By: Bro. Ken Bow
Gen 4:10 “The voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto me” Gen 9:4 reads, “But flesh, with the life thereof, which is the blood, shall ye not eat. Surely your blood of your lives will I require, at the hand of every beast will I require, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso shedth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God, made he man.” Blood was required because man was made in the image of God.
From Gen 4:10 “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me.” My subject is, “The Voice Of Blood”.
Many times, I have read my Bible, and read passages where the Lord instructed someone to kill someone. Have you read that in your Bible? One of the most notable times, was when the Lord told Saul to completely annihilate Amalek. He said I want them all dead. Men, women, children, animals, if it breaths, if it moves, kill it. That’s the message the Lord gave them.
It’s like, God didn’t mind killing all them folks. In fact, He told them to do it. Literally, thousands and in all probability tens of thousands would die, and it seemed like God liked that. It pleased Him. In fact, he ordered it to be so. And what I understand about that, of course, is the blood that was shed paid
for their sins. But there were other times, when it seems like God could not rest, when an innocent person’s blood was shed. I was reading recently and I read the passage about Manasseh. When I read
that, I realized how frequently I had read in my Bible about innocent blood. It appears that innocent blood bothered God as much as people that sinned, and God required their destruction. In fact in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 35, Verse 33, there is a scripture that gives us a little insight to God’s thinking concerning the matter of blood. “So shall ye not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood, it defileth
the land. And the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein. The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein. But, by the hand, or by the blood of him that shed it.”
Now that’s a little difficult for us to comprehend in our educated, scientific, world of 1990. But God was saying if a man was killed, and his blood was shed, the only way to purge that from the land was the
one that shed it, had to also die. The mixture of those two bloods, the innocent and the guilty, somehow or another, had the ability to cleanse the land.
What I am saying to you, is an unusual concept, but it appears that blood had the ability to speak to God. It appears that blood cried unto God. There was something about it that God heard that no one else
could hear. They tell me there is a whistle that you could blow loud enough that dogs can hear but the pitch is such that humans can not hear it. I’ll take their word for it. I’ve seen them blow the whistle, and I’ve seen the dogs react, but I couldn’t hear the whistle.
There is a voice that cries unto God from blood that we cannot hear, and I’m giving that to you out of the 4th Chapter of the Book of Genesis.
When God told Cain, he said, “Your brother’s blood crieth unto me.”
There was an innocent man whose blood had been shed and that blood began to cry out to God. And God then operated according to what he wanted them to understand, because of the innocency of that blood.
But let’s look at some scriptures concerning innocent blood. In Deuteronomy 19:10, it says that “innocent blood shall not be shed in thy land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee for an inheritance, and so the blood be upon thee.” God was emphatic with Israel that you do not shed innocent blood. In verse 13, it says “thy eyes shall not pity him, but thou shall put away the guilt, of innocent blood from Israel that it may go well with thee.”
In I Samuel 19:5, when they were convincing Saul not to take the life of David, it said “for he did put his life in his hand and slay the philistine and the Lord brought a great salvation for all Israel. Thou sawest it, and did rejoice, wherefore then will thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without a cause.”
It appears that if there was a need and the person that was being killed, or executed, had committed a wrong, their blood was not avenging something, then God was able to accept that. They could kill an entire nation of Amalek, and God was in favor of that. He even told them to do so. But if one person, who was innocent was killed, it was like that one persons innocent blood had the ability to raise its voice to God and it touched the heart of God. Why? What is the concept behind this innocent blood that God gets so irate about. What is it about innocent blood that God will turn heaven and earth upside down to find the one who did it. That God would demand retribution. That God would demand justice. That God would absolutely demand that this is going to be repaid in like manner. What was it about innocent blood that God was so intense about?
In the book of I Kings 2:31, is the scripture concerning Joab and the fact that he in his lifetime, killed people unjustly. The last commandment that David gave to Solomon, he said, “do as he has said, and fall upon him, and bury him, that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed from me and from the house of my father.”
Then in II Kings 21, this was the scripture that I read that kind of started the flicker of light in my mind about this subject of innocent blood, and why was God so radically concerned with it.
In II Kings 21:16, it says, “Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, beside his sin, which he made Judah to sin, and doing that which is evil in the sight of the Lord.”
