a quick thought

I never understood why God rejected Cain's sacrifice and accepted Abel's...

was it because He knows the future and that Cain is a murderer? (like Minority Report, minus the creepy bald chick)

or was it because He's just sovereign and does what He chooses? (Ex 33:19)

well...recently, I picked up Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians and in the preface, He wrote about the dangers of works in religion vs faith...and made the correlation to Cain and Abel and their sacrifices...which got me thinking: could it be that Cain's sacrifice represents works based religion, while Abel's is representative of faith?

Well, in Gen 4:2, it says that Cain was a worker of the ground (a farmer) and Abel was a keeper of flocks (shepherd)...of course, THAT got me thinking about the curse that God pronounced in the previous chapter: in 3:17-19, God curses the ground, saying, "in pain...by the sweat of your face, you shall eat..."

I'm intrigued:
I can't help but notice that Cain is a 'worker' while Abel is a 'keeper'...Cain gave a portion of his harvest (which was won by hard labor) and Abel gave the firstborn and best offspring of his flock (which reproduced itself). Does Cain rely on his own works, while Abel shows dependence on and trust for God's provision?