V Indicates Scripture or other reference

Visualize yourself as a parent. You bring a son into the world, feed and clothe him, change his dirty diapers, comfort him when he’s sick, play ball with him when he’s well, teach him right from wrong, and make only one demand of him: “As long as you live under my roof, you must do what you know is right!”

 

Instead, he does everything you taught him not to do. He hangs out with trouble-makers, meets a drug pusher who tells him about the “pleasures” of cocaine, and steals money from you to buy drugs. When he gets arrested, he tells the judge it was your fault because you never let him make an intelligent choice between cocaine and obedience. The judge puts him on probation. He comes home and steals more money from you. When you try to talk sense to him, he tells you to mind your own business, and sneers at you, “Whose life is it, anyway?”

 

You want to break the kid’s neck ... but he’s still your kid, and you still love him. What do you do?

 

God faced a similar problem in the Garden of Eden. The man and woman He had created to worship Him, chose to worship His worst enemy instead. God had declared the penalty for this kind of treason – death. As a holy, righteous and perfect God, He couldn’t just pat Adam and Eve on their heads and say, “Let’s pretend it never happened!”– that would make Him untrue to His own Word. To be faithful to Himself, God would have to kill the man and woman on the spot, and thus wipe out the sin-stained human race. But He had created them in His own image, and He still loved them! What was God to do?

 

God solved the problem by entering in to a blood covenant, through which He could set the human race free from sin and worthy to live in His presence. He announced the terms of this covenant in the Garden, right after the man and the woman had sinned against Him:

 

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

     And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

                            Genesis 3:14,15

 

The first verse of this Scripture describes God’s a curse upon Satan and upon sin. Satan had come to the woman as a serpent and charmed her into committing sin. Very well then; God would show the world just how ugly and disgusting sin really is, by making the serpent the most repulsive creature on earth.

 

The next verse contains the blood covenant that makes it possible for God to destroy the works of the devil and break the power of sin over the human race. God had already decreed that the penalty for sin must be death – but, under the terms of this covenant, God was going to raise up a Man who would die for the sins of Adam and Eve and every one of their descendants. This Man is called “the Seed of the woman.” The Biblical term bruise his head means “to destroy his spiritual authority” – referring to the way the Man would break Satan’s hold over mankind. The term bruise his heel means “to strike a deadly blow at a person’s weak-spot” – referring to the way the Man would shed His blood to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins. (The pagan poet Homer borrowed this Biblical concept to explain the “weak-spot” of his mythical character, Achilles.) 

 

This covenant could not have been an agreement between God and Adam and Eve, simply because it is impossible for sinful men and women to be covenant partners with a holy God. No; this covenant was a solemn agreement between God and the Man who would sign it with His own blood. That Man had not yet been born on earth, so there is only one way He could have become a partner in that covenant – He and God had already agreed upon the terms of the blood covenant in Heaven, before God created Adam and Eve, before He created this world, before He created this period we know as “time.”

 

When God brought this covenant down to earth, it became possible for Adam and Eve (and all their descendants) to enter in to it. They would still have to die physically – Satan would still be able to bruise their heel – just as the Man would have to die. But their spirits could live forever in Heaven – just as the Man would live eternally in Heaven – if they turned their backs on sin and placed their faith in the life-saving blood covenant made between God and the Man.

 

How were they supposed to do this? God showed them how: they must offer a sacrifice to God to represent the sacrifice that the Man would make to pay the penalty for their sins. In Genesis 3:21, God gave them an example of the sacrifice that would be required of them: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” 

 

God gave Adam and Eve coats to cover their sin. To get skins for those coats, He had to kill at least two animals – probably lambs. The blood of those lambs represented the blood of the innocent Man who would die for their sins. From that day until the day when the Man died, all of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants were expected to offer a blood sacrifice to God in order to show their faith in His promises. They were not permitted to sacrifice a wild animal to God – they had to sacrifice a domestic animal that had some value to them. God wanted everyone to understand that He did not pay a cheap price for their salvation, and He was not going to respect anyone who tried to show his or her appreciation for His salvation in a cheap way.

 

Adam and Eve were then driven out of the Garden, and began their family by bringing two sons into the world – Cain and Abel. The Bible tells us:

 

Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Genesis 4:2a-5

 

Abel believed God’s promise, demonstrated his faith by sacrificing a lamb up to God, and thus entered in to the blood covenant that God had made with the Man. Cain, on the other hand, was like the ungrateful boy in the beginning of this chapter who despised his father’s values. God tried to talk sense to Cain (Genesis 4:6,7V1), but Cain wanted to live “his” life in his own way. Cain then showed us what “man’s way” always leads to: he nursed his anger until he didn’t know how to control it, and then he rose up and murdered his righteous brother (V2Genesis 4:8). Cain bruised his brother’s  heel ... but Cain’s head was bruised in the end. Abel is alive with his Father, God, in Heaven today; while Cain is with his father, the devil, in hell.