Along came Josiah. Josiah was a good king, a righteous king. He made many reforms. He did many positive things in Israel. But even Josiah and all his goodness could not negate God’s judgement concerning the innocent blood shed by Manasseh.
If you would turn over a couple of chapters to Chapter 24:3-4, it says “Surely at the commandment of the Lord, came this upon Judeah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manassah, according to
all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood which the Lord would not pardon.” God would not pardon, the shedding of this innocent blood. Josiah, it doesn’t matter how great of a revival you have, you’ve got to understand that Manasseh was guilty of filling Jerusalem with innocent blood and that blood had a voice, and it was crying out to God. It demanded that somehow, divine retribution would come.
In the Book of Psalms 106:37&38, it says, “Yea, they sacrifice their sons and daughters unto the devils and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto
the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood.”
Proverbs 6:17, lists the things that God hates. Verse 16 said, “these things does the Lord hate, yea seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart
that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running into mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” One of the seven things that God hates is hands that shed innocent blood. A nation could get an indictment against them from God.
Isaiah wrote in Chapter 59:7, and said “their feet run to do evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood.”
In Jeremiah 26:15, they were getting ready to kill Jeremiah, and Jeremiah warned them, he said, “I’m telling you that if you do this, you’re going to have innocent blood on your account. “God will see to it that you will have the judgment of innocent blood.”
Job 3:19, talks about the judgment of one of the nations of his day. He makes the statement that there was innocent blood in their land. I began to consider all this. And I said what is the deal. Ten of thousands of people can die, that by my judgment would be innocent blood. I don’t think everybody in Amalek denied Israel the right to pass over when they came out of Egypt. But they all suffered for it.
God had an entire nation obliterated and destroyed, and never blinked and eye about it, never worried one time about one ounce of blood that was shed. But on other occasions he warned them again, and again, and again, and again against shedding innocent blood.
Turn to Matthew 27:14, I believe this was a critical part about this. In Genesis 9, I talked to you about the fact that man was created in the image of God. God doesn’t look like a monkey. God didn’t come from a monkey. We didn’t come from a monkey. God doesn’t look like an animal, he looks like a man. If you ould see him, he took upon Him the likeness of sinful man. But I believe, from the time that Cain killed Abel, every time an innocent drop of blood fell to the ground, the reason that God was so intense on purging it from Israel was that there was coming a day that the ultimate innocent blood was going to
be shed. There was going to come a day that he was not just innocent with a natural mother and natural dad, but as God manifest in the flesh, he was going to be innocent. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He
knew it was coming, so something down inside of God said I cannot tolerate it when innocent blood is shed!
Do you know what the scripture said about Judas in Matthew 27:14? When he went back before the High priest, he said “I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.”
There’s an interesting thing about the passage in Genesis 4, “Thy brothers blood crieth unto me.” In the original Hebrew language, it is plural, thy brother’s bloods crieth unto me. It appears that God was looking at Cain and saying thy brother’s bloods, his heritage, his children on down the road, everything he would have ever been, everything he could have been, his future generations and genealogies, that is also crying to me as well. There was something about the innocency of Jesus Christ. It was a tender
spot in the heart of God. He was the lamb led to slaughter. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. I’m talking about one who hung on the cross. He really did die. He really did resurrect. I’m here to tell you, he did not ever sin one time. I want you to know, that when his blood was shed, it was
innocent blood.
Let me tell you the beauty of this. Abel was innocent. And when his blood leaked into the ground, the Holy Word of God tells me his blood cried. God heard the voice. God heard that blood cry unto Him because it was innocent blood.
I want to give you a beautiful scripture. When I read this it made tears come to my eyes. I stopped everything I was doing, and put my Bible down, and I just started thanking the Lord when I read this
scripture. In the Book of Hebrews 12:22, “but ye are come unto Mt. Zion unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the first, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better thing than that of Abel.” Speaketh better things than that of Abel. I am preaching to you tonight that the blood of innocent Abel cried out and there was a voice attached to it. And God heard it, and it touched the heart of God. Then this scripture is telling me, how much more does the blood of Jesus Christ cry out tonight. How much more does it have a voice? How much more does God hear what
it has to say.
