Bible Observations Regarding
Bible Observations Regarding
The Laws of Heredity
Why does man need to be born again? 1
Third and Fourth Generation 2
The Second Commandment 4
John on the Two Seeds 4
The Anti-Christ 5
The Varied Objects of the Enmity 6
The Curse 8
“On your belly you will go and you will eat dust all the days of your life.” 8
“And I will put enmity between thy seed and the woman’s seed.” 9
“Thou shalt bruise his heal and he will crush your head.” 10
Satan in the Old Testament 10
The Enmity in Historical Allegory 11
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children 12
And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 13
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: 14
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 14
Lessons from Genesis 15
Indwelling Prefigured 16
Existential Worship 16
Persecution Begins 17
The Three Enoch’s and Origins 17
Unintentional Sin 19
Paul on the Two Seeds 20
Under the Law 22
Paul on the “sons of God” 25
John on the Two Seeds 25
Isaiah on the Two Seeds 27
Hints at the Controversy between the Seeds 28
Children of the Jerusalem Above 28
David on the Two Seeds 28
Job on the Two Seeds 29
Abram’s Special Qualifications 29
Noah’s Children Found Grace 30
Abraham’s Seed 31
Seed of the Serpent 32
Man is in the image of God.
Why does man need to be born again?
This was the question that Nicodemus did not ask.[1]
Peter tells us that in the new birth we are born “not of corruptible seed” but “of the Word of God” that lives and abides forever. Apparently our first birth introduced us into a family that was doomed to a limited existence. As we inherited mortality from our first parents’ seed, so in the new birth we inherit the immortality of the Word that begat us.[2]
Corruptible seed is our fallen human nature. This is clear enough when you read “genetics” for “seed” and “degenerating” for “corruptible.” We have been born of parents with degenerating genetics. That is the sense of “corruptible seed.”
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:22-23.
The decline of our race from its original form has been the outworking of laws as regular as those that oversee the rest of the creation. Knowledge of those laws reveals that our children need not be the next step down on the ladder from Adam. In this study we will call the principles that determine the character of the next generation the laws of heredity.
Generation after generation the laws of heredity have demanded a harvest in harmony with the sowing of those that hate God. In each case of willful transgression the judgment of the second commandment has gone into operation. There God promised that the iniquities of the fathers would be “visited” on their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Third and Fourth Generation
The law itself reads “third and fourth generation.” To find an apparently arbitrary statement in the God-carved stones of immutable morality could surprise us. It is almost a statement of relativity in the midst of a sea of absolutes. The nature and mode of moral inheritance, when understood, makes it plain that “third” and “fourth” represents no arbitrary extension of guilt.
We inherit morality by two avenues. The first, and one that comes naturally to mind when we use the biological word “inherit”, is by genetic information. Children of tardy persons tend to be late.
But it is no less true that parents of tardy children tend to be late. The second source of moral deviation is nurture. The Bible adds abundant data to the sociological controversies over wither of these sources, nature or nurture, plays the greater role.
If we again approach the question, “Why three and four generations?” the data that follows suggests the answer, “Because parents live to have a hand in the raising of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. They might see their great-great grandchildren, but they have little to do with raising them. They may not live long enough to see a grandchild. But for that matter, they may not have children at all. The Commandment presents the normal case.”
Adam sinned and subsequent generations have borne ever augmenting levels of degeneration. This fact, evident both in the commandment and in our racial[3] history, could be stated “the human seed becomes more corrupt from generation to generation as the parents choose rebellion and pass it on to their children.” In shorter words, “the human seed is corruptible.”
How did it come to be that Adam sinned and defiled his progeny? Back in the first garden we find only holy seed planted by the Creator. Jesus introduced the figure of a garden planted by God in Matthew 13. In the parable there he is asked how corruptible seed came to be in the garden. He answered the question plainly. “An enemy has done this.” Matthew 13:28. That enemy is the Devil, v. 37. In the simple language of Jesus, “the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one,” v. 38.
Yes, men may certainly be children of the Devil. Jesus said as much to the Jews and to Elymas. “You are of your father the Devil.” “O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the ways of the Lord?” Jn. 8:44, Acts 13:10.
The seed of the Devil are represented as enemies of God’s children in Matthew 13, John 8, and Acts 13. In these passages noted above and many others found later in this study there appears to be a continuing fulfillment of the promise that God would put “enmity” between the seeds. We will study this later.
The Holy Spirit’s rebuke of Elymas offers hope and hints at the new birth. When the latter of these children of the Devil was asked “will you not cease?” God hinted at the power of the new birth. We may be born again as children of God. Our “enemy” status may die with our “old man.” We may be translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
Judas, also called “a devil” by Jesus (Jn. 6:70), was invited to act quickly in his final moments. Jesus, like the Holy Spirit in Acts 13, was calling him to “cease to pervert the ways of the Lord.” His “devil” status could end. The children of the Devil are devils. They are of his spirit. Judas was not unique among the disciples in being “of” the wrong spirit.
James and John were reproved as “not knowing what manner of spirit ye are of.” Peter was addressed as if he were the devil personally, “get behind me, Satan.”[4]
Spiritual children do like their parents. “The lusts of your father you will do,” Jesus said to the Jews in Jn. 8:44. The relation between serving our lusts and being corruptible is very direct. “The corruptions that are in the world” are here “through lust.” 2 Pt. 1:4. Judas’ lust for money, John’s lust for position, and Peter’s lust for an easy time on this earth, each of these would have been sufficient to destroy an apostle had it not been for the new birth that all but Judas accepted.
Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit for the very purpose of freeing us from our oppressive lusts. He could, “for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38. Back in our parable of Matthew 13 we find that “He that soweth good seed is the son of man,” v. 37.
Men who have God’s seed in them cease perverting the ways of the Lord. I Jn. 3:8-10. Men who do not and can not cease sinning are “of the Devil”, “cursed children.” I Jn. 3:8-10, 2 Peter 2:14.
We become children of the evil one very naturally. We are born that way “of bloods.” Further, we are born that way “of the will of the flesh.” We were born that way because of the will of men, of our forbears. Jn. 1:13. Children of God are born none of these ways. They are born of the will of God, v. 12-14.
Jesus, when anointed with the Holy Spirit, was announced by the heavenly voice as the “Son” of God. Immediately he was led into the wilderness “by the Spirit.” Paul states that “as many as are led of the Spirit, they are the sons of God.” Matt. 4:1; Rom. 8:14. And if we are sons, he reasons, then we are “heirs.”
