- 40th International Bible Conference, July 28, 2008    “I AM WHO I AM …The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.”   Exodus 3:14, 15     The History of the Jews and the History of the ChurchWe have already considered how one man - our forefather Adam - disobeyed God’s command, and, as a result, every person born thereafter has been condemned to the same fate. We have also thought about how this incident has caused the earth on which we live to be cursed. God told Eve that He would greatly multiply her pain in childbirth; to Adam He said that the ground was cursed because of him; and to the serpent He said that the Seed of the woman would bruise his head and that he would bruise His heel. In the middle of all this, advance notice is being given of the history of Israel, which begins to emerge in the first part of the Old Testament.God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the first man, Adam, and man became a living being, but that man’s life became limited when he disobeyed God. Nevertheless, God made tunics of skin for Adam and Eve before casting them out of the garden of Eden. He clothed them in order to cover the shame they felt because their eyes had been opened when they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is slightly different from the salvation of the spirit, which we experience through the Bible and through faith in our present age. The issue of blood is not raised here, and neither is there any direct explanation offered in the accounts of Adam’s descendants. Living as we do in the age of the Church, we may think that it would have been good if God had explained directly to Adam how to deal with the problem that had arisen in this blood. If, however, we consider this in light of the full course of history, we can see that God had a reason for doing things in this way. We need to think about why God does not present the solutions right away, and as history unfold. He hides the things that need to be concealed and then reveals the answers at the appropriate times. Satan tricked Eve, causing her to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but God did not trample on the head of the serpent right there and then, thus resolving the issue right away. Such thoughts stem from man’s desires and impulsive thinking. God exists in the eternal present and upholds a realm of time that man cannot understand, but from there God looks down and sees and knows everything. This is why all things are possible with Him. When the first man?Adam?sinned, God made a new plan for the fate and history of one particular nation. The nation by the name of Israel was predetermined to appear in this world as a result of man having disobeyed God, and in the Bible, we can see what God is telling us through this nation. Also, through the fate of Israel, we can see what our fate is to be. The history of Israel shows us that man cannot help but live as a sinner in this world, and this history lies at the center of the history of mankind. Just as God clothed Adam in a tunic of skin, He also singled out one nation?Israel?through which to present the solution to the problem facing mankind. In order to show mankind His method of saving the whole of mankind, God breathed the power of life into the Israelites, just as He had breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. He entrusted to Israel His words which are able to give life to all mankind. Also, the Bible promises that until the very end, God will take care of His people to whom He entrusted His word.In the present age, the Israelites as a whole do not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. Nevertheless, if we look at the history of the Israelites through the Bible, we can see that this nation, which was punished for disobedience and left all but dead, was also restored time and time again, and the blood lineage continued. Yet, in the course of the history of Israel, we do not find that, just because they were God’s chosen people, they are shown as a great and powerful nation. In certain respects, it started out not so much as the story of one family, but rather as the very simple and quiet beginning of a nation.Those who have come to acknowledge and believe in Jesus Christ through the Bible will see, when they look at how the history of the Israelites began, that this is how the life sprang forth within them as well. Also, this incident, which is experienced through the Bible by each individual Christian living in the age of the Church, when considered in regard to the Israelites, can be seen to have occurred through the man by the name of Abraham.The history of the Israelites begins in this way in Genesis, and this history unfolds in the realms of time “under the sun.” In other words, it begins before the age of the Church when we calculate in terms of the realms of time in which we live under the sun. There is the history of the Jews, and there is the history of the Church, which first appeared after Jesus Christ died on the cross. If we see these as being represented by ‘two sons’, the history of the Jews would be the firstborn son, while the history of the Church would be the younger son. Yet, in Matthew’s Gospel, it is mentioned twice that the first will be last and the last will be first (see 19:30, 20:16). There are many times when people misconstrue these words, applying them to their own individual lives and their livelihoods, thinking along the lines of, “I may not be doing so well now, but later on I will be better off than such and such a person.” Yet, clearly, these words are explaining the positions of the Jews and the Church within the history of mankind. How will it be that the Church that appears later will occupy a more glorified position than the Jews who have adorned and recorded the history of the Bible? And how will the words that say “the last shall be first” be established? The letter to the Ephesians talks about the plan for the Church, and it says that God had this plan in His heart from before the creation of the world. (see 1:4-6) The history of the Jews, however, was determined after the creation, and came about due to the sin of the first man. Originally, it was the Church that was first established in God’s heart. Historically, however, it was the nation of the Jews that appeared first, but since they disobeyed God’s word and rejected Jesus Christ, the history of the Church began and has continued until this day. This is also explained through the account of the two sons who appear in Genesis chapter 4. Yet, the matter of blood is again hidden away within this story.    