Most of us are familiar with the tragic story of the brothers Cain and Abel. It did not end well. Cain murdered his brother in a premeditated act borne of jealous hate. The ancient account is chillingly brutal and brief. Lured out to “the fields”, Cain rose up and killed Abel who was not expecting any such attack. The aftermath is equally brief and chilling. God, Himself, approaches Cain …
Genesis 4:10 (NLT)
But the LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!”
“What have you done? Listen!” Listen! That one word is so laden with meaning. It’s as if God were saying to Cain after he perpetrated such an atrocity, “Are you telling me you cannot hear that, Cain? Really? Your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the earth!” Cain, of course, denied any wrongdoing when God first queries him. He knew his sin, and now he knows he cannot hide it. The blood of Abel is crying out to his Creator … Abel is innocent, and so, the blood cries out for justice.
There is a rich theology embedded in this ever so brief narrative courtesy of Moses. Apart from it being a key piece upon which the ancient criminal code is built, is the central idea that life is in the blood. Again Moses …
Leviticus 17:11a (NLT)
“… for the life of the body is in its blood.”
Meditating on both the Genesis account of Abel’s murder and this explanation in Leviticus, we understand that the shed blood of innocents is the most defiling and polluting of all substances. Unatoned murders pollute the holy land God has given making it unfit for His divine presence. Because humans are made in God’s image, murder must be avenged …
Genesis 9:5 (NLT)
“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die.”
And this became a key part of Israel’s cultic system that dealt with unholiness. But I digress. Here in Genesis the stark statement that Abel’s blood is “crying out” to God is shocking in the sheer offense of it. It moves God to immediately confront Cain. The cry of Abel’s blood is for vengeance and justice, which God renders, and Cain is cursed for life. Fast forward to the New Testament letter of Hebrews where the writer has much to say about blood. Here the writer recalls something crucial about blood and the life that is in it, and how it “speaks” or “cries out”. Abel is referenced.
Hebrews 12:23-24 (NIV)
“… to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
What can this mean? God keeps an inventory of His saints, and He will avenge them in due time. Their blood will cry out to God against those who have wronged them until they are avenged. Innocent blood speaks to God. It used to speak to us … but in such a violent world our sense of hearing has dulled. In the Book of Revelation, we read of a moment when the martyred saints cry out to God for justice …
Revelation 6:10-11 (NIV)
The saints called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.”
The cry of the blood of the saints God will hear until they are avenged – those martyred for Christ and the Gospel. That cry never fades in our Father’s ears – never! But that cry will, one day, be silenced by God’s holy justice being fulfilled. But there is only one cry in the world and in all eternity which is stronger than that of the martyred saints, much louder than the blood of Abel – that is the cry of “the blood of Jesus.” It still cries out from Calvary’s hill where it was spilled and soaked into the earth that horrible but necessary day. But the blood of the innocent Lamb of God, does not cry out to God for vengeance, as Abel’s did. No! It cries out to the Father for eternal mercy and pardon and forgiveness and healing and deliverance. It speaks a better word than the blood of Abel! It is a cry for a different justice – God’s justice mixed with mercy for redemption.
The blood of the Lamb of God cries out to the Father as our witness that we are His redeemed saints and nothing can change that. We have been ransomed! Bought with a great unpayable price … But wait, there is more. The blood of Jesus will cry out to the Father until the end of time and history, and into eternity, that we have been redeemed with it, purchased from death with it, washed clean with it, made holy by it … once and for all.
Every day in heaven the Father will hear the cry of Jesus’ blood and what it has achieved for every sinner now a saint. And we will hear it, too. And the Father will rejoice as He hears that eternal cry! And there will be rejoicing in heaven and praise and worship in heaven - it will erupt whenever the cry of the blood of Jesus is heard. We will all hear it and remember … and know why we are there and how we are there. All heaven will praise and worship Him, and glorify Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, but who is alive forevermore …
Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin – none! In the Lord’s Supper, as we look upon it, as we eat it and take it into our bodies each time we fellowship, and as we really and properly remember Jesus’ sacrifice, let it speak to us the same word that it speaks to the Father about the finished work of the cross and what that means. This is a far superior word than what the blood of Abel speaks. The shed blood of Jesus cries out in eternity that our sin guilt is washed away, and that we have peace with God, righteousness and eternal salvation. This is a better word! This is God’s salvation, and it so beautiful, so amazing. He has glorified the Lamb, and He never ceases to cherish the cry of the blood of Jesus shed for us. It is the cry of redemption, of estranged children returned and reconciled to their Father.
Let the symbols of Christ’s blood and body speak to you a better word today. A better word, a word of grace and hope … how great is God’s salvation.
Hebrews 9:28 (NIV)
“so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.”
Revelation 5:11-13 (NIV)
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!" 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
Think on these things, marvel at God’s great salvation.
Ps Milton
[Sources: F B Meyer, Commentary on Genesis; Hebrew Text of the Old Testament]