What has it got to do with me? I’ll tell you what it’s got to do with you. When they came out of Egypt, they said take that blood and put it on a door post, both sides and across the top. When destruction comes, when danger comes, when death is knocking at the door, he’s going to hear the voice of blood, and say, you can’t come in this house, this house is protected. The voice is going to cry out. It was a type and a shadow of the time that a sinner comes down to an alter and he begins to repent of his sins. We take him to a baptismal tank and we put him down in the name of Jesus, and he gets the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues. I want you to know that Almighty God puts the blood on his door posts, when death comes knocking, the voice of the innocent one is going to start to cry and say, God, I am innocent.
I don’t know if the devil can hear the voice of blood or not, but from the scripture, I almost believe he can. I almost believe he could hear Abel’s blood cry out, Innocent, Innocent. And I believe he can hear it
when a child of God is washed in the blood. You can’t hear it tonight, but it is speaking. If you could hear it tonight. The blood of Jesus Christ, that is applied to your life, is crying out to him. God knows exactly where you are. He knows everything about your life. That blood cries out for mercy. That blood cries out against judgment. That blood cries out against death. That blood cries out against danger and
destruction.
Some of you ought to go home with renewed confidence tonight knowing that the blood that’s applied to you is talking. It’s calling out to God for mercy and righteousness.
When Jesus was about to die, he said take this cup, drink it, this is the blood of the new covenant. When they killed an animal in the old testament, they would take the blood, spill it into a basin.
In Exodus 24:6, it talks about how they divided it into two parts. They would pour some here and sprinkle some someplace else. But the blood was everywhere. Blood was on the tabernacle. blood was
sprinkled over the shewbread. It was sprinkled on the candlesticks and on the brazen alter. They just took that blood and sprinkled it everywhere, because blood is what God looks at. I read my scriptures
today, blood was mentioned 447 times. I don’t know how many I read, but I read way on down there. Hundreds and hundreds of scriptures on blood, I just read on, just kept reading and reading and reading. I am telling you tonight if you could get it in your mind and understand that the water of baptism did more than just get you wet. The Holy Ghost did more than just make you feel good. It put the blood of the innocent creator of God upon your soul. And you have the opportunity to let God hear that I am innocent, I am innocent. I used to be a sinner, but I am innocent tonight. By virtue of the blood.
Take confidence tonight. The blood is crying out, innocent, innocent, innocent.
The beautiful thing about the blood of Christ is that it does not just forgive. But the Bible lets me know, it’s also for the healing of our bodies. Half and half if you so please. Half for this, and half for that. He’s got enough to go around. But that simple concept got a hold of me, that Abel’s blood spilled on the ground, cried out to God and God heard it.
In Hebrews, it said His blood was even better than Abel’s blood. Everywhere that the blood is applied, it cries out. The voice of blood, the voice of blood, the voice of blood, innocent, innocent, innocent. When you walk on the job, and the devil says you’re a hypocrite. Your not everything you ought to be. You aren’t praying like you ought to. You’re not living, all you need to. Stop and think, that blood is crying innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of his son, Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Everywhere that blood is sprinkled, everywhere it’s applied, that voice cries out to God, innocent, innocent, innocent. That’s why God couldn’t tolerate it. If ten thousand died and they were due that judgment, it was all right with God. But let one innocent one die, and something in God’s heart says, uh-uh, innocent blood has got to be atoned for. There’s got to be somehow to deal with innocent blood.
When Moses went down into Egypt, you remember he took some water out of the river and poured it on the bank. What did it become? Blood.
They cursed the fountain, the rivers, the lakes, the streams, it all became blood. Why? Water has no voice. Water doesn’t call to God. But when that blood was poured on the ground in Egypt, it cried for
retribution. God, do something. God, do something. God, you’ve got to do something.
The Lord said in Exodus 22:2 that if the thief was killed in the act of thievery, you didn’t do anything about it because he was not innocent. I wonder what it would sound like tonight if we could hear from God’s ears what’s going on in this building tonight. With all these folks around here that have the blood applied to them. That blood would be crying. You walked down to the alter. You knelt at an alter of repentance. You gave your heart to God. And the Lord put His blood on your soul. You walk to a baptismal tank and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord put His blood on you. You
received the Holy Ghost & He put His blood on you.