Cosmic events hinge on the revelation of God’s seed. In our Matthew 13 parable the harvest end of the world waits for the difference between seeds to become apparent to the reaping angels. Like angels, like endangered species. “The whole creation” groans under the curse “waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.” When that revelation comes, the earth will be freed from the curse.
This study, I earnestly hope, will open doors of thought to the reading student. For myself the truths centered around the ancient promise of the two seeds have been like the rafters that have connected and stabilized so many walls, so many ideas standing alone in the structure of truth.
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The Second Commandment
Deep in the Ten Commandments are gems of thought that illumine today’s controversies. An example can be found in the second commandment where we read of “mercy shown to thousands of them that love [God] and keep [His] commandments.”
Examining the sentence a searching soul would find, to the following questions, the following answers: Do commandment keepers deserve heaven? No, they need mercy. Do lovers of God receive mercy? Yes, if they keep the commandments. Do commandment keepers receive mercy? Not if they have a formal or legal religion. Love is essential.
So as soon as there was a written law there was a written presentation of the saved-by-grace-through-an-obedient-and-loving-faith gospel.
In the same commandment we find the first Biblical enunciation of the laws of heredity. Briefly yet comprehensively the sentence answers questions regarding the impact of transgressions on future generations.
“For the Lord thy God is a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy to thousands [of generations][5] of them that love me and keep my commandments.”
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John on the Two Seeds
The apostle John, more than other Bible writers, enlarges on the theme of the two seeds. The first of his general epistles begins with a series of contrasts between those that know God and those that do not. John makes the application of these contrasts in the second chapter. There he speaks of origins, of those that are “of the Father” and the nature that characterizes those that are “of the world.”
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I Jn 2:15-17
Loving to satisfy our appetites and passions, whether stimulated by sight or hunger or the pride of display, is a terminal disease. It will pass away with the lusts that it indulges. Those that indulge are “of the world.” They are the children of men.
John follows the same thought that we examined in Peter’s letter earlier. There Peter said that the Word that is in us “lives and abides forever.” Here John said that he “that does the will of God abideth forever.” Both contrast the ever-living ones with the passing away of “the pride of life” (John) and all “the glory of man,” (Peter).
Peter wrote that the righteous are born “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even the Word of God.” John writes here “he that does the will of God” abides forever. Who does the will of God? John answers “every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.”
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. I Jn. 2:28-3:1.
I see sad irony in the fact that men sing I Jn. 3:1 as if every son of Adam “should be called” a son of God. The immediate phrase before the sentence says that the reader knows “that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” The sons of God are those that “abide in Him.” The passage points to disappointment for those who began well but surrendered to their lusts. They will be “ashamed before him at his coming.”
This part of the epistle seems like a commentary on Christ’s own sermon on the two seeds, found in John 8. We will examine that sermon shortly. There also, only those that “continue” in their walk with Jesus are true disciples. Jn. 8:30-32. Those that began believing but turned from truths they disdained are classed as children of the Devil.
The seed, or family, of the serpent can not understand the righteous ones. It does not recognize them as God’s children because it did not know Jesus well enough to notice the family resemblance.
“Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” I Jn. 3:2-3
The likeness of God’s children to Jesus will be most prominent, John teaches, when Jesus appears. We do not need to wait so long, however, to see the likeness of Satan’s seed to their father.
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” I Jn. 3:8-10.
Understandably, many religionists are not ready to credit these verses as meaning what they appear to say so simply. The human heart is loath to admit that it is captive to its own lusts. With the Jews suffering under Roman oppression, human souls cry “we were never in bondage to any man.”
The letter passes on to illustrate the two seeds as manifested in the enmity between Cain and Able. We take up that enmity elsewhere. John brings home the story with a practical conclusion. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” That is part of being a child of God in the midst of the world’s crooked and perverse offspring.
Those in whom God’s seed “remains” can not sin. This either means that whatever they do can not be sin, as some Calvinists have concluded, or that those who choose to sin no longer retain part of the “seed.” The latter sense alone fits the book, for it is the children of God that may sin and find help in their Advocate Jesus. This would be senseless nonsense[6] if their choices could not be sinful.
The Anti-Christ
When John introduces the idea of antichrist in I Jn. 4:2, he speaks of its “spirit” as something that had been prophesied, for they “had heard that it would come.” This little phrase authorizes the Protestant connection of this passage to the several others by the same author in Revelation where the word “antichrist” does not appear.
Opening the antichrist theme, John explains that the spirit or mindset of Antichrist is not “of God.” There are, he says, two mindsets or spirits in the world and we should try them to find which seed they belong to.
From the curse on Satan that serpent has expected that Jesus would come, not as a God, but as a seed of the fallen woman. If the curse had been given before the fall, the falleness of the woman would be debatable. As it is, enmity was promised between not only the seeds, but between their progenitors. Satan would hate the seed of the woman.
And more than that, he would oppose the idea that Jesus really was the seed, that he really came in the flesh. So seriously would he oppose this idea that John makes the opposition to be a theme of false teachers.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” I Jn. 4:1-3.
One hoping to test this assertion might postulate that if it were true then we would expect to find enmity manifest wherever teachers are discussing the subject of Christ coming in the flesh. To those familiar with the state of the church, such a postulate needs no validation by poll or survey.
More than half of the world claims to follow the God of Abraham. That includes, currently, 2 billion Christians, 1.3 billion Muslims, and multiplied millions of Jews. Do these children of Abraham confess that Jesus is come in the flesh? If “coming in the flesh” means “being human” then they all do. Hindus, Buddhists, and even Atheists would confess Christ’s human existence. If the spirit of the fallen seed denies this, that spirit is rare indeed.
On the other hand, the 3.3+ billion monotheists in the world unite in denying that Jesus came with a defiled nature. Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims, three-fourths of the whole, deny it explicitly. Protestants mostly lean with their fellows.
These spirits, of Christ and of antichrist, are called the “spirit of truth” and “the spirit of error.” We know them, according to John, because the world listens to the spirit of error and because those that are indwelt by the Spirit listen to the spirit of truth. I Jn. 4:4-5.
The Varied Objects of the Enmity
John’s next contrast study figures around love. Satan’s seed have it not. Christ’s seed have it uniquely.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.”
Satan can manufacture light and power, but he is at his wit’s end to manufacture in his seed the precious article of sweet selfless love. This radical claim might comfort some of the disobedient children who know so little of love as to confuse it with base sentimentalism or sensuality.
