Faith and Obedience

I have recently became intrigued by the story of Cain and Abel.  God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's.  Was it because of Cain's lack of faith and bad attitude?  If Cain were to offer his fruits and vegetables with great faith and good attitude, will his offering be accepted?  Did Abel know that God prefers animal sacrifice with blood?  Was it their first time offering sacrifices to God? Or maybe all the previous times, Cain had to exchange his fruits and vegetables with Abel's sheep and this time he was fed up and finally said, Why can't God do things on my terms?

I don't know if there are answers to all these questions since the Bible doesn't really say and the scholars can only wonder.  I may not know the answers until we get to heaven, but my speculation is this, Adam and Even probably told their boys their own story with God.  There was no TV or cellphones back then, what else would they do for entertainment other than sitting around and tell stories?  They probably would tell the stories of them making their own fig leave clothing, not sure how they sew it all together.  By the way, I have a fig tree in my backyard at home, the leaves are big, but boy, are they rough and scratchy.  I always had to make sure I wear long sleeves when I wanted to pick figs because my arm would be scratched up and itchy for days if I didn't.  So Adam and Eve would probably talked about how itchy it was to wear those.  And then probably at the end, they would talk about when they lost the privilege to be inside Eden, God killed animals and took the skin and sew it together and made clothing for them.  It was what pleased God.  I'm sure that Adam and Eve had been making soft animal skin clothes since then.  It was hard for me to imagine that Adam and Eve never made sacrifice to the Lord.  They probably did whenever they want to worship God and God accepted their animal sacrifice.  Abel and Cain probably watched them do it all their lives.  Which leads to my speculation that it was NOT their first time, but Cain just got tired of exchanging his produce with Abel's sheep to please God.  He grew resentful and started to want to do it his way.  So then, would God have accepted his offering if he had a good attitude and great faith?  I think NOT.  God's requirement is specific and even with great faith and attitude, offering the wrong thing is disobedience to God.  I don't think God would accept Cain's produce as proper offering no matter what because God wants a certain sacrifice that requires bloodshed.  Why?  Because it's a picture of Jesus's redemption through His blood.  The Passover requires blood of the lamb on doorposts.  These and many others are all pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament, the pictures cannot change.  Farm produce doesn't represent Jesus and God's plan of salvation, a sacrificial lamb does.  So my speculation is that God would not accept Cain's sacrifice no matter what because it isn't aligned to God's purpose and will.

So the next question is about the importance of faith and attitude when we pray.  In the Bible, there are full of examples of saints with great faith and they are listed mostly in Hebrews the famous "Hall of Faith".  However, there are also plenty of examples with people with little faith but yet still received answers to prayers nevertheless.  

Sarah, Abraham's wife, laughed when she heard that she will be with-child at her old age.  It was laugh of unbelief, though she later denied out of embarrassment and fear.  I probably would have denied it too.  But God still gave her the promised son Isaac.   

The desperate father came to Jesus for his son said, "I believe, but help me with my unbelief."  A demon-possessed son left the father exhausted.  He took his son to the disciples and they couldn't heal him.  He was doubtful that Jesus could but he had a tiny mustard-seed size faith, enough to come to Jesus, and Jesus thinks that's good enough.  Jesus gave him the miracle he was asking for and healed his son. (Mark 9:24)

I was just reading this morning in Acts 12.  Peter was in prison, probably ready to be executed in the morning.  He was at peace, so at peace that he was sleeping soundly in chains and in a stinky prison.  I don't think he was praying with great faith for God to deliver him.  There was a prayer meeting going on for Peter, but they didn't pray believing God would act.  When Peter showed up and God answered their prayers, they said to the servant girl, "Are you out of your mind?"  And insisting that the girl saw Peter's ghost.  Haha....I don't know if they have seen ghost before but they firmly believe that Peter would die and his ghost would visit.  But God acted.

Peter walking on water, at first he had great faith and then he started to look at the wind and the waves and he sank down.  He had small faith to say a three word prayer, "Jesus save me" and it was enough for Jesus to act immediately.

So no great faith is required for God to act.  In fact, small and great faith are probably the same in the eyes of God.    In Hebrews the Hall of Faith, can you ask if Abel's faith is greater than Noah's?  No.  Because you don't know, and there is no way to measure faith.  But yet in the Christian community, there is such an emphasis of having great faith.  During my parents long fight with cancer, many of their friends and relatives came to visit and told them, "Is there some un-confessed sin in your life?"  or "if you had more faith, you would be healed!"  I felt so angry when I head that.  It's like Job's three friends.  Is it not enough that they were tortured physically by cancer that you had to add emotional/spiritual torture?  Too much focus on our faith is going to lead to pride.  Pretty soon, we think that we got something from God all because we had faith.  No!  It's not.  

I think that God sees our obedience much more than our faith.  After all, if you truly have faith, then it will come out in obedience.  All the heroes of faith in the Bible not only had great faith, but they know God's will and they obeyed God's will.  They had great obedience.  God is not only please by our faith, He is more pleased by our obedience, regardless of our attitude and great faith.  He once told a story of two sons who were told by the father to do something.  One says ok, but didn't do it.  The other one says no, but later changed his mind and did it.  What really mattered to God was if you did what He asked you to do.    My church in the US (Calvary Chapel Fremont)  had this mission statement:  "Find out what Jesus wants you to do and do it."  I love it.  So simple and so right.  Take our focus off of ourselves and unto God.  You can have great faith and believe in all kinds of things but it doesn't matter.  What matters is the object you believe in.  If we believe that our God is truly wise, powerful, and loving, we will want to obey Him because He would know what's good for me more than I do.  What if I don't like what He wants for me?  It's ok to not feel like obeying, as long as you still obey by your actions.  I didn't want to move to Taiwan at the time when God told me, but I still did it regardless of how I felt.  At times when I went back to the US, I struggled again with leaving the comfort of what I knew for 40 years, but I still buy the ticket to come back to Taiwan.  I was that son that didn't feel like obeying but still did it.  Why?  Because ultimately I know that I have a great God who knows me more than I do and loves me enough to die for me.  My life doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Him.  I want to do His will for me because I learned the hard way that "being in His will is the best place on earth for me".  It may not be easy to love someone  that God puts in my life, it may not be easy to go down the road less traveled, it may not be easy to forgive, be generous, to spend time/energy on doing His work, all the while asking for nothing in return.  What is it that God is telling you to do?  Make that decision to obey Him.  You won't regret it.