The History of Cain and Abel and the History of Israel and the ChurchAdam and Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden and, as God had told them, they had children - Cain and Abel. “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.’ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.’”  Genesis 4:1-12 This passage contains an account of events at the outset of the history of mankind when Adam, having disobeyed God, began to have children in the midst of disobedience. The firstborn son, Cain, was a farmer while his brother Abel was a shepherd. Cain made an offering to God of the fruit of the ground, and Abel made an offering of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. God did not accept Cain and his offering, but He accepted Abel and his offering. It was not just the offering; the person who made the offering was also included. They shared the same fate. The offering made to God and the person who made the offering were, together, either accepted or not. This does not mean that God prefers meat over vegetables. When Adam and Eve realized they were naked, and God clothed them in tunics of skin, it was determined in God’s heart that blood would cover transgressions. This was put into words at the time of Moses, but even before it was put into writing and recorded as law, this truth was already alive in God’s heart. It only says here that Abel offered an animal as a sacrifice to God; there is no mention of blood. It simply says that Abel made an offering of a lamb and that God accepted Abel and his offering. Then, after this, as the history of Israel unfolds, the secret of the blood is gradually revealed to us. When Abel and his offering were accepted, Cain’s countenance fell. At that time, God said, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” God was saying, “You did not do well. You have done wrong.” God had said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake … and you shall eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:17, 18). The food that was given to man was the produce of the ground that had become cursed due to Adam’s disobedience. Adam sinned and tried to cover his shame, clothing himself in garments made of fig leaves. But God clothed them with tunics of skin. Cain offered to God the things that Adam had used to cover his shame, the things that God had given for food to man who had become a sinner. These days, we eat such a variety of foods that it is difficult to understand these words. Yet, when we read Genesis chapters 2, 3 and 4 one after the other and consider, from God’s point of view, Cain’s offering of the produce of the ground, we can see that it was worse than if someone were to offer us food intended for animals. That is why God said, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”There is a lot for us to think about in God’s few words here. When a child expresses his anger, does it come about because he was taught, “This is how to get angry,” or does he just express his anger in his own way? The child’s anger is an expression of what is inside of him and bursts out when he is provoked as he is growing up. Sin’s desire began in Adam’s blood and since it is alive, it was passed on through the blood. Think about it yourself. Do you get angry because you want to? No matter how much you may want to look good in front of certain people, it doesn’t work. No matter how hard you try to banish filthy thoughts from your mind, they just rise up suddenly from inside. No matter how much you try not to indulge your desires, no matter how much you try not to be jealous, such thoughts are all alive and active in your heart. It is simply that you put on a cloak of morality and try to hide what is in your heart. Such thoughts are always inside of you, and from time to time, they are even revealed in your actions. No one can deny this. Then who is this being I refer to as me? There are times when I look carefully at my reflection in a mirror, and I think, “Who is this?” The thought just flashes through my mind. How nice it would be if I could always act according to my own will. That is not to say that all the sins I have committed were not my fault. But sin’s desire is imprinted in our blood, and we inherited it from our fathers, so we have no choice but to carry it with us in the course of our lives. In Ecclesiastes, it says, “The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts” (9:3). We live in this world, following and satisfying the demands and desires of our blood. Nevertheless, many people turn to religion because of the anguish that cries out from the depths of their hearts, asking, “Is this all there is? Is there really nothing else?” And yet there is no one thing that tells them, “This is the answer.”Yet this is precisely what the Bible is telling us about. God said to Cain, “Sin’s desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” He said this to Cain because He knows the true nature of man. Yet Cain was not able to control his emotions and he killed his brother. God called out, “Where are you?” to Adam in the garden of Eden, like a father searching for his lost son. And this time God called out to Cain, asking him, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And to this, God said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” This is the first time the word “blo

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