He speaks no word in all of Scripture.He is born in a single clause, brings an offering, and is murdered by his brother in a field. He never preaches, never prays on the page, never leaves a letter or a legacy that the world can see. And yet the writer of Hebrews names him among the heroes of faith — and says of him the thing it says of no one else: "though he died, he still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4).Abel is the shortest life in the Bible. He is also the longest voice.He is the first worshiper God accepted. The first man commended as righteous. The first human being to die — and the first to die for his righteousness. His blood cried from the ground, and God heard it. And when the New Testament reaches for a picture of something better than vengeance, it reaches for Abel — whose blood, it says, speaks something better than the blood of the guilty (Hebrews 12:24).In ABEL: The First Martyr — The Blood That Still Speaks, Rev. Dr. Billy J. Hill traces the theology buried in the shortest biography in Scripture: the meaning of an accepted offering, the cost of righteousness, the first act of persecution, the voice of innocent blood, and the way Abel's story finds its fullest answer not at the grave of but at the cross of the Son of God. Abel is not a footnote. He is a doorway — into the theology of sacrifice, the nature of faith, and the God who hears blood the world has silenced.Volume Three of THE FIRST ONES — a series tracing the biblical figures who were first to receive, experience, or demonstrate something that changed the story of God and humanity forever.THE FIRST ONES series:Volume One — EVE: The First PromiseVolume Two — CAIN: The First MurdererVolume Three — ABEL: The First Martyr (this volume)Volume Four — HAGAR: The First to Name GodVolume Five — ELIEZER: The First to Seek God's GuidanceVolume Six — BEZALEL: The First Filled with the SpiritVolume Seven — ABRAHAM: The First Friend of GodVolume Eight — ANDREW: The First to FollowVolume Nine — STEPHEN: The First to Die for ChristFaithful Witness Press · El Ne'eman · Acts 20:24"To God be the glory for the great things He has done." Read more
