“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your offspring and hers;
He will crush your head,
And you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15
Growing up I had no idea this was a messianic prophecy, I thought it was just the reason why so many of us are scared of snakes. But surprise, surprise it is a prophecy foretelling Jesus coming to crush the head of the devil and freeing us all from the bondage of sin! Little did they know the Messiah wouldn’t come until for another thousand plus years… They thought their first son would be their savior. Who was Adam and Eve’s firstborn son?
Eve gave birth to Cain and then Abel. Cain was the firstborn and basically everyone, including him, thought he would be the one to “crush the snake’s head” and save the family.
Do you remember the curse Adam received? The snake had to crawl on its belly, Eve gets painful childbirth, and Adam? His was that the ground was cursed, and one would have to work and toil for a garden to grow. Cain’s job was to farm. Look at him, already fulfilling his job as the messiah and reversing the curse that God had placed on the ground! I know that sounds sarcastic, and it was, slightly. But can you see how everyone saw it? Doesn’t that make sense, then, why Cain was so upset that God didn’t receive his sacrifice? How dare his younger brother Abel who was not the savior, who sacrificed a sheep- something that wasn’t even cursed, have his sacrifice received by God. When Cain, who was fantastic at gardening and trying to undo the curse God had placed on the soil and who was bringing God his very best vegetables, wasn’t getting his sacrifice received. But here’s the thing with pain. If you don’t absorb it, you will defer it. Cain felt hurt that God didn’t take his sacrifice, and instead of absorbing that false insecurity- he manifested it in the evilest of ways and killed his brother.
When questioned about it by God, Cain decides to lie to God and say he doesn’t know where Abel is. But God, being omniscient, lets Cain know that his “brother’s blood cries out to me [God] from the ground (Genesis 4:10).” He curses Cain, and Cain is basically excommunicated from his family and forced to wander with a symbol on his forehead to forever remind people of what he had done. Pretty dark stuff going on in the beginning of our story. Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground in agony because of the injustice that had occurred. His blood cried out in vengeance and in pain…
But turn to Hebrews 12:24 “to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Jesus’ blood was just as innocent as Abel’s- but instead of His blood crying out in vengeance it cried out in completion of a promise. A promise to strike the head of the snake. The promise to uphold the covenantal promise. A cry of “it is finished” was what Jesus’ blood spoke to. You see, Abel’s blood was just the beginning, Jesus’ blood was the end.
(Disclosure, most everything I learn is not of my own intelligence, but thanks to the brilliance of those around me).
Following Rachel 