On the surface it may seem to conflict with the conflict. How can we love those we are at enmity with? Jesus apparently saw no difficulty in this, for he commanded us to “love our enemies.” They are our enemies because they hate us, not because we hate them. But is the enmity one-sided? No. We hate their deeds.
[pic]
Even where one’s first love has cooled, hatred of wicked deeds is commendable. Jesus commends it in just such a class. Rev. 2:6.
But love is no optional quality for God’s children. “Everyone that loveth is born of God.”
In light of what John has said about the Spirit of antichrist, one may understand his most radical assertion of the book.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”
Intuitively we know that it is not so. Our own rebellious children, every false prophet in our own church history, even the fornicating youth leader from our last church district, they all confess that Jesus is the Son of God.
But Christians can not well say that a Bible verse is false. For the record, I believe the passage just quoted with all my heart. It parallels one by Paul.
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 12:3
Either men who say “Jesus is Lord” are indwelled by the Holy Spirit (but this can not be, for when they say “Lord, Lord” to Jesus in the last day, he will say “I never knew you”) or else the Holy Spirit is the only one that turns our life into a confession of faith.
The latter must be the meaning, as if Paul and John had written “No man, unless the Spirit lives in him, can live such a life as will demonstrate that Jesus is Lord and Savior.” We “say” Jesus is Lord and “confess” that Jesus is the Son of God, not by hollow words, but by works that do not deny him. That is how we “declare plainly”[7] the truth of his spiritual indwelling.
John does not back down from his dogmatic statements. Jesus was born of God and those that love the Father will love the son. Antitrinitarians routinely refer to this passage. But the context specifies the birth as that which occurred in a stable when Jesus came “in the flesh.” The verse adds naught to their arguments.
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.” I Jn. 5:2.
Who are these “children of God” that we are to love? We love them when we love God and keep his commandments. This formula harks to the 2nd commandment where mercy is shown to thousands of generations of them that “love God and keep his commandments.” So God’s children, his generations, love each other as brethren. “Love as brethren,” said the apostle.
The children of God are those that overcome “the world.” In other words, they overcome all that is “of the world,” the lust, pride, and display mentioned earlier in the book. What John adds next is the “how” of the overcoming.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Put simply, unbelievers are not born of God. Men of faith are born of God and by their faith they overcome the world. Unbelievers put their desires above the commands of God. Their desires become their idols, and their idolatry is sin. John repeats his assertion that God’s children do not sin as he closes his epistle.
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. . . Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. I Jn. 5:18, 21
His second general epistle covers the same ground as the first and serves as a succinct summary. John opens with a reference to “the woman” and “her seed” as an illustration of a local church and its members. Her members are those in whom truth will dwell “for ever.” Her children are walking in truth as they were commanded “of the Father.”
Deceivers surround her “who confess not that Jesus Christ” is come “in the flesh.” This type of deceiver is “an antichrist.” As God has placed enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the deceiver, these deceivers are not to be entertained or blessed by God’s children. Those that wish them well partake of their “evil deeds.” See 2 Jn. 1-11.
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John the Baptist said men were “generations [children] of vipers.”
Crushing head is the best way to kill snakes. How do we put to death the deeds of our body? [this section not written yet—these are just notes]
The Curse
God’s reply to the excuses of Adam and Eve was a three fold curse. This triune pronouncement forms the backdrop of all else that occurs in sacred history. It throws light on so many other passages that it will be helpful to take it up phrase by phrase.
“On your belly you will go and you will eat dust all the days of your life.”
The first phase of the curse aimed its ills at the animal creation. Nature’s wildlife were given by God and brought into the service of man. When men sinned, his needs broadened. For many animals, man’s need of lessons and guidance means groaning under the curse. They are doomed to live a life that illustrates the nature of sin until the “revelation” of the sons of God. Rom. 8:20-25.
So not only beasts of burden that serve men in his physical activities, but other beasts suffer bondage as well. These included the sheep and goats and doves that were offered to prefigure Christ.
Others were adapted by the curse to serve as other lessons. As an example, God speaks to Job of the ostrich.
“Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear; Because God hath deprived her of wisdom.” Job 39:14-17.
While weaker birds work to lift their home high above the dangerous earth, the ostrich leaves her eggs there. She warms them “in the dust” as if to remind men where they came from and where their children will go if they are satisfied to warm or care for them without regard to their spiritual needs. Eggs are born twice when cared for properly.
God says that he removed from the large bird her sense. While more powerful than other birds, while serving a position of dignity among the fowls, she forgets about her eggs. She steps on her own eggs and destroys that which no other beast would be powerful enough to destroy with her on guard.
Men like her are senseless.[8]
The serpent has been shaped to teach other lessons. When the serpent contributed to the delinquency of the human race, God removed its power of flight and left it to go "on its belly.” The lack of serpentine appendages should remind us that sin is belly serving. [9]
God prohibited access to a tree that looked “good for food.” Conscience said “do not eat of it or you will die.” The belly said “it looks good! I want some!” The test given to Adam tended to prevent man’s moral fall by providing self-control exercises. His moral power increased as he practiced subduing appetite.
Disobedience, were it to occur, would come by obeying his belly. The belly in scripture stands as a symbol of man’s desires and appetites. The curse on the serpent virtually says that those that “go” on their belly, that serve their desires, live like serpents.
Not the shape of the serpent only, but his forever diet was spoken in terms that point to death as the result of eating. This is the meaning behind “eat dust.” “For dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return.” “In the day you eat thereof, ye shall surely die.” And so the snake today goes on the ground to remind men and women everywhere that serving our belly and our mouth leads to death and makes us a devil.
“And I will put enmity between thy seed and the woman’s seed.”
You may remember that Jesus said “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” In another place he said that he came to cause division, to set at odds even members of the same family. The enmity promised to the serpent, Jesus came to deliver.
That the enmity is placed between two classes of men is evident, for the serpent has no physical offspring. Satan, the spiritual viper generates his spiritual children. John the Baptist and Jesus repeatedly alerted men to the fact that they were the seed of the serpent, a “generation of vipers” in the Authorized version.
A little reasoning will show that the woman’s seed was just as much a spiritual matter. Otherwise, all men would be the seed of the woman, for she was the “mother of all living.” And there is other evidence in the fact that the promise of enmity was fulfilled as early as her first two male children. Cain slew Able.
When Eve had another son she said “God has given me another seed in place of Able who Cain slew.” She understood that Abel and Seth were her seed, the seed of the woman. Cain was of another spirit and became the father of a degenerate race. The difference between these races, at enmity with each other, was so marked by the time that Seth had a child that men began to call Seth’s children “the children of God.”[10]
The enmity promised by God would have preserved the faithful race of Sethites from much of the curse. But the “sons of God” took wives of the daughters of men. These marriages were a manifest refusal to receive the enmity and its preservative effect. The result was such a rapid moral degeneration that God chose to cleanse the earth by a flood. Perhaps the entire seed of the Serpent perished in the flood.
