A Better Word
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?”
And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. (Genesis 4:9-10 ESV)
Early in Genesis, we are introduced to two sons of Adam and Eve: Cain and Abel. The author moves quickly from their birth to an age where they are making a living through the work of their hands. Cain worked the soil while Abel watched over the flocks. After watching his brother’s offering accepted by the Lord while his own offering was rejected, Cain became very angry. And, as is true with anger when left unchecked, anger can fester and take us places we never imagined we would go. In this case, Cain’s anger and jealousy grew into the unthinkable. Cain brought his brother out to the field (his domain remember, for he was a farmer) and he “rose up against his brother Abel and killed him (4:8).” Now, the text doesn’t tell us how he did it, but we know blood was spilled. A truly heinous crime that certainly Cain thought he had gotten away with.
Until God came calling.
Abel…where is your brother?
Am I my brother’s keeper? Cain lied. He knew where he was…but he wasn’t telling.
And in a voice that I can only imagine not so angry but just so piercingly somber, God responds, What have you done, Cain?
But Cain doesn’t have to answer. There is already a witness.
The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
What a truly graphic picture, as Abel’s blood spoke out against Cain, testifying the only word it could speak - “You are guilty.”
Case closed.
The author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament references this dark primeval episode, but in light of the death of Jesus. When telling Christians what they have now come to be a part of through faith, the author of Hebrews writes, “…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24 ESV).”
In his death, Abel’s blood could only speak of Cain’s guilt. It soaked into the ground as a sign post of his shame and what he had done. It spoke a word against the guilty party. But the shedding of Christ’s blood was different. It soaked into the ground beneath the cross as a sign post of the shame he was bearing and what he was doing for us. It spoke a “better word”…not against but for the guilty party. Unlike Cain’s blood that testified, “You are guilty,” Jesus’ blood now declares to those who come by faith - “You are innocent.”
You are forgiven.
You are free.
Now that is a better word.
Friend, rest in that better word today.