermore, His Torah was not abolished, and all the teachings thereof still matter. I pray that upon realizing this, that they will collectively turn to YHVH and repent as they commit themselves to honoring His Feast Days, Sabbaths, dietary laws and teachings. Ok, now that that’s out the way, lets move on. Having been birthed out of the Roman Catholic Church, the Western Christian church had been heavily influenced by much of Pagan Rome’s theology. Because Rome made it it’s business to distance itself from anything “Jewish”, by the time the Christian church broke away from Romes grasp, it’s doctrines had been permanently etched in their theology. Avoiding all things Jewish, Rome gave them holidays like Christmas, a rebranded holy day sitting on top of a pagan holiday, that contrasts Channukah. They replaced The Passover with Easter, another pagan holiday, rebranded as Christian. Lastly, they switched YHVH ‘s Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week. The Christian Church continued these holidays faithfully, never even thinking to look into the origins of these days. Not only that, but they defend them whole heartedly, justifying it within their hearts by saying that YHVH is fine with it. Some even say, well, we aren’t Jews so they don’t apply to us. The question is, if YHVH has established His Torah and His will from the beginning, can we in clear conscience really assume that He later changed His mind to acomodate is? Is this even Scriptural? There are many more excuses out there, but those are the top two. What ends up happening is that the church, upon observing these days are basically doing what Cain did. Inadvertantly, they are saying, I know what you want Lord, but we would rather do it this way, so just set your face towards us and bless our efforts. The reality is that just as Cain felt he was doing the will of YHVH, the outcome will be the same, our gifts will be not be respected. Sure, YHVH will not disown us, but if we are living for Him, one would think that the goal is to honor Him in a way that will cause Him to have respect for our service. Like Cain, honoring Him our own way will not give us the reaction we desire. When having to choose between honoring Him His way or our way, His way is always the best way to go. Not really trying to church bash, and I keep saying they because I know some will scream out how I am attacking the church, but the reality is that when making this comparison, things will be one way or another, there is middle choice. The question becomes, which response would you want?

What comes to mind when I think of the comparison of Cain and Abel contrasting the church, is the parable Yeshua gave in Matthew 7:21-23. Although there is no contrast here, it can be implied that there are two types of believers in the way that the one is dealt with. He points out that, these believers, although they have done many awesome deeds in His name, in the end, they were not recognized by Him. Some reason that these people were sinners, in the sense that they did not follow Yeshua, but to them I ask, if indeed they were sinners who did not follow Yeshua, then why were they set on doing great things in His name with a sense of pride about it. How many sinners do you know that commit themselves to doing good in the name of Yeshua despite the fact that they choose not to live for Him? The only way one can do any works in Yeshua’s name, and expect to have results is to first to live for Him. Anyway, lets analyze the potential contrast. We understand that those living outside of Torah are the ones being addressed. They obviously loved the Lord in their own way, despite their disregard of Torah. More than likely it was done out of ignorance. For this reason, they were able to do much good in the name of YHVH. However, this was not enough to get them into the Kingdom of Heaven. They were even addressed as workers of “lawlessness”. It is interesting that the Apostle John defines sin as living outside of Torah. This is basically what can be understood by Yeshua’s statement when He called them workers of “lawlessness”. On the flip side, it can also be understood that those who walk in Torah, will obviously work the same miracles, however the difference is, these believers will be allowed access into the Kingdom of Heaven. Now having an interesting contrast between the two types of believers, we can see them being represented as Cain and Abel, the two types of churches. Again, both equally love YHVH, however, one follows Torah whereas the other does not. Again, I am sure many out of ignorance live life in service to YHVH outside of Torah. Because it is not blatant disregard for Torah, they are still blessed, but at the same time I do not see them being blessed on the same level that those living inside Torah. I am not the one to judge or even to say who will and who will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but I can, as anyone else, read the Word for myself and base an opinion from what is written. Matthew records Yeshua as saying that those who live Torah and teach others to live it as well will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas those who live outside of Torah and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the Kingdom. So we have two different verses on this issue with very interesting views. Whereas I will not address the first Scripture, I will address the latter. Here, we see that the observance of Torah is a “positional” thing. Matthew 5:19 makes it clear that those who observe and teach others to do the same will be grat in the Kingdom, and those who do contrary will be least. So, the question is, where do you see yourself? Just something to think on.