Cain and Abel

[Texas_Roofer]

In reading Leviticus 1,2,4,5 all sin offering are live animals until
Leviticus 5 :11 " *‘If, however, he cannot afford *two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah [a] of fine flour for a sin offering. He must not put oil or incense on it, because it is a sin offering. 12 He is to bring it to the priest, who shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. It is a sin offering. 13 In this way the priest will make atonement for him for any of these sins he has committed, and he will be forgiven. The rest of the offering will belong to the priest, as in the case of the grain offering.’ "

Even in Leviticus 2 the grain offer is not allowed on the alter Leviticus 2:12 "You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of the firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma" So I wonder was Cain a vegetarian, or did he keep his valuable meat and sacrifice his excess grain? We may never know however given the weak description of Cain’s offering and the Lord’s reassurance to Cain my guess is the offering was not the finest Cain had.

 

[Valke2]

The very first blood sacrifice was when God killed the animals for their skins/fur to cover Adam and Eve.

If He in fact killed animals for their skins.

 

[drafdog]

You seem to be asking the purpose of the story of Cain and Abel. You are looking for blame: either God arbitrarily accepted Abel but not his brother, or God somehow pushed Cain into murdering Abel. Look at it another way.
Creation myths come with a fairly set list of items: Chaos at the beginning, God or gods to impose order on the chaos, first man and first woman, instructions to first man and first woman on how to maintain the order, the influence of the trickster (devil) which corrupts the order and subsequent events that show further incursion of chaos. The story of humanity is one of continuous beating back of the forces of chaos.
The Cain and Abel story is a major step back into chaos. But it is also something more. Consider that no one has asked God a question until Cain. (the original smart-***?) “Was it my turn to watch him?” or words to that effect.
God does not directly answer the question. The question is, however, the only important question once the existence of God is conceded.
This story becomes then the founding point of the rest of Scripture. God is awfully verbose. All of scripture following this question is God’s commentary on the answer to that question. That is an important reason for putting the story into Genesis. Don’t look for blame. You won’t find it. Look for why the story is told. Remember we’re dealing with a nation of poets and story tellers. Truth is not in the details of the story but in the reason for the story.
God is telling us: Let me explain HOW to go about caring for your brother, or neighbor; HOW to love your enemy.
In the Father’s Love,
Matthew

 

[Valke2]

Valke, you’ll also notice that the first thing Noah does after exiting the ark is to set up an altar and offer up sacrifice.

Also he’s told to take 7 pairs of the “clean” animals instead of two. Since no one was eating animals, clean must have referred to suitable for sacrifice.