“And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”” Gen. 4:10
“But you have come to….the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Hebrews 12:24
South Korean Jeon Joo-hwan sent unwanted text messages for years to a female colleague from the Seoul Metro Corporation. He also threatened her with secret video he had recorded in the women’s restroom at work. Eventually the woman went to the police and filed a criminal complaint! But Joo-hwan would get revenge! On September 14, 2022, the day before he was to be sentenced on the charges of stalking, he snuck into the women’s bathroom at Seoul’s Sindang metro station, wearing a disposable hair cap, waited for the woman to come in, and stabbed her to death. This past Tuesday, Jeon Joo-hwan was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Since the fall into sin, how much human blood has seeped into the ground out of a desire for revenge? How loud must be the cry of all the innocent lives shattered by premature death?! Abel was the first to fall – but most certainly not the last! Millions were lost in Hitler’s Holocaust, millions more in Stalin’s Gulag, and upwards of 45 million by Mao Tse Tung’s “Great Leap Forward”. And when we consider the voice of the blood of innocent lives, surely the cry of 73 million aborted babies worldwide, annually must echo through the halls of Heaven as a heart-wrenching lament!
And yet, the writer to the Hebrews assures us that there is a blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel’s. There has been a blood shed that does not cry out for revenge – but rather shouts grace and forgiveness! The only ultimate, innocent blood was not taken, but given by the Lord Jesus Christ for a world lost in sin! It not only speaks a better word, but also a more powerful word! Although God continues to hear the guilty cry of all the blood shed through the ages, we have good reason to believe that the blood of Jesus speaks louder and more powerfully in the ears of His heavenly Father. It is calling out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Abel’s blood calls for revenge, but the blood of Jesus Christ continues to proclaim hope, forgiveness and life eternal! Trust Him today! Hallelujah!! What a Saviour!