I’m going to tell you, every time you’re prayed for in front of this church with a bottle of oil, they lay hands on you, they pray for the sick, the scripture tells us, that the blood is applied. If you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven you. That blood starts to cry, innocent, innocent, innocent. Some of you that are living under heavy guilt and condemnation tonight, I wish you could plug in to what I am
trying to say, I wish you could understand that the voices you hear are not the voices of God, but they are the voices of the devil. He is telling you that you’re not good. You’re not worthy. You’re a hypocrite. You’ll never make it anyway. You’ll never amount to anything. God doesn’t love you. The church doesn’t love you. You need to realize that’s the voice of the devil. You need to start listening to the voice of blood, that says I am innocent because he is my covering tonight.
When the priest started his ministry, they took blood and put it on his right ear, and on his right thumb, and on his right big toe. Why? Did God just want him going around looking funny? uh-uh. I’m telling you there’s a voice with blood. There’s a voice, that if the price has been paid, then the penalty has been paid. It’s alright. We have on our souls tonight the innocent blood. The innocent of the blood of Christ. Blood has a voice.
He said when you get that Priest just put it on his ear, thumb, and toe. When you get his garments, you sprinkle it all over his garments. Take it in and sprinkle the alter. Take it in and sprinkle the ladle. Sprinkle the veil. Sprinkle the tent. Do you realize they literally bathed the temple in blood, when that Priest took that sacrifice, cut it’s throat & spilled it’s blood?
When Solomon knelt and said his prayer as recorded in the Word of the Lord. He lifted his hands. He knelt down and lifted his hands toward heaven. I believe God heard that. But I also believe that he heard the voice of 22,000 oxen. And the voice of 100,000 sheep. Blood that ran like rivers. Innocent blood, innocent blood, innocent blood, innocent blood. It is a scriptural principle, God said Abel’s blood cried unto him. Hebrews said that Christ’s blood was better than Abel’s blood. And His blood has been applied to your soul. They applied it everywhere they went in the temple. When you’re baptized it is applied. That’s why Acts 22:16 says, “and now, why tarriest thou, arise, and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” The water doesn’t wash away your sins. If it did every time you went swimming, or took a shower, or bath, you would be baptized and your sins would be washed away. It is not the water. It is your faith in what you are doing and the water is a symbol of the washing of his blood. When you come up out of that water, you are clean, and righteous in the sight of the Lord.
We have a tendency to go around either not giving our mistakes the proper due or killing ourselves over our mistakes. Some of you can make a mistake, sin never blink an eye, doesn’t bother you. Others of you, if you make a mistake, it smashes you, it crushes you. You feel like God could not love me because after
all, look what I did.
Well, what about this principle of the blood. Did Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, shed the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel’s? Thy brother’s blood crieth out of the ground.
Christ’s blood cries innocent, innocent, innocent. God instituted it as a perpetual statute. Leviticus 3:17 tells me that. He says it is a perpetual statute among you that you do not eat the fat or the blood. Israel was forbidden to eat blood. It was a perpetual statute that they could not eat blood.
In Leviticus 7, God got very plain. He said that if anyone eats blood, they are cut off from Israel. Why? Because blood has a voice.
In chapter 17 verses 10 to 14, blood eaters were cut off from Israel and not allowed to continue. Why? Because blood has a voice.
It’s not a deep subject that I preached to you tonight. But why don’t you take faith and confidence in the blood of Jesus Christ. We get to depending on our goodness, and if you will allow me to use this word,
our performance of our daily living for God. All of our confidence rests in how good or poorly we live. I am not advocating living a haphazard lifestyle. I am not advocating that you should live immoral, or careless. But I am saying to you that you should not go around with condemnation or defeat. Feeling like you are a failure. Because the blood that is applied to you has a voice. And that voice is crying out to God because it’s innocent blood. Innocent blood. God shed that blood.
Do you know the scriptures said that he purchased the church with His own blood. Take confidence, God’s blood is crying out for you tonight.
I don’t care what you did in sin. I don’t care what crimes, or mistakes, or sins, or rebellion, or whatever it is that you did. When you were baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost, God put His blood on you. And that blood cries tonight, Innocent, innocent, innocent. If we confess our faults, he is faithful and just to forgive us our faults and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, put that blood on me again. I want it crying loud and clear, innocent, innocent, innocent. I want your blood to cry. How about it friend, would you like the blood applied?
(The above material was prepared by Bro. Ken Bow.)
