It’s Memorial Day, so it’s fitting to remember Abel, the first man to die.
Abel, yet speaks, though dead. (The Bible tells me so.)
So here’s an excerpt from The Great Cloud of Witnesses:
| “And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel they brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:9, 10).
Righteous Abel died a cruel death at his angry brother’s hands. But his death was not his end! The second part of the divine commendation (the subject of these final two sections on Abel) confirms that Abel lives on. Can a dead man speak? What does God mean when He says Abel still speaks? The obvious message was that Abel had obtained righteousness by faith. This dead man’s blood was also crying out that death is not the end. What a vivid way for God to declare that life does not end when a person dies! Cain did not get rid of Abel by killing him. Neither did Abel lose all by being killed. His word was still very much alive. His blood was crying out. To whom was the blood crying? God said that Abel’s blood was crying to Him! What was the blood crying? Was it for Vengeance? Not necessarily, in Abel’s viewpoint. But God saw it from His own viewpoint. He saw that Cain had shed his brother’s blood out of anger, rejecting the action and attitude that God had shown him were necessary. And God did not look the other way. He gave Cain a strong sentence of punishment, signaling that He will not let innocent blood go into eternal silence. Revelation 6:9-11 further shows that God has never since looked the other way. “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? …and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season.” In His own time and way, God will bring justice and retribution. Abel’s death marked a new chapter in human history. Since that day, enmity has always existed between those who reject and those who pursue God’s way of acceptance. This enmity will continue on as long as God allows righteousness and unrighteousness to dwell together. Have you felt the sting of that enmity? Perhaps you have been accused of being too conservative, of having a holier-than-thou attitude, or of having a works religion. Maybe some God-defying unbeliever has tried to intimidate you for your faith. You may have felt (or may yet feel) the hard fist of an angry man, the helplessness of imprisonment, or the terror of the torture chamber. Abel’s blood cries out for you to continue proclaiming the Gospel boldly. You can “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” by resting in Him who has said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” |
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