The First Murder and the New Covenant

Cain and Abel;

And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:24

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.   And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know: Am I my brother’s keeper?   And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:8-10

It sure didn’t take long for people to start being terribly mean to each other did it?  Already what God had said about hatred between the seed of Satan and the seed of Eve was coming true.

God never overlooks a murder no matter how hidden a victim is from other people.  It stains the ground and there is only one thing that can clean it again. Guess what that is!

I really like the verse in Hebrews.  Jesus could have cried out to God like Abel’s death did and brought even more guiltiness down on us.  He could have told God His Father to just wipe us all out and forget about it.  But He didn’t!  Just after Jesus was nailed onto the cross He prayed out loud to God and said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

What a relief that is! We can get used to hearing about Jesus’ love for us. That we don’t have to worry about God rejecting us because Jesus paid for our sins.  It’s easy to forget that He had every right to abandon us to hell.  Praise the LORD, He didn’t.

Oh, Jesus’ love is so deep, so free, so huge.  What God the Father and Jesus schemed to do for us is something no one else in the universe would have ever dreamed of doing (I Corinthians 2:8).

We want to be good, earn our own way to God, make Him be happy with us.  That’s what every religion people have invented tells us to do.  But it’s not what God did.  Instead, God tells us all  we are hopeless and deserve nothing but hell.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;” But then God tells us “and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

Thank you, Father, for loving me enough to send your Son to suffer and die in my place.  Thank you, Jesus, for being obedient to Your Father and loving me enough to forgive me when my sins killed you.  Thank you for cleaning my whole soul and making me yours.  All that I have and am is Yours.  I am Your servant now and forever.  I love you.  Amen!!!

He has not treated us as our sins deserve; nor given us the reward of our iniquities.  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Like as a father pities his children, so the LORD pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:10-14