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.

Cain killed Abel out of anger.

It is good to remember that anger has a source, it is not a condition occurring out of a vacuum. The New Testament gives us the reason for anger in Cain’s life.

Darkness wants to snuff out light. Evil has to rid itself of goodness. Even in the rejection of God, of accepting evil as a standard operating procedure for life, the conscience, until hardened to sin, witnesses to the wrongfulness of sin. We have all been there, when we slip away and try to ignore the voice calling us back. The voice seems relentless, constantly beckoning the sinner to return. Yet some may seek to dull the voice, reject the call, ignore the love, and this will result in performing acts inline with rejecting good. The only type of life those who reject the voice is a life of performing non righteous deeds. Evil deeds. Two options only. Neutrality does not exist in this case.

As we venture into darkness the light becomes dimmer, and we seek to snuff it our entirely, to not experience the tension of truth in relation to experience. The constant calling back has two potential reactions from the soul. Repentance or Rage.

Cain chose the rage because he had a history of evil actions. He rejected the witness of his brother and decided to live differently, to perform deeds that were non righteous, or as described in our verse, evil.

Thousands of years pass, and the condition remains, where those who reject God are those who practice evil. Abel’s witness is replaced with the witness of the Son of Man. Instead of a flickering candle providing light to a darkened man’s life, the true light, an absolute explosion of light, appears on the scene, where those who will experience it have the same choice. Only for some, the history of performing evil deeds has been set, having become a comfort to those who practice evil.

Those who practiced evil have no choice but to rage, for if they refused to repent, they would default to rage. We know some repented. We know some raged.

The death of Christ was in the eternal plan of God, in order to secure a salvation we could enter into. Don’t reject, for the only option remaining results in destruction and death, and the path is littered with regrets.

Don’t reject and then regret!

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