 

The story of Cain and Abel sums up all of human history: those people who entered in to the blood covenant God made with the Man are alive with God today; while those who chose to “do it their own way” have surely died, are surely dying, or (if they do not repent) will surely die.

 

For thousands of years, most of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants chose to walk in Cain’s ways ... and died. Then God stepped into human history in a mighty way. He reached down into one of the most sinful cities on earth – Ur of the Chaldees – and He called out an ordinary, idol-worshiping man named Abram:

 

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:1a-3

 

What a staggering set of promises! And God made everyone of them come true. He did make Abram the father of a great nation (God changed his name to Abraham and made him the patriarch of Israel). He did make Israel’s name great (world history has always revolved around Israel and the Jews!). He did make Israel a blessing to others (God used the Jews to preserve His Scriptures, and His promise of Salvation, for the entire world). And He did use the Jews to bless all the families of the earth (Jesus, the Savior of all mankind, was born into the Jewish people, and taught the world God’s righteousness according to the law of Moses, the Jewish Torah.V3)

 

Abram had enough faith to follow God out of Ur and into the desert. But he still looked at life through his natural eyes; and he couldn’t see how it was naturally possible for God to make all of those staggering promises come true. For one thing, Abram couldn’t understand how God was going to make him “the father of a great nation” when he didn’t even have a son! God patiently built up Abram’s faith by being faithful to Abram. He brought him through one “impossible” situation after another. Then, when Abram could finally see who God is, the Bible tells us,

 

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he (Abram) believed in the Lord; and he (God) counted it to him (Abram) for righteousness.

Genesis 15:1-6

 

This Scripture is the basis of all true worship of the living God. Abram knew the facts of life: his wife, Sarah, was barren and long past child-bearing age – it was not physically possible for her to have a child. But God said that Sarah would have a son, and that all His promises to Abram would come to pass through this son. Abram compared the facts of natural life to the promises of a supernatural God, and he believed in the Lord; and God counted it to him for righteousness.

 

The Hebrew word translated as “beli

 

eved” in this Scripture is ... Amen.

 

Abram gave his unconditional Amen to God; God counted it to Abram as righteousness; and that is how Abram became qualified to make a blood covenant with God The Scriptures say:

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Genesis 17:1-7

 

God had offered Abraham and the Jewish people a direct covenant with Himself. Would Abraham choose to walk in covenant with his God, as Abel had? Or would he choose to “go his own way,” as Cain did? God already knew the answer; Abraham would find out soon enough.

 

God was faithful to fulfill his part of the covenant promise: He gave Abraham and Sarah a son. They named him Isaac. Then, when Isaac had grown to be a teenager, God called Abraham to live up to his Amen. The Scripture tells us:

 

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (prove) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Genesis 22:1,2

 

Sacrifice his son!? Abraham must have shivered right down to the roots of his soul. But Abraham knew his God. Despite his natural fears, Abraham knew his God would be faithful to fulfill all His promises, and to fulfill them through Isaac, whether Isaac was sacrificed as a burnt offering or not. How would God accomplish this? Well, like everyone else in the ancient world, Abraham knew the story of the blood covenant that God and the Man made in Heaven before the beginning of time. Abraham also knew that he was in covenant with this same God. By putting these two great truths together, Abraham was able to understand that his son’s heel could be bruised, but his head could never be bruised. One way or another, Isaac would live ... and God’s promise would live through Isaac.

 

And so Abraham confidently obeyed his God. He took his son to the mountain, built an altar there, laid his son upon it, and took the knife to slay him. (V4Genesis 22:1-12) Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven, and said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”  (Genesis 22:12)

 

Who was this “angel of the Lord?” The Scripture says that He told Abraham, “I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” Who could say such a thing ... except the Man who had made the original blood covenant with God in Heaven! And what could He possibly mean by this ... other than, “You, Abraham, and your people Israel, are now part of our everlasting covenant!”

 

Abraham’s obedience had brought the Jewish people into a special covenant relationship with God. Because of this relationship, God gave the Jews a special way to picture the reality, and the blessings, of this covenant. First He took them into Egypt, where He built a few faithful families into a great nation. Then God blessed the Egyptians because His covenant people were living among them (see the story of Joseph in Exodus 39 to 41). And then, when the Egyptians turned against the Jews and enslaved them, “the Lord brought them (the Jews) forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders.” (Deut. 26:8)

 

The “signs and wonders” included parting the Red Sea so the Jews could walk to freedom, then closing the waters to drown the pursuing Egyptian army. The “great terribleness” was made up of ten plagues that God unleashed upon the Egyptians. In the final plague, the firstborn son in every Egyptian household was killed, but the homes of the Jews were spared ... if the head of the household killed a lamb, painted his doorway with its blood, then roasted the lamb and ate it with his family. This was the first Passover meal (Exodus 12:1-15V5), which was intended to give the Jews a picture of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, and which the Jewish people have observed every year for more than 3,500 years.

