LAMB OF GOD
Locusts and Honey
1 Cor. 2:13
Vol. 9, Pt.2
In this edition of Locusts and Honey we continue with our study of the Lamb of God and of sacrifices in the Old Testament.
Dueling Sacrifices
In Genesis 4 we are introduced to two competing sacrifices. The first sacrifice was by Cain. Cain was a worker of the ground. (Gen. 4:2). His sacrifice was an offering of the fruit of the ground. (Gen. 4:3). The second sacrifice was by Abel. Abel was the younger brother to Cain and his sacrifice was of the “first born of his flock.” (Gen. 4:4). Scripture says that the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but not for the offering of Cain. (Gen. 4:5). In response, Cain got angry. God warned Cain that “if he does well” his offering will be accepted but if he does not do well sin is “crouching at the door” and “its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:6-7). Cain gave in to anger and killed his brother.
Later, God asked Cain where his brother was and Cain responded “am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9). God replied to Cain “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me, from the ground.” Cain is punished by God. The ground no longer would give its strength to Cain and Cain became a fugitive and wanderer upon the earth. (Gen. 4:12).
The two sacrifices raise a number of questions. One of the first questions is why there was a sacrifice in the first place? We have discussed in a previous edition that God used the skins of animals to clothe Adam and Eve. Did Cain and Abel arrive at the idea that a sacrifice was a way of pleasing God because of that? We simply do not know from Scripture. Nonetheless, it appears that Cain and Abel both recognize that a sacrifice has something to do with pleasing God and perhaps atoning for sin, but the concept was not yet clear to them.
Another question is why did God accept the sacrifice of Abel but not of Cain. Various commentators have speculated regarding this. Some say that God did not accept Cain’s offering because it was just of fruits but not necessarily of the “best” fruits or from the “first” fruits. In contrast, Abel brought the “first born of his flock and of their fat portions.” (Gen 4:4). In other words, perhaps Abel brought his best and Cain brought just some of his fruit. We know that later on both grain offerings and animal offerings were acceptable offerings; however grain offerings were never used for atonement sacrifices. Only blood will do. At first blush it appears that God’s partiality for the animal sacrifice is arbitrary. However, it is not.
We have previously mentioned the verse that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” (Heb. 9:22). At the heart of both the Old and New Testaments is the concept that mankind’s guilt and sin must be satisfied. There is a price to be paid for sin and mankind’s willful and intentional choices not to obey God. There is justice. However, there is also mercy. The mercy is shown in the fact that the innocent blood of a lamb would satisfy at least on a limited basis the sin of mankind until the real sacrifice of Jesus Christ would occur. That real sacrifice was to have the Son of God to provide the saving blood that would completely satisfy the justice of God. In short, God Himself provides a way out of the trap that man had laid for himself. Until the real Lamb of God would atone for man’s sins, the blood of goats, bulls and lambs served as place-markers until the real sacrifice occurred.
The reality is that the sacrifice of Cain could not satisfy the justice of God nor could it ever represent the future sacrifice which was to come for mankind. The sacrifice had to do with the remission of sin and without blood there is no remission of sin. Vegetables and fruits are not good enough to represent the atonement. Man would try to earn his salvation through his own efforts and through his own fruits. The efforts of man to do that may be commendable but they are NOT effective. Only the blood can satisfy man’s sin. Further it is not our fruits which justify us but it is innocent blood which justifies us. Only the blood can work and only the blood can satisfy. As a Christian, we have the opportunity to understand better why the sacrifice of Cain was not efficacious. We, as believers, have all tried to lay our good works on the altar and we find that God has “no regard” for our nice efforts and good works. It is only by God’s grace through faith by which we experience the covering for our sins and escape the eternal judgment and penalty for our sins.
