Does blood speak?
Apparently, it does. When God questioned Cain about his brother’s whereabouts, Cain rudely replied, “I don’t know…Am I my brother’s guardian?”
But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Gen. 4:10)
Did Cain really think that God did not know what he had done? What about the rivers of blood that cry out for vengeance from the ground since that day? Every drop of blood that has ever been shed through violence is calling for justice. Every unborn baby ripped out of its mother’s womb is crying for vengeance. God listens; God hears; God will repay.
However, there is blood, poured out on the ground at the foot of a rough torture stake that speaks another message. Unlike all other blood that was taken by force, the blood of Jesus was given freely as a love gift to all mankind. Yes, men did put Him to death. They drove nails through His hands and feet. One man thrust a sword into His side, spilling the last drops of His life-giving blood on the ground. Yet He declared, “No one takes my life from me. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.”
This blood is also speaking. What does it say?
You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24 – NLT).
When Jesus had risen from the dead, He took His precious blood, staining the earth beneath the cross and offered it on the Mercy Seat in the heavenly tabernacle. This was His offering to the Father to pay the debt of sin no one else can pay. With His blood, He sealed the New Covenant with the Father so that all who believe in Him are forgiven, reconciled and reinstated as God’s beloved children.
With His own blood – not the blood of goats and calves – He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time, and secured our redemption forever (Heb. 9:12 – NLT).
Abel’s blood and every drop of blood shed since then, cries out for vengeance except the blood of Jesus. His blood speaks of mercy.
What a God we serve! No other god has ever given what God gave in mercy to rescue those who spit in His face. We are privileged to wear the robe of righteousness bought with Jesus’ blood, which give us access to the Father.