We will dwell more on the enmity later.
“Thou shalt bruise his heal and he will crush your head.”
This promise was repeated, like other portions of the curse on the serpent, in the New Testament. Jesus promised the faithful that they would “tread upon serpents and scorpions[11] and all the power of the enemy.”
Paul understood the spiritual application of these words. He identified false teachers as those that go on their bellies, those that worship their stomachs. His counsel was to avoid them and expect God to fulfill His crushing promise.
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. . . .Yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Romans 16:17-20.
Paul’s use of the Genesis promise enlightens us. God will bruise Satan under foot. But under whose foot? “Your feet, shortly.” That is what Jesus said, “you will tread upon…all the power of the enemy.”
In Genesis the seed of the woman crushes the serpent’s head. The seed is “singular” as is evidenced by the pronoun “He” in “He will crush your head.”
The singular “he” shows that Jesus is the “seed of the woman.” So we read in Galatians 4 that “Jesus was born of a woman.”
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Satan in the Old Testament
Satan does not receive a very prominent place in the Old Testament. In Revelation 12 and 20 his various names are listed together to help the searcher find him. The first of these names in both chapters, prior to Satan and the Devil, is “that old Serpent.” Why not the Old Satan? Or the Old Devil? Because in the first 2,000 years of earth’s Biblical history, there is not one reference to the names Devil or Satan.
Granted, the entire story is only nine chapters long. And Satan is there as the oldest serpent. He has spiritual seed. The enmity between his seed and the woman’s seed is the subject matter of almost the entirety of those nine chapters.
The next mention of a serpent in Scripture is that brass figure of Jesus that Moses erected amid the viper crisis. The serpent was the first-cursed creature of this world and Jesus was represented as bearing the curse on a pole. After the event, that brass snake continued to exert an influence. But time changed its meaning. Centuries later men were worshipping the snake. Hezekiah called it Nehushtan, “from brass,” apparently as a way to remind men that it was nothing more than a hunk of metal.
As part of a national revival, he “removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor [any] that were before him.”
This idolatry, centered on a figure of Jesus, is certainly the most excusable that could exist, for God himself had ordered the bitten sufferers to look and be healed. Yet the king that abolished the idolatry was honored by God above all that went before or after him.
It was a fact that the symbol intended to point to Jesus had become, indeed, a figure of the deceiver. This early apostasy bears many parallels to that which exalted the position of High Priest, figuring Jesus, into the position of Pope. A symbolic rock from space (Daniel 2) will do unto that image what Hezekiah did to Nehushtan.
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The Enmity in Historical Allegory
If you were to ask yourself, “who, on a personal level, was angry at who in the book of Genesis?” you would perhaps find less answers than you might guess.
You would find Cain was wroth with Abel.
And Sarai was at enmity with Hagar.
Esau came to hate Jacob.
These six characters do not, as many others, disappear in the Bible when the book of Genesis closes. These three enmities have all been made into allegories by later prophets. They all demonstrate that physical inheritance carries nothing like a guarantee of spiritual inheritance, for:
Cain was the son of the godly man Adam.
Ishmael was the son of the godly man Abraham.
Esau was the son of the godly man Isaac.
Paul used these stories to show that Abraham’s true seed were those that did what he did, not those that could trace their blood-line to him. In the case of Cain, Paul was joined by the Apostle John and by Jude.
Paul wrote that Abel, in contrast to Cain, was righteous, and that because of his faith. Heb. 11:4. Jude makes Abel’s brother the archtype of the wicked, saying that they have “gone in the way of Cain.” v. 11. John explains that Cain “was of that wicked” one. In other words, Cain was the seed of Satan. What impact did that have on his relationship with Abel his brother?
“Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” 1 John 3:12. Enmity.
In the book of Galatians our Apostle to the Gentiles opens up the story of Sarai and Hagar, the second Biblical story of personal enmity.
“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
So the seed of the woman are the seed of Jerusalem which is above. She is the mother of us all. “Eve” means the mother of all living. So Eve was a figure of the New Jerusalem even as Adam “was the figure of Him who was to come.” The children of the heavenly city are, like Isaac, the result of a miraculous conception by promise.
And those that have been born from above, that have by precious promises partaken of the Divine nature, are to be at enmity with those that have never had that personal experience.
Finally, the feud between Esau and Jacob was recorded to symbolize the two seeds. Hebrews 12 indicates that a diligent consideration of Jesus will prevent a man from becoming a “profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.”
God foreknew that Esau would serve his belly rather than regard the value of his spiritual heritage…he was the first son of Israel after the flesh. But he was made a type of those that were children of the belly-gliding serpent. And God’s knowledge of the choice he would make made him God’s enemy even from birth. So God said “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
Remember, hate is another form of the word enmity. The perplexing passages about God hating Esau derive from the gospel promise in the curse on the serpent. God has chosen, not to be at enmity with the whole race, but with those only that have gone in the way of Cain, have violated God’s law to achieve their desires (like Hagar), and have valued their appetites over their spiritual privileges.
Jacob, whom God named Israel, had twelve sons. These became the heads of the nations of the blessed. But when the tribes are listed in Revelation, one is missing, and one is named oddly.
That is because not all of Israel’s children were of the Godly seed. One of them would administer their families as if they were a tribe of Israel, but they would be, in character, the seed of the serpent.
“Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. Gen. 49:16-17.
When the tribal register in Revelation 7 is checked against the genealogies of Genesis, Dan is missing. Also missing from the list is the half-tribe of Ephraim. Of Joseph’s son a prophet had written “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone.” Hos. 4:17. The tribe of Ephraim is listed in Revelation 7, but under the name “Joseph.” The father, not the son, was a true child of Israel.
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children
Some seventeen or eighteen centuries later God commented that he regretted that he had made man on the earth. This can not be understood in the extreme sense, as if God had so little foresight that He would not have made man if he had only known. Rather, it marks the depth of the sorrow that was involved in man’s creation.
Eve’s sin greatly multiplied God’s sorrow as the creator of the race. On her rested an illustrative curse similar in nature to that imposed on the serpent. Eve’s children represented God’s children; her seed was his seed. When women suffer in travail today, their bodies illustrate the pain that God feels when those he is bringing to the experience of new birth are suffering the results of Eve’s fall.
