Apparently we do not see the Devil in Genesis 4; we see Cain murdering and lying. However, in John 8:44 the Lord Jesus said that that was the Devil murdering and lying. In the eyes of God, it was not merely Cain, but the Devil. Moreover, in 1 John 3:12 we are told that Cain was "of the evil one." The Greek word translated "of" actually means "out of." Hence, Cain was out of the evil one, the Devil. Cain's source was Satan. These two verses show us clearly and thoroughly that Cain and the Devil, the Devil and Cain, were one.

Perhaps you will argue, wondering how the devil can motivate people to worship God. Consider the illustration of Peter in Matthew 16:21-23. After Peter had received the heavenly vision regarding Christ, he was motivated by Satan to tell the Lord Jesus, who had just spoken of His coming suffering and death, to pity Himself. The Lord turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan." Notice that the Lord did not say, "Get behind Me, Peter." Thus, the one who had just received a revelation from the Father became Satan. He did not become Satan with respect to something evil, but in the matter of caring for the Lord.

When we are told to worship God, or when we are close to the Lord, trying to care for Him, Satan, the subtle one, often will not tell us not to do it, but will propose a way different from God's revelation in his attempt to keep us from God's economy. As long as he can keep us from God's way and frustrate us in fulfilling God's purpose, Satan will even motivate us to do things for God. This was how he worked in Cain.

We should be careful. The same thing may happen to us. We must realize that it is not a matter of what we do, but of what we are. The real issue is not whether or not we worship God; it is whether or not we are one with the Devil in whatever we do. Even if you love others by being one with the Devil, that kind of love is an insult to God, because Satan, God's enemy, is active in it. Thus, Cain was the one who presented the offering, but the Devil was the motivator, the one who initiated Cain's act of worship. Suppose you have an enemy who refuses to be reconciled with you, yet he sends someone to worship you. Would you not consider that worship as an insult? Now we can see what was wrong with Cain.

Cain offered the fruit of his own labor to God (Gen. 4:3). 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 had heard from his parents. God's way of redemption as revealed to Cain's parents was that of a sacrifice in which the blood was shed, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). Man was fallen, ruined, sinful, and polluted in the eyes of God. He needed the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. Although Cain's parents surely spoke to him of God's way of redemption, he rejected it, casting it aside. Cain did not care for God's way; he invented his own way according to his concept.

What is a concept? The human concept is of the tree of knowledge. By taking the way of the tree of knowledge Cain opened his being to the Devil. By doing this he was completely caught by the evil one. Cain was the first to invent religion. You may argue, "Cain invented religion to worship God. He did not invent gambling casinos." However, God does not care for what you invent; He cares for the origin. Anything invented by man is not originated by God and is not by man's spirit, but by his mind. If your invention originates with yourself in your mind, that invention, regardless of how good it is, has its source in Satan, for Satan, the subtle one, is in your mind. When Cain devised his own way of worshipping God, he was absolutely one with Satan. He was filled, saturated, and permeated with the devil. Therefore, the Lord Jesus in John 8:44 alluded to him as Satan. How dare such a person present an offering to God without the shedding of blood!

Now we can understand the reason that God 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 it accordingly. He worshipped God according to his own concept, without the shedding of blood, and without the covering skins of the sacrifice. This means that he rejected God's way of taking Christ as God's righteousness to cover him as revealed in Philippians 3:9 and 1 Corinthians 1:30. He, like the religious Jews, sought to establish his own righteousness, ignoring God's righteousness and not submitting to it as revealed in Romans 10:3. Thus, his offering was an insult to God; it was an abomination in His eyes, and He rejected it.