CHAPTER 1: Jesus Christ, Our Passover.
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” 1Corithians 5:7
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: … And ye 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. …it is the LORD’s passover.” Exodus12:5 – 7, 11.
SINCE the day Adam and Eve mortgaged Man’s glory and awoke to the humiliating reality of their nakedness, the best man has ever attempted to find personal covering has been ridiculously inadequate. In Genesis Chapter 3:7, we find man desperately hiding behind fig leaves.
A gracious God arrives the garden and in verse 21, the first indication that one, man’s case is not beyond redemption and two, by bloodshed shall he be covered or rescued, is recorded. God slays an animal to produce a more permanent clothing or covering for man.
“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21
In his time, Cain watched, green with envy and livid with anger as his effort-intensive-offering of the fruit of the ground was rejected while Abel’s effortless blood offering of livestock was accepted by God.
God was still making a point. Cain had heard God’s requirement but taken God for granted. Abel likewise heard the same requirement. It made little sense to either of them. Cain elected to use his sense. Abel chose to use his faith. The Hebrews account (Hebrews 11:4) says Abel’s offering was an act of faith. Since faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17), both Cain and Abel must have been preached to.
Anyway, whether they understand or not, God was making His point. Further relationship with God must be founded upon blood.
Then came Noah, another fellow who believed the Gospel in his days. After the flood, a surviving Noah and his household gave God what I suppose was an offering that surpassed Solomon’s. He offered one of every fourteen clean beasts and birds to God in sacrifice. This left Noah only thirteen of each species to start the repopulation of the whole earth. (Genesis 7:1-5, 8:17 – 22). No wonder, the Lord promptly removed the curse earlier placed upon the earth in the days of Adam.
“And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’ sake;… neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.”
Genesis 8:20-21.
Again, Blood had won.