Women chose to become pregnant, though they are aware of the pain that will come. So did God. And in the midst of their pain they can think of little else. So sin and its pain dominates the attention of an otherwise holy universe. And when the child is born, the pain is forgotten. So sin will be forgotten when it is gone. And it will be forgotten in the same way that pain is forgotten. Ladies do not suffer a case of amnesia. Rather, their full attention is directed in other directions.
Evangelists feel this pain of childbirth as well when their converts seem to be falling from their faithfulness. Paul wrote “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Galatians 4:19
Eve’s curse, again like that on the serpent, contained a gospel promise. God had told the serpent that her seed would crush his head. Now God spoke to her that she would suffer pain in giving birth to the seed that would punish the snake.
She represented God’s church. Her birthing sorrows foreshadowed the agony of the church during the period of days prior to Christ’s resurrection.[12] His disciples, the visible church, were the woman whose sorrow was greatly multiplied in child-bearing. The joy that followed the days of their deepest sorrow has been memorialized in live births since that of Abel.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” John 16:20-22.
And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Compare this to God’s statement to Cain regarding his brother Abel. “And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” Genesis 4:7.
Abel was not a subject of Cain’s kingdom. Cain ruled over him by vigor and lethal force. Abel’s desires for life and peace could only be enjoyed with Cain’s permission, and Cain denied even these gifts to his brother.
The similarity between God’s speech to Cain and his speech to Eve does not allow us to read Eve’s curse as harmless statement of ideal family relations. The suffering of women under oppressors, and domestic violence in particular, springs from the well of Eve’s rebellion.
When she left the service of Jesus to follow the lead of the evil one, she suspected that the serpent cared for her happiness and development. But choosing him as master was a commitment that she was powerless to break. Like multiplied millions of women in abusive relationships, she was in bondage to her own corrupted nature. Its passions would manipulate and sadden her life. They would corrupt her own children to such an extent one would kill another.
Paul makes the marriage of the woman to her desires into an allegory that explains why she needs a new husband, and why her first husband must die. Romans 7:1-6. While our desires rule over us with the rigor and raw power that slew Abel, God has promised to kill the old nature that so abuses us. He has offered to enter into a lawful marriage covenant with the widow woman, the daughter of God that was before married to a son of man.
When we hear of woman suffering under the power of vicious husbands, we are to discern a memorial of the curse. Enslaved and battered woman figure well the race that can not escape its lusts.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
The Ten Commandments begin with a statement of heaven’s order. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” If we take the list of the commandments as a reflection of the laws that govern heaven, we may well say that order is the first law of heaven. By giving to God his rightful honor as Absolute Executive, the order of the rest of the universe is established on whatever ground he might specify.
Adam’s sin violated, above others, the first law of heaven. His curse was prefaced by “Because.” When his wife said one thing and his God said another, domestic obligations and affection could avail nothing like an excuse for disobedience. In matters of moral obligation man was condemned for having “hearkened” to the voice of his wife.
The Bible presents repeated pictures of the listen-to-your-wife-and-suffer scenario. John the Baptist died at the hands of a king that hearkened to the voice of his wife disguised as the voice of his daughter. Job would have failed the test had he hearkened to the voice of his partner. Ahab fell to levels of apostasy unknown before him by listening to his wife.
Solomon did likewise. He defined fools as those that listen to the voice of harlots and immoral women…as he had done. Ishmael and millennia of mid-east trouble was born as a result of Abraham listening to the voice of his barren spouse.
The finally victorious ones of Revelation 14 are those who have not hearkened to the voice of harlot-churches, but have followed the lamb. Peter and John exalted their moral duty before the Sanhedron. “Judge ye,” they said to the judges, “whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God.”
The religious leaders there represented a false church. They were a fallen Eve that two faithful men would not hearken to above the voice of God.
When Adam listened to his wife, she was not his better half. They had indeed become one flesh. After her fall, and prior to his, man-kind was a mixed unit. One part had been deranged and aggressively promoted disobedience and self-gratification. The other part remained aware of God’s commands and the sure result of disobedience.
In this state, the Adam-Eve unit represented each one of us. We have an Eve inside of us that has been corrupted by the serpent. She urges us to transgress and pulls us with all the force of our desires. We have an Adam inside of us. By God’s order our reason and judgment are tuned in to conscience. Our inner man is aware of God’s prohibitions.
Adam was cursed on the same basis as we will be if we hearken to our lower nature as he hearkened to his wife.
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
“cursed is the ground” “Shalt thou eat” “thou shalt eat” “shalt thou eat” “return to the ground” “unto dust shalt thou return.”
Adam’s curse bears marks of similarity to that on the serpent. The curse came because of disobedient eating. It was worded to mark the connection between eating and dying. Man’s gratification of appetite would be at the expense of thorn pricks and thistle pokes, sorrow and sweat, until he returned to dust.
Man was dust before he was formed in God’s image. Our first death pictures the extent to which the indulgence of desire may deface the image of God in man. It may entirely obliterate it.
Just as seeds of gospel promises are buried in the curses that fell on the lady and the snake, a promise is found in the phrase “for thy sake.” Man was given garden work before his fall. There he would develop his powers of thought and vitality.
After the fall his blessing of work was adjusted to meet his needs. The earth was cursed for his sake, for his benefit. The ground was infested with pesky plants that taught lessons unneeded in Eden. Jesus and the prophets referred often to thorns and thistles to round-out their teachings regarding the nature of sin.
“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.” Hebrews 6:7-8.
Throughout the scripture this is the end of thorns. They are burned. A score of passages could be given to over-prove this point. Nahum and Isaiah make thorns to represent the evil seeds that have grown in the garden and must be burned at the end of time. Nahum 1:9-10, Isaiah 9:18; 10:17.
Thorns teach us that pure patches of garden do not remain pure without continual labor. One weeding will not suffice the parent or the teacher who hopes for joy in the time of harvest.
Jesus bore the curse. This was illustrated in so many ways during his death. The ground was cursed and from it came thorns. Jesus wore a crown of them on his head. The woman was cursed to have pain in child birth, and Jesus compared the pain of his dying weekend to hers in labor. The serpent was cursed and in figure of brass was hung on a tree. Jesus hung on a tree like the serpent. Adam and Eve were naked and ashamed. Jesus on the cross despised the shame, but bore it nonetheless.
And by bearing the curse on the tree, Jesus crushed the serpent’s head.
-.-.-..-.
Lessons from Genesis
The privileges of man, as described in Genesis, point repeatedly to our relationship to God. He was the Father of the race, and we were to do like him.
