Hebrews says that the blood of Christ speaks better than the blood of Abel. This is a contrast, but it is also a comparison. Abel’s blood also speaks, or at least has spoken. And this is precisely what Genesis 4 tells us. The blood of Abel liberated God’s people from the enemy. God heard Abel’s blood crying from the ground and responded by driving Cain away from the sanctuary. Seth grew up unmolested. The ground that drank Abel’s blood was the land next to the Garden of Eden to the East. When we read that Cain fled from the face of the LORD we are reading about his need to go further away from God’s sanctuary and its environs. Later we read that Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and it means he left Egypt. So here fleeing God’s face means leaving his special domain.

In the new creation we have another first marty who is also heard (I’m making a distinction between the first marty in the new creation and the martyr who began the new creation). Stephen’s death is a death that is portrayed in every way possible as an ascension into heaven (note: the “whole burnt sacrifice” of the OT is mistranslated; it is an “ascension”). He sees into the heavens and witnesses the Father with Jesus standing before him. Like Moses his face glows reflecting the glory of God (an interesting irony given the charges that were brought against him). As in the case of Cain and Abel, the acceptance of Stephen by God provokes bitter jealousy and murderous rage. And just as the blood of Abel cried up from the ground so Stephen’s calls out as he is dying and asks Jesus to recieve his spirit.

And just as in the case of the blood of Abel, God responds to Stephen’s death. But this time Cain gets to stay near the sanctuary and Seth must leave. But that’s the point. The Christians are not driven from the face of the Lord when they become refugees from Jerusalem and Judea because the Lord is going out with them to Samaria and Antioch and wherever else. It is being near the sanctuary that now constitutes exile.