 

All of the events described in this chapter are taken directly from the Jewish Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. These Jewish Scriptures faithfully tell about the blood covenant made between God and the Man in Heaven ... the acts of faith that turned idol-worshiping Abram into Abraham, the father of God’s covenant people ... the Passover meal that pictures the death of the Lamb of God ... and all the other events of history that reveal God’s plan to save sinful men and women from spiritual death and eternity in hell. For thousands of years, any Jew (or Gentile!) could understand God’s plan, and then make an intelligent choice about entering in to God’s life-saving blood covenant, by reading the Jewish Bible.

 

But over the centuries, millions of Jews did not read it ... or at least they did not give their Amen to it. Time after time, God’s chosen people chose to put their faith in idols of wood, stone, intellect, personal power, and the political and religious systems that had swallowed up all of the pagan nations around them. Time after time, God sent prophets to call His people back to the true worship of Himself ... back to a saving faith in His blood covenant. Some of these prophets they mocked, some they spurned, some they killed.V6 Time after time, the people who had preserved the story of Cain and Abel for the world – the people who taught the world how blessed it was to be like Abel – chose to be just like Cain.

 

And then the Man came. The Man who made the blood covenant with God in Heaven before the beginning of time, came to this earth in God’s perfect time. His Name was Jesus, and He was the only begotten Son of the living God. Yes, Jesus was God; but He came to us as a mortal man. As a man, He walked in the power of the Holy Spirit; and He did all the miracles that the Jewish Scriptures said He would do. Some of the Jews of His day, like Abel, recognized Him from the Scriptures and gladly gave Him their Amen. Others, like Cain, shouted to the Roman authorities, “Crucify Him!” And so they had a part in bruising His heel, never knowing He was shedding His blood to bruise the head of the enemy who had led them into sin and was leading them into hell.

 

Jesus was buried. The Romans knew the God of the Jews had sworn to raise Him from the dead. They feared His disciples would steal His body, say that God had taken Him to Heaven, and use those events to start a revolt against Roman authority. To make sure that did not happen, they placed a huge stone in front of the tomb, and assigned a squad of soldiers to guard it. On the third day, two angels of the Lord came down, swatted the soldiers aside like fleas, and rolled the stone away like a pebble. When His disciples came to embalm His body, Jesus was gone. The angels just looked at them and said, “He is risen.”V7

 

During the next few days, the risen Lord showed Himself to more than five hundred people in and around Jerusalem. All these facts are recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If you don’t care to believe God’s Word, you can find the same events recorded in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, and in the official annals of the Roman Empire.

 

The message of God has not changed since He declared the terms of His blood covenant, in the ears of Adam and Eve, back in the Garden: continue to walk in sin and you will surely die; or give your Amen to My covenant, and live.

 

Adam and Eve and Abel and Abraham and all the Hebrew prophets believed God would fulfill the terms of His covenant with the Man, and on the basis of that belief they gave God their Amen. Today we know the Man’s Name is Jesus, and He did fulfill the terms of the covenant by shedding His blood on the Cross of Calvary.

 

If you have never given your Amen to that promise of God, you might want to do so right now. If you believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead; and if you are willing to tell anyone, friend or foe, that Jesus is Lord of your life, get down on your knees and say something along the lines of:

 

Lord Jesus, I confess I am a sinner. I was born into a life of sin, and I’ve never been able to do anything to set myself free of sin ... even though I know God’s penalty for sin is death. But I also know that You gave Your life to pay the penalty for my sin. I don’t take Your sacrifice for granted, Lord Jesus. I thank You for it, and I want to enter in to the benefits of it. Please come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and cleanse me of my sin, so I may stand pure and righteous before the Father on Judgment Day. Amen, Lord Jesus; and Amen.

 

V1 Genesis 4:6,7 

And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

 

V2 Genesis 4:8 

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

 

V3 Luke 4:15-21 – Jesus publicly declares He is the Messiah. 

And he (Jesus) taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Elijah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place (Isaiah 61:1,3) where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

V4 Genesis 22:1-12 – Abraham offers his son Isaac to the Lord.  And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (prove) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.

 

V5 Exodus 12:1-15 – The story of the first Passover.

And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the four-teenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the con-gregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remains of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

 

V6 Matthew 23:29-31