For example, it is God that worked with the dust and who caused trees and plants to grow (Genesis 2:9, 19). Then he gave man the task of working with the dust and of gardening, of causing trees and plants to grow. God joined to his work of creation the work of naming.
He called the lighted part of time “Day” and the darkened part of time “Night” and the dry land “earth” and the air above “heaven.” These items he claimed dominion over. Then he gave to Adam to name the living birds and animals and gave him dominion over them.
His work of creation of the man and the woman passed to his son Adam as the power of procreation. In short, God’s son was to do, in a limited sphere, what God had done before in a greater sphere.
Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. They were driven out. The first weapons mentioned in the Bible are those carried by angels preventing the re-entry of man into his paradise home. In character, this expulsion parallels the earliest war, recorded in Revelation 12. There it was the fallen beings that were “cast out” and that “Old Serpent” who no longer had a “place” in heaven.
We have good reason to believe that Adam had been told of the fall of Lucifer. His own exodus from Eden by being “driven” and the presence of heavenly militants to guard its entrance, was to signal his new identity with the serpent. As he had once followed God’s doing, now he was imitating the history of Satan.
Indwelling Prefigured
Man carried with him, from the garden, a remnant of his original trust. Upon leaving, Adam “knew” Eve. Genesis 4:1. Commentators today, perhaps to please youth audiences obsessed with sensual themes, have commented repeatedly on this – albeit with deficient reverence.
But Bible writers were not shy about the spiritual truth intended by the method of human procreation. Paul said he was speaking of “a great mystery” when he spoke of the truth that a woman should leave her father and mother and cleave to her husband and that the two should become “one flesh.”
Copulation prefigures the miraculous change that brings the church out from the children of wrath. She, the church, is to leave her previous family, the family of men, and to join in covenant relation with He who is the Head of her new family -–Jesus. The new human family grows by the indwelling of the husband in his beloved wife. Here is the great mystery—that the two become one flesh, one family, one seed.
The marriage institution illustrated monumental truth. The power of creation rested in the union of God and those humans that would cleave to him. Where the church is indwelled by Jesus, there she has children. Where she is not, there she is barren or worse.
When Jesus impregnates the church by his indwelling, her children are his children. When her evangelistic work yields converts despite her wandering from intimacy with him, then are her children “bastards and not sons.” Hebrews 12:8. Jesus does not claim these as his own.
He neither disciplines nor corrects them. That responsibility falls to their natural father, the one who either raped or seduced their mother. They are Satan’s son’s and daughters and until they yield their souls to he who has power to adopt them, he has no parental rights. The church may discipline them – for they are hers. Satan may chastise them – for they are his. God only may woo them to put their old nature to death.
The illustration of this truth in the experience of marital privileges derives sacredness from the overwhelming sacredness of the truth itself.
The result is that the Bible everywhere treats harshly sexual deviation. It is a lie about the gospel, a false prophecy, an obscuration of vital truths. Only God in man under covenanted relationship can bring man out from his human family and into the family of heaven. Only this can make him fruitful.
Existential Worship
In Genesis Abel seems to be a bit of an innovator. God commanded man to care for the ground. In harmony with this command, Cain raised produce. His chosen calling was that which best tends to awaken spiritual and mental growth. If we were to evaluate the nobility of farming on the basis of the life of the first farmer, we would, however, have to discard the practice.
This, however, we could not do. God ordered that we would “eat” by the work of farming. Cain, the farmer, illustrated the truth of this portion of the curse.
Abel chose, as a profession, to live “not by bread alone” but by “every word” that proceeds from God’s mouth. In other words, Abel chose to live by faith. His confidence in God’s requirements made him deferential to God’s preferences.
When it came time to worship, these brothers took positions that prefigured the two races of man. Both chose to worship God. And both gave God the best that they had to offer. Neither was compelled to worship, and both expected their gift to be accepted.
Cain’s gift is death to existential worship. Not his adherence to occupational counsels, nor his best efforts in raising fruit, nor his sincere opinion that God would accept his offering, nor the fact that he offered it of his free will—not one or any of these could make the worship acceptable to God.
Cain’s vocation aimed to satisfy the needs and wants of the belly. Abel’s lifework was to imitate God is securing a white-skin covering for the human family. He followed the example of God’s response to nakedness. These men were the two seeds.
Persecution Begins
Who is accepted with God? “But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.” Acts 10:35. Those that do well are accepted.
What if you do not well? As in, offer God fruit when he asked for a lamb? Sin lies at door. Genesis 4:7. Consider this interesting statement on sin. There was no command against offering fruit. In fact, it was commanded.[13] But the omission of the lamb tended to sin. This is God speaking about sin, and for the first time in scripture. His counsel was that man, doing what is right in his own eyes, will march right into the trap of sin. Cain marched on nonetheless.
And when God revealed his pleasure at Abel’s sacrifice, Cain’s wrath grew until he ended the life of his brother. Persecution began in this world as an outgrowth of enmity between the seeds. And persecution began around the issue of innovating worship styles. Those who lent an ear to God’s preferences in worship style were hated by those who rather consulted their own tastes and inclinations in the same.
The Three Enoch’s and Origins
Names have never been a reliable way to distinguish between the seeds. Those who claim to be children of Abraham and who claim to be children of light can not be trusted on the basis of their claim. This is illustrated briefly in Genesis by the three Enoch’s. One was the son of Cain, one was translated without seeing death, and one was a city built by the first.
Surface thinkers, the same that fall more easily for names than others, often confuse the issue of morality in origins. I will not here argue in favor of the neck-tie or Christmas tree, but I will say this much: If these things are ill, it is not because of their pagan origins. Genesis attributes a number of developments in society to the children of Cain--the paleopagans, if you will. What did they bring into society?
Bigamy, camping, ranching, musical instruments, teaching and metal workering. Genesis 4:20-23. These things were not “in the beginning.” The first is condemned by God and is wrong for reasons already discussed. The others are no worse for having been invented by wicked men than had they been introduced by the godly.
For nuns and priests, the story of Enoch promises that you can walk with God and “bear sons and daughters.” The holiest man in the Old Testament did. See Genesis 5:22. For his descendants on earth he became a father in heaven. He became a type, perhaps, of our own Father God. His race was that of the “sons of God.” It was his own race that failed to resist their passionate desires in Genesis 6.
God, by his Spirit, strove with man to flee the lusts that would break down the enmity between the seeds. When the barrier was broken down hopelessly, God said “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” Our first record of the unrepentable sin is in Genesis 6. God would give men time to crucify their flesh with the affections and lusts, and then he would destroy the entire race.
