Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.

I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.

Immediately after planning and carrying out the murder of his brother Abel, Cain is questioned by none other that the Creator.

The Lord speaks of Abel’s blood crying out to Him. At first, that seems to be a strange way of addressing the first murder in history. Why didn’t the Lord simply say – “I saw you kill your brother” Short and sweet, no argument, just a telling of the truth.

Let’s consider the question the Lord has. First off, let’s consider that the Lord gave the first murderer in history a chance to explain the situation. The Lord asked – “What have you done?” This alone is worthy of thinking of, and of the type of character the Lord has. But I digress

The content of the question refers to the witness of the blood of Abel, and that the Lord was hearing this witness of Abel’s blood.

Hopefully we can all agree that the blood of Christ also is a witness of His death, of His body being tortured, of His suffering and death on the cross. For a short period of time, Jesus blood also cried out from the ground, but upon hearing of the blood of His Son, the Father raised Him up out of the grave, never to experience death again. His blood speaks of a better message, not of blood crying out to God from the ground, but of the Lord’s blood crying out to those who need to hear the message of forgiveness, of grace and mercy being extended to those who so desperately need to hear it.

Abel’s blood crying out to God resulted in judgement on Cain, of being rejected, cursed from the ground. Although later in the law, God would reveal that justice in this instance resulted in death of the perpetrator. Instead of justice and the death sentence carried out swiftly and decisively, Cain experienced rejection, being condemned to a life of running and wandering on the earth.

Abel’s blood spoke of rejection for Cain, Jesus blood speaks of acceptance for us. Have you heard the witness of His blood?

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