Grace and favor seem at first to be arbitrary and fair. However, I submit to you that it is not. God is fair and invites all into his kingdom. Cain was invited. It was not foreordained that Cain sinned and killed his brother. God warned Cain that sin was crouched at the door. God told Cain that even though sin was waiting at the door, that Cain must “rule over it.” Cain had a choice just like Adam and Eve did. However, Cain, like his parents, chose to follow his own will and his own flesh rather than the words of God to overcome sin. Interestingly, sin is pictured like a tiger crouching at the door to leap on Cain. I believe personally Cain opened the door to sin by such things as his own pride (his face was fallen when his sacrifice was not accepted by God), anger (Cain was angry because his sacrifice was not accepted) and jealousy (Abel’s sacrifice was accepted and Cain’s was not). I wonder if Jesus was thinking about Cain when he said that anger was the seed of murder and that by saying “Thou Fool” that we were getting near to the fire of hell. ( Matt. 5:22). Cain’s anger grew from a seed to the act of murder. (From little seeds great oaks grow)
I am reminded of a poem called “The Poison Tree” by William Blake which goes like this:
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with my tears,
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,–
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
Sin was not only at the door of Cain, but Cain opened the door and sin pounced. I believe that Satan was at work in all of this. After all, God had prophesied that the Son of Eve would crush the head of the serpent. Satan was not interested in letting that happen. When sin pounced, Satan killed two birds with one stone so to speak. Certainly Abel and Abel’s offspring would not be able to crush the head of the serpent because Abel was dead. Likewise, Cain would be a murderer. Therefore, it is at least my belief, that behind the scenes a cosmic war was going on whereby Satan was making efforts to frustrate God’s judgment through the prophecy that the serpent’s head was going to be crushed. I believe that if Satan felt that he could frustrate this prophecy by having people kill people so much the better. The murder of Abel is the genesis of all murder, all killing, all crime and all war. Anger, jealousy and pride are nurtured and watered by mankind and grow to produce fruits of misery and death.
Innocent Blood Cries Out
Blood cries out. In one sense, the sinless blood of the sacrifice cries out “mercy!” However, the blood shed by the sinful acts of mankind cry out for Justice. God said to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” Sin loves to shed the blood of innocents. We see that God hates murder and the blood of the innocent cry out for justice and for revenge. In the Old Testament we see many instances where innocent blood is shed. We see Naboth being killed innocently so the King Ahab can steal a vineyard, we see David killing Uriah the Hittite so he can have Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and we see righteous person after righteous person being killed (see Matt. 23:35). We also see both Israel and Judah sacrificing young innocent children to Moloch and Baal. We see Pharaoh killing the innocent male children of the Israelites. In the New Testament we see the same things such as Herod killing the innocent children under two years old to prevent the birth and ascendancy of the Messiah, the beheading of John the Baptist and the killing of Jesus Christ God’s only son. It is the innocent who die. In Revelation we see the blood of the martyrs crying out for justice and asking “how long” (Rev. 6:10). God allows the death of the innocent. Today the blood-letting continues through the wholesale abortion of young children. Blood flows in the streets in both the time of the Old Testament, in the time of Jesus and in our own time. There is however, one difference. The blood of Jesus Christ does not cry out for justice like Abel’s. Instead the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, cries out for forgiveness and for mercy. Jesus on the cross said “Forgive them for they know what they do.” ( Luke 23:34). Likewise Hebrews 12:24 says that Jesus’ sacrifice “speaks better things than that of Abel.”
Mankind always has a choice. We can shed blood or be covered by the blood.
God’s Covenant with Noah
After the flood and after Noah, his family and the animals had left the ark, Noah built an altar to sacrifice to God. That sacrifice was not of grain or the fruits of the ground but instead was of some of every clean bird and every clean animal. In short, it was a blood sacrifice. (Gen. 8:19-20). As a result God made a covenant or agreement with Noah that God would not again destroy all of the earth by water. The covenant was memorialized by the rainbow in the skies. As part of this covenant, mankind was instructed not to eat flesh with its blood in it. Genesis 9:4 says, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
Blood in essence was the equivalent of life. Blood was sacred to God because God had made man in His own image and man was not to shed blood. (Gen. 9:6). Blood was not for consumption. Instead its purpose was “atone for sins.” The Hebrew position pertaining to the purpose of the blood can be easily seen through the references below. The first is Leviticus 17:11-12 which says the following:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have it for you on the altar
to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes
atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel,
No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who
sojourns among you eat blood.
The other reference is found in Deuteronomy 12:23-25, 27 which says:
Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life,
and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it,
you shall pour it out on the earth like water. You shall not eat it,
that all may go well with you and your children after you,
when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord…
The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar
of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat.
The Hebrews treated blood differently than most nations. The blood which represented life belonged to God and it was sacred.
