In His dealing with fallen mankind, God rejected Cain and justified Abel. “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained testimony that he was righteous, God testifying to his gifts” (Heb. 11:4). According to typology, Abel’s more excellent sacrifice was a type of Christ, who is the real “better sacrifices” (Heb. 9:23).
Cain offered to God the fruit of his own labor. He brought the fruit of the ground with no blood for shedding. This means that he had rejected God’s way of redemption, which he must have heard from his parents. God’s way of redemption was that of a sacrifice in which blood was shed, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Instead of caring for God’s way, Cain invented his own way of worshipping God according to his concept. God, however, did not accept Cain’s offering. Although Cain should have realized that what God wanted was a sacrifice with the shedding of blood, he did not offer such a sacrifice. Rather, Cain worshipped God according to his own concept, without the shedding of blood. His offering was an insult to God, an abomination in His sight, and He rejected it.
In contrast to Cain, Abel did not present his sacrifice according to his concept, but according to God’s way of salvation. He worshipped God according to His revelation. Abel realized that he needed an offering with the shedding of blood. Because Abel knew that he had been born of fallen parents and that he was sinful, he offered some firstlings of his flock with the shedding of blood for redemption. Therefore, Abel was justified by God.
Hebrews 11:5 says, “By faith Enoch was translated so that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he obtained the testimony that he was well-pleasing to God.” God’s work in the old dispensation included His translating Enoch from death. The reason God took Enoch away was that he should not see death. His being kept away from death was God’s ultimate salvation. Enoch enjoyed and partook of God’s salvation to the fullest.
Enoch was the first person to be raptured. Because the first mention of a thing in the Bible establishes the principle for that thing, the case of Enoch, the first mention of the rapture, establishes the principle of rapture. The principle of rapture is to be matured in life by walking with God. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and then God took him away (Gen. 5:22-24).
Before Enoch was translated by God, “he obtained the testimony that he was well-pleasing to God.” Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say, “Now without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to Him; for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him out.” This verse, since it follows verse 5, indicates that Enoch not only walked with God but that he also believed. Enoch believed that there was a God, and he sought out God by believing that He is a Rewarder. It must have been his believing in God and his seeking God that motivated him to walk with God. Eventually, Enoch was rewarded by God. God gave him the reward of being translated so that he would not see death.
In His old administrative arrangement God judged the ungodly generation with the flood and delivered Noah and his family out of the corrupted generation. Second Peter 2:5 tells us that God “did not spare the ancient world, but guarded Noah, the eighth, a herald of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” To say that Noah was the eighth means that he was one of the eight (1 Pet. 3:20). Noah was a herald of righteousness. To be righteous and godly or unrighteous and ungodly is crucial with respect to God’s governmental judgment (2 Pet. 2:5-9). To be righteous is to be right with man before God, and to be godly is to express God before man. This was the manner of life Noah lived, which saved him from God’s governmental judgment according to His righteousness.
Noah did not preach the gospel; he preached God’s righteousness over against the corruption of his generation. Peter speaks of righteousness here because his emphasis is on God’s government. Noah’s preaching of righteousness was related to God’s government. God told Noah that He would wipe out the world and that Noah should preach righteousness to his generation. God exercised His judgment upon that corrupted generation by bringing a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
Concerning Noah, Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, having been warned concerning things not yet seen, being devout, prepared an ark for the salvation of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” While Noah was preaching righteousness to his generation, he was building the ark. Noah built the ark by faith according to God’s revelation, not according to his own concept. His building of the ark was absolutely against the tide of his generation. By preparing the ark “he condemned the world.” No one besides Noah’s family appreciated that work. After Noah entered into the ark, God shut him in (Gen. 7:16). When the flood came upon the ungodly generation, Noah and his family were in the ark, protected, preserved, and saved.
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