I’ve never really thought of blood as having a voice before. In fact, it sounds like the stuff of fantasy novels or sci-fi movies to me. But as I read today in Hebrews 12:24, I was reminded of the “blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

After Cain killed his brother Abel in the first recorded murder in history, God said to Cain, “Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10)

Are there things in this world that “speak” that only God can hear? If blood is one of them, imagine the cacophony, when you consider all the violence of humanity down through the ages! For the most part, we are deaf to it. But is God asking us to listen as well?

Do we dare open our ears? From wars around the globe to murders in our own shopping malls, the noise could be deafening.

Tuning in, I think we would quickly find anger and hatred and jealousy at the root of such violence. When you compare the deaths of Abel and Jesus, those were the very things that fanned the murderous intentions of their brother-enemies. Under the surface, Cain and the religious elite of Jesus’ day weren’t all that different.

But Abel’s blood called for vengeance, whereas Jesus’ blood called for forgiveness. Vengeance makes sense. I believe vengeance would be the final word spoken by the shed blood of any of us. Only Jesus’ blood had the power to break that cycle…to utter a different word, a much, much better word!

And it’s a word we would do well to heed.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.

Hebrews 12:25

Don’t ignore what the blood of Jesus has to say to you. Don’t refuse its forgiveness. Instead, run for its refuge! Listen today for the blood that speaks love.