SACRIFICE
"By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice..." (Hebrews 11:4).
In the Bible we see God making decisions concerning mankind,
and He exercises the prerogative of changing them according to human
responses. Such as conditional promises, or heeding the
intercession of penitent hearts.
But as far as His essence is concerned, God is immutable
(Malachi 3:6). His attributes and character remains the same. As a
holy God, He cannot compromise with sin. When Adam and Eve sinned
by their disobedience, God followed through His warning and brought
death to them (Gen. 2:16-17).
God is also merciful. The death sentence will take effect, but
its execution is delayed. In mercy, God let Adam and Eve live for
several centuries. A window of opportunity for redemption is
extended --- in their place, animals were killed (Gen. 3:21).
Imagine the first humans seeing blood, which is the essence of life
(Leviticus 17:11), spilled for the first time. Death too. In this
object lesson God made it clear that something died to cover the
failure and shame of Adam and Eve.
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God is eternal and outside time. To Him a day is like a thousand years or a thousand is like one day (2 Peter 3:8). On the day Adam and Eve sinned, the effect began immediately, but the full result awaited several centuries. But no human on earth lived to be one thousand years --- the oldest person by the name Methuselah lived 969 years (Genesis 5:27). The flood came on the year he died. Adam and Eve did not die on day one of their disobedience, but no human lived to be one thousand years.
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God continues to directly converse with the children of Adam and
Eve. When Cain got upset over the rejection of his offering, God
replied, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" (Gen.
4:7).
The parents of Cain and Abel must have shown to them the
requirement of blood sacrifice. From Genesis 4:1-16 we find that
Abel followed it and got accepted; but Cain disregarded it, and
following his rejection, committed murder in jealous rage.
Disobedience leads to further sin and trouble unless prompt
repentance is exercised.
Abel exercised faith in God through his sheep sacrifice
(Hebrews 11:4). Cain exercised willful disobedience and strayed
further from God. From here on mankind moved away from God and away
from proper understanding of God and His ways. This was how
wickedness increased (Gen. 6:5). Mankind followed this pattern even
after the flood. From this example we can glimpse an idea how the
world's population multiplied without knowledge of the true God,
thereby creating false religions and philosophies which entraps men
and women right to our time.
But God has not given up on man. Adam was still alive (Gen.
5:3-5) when Noah was born. Noah's father mentioned the curse on the
ground (Gen. 3:17-19), an indication that his great grandfather Adam
told them the story (Gen. 5:28-29).
Hence Noah was aware of all that happened hundreds of years ago
in the Garden of Eden. Like Abel, by faith Noah chose to follow God
(Gen. 6:8-10; Hebrews 11:7). After the flood was over, the first
thing Noah did was offer animal sacrifice to God (Gen. 8:20-22). We
can also assume that Noah's great grandsons were told the stories of
God's dealings with the people in the past right up to the story in
Eden. Job offered sacrifice and is called a righteous person by God.
Abraham is another example.
Even before the law mandating animal sacrifice was passed under
Moses, the earlier generations knew that was what pleases God. This
concept of animal sacrifice was never lost throughout the Bible.
The penalty for sin is death (Gen. 2:17; Romans 6:23). But in
mercy, God is willing to accept a substitute to spare our lives.
God is willing to pardon and bless mankind and that is the
reason He revealed His ways.
Jesus said, "...all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of
Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44).
Today we no longer offer animal sacrifice because Jesus the Son
of God, the ultimate Lamb of God (John 1:29), offered the ultimate
sacrifice on our behalf on the cross. Believe and come under the
covering of the blood shed at Calvary.
We have a God who bless.
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