Genesis 5:4-32 records genealogies. If we pass over this material as commentary on 5:3, the connection between the chapters becomes easier to see.
Seth’s children became known as “sons of God.” 4:26
God restates man’s blessed creation in the image of God. 5:1
God called their name “Adam” in the day they were created 5:2
Adam had a son “in his own image” and called him Seth 5:3
Adam’s children had daughters in their own image 6:1
The sons of God lusted after the daughters of men 6:2
God said “I will not always strive with man.” 6:3
The marriage of members of the two seeds rouses God’s jealousy. His relationship to the church makes intermarriage a type of fornication. It breaks down the enmity that preserves the purity of the church. In Ex. 34:14-16 the jealousy of God forbids the mixing of God’s seed and Satan’s seed as an activity that would “make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.” The word “whoring” is a reference to spiritual adultery.
God’s promise was “enmity” and that made this love counter-miracle. It reversed God’s plan for preserving man from corruption. It was a friendship with the world that put once faithful men at enmity with their creator. What was the result?
Man was corrupted beyond repair.
The union of the two seeds produced the world’s governors. This is no surprise. The children of Seth, few in number as they were, retained much of the stature inherited from Adam. They chose for their spouses, no doubt, the most beautiful and well proportioned of Cain’s descendants. The combined genetics would produce giants in intellect and physique, but dwarfs in morality. Such were ideally gifted to be chosen as the world’s leaders, even as similarly gifted men and women function today.
Under the influence of these “men of renown” “all flesh” “corrupted their way before the Lord.” The service of passion on the part of the world’s great men was imitated by the populace at large. This was followed by the destruction of the society.
But “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” What was remarkable about him? He was uncorrupted in his “generations” or his heritage. That is, his origins were not from the mixed multitude. And so his own generated beings, his “generations” were recorded.
While the Old Testament does not provide us with information regarding the non-building activity of Noah during the 120 years, the apostle Peter does. He speaks of Noah appealing to the minds[14] of those that were captive to sin “while the ark was a preparing.” This he did by the power of the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 3:18-20. But that power was not sufficient to rouse the deadened senses of corrupted man.
After the flood God reminded the remnant of the human race that they were created in the image of God. For that reason anyone who should kill a man should be killed by other men. Man’s likeness to God imbued his life with sacred value. Only the sacred quality of our creation can explain why it is less wicked to kill a mouse than a man. The ethical basis of the command “Thou shalt not kill” finds its root in men’s moral agency, the image that distinguishes them from brutes.
That the image can not refer to a precise physique can be gathered from two facts. First, Adam and Eve were both created in the image of God. As their physical shapes were complimentary rather than duplicate, the term “image of God” can not refer to shape alone.
Second, their children have been born with a variety of shapes and colors. This variety itself is evidence that children of God bare more than a shallow resemblance to their creator. It is their minds, rather than the color of their skin or the shape of their bodies, that can be formed in God’s image.
Man was given dominion over the earth. He was created in the image of God. He was the first born of the human family, the “son of God.” Luke 3:38. These qualities constituted him a “figure of him who was to come.” Romans 5:14. Jesus was given dominion over the earth by right. He is the very image of God. He is the firstborn “from the dead” and the “only begotten son of God.”
-.-.-.
We ought to be able to discover whether or not we are guilty for the sins of our fathers, and more particularly for the sins of our first father, by studying the book of Leviticus.
There God underscores the existence of sin by making minute provisions for dealing with its various forms. Provisions found in the type clarify, for example, the difference between accountability and sin. The fourth chapter of the book is devoted to sins committed unintentionally.
Unintentional Sin
Of the anointed priest 4:2-12
Of the whole community 4:13-21
Of the leaders of the community 4:22-26
Of the average citizen 4:27-35
One might generally summarize the chapter by saying that when the whole community sins and is unaware of it, they are held responsible when their leaders become aware. At that time the elders are to offer a sacrifice. When a leader sins unintentionally, he is accountable to offer sacrifice when he becomes aware of his sin. In like manner, the average citizen must bring a sacrifice when his sin is brought to his attention.
In each case God states that at the sacrifice the community, the leader, the citizen, is forgiven. Atonement is made. 4:20, 26, 31, 35.
It is a general principle in Leviticus 4 and elsewhere in the sanctuary service that men are responsible for the choices they have made. No one is commanded to offer a lamb for the sin he has inherited. There is no offering for his father’s transgressions. Only his own faults draw him to the altar.
The cosmic exception is in relation to the anointed priest. He represented Jesus. Being as he was, human, the high priest could ill represent him who knew no sin. Even high priests in Leviticus “sin according to the sin of the people,” Lev. 4.1. Like the community, the leader, the citizen, the priest must bring a sacrifice for his sin, v. 3-12. The New International reads “bringing sin on the people” for “sin according to the sin of the people,” in verse one.
This reading stands apart from the rest of the Pentateuch. But perhaps it has merit. The formula “the priest shall make an atonement for them and it shall be forgiven them,” of verse 20, 26, 31, and 35, does not appear in any form in verse 12.
While the high priest could make atonement for the people, the leaders, the individuals, the service of the sanctuary said nothing about forgiveness in his case. Who would make atonement for Jesus were he to sin? Who would be the agent of his forgiveness? Evidently the sacrifice of the bullock in verses 3-11 points to Jesus being offered…for his own sin. While this would satisfy justice, it would leave the people hopeless and so would be “bringing sin on the people.”
Some errors in the Jewish camp were borderline when it came to the issue of being “unintentional.” Moses mentioned some of them in particular. When a call was made for witnesses in a criminal case, anyone neglecting to testify would be guilty, Lev. 5:1. If someone were to touch an unclean item or person, even if ignorantly, he was to be held guilty. When? Not when he touched it, but when he was made aware, Lev. 5:2-3. If someone were to thoughtlessly take an oath, and by this to disrespect the sacredness of promise, he would be held guilty. When? When he learns of his sinful indiscretion, v. 4.
Commandments broken unawares and ignorant offences in relation to the services of the sanctuary are also mentioned in verse 14-17 of Leviticus 5. Again in every case, from the neglect to testify to breaking of a commandment, the penitent is promised forgiveness and atonement on condition of sacrifice, v. 10, 16, 18.
From beginning to end the Anointed High Priest is the only one not offered this comfort in the act of sacrifice. His sin would involve the doom of the race as Adam’s sin would have doomed the race without the promise of his priesthood. His sin would have left men as they had been born, the children of disobedience.
