in sight of eden

Years passed after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Children were born, grew up, became productive. Abel, a son, tended animals. Cain, a second son, tended plants. Both knew something significant and knew how to do it right.

They both knew how to make an acceptable offering.

Abel offered the best of his herd and the best of the fatty portions for his offering.

Cain offered grain from his storehouse.

How did they know to make this kind of offering? How did they know what an acceptable offering was? And how was it that the conscience of Cain was disturbed when his offering was rejected? God seeks Cain out and asks him "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" Gen. 4:7

There are three important aspects of the offering shown in the Cain and Abel passage:

1. God had imparted the necessity of the offering to people, and offerings were a regularly practiced ritual. 

2. God had communicated the standards for offerings to the people alive in those days, even though the regulations were not written down until the Exodus. Adam, Eve, Abel and Cain all knew the standards and God was still conversing directly with people. There has always been a God-endorsed standard for offerings. 

3. God expressed the value of the offering for the person by equating the action with acceptance. By doing right the person was accepted, not just the offering as a covering or relief from the offense.

Necessity, standards and value for acceptance by a Holy God were known and practiced by people at the earliest stages of existance. Thus, when Jesus stated that he was about to fulfill the Law by his death he was declaring what others testified about him: it was a necessary action, at the highest standards, with the ultimate goal being acceptance by God for those who applied the sacrifice to themselves.

Here is the first clue about the incredible importance of Jesus and the crucifixion. It is a clue that most of us miss completely.