OUR FATHER WHO IS PLEASED BY FAITH
Hebrews chapter 11 verses 3 - 4 says this;
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
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.
This passage expounds on the nature of faith by recalling the events of the creation of the universe that was initiated by God's command and the seen world materialized out of what was not visible.
This is the baseline for what the writer of Hebrews spoke of;
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Here, we are shown that faith is parallel to the act of bringing what is seen out of what is not seen.
If we recall that "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." as recorded in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, we then understand that Abel, in diligently seeking God, brought a better offering than his brother Cain did and it pleased the Lord because Abel believed that God existed and that His efforts were not futile but would be rewarded even though there was no visible manifestation of the one to whom he brought the offering.
When Abel's faith caused his sacrifice to be accepted by God, his brother Cain, who did not believe in the invisible God, rose up and killed Abel. When Cain was questioned later about Abel, he claimed that he did not know which clarifies that he did not believe in the invisible God because if he did, he would have known that his actions against Abel would not have gone unseen.
Abel's faith, an eternal substance, substantiated him out of the invisible realm so that he could speak even when dead.
Amen.
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