The Covenant of God with Abraham
In Genesis 15, God enters into a covenant with Abram (a.k.a. Abraham). This is a unilateral covenant meaning that it is an agreement by God to Abraham and Abraham does not have any real responsibilities under it. For instance, if I said, “I will pay you $10 on Monday” this would be a unilateral covenant. If I say “I will pay you $10 if you let me drive your car” this would be a bi-lateral covenant. Your receipt of $10 depends upon whether you do something (in this case, let me drive your car.”) God promised Abraham both an heir and the land where he resided. God ratified this promise through a covenant. Covenants were based upon such things as blood and salt. Here God instructs Abraham to sacrifice some animals by cutting them into half. He was instructed to sacrifice a three year old heifer, a three-year old goat and a three year old ram. Also there was a sacrifice of a turtledove and a young pigeon. The blood of all of these animals were shed. The heifer, goat and ram were divided into half. (Gen. 15:8-11). Abraham goes to sleep or falls into a trance. As the sun sets and it becomes dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between these pieces. God makes a covenant with Abraham that he will possess the land which we know as “The Promised Land.” All of this seems a bit mysterious and I will try to explain it more fully below.
First, we have a unilateral covenant being made between God and Abraham. The cutting of the sacrifices in two is a solemn oath (under the pain of death) that a covenant will be fulfilled. We see an example of this in Jeremiah 34:18, which says, “And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts….” In short, this is similar to what we might call a “blood oath.” God has determined to make Abraham a “nation of people” and to give him a “promised land.”
To the Christian, Abraham is indeed a Father of Nations. Not only is he a father to the Jewish people but he is also a father to all those who have faith in God. God gave to Abraham a nation. Similarly, Jesus has a nation of children who are followers and children of God . God gave Abraham a possession made up of the promised land which had been inhabited by the enemies of God. To Christ, God has given a nation and a promised land and that land is the Kingdom of God. Moreover that land is also an eternal kingdom ruled over by Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is interesting to me that God had a specific requirement that the heifer, ram and goat be three years old. (Gen. 15:9). Why did God specify a particular age? No one can say for sure. I believe that the reason was that in the future there would be a sacrifice of God’s only son, Jesus Christ. Most believe that the crucifixion of Christ occurred when Jesus was about 33 years old. Jesus was of a young age and had lived about one-third of his life span. The average life span of the three animals sacrificed were in the 10-15 year range. By utilizing animals which were three years old, in effect the sacrifice was in its early adult period of the animal and each animal had used up about one-third of its life span. Now my thoughts on this are only speculation; however, sacrifices always looked forward to the future sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God.
Previously I have mentioned that the sacrifice was unilateral. After Abraham had selected the animals and prepared them, he fell into a deep sleep. (Gen. 15:12) After dark, “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” Both Jewish and Christian commentators agree that the smoking fire pots and flaming torch represented the presence of God. Almost all commentators believe that the torch passing through the two halves of the sacrifice was God’s Presence. God predicted that the children of Abraham would be afflicted and will serve in a land “not theirs at Genesis 15:13. Commentators connect the torch with the presence of God found in the burning bush that appeared to Moses and with the pillar of fire which protected and led the children of Israel in the Sinai desert at night. The meaning of the smoking pot is more obscure. The smoking pots were often bee shaped and were small ovens where bread could be cooked. Many commentators say that the smoking pot represents the smoke of God’s holiness which is later seen on Mount Sinai when God was present and also with the smoke that was in the pillar of cloud which led Israel by day. Others believe that the smoking pot may be a precursor to the ovens in Egypt where bricks were made believing that the pots indicate that tribulation was ahead but that God was still present in the midst of tribulation.
The understanding that the covenant of God was sacrificial and unilateral is important. Abraham is asleep as the covenant is made. Abraham does not walk through the two halves of the heifer, goat and ram. He rests from his own efforts and works and can only look on as God does all of the work and makes all of the commitments. This is important because salvation comes to us by grace through faith and not by works. We do not deserve salvation and we cannot work to be saved. The picture of God’s covenant to save us and bring us into an everlasting kingdom is one of grace. God saves us. It is the sacrifice of Christ which saves us alone. By grace alone are we saved. We are the beneficiaries of the blood covenant and our only action in the process is to receive the gift which was been bought for us at such a dear price. The gift of salvation is just that—a gift. We do not earn it. It is given to us at great cost and it is given freely! Also like the children of Israel, we too must experience the tribulation of going through this life (like the Israelites in Egypt) but God is with us and will bring us through the tribulation. After all, Jesus is known as Immanuel meaning “God is with us.”
In our next edition of Locusts and Honey we will be looking at the account of Abraham and Isaac. This account is pivotal in understanding God’s plan for the salvation of mankind.
Until then, keep on hopping.
