-Hebrews 12:24
Last Friday we studied Abel in our series called "Shadows". In this series we are taking a look at characters in the Old Testament of the Bible and seeing in what ways they point to Jesus, with the idea that we can learn more about who Jesus is. Abel is the second son of Adam, who we studied two weeks ago. Abel's older brother is named Cain. Genesis 4 tells us that Abel was a shepherd who took of sheep, while Cain was more of a farmer.
Cain brings an offering to God, but the Bible tells us that it was "some of the fruits of the soil (Genesis 4:3)". This sounds great, but then we see that Abel brought an offering, "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock (Genesis 4:4)". God looked on Abel's offering with favor, but not Cain's. This makes Cain upset, so God approaches him and warns him not to fall into sin. Cain is so upset even after God's attempt to talk to him that he decides to take his brother Abel out into a field and kill him. God later asks Cain where his brother Abel is, claiming that Abel's "blood cries out to me from the ground (Genesis 4:10)".
Jesus is also known as a shepherd. While we see that Abel was a good shepherd, Jesus was the perfect shepherd. Now, of course I don't mean Jesus takes care of sheep; He takes care of His people. Jesus also brings an offering to God, a perfectly obedient life, and ultimately His life on the cross. Jesus was killed by those who should have been close to Him. These people killed Him because they were angry at Him even though He did nothing wrong, just as Cain was angry at Abel even though Abel did nothing wrong.
The story doesn't end there. After God confronts Cain about the murder of his brother, God casts Cain away to be a restless wanderer. This is actually a small picture of the grace of Jesus. Cain deserved to die. He killed his own innocent brother, so his punishment should have been an eye for and eye so to speak. However, God does not kill Cain. Keep in mind that Cain didn't life a free life; he was burdened by his sin and guilt, and was cast from God's presence.
Jesus was crucified because of our sins. Now, we didn't physically kill Jesus, but we are all responsible for His death because our sins were placed on Him. Our punishment should be death, because we sinned against God, but because Jesus died, we have life. However, not only do we get to live, we are free from the burden of our sin, and we get to enjoy God's presence. This is why Jesus' blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:24, paraphrased). Abel's death could not set Cain free from his sin, because Abel was only a man. Jesus' death is able to bring us freedom from sin, because He is fully man and God. While both the blood of Abel and Jesus cried out to God, only Jesus' blood could bring us eternal life.
As I did last week, I will end with some questions for us to consider. The first three questions are from the discussion on Friday, and the ones after that are my own.
- What is distracting me from God?
- What are the sinful desires that I have let in my door to get hold of me?
- How do I see and think about Jesus in light of sin?
- In what ways do I relate to Cain? Do I get upset when I am rebuked? Do I get jealous when others succeed and I do not?
- Do I believe that Jesus' blood has the power to set me free from sin?
- What word is speaking over my life?
No comments:
Post a Comment