God Hears Blood: Cain and Abel (Genesis 4)

 God Hears Blood

Cain had committed the first murder. And God immediately came in the role of a judge. He questioned Cain, pronounced a judgment and executed it. Though He was merciful even in his judgment, He absolutely did not hold back punishment completely. Cain did not even care to confess and repent and the only thing he cared about was that his punishment was too heavy.

In this judgment we see something of God's role as a Judge. This role cannot be removed from God. He pronounces and executes judgment.

His infinite love necessitates His eternal hatred for sin.

Murder is a clear example.

Let us see what He says to Cain in the judgment:


[Gen 4:9-11 NKJV] 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where [is] Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. [Am] I my brother's keeper?" 10 And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 "So now you [are] cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.


Scripture puts the ‘life’ or ‘soul’ in the blood. This is in the context of judgment, so legal language. Abel was dead and did not literally speak.

But the blood was shed and the earth was ‘defiled’ so to say. Someone had to answer for this deed. A person was just killed. God loved that person and the murder was committed in pure jealousy.

God hated the murder and loved life.

Thus He says that He heard the blood of Abel. It was as if it was screaming to God for retribution. God could simply not ignore it because of His concern for the life of Abel and because of His disgust for sin. For this reason Cain was then cursed.

Hebrews says:


[Heb 11:4 NKJV] 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.


In what way does it speak? It cried to God.
God does not always prevent murder from happening. But He sure hears the blood crying out to Him.
Imagine a very caring and tender person constantly hearing someone cry to him for justice and constantly reminding him of the wrong that was done to him.

That caring person is God as seen in Genesis 4. Cain was cursed to show once and for all that God does care. And though He may not execute judgment to all murderers right now, He definitely hears their cry and one day He will answer.

God is not someone who is careless and stoic about what happens to the life of His people. Instead He is a righteous Judge for them who is constantly reminded about them.

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