But Jesus did not sin and the provision made for the sin of the Anointed became the one part of the Levitical law to never find fulfillment. Paul comments on this in Hebrews where Christ is contrasted to the high priests who had to offer for themselves, as well as “for the people.” Hebrews 9:7, 12, 14.
Children of disobedience are “estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” The NIV reads “from the womb” for “as soon as they be born.” David in the context of Ps. 58:3 seems to be describing the worst of men. But Paul makes Davidian passages like this apply to the race in general. See Romans 3:9-18.
And we can not argue that they disagree. Until we have been born again we are children of the serpent. “The poison of asps” in Romans 3 and “the poison of a serpent” in Psalms 85 both point to our heritage. Were charmers to ever so wisely try to keep us from biting, they would fail, Ps. 85:5. We strike first either in the womb or “as soon as we be born,” “speaking lies.”
The passage certainly individualizes the event of going astray. It was “all we like sheep” that have followed our leader Adam and gone astray ourselves. That is how sheep go astray…they follow their leader. Isaiah and David agree that we are held accountable, not for the error of the leading sheep, but for our choice to follow.
Jesus was a faultless lamb and did not play follow the leader. He rather followed the Shepherd. He has since become the “Shepherd” of “our souls” and “his sheep hear his voice and follow him.”
-.-.-.-
Paul on the Two Seeds
In Ephesians 5 the Apostle admonishes us to “be followers of God as dear children,” v. 1. The very sentence communicates that there are children not dear, those that do not follow God. These are “children of disobedience,” v. 6 and because of their particular sins (v. 3-5) they merit God’s wrath. The things this ungodly seed does are not appropriate even as topics of conversation among the saints (v. 3).
Some with “vain words” might try to persuade the Ephesians that the particulars are not so significant (v. 6) but God’s children are not to be “partaker with them,” v. 7. They are to walk “as children of light” manifesting the fruitage of the Spirit, v. 8.
Rather than having fellowship with the works of the children of darkness, they are to “reprove them.” This activity on the part of God’s children, and the reaction on the part of the others, prevents the enmity from fading.
In another letter Paul contrasts the two seeds.
And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 2:1-5.
Seed of Serpent Seed of God
Dead in Trespasses and Sins Made Alive
Walk according to “course” of this world In times past walked like serpent’s seed
Walk according to the prince of the power of the air In times past walked like serpent’s seed
Satan’s spirit works in them In times past our behavior was like serpent
They are children of disobedience
Their behavior follows their lusts and desires
By nature, children of wrath In past, were, like others, children of wrath
In the third verse we find the children of wrath fulfilling their “desires.” These desires are divided into two categories—those of the flesh and those of the mind. Some readers will perhaps recognize these as desires originating in the upper nature and those originating in the lower nature. How is it that someone who follows the desires of the mind would be a child of wrath?
Whether our desires are as base as hoping to steal and lie, or as noble as hoping to learn and to be like God, following them without reference to conscience is sin.
The passage is closed with a reference to our resurrection. We have been “quickened together with Christ.” The letter to the Colosians expounds on this subject.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all.
Seed of Serpent Seed of God
Wrath of God comes on them If you are, seek things above where Jesus is
Because they walk and live according to Set your affection on things above
Earthly desires for immorality Don’t set it on earthly things
Earthly desires for materials and power When Christ shall appear, His life is yours
Earthly appetites uncontrolled You will appear with him in glory
They are children of disobedience Put to death, then, your earthly desires
Controlled by the “old man” For immorality of all sorts
Their desires lead to “deeds”: For appetites uncontrolled
Anger, wrath For materials and power
Malice, blasphemy Once lived according to these desires
Dirty talk Now you have put them off
Expect “old man” to lie The name for these desires is “the old man”
He has been “put off” with his “deeds”
“new man” is renewed in image of God
Image of God not related to race or society
We have noted in both of the last passages that Satan’s seed are denominated “children of disobedience.” This general title highlights how the issue of Sabbath and Sunday fits into the scheme of Satan. His enmity is roused against, not his own children, but the seed of the woman that keep the commandments. These are “obedient children.” Peter uses this term and, like Paul, contrasts the obedient class with those follow their lusts.
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. I Peter 1:13-16.
Paul, in Col. 3, wrote about renewing the new man in the image of God. Peter speaks about how this image is marred. God fashioned man in his own image. Satan’s seed are “fashioning” themselves “according to . . . lusts.” Peter explains further that living according to the desires is the very opposite of being holy in “all manner” of behavior. We are to fashion ourselves to be like God as “it is written, ‘Be ye holy; for I am holy.’”
The children of God carry the evidence of their parentage. They fashion themselves, under the tutelage of the Spirit, after the image of God.
Romans 8 and Galatians 5 both contrast the two seeds in simple words.
Children of God Children of the Serpent
Walk not after their carnal desires – 8:1 Walk after their carnal desires
Walk after the Spirit Walk after the sinful nature – 5:21
Not condemned. Will not enter heaven.
Live by the spirit – 5:16 Gratify the desires of the sinful nature – 5:16
Do not gratify the desires of their flesh
Still have a sinful nature, so have internal conflict – 5:17
Jesus came in sinful nature so his children could walk after the Spirit – 8:2-4
Under the Law
Those that walk in the flesh are condemned, Ro. 8:1
Those that walk in the flesh are under the law, Ga. 5:18
These verses in parallel suggest that being “under the law” is nothing more or less than being “condemned.” “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Romans 3:19. The last phrase shows that the law is necessary for condemnation. The world became guilty before God when condemned by the law.
“All the world” were born under the law as is evident by the fact that all the world became guilty. Consider the following verses in parallel.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Galatians 4:3-7
We can better see the relation of being condemned “under” the law of the Ten Commandments and being born “of a woman” “in the likeness of sinful flesh” when we consider the only part of the Ten Commandments that speaks about birth. We are born with sinful flesh because we have inherited from our fathers sinful flesh.
We are condemned to this inheritance of weakened humanity by the curse of the law, the curse that says “visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” Jesus was born under the same curse, condemned by the Second Commandment to receive an inheritance of corruption from his earthly fathers.
The law Jesus was born “under” was the same law spoken of elsewhere – the Ten Commandments. Yet it would be altogether accurate to say that it was the “Law of Heredity” that He was born under. This brings with it neither guilt nor character stain. By living as a Son of God that was born as a degenerate son of man, Jesus proved that “we might receive the adoption of sons” if God would send his Spirit into our hearts.
Paul uses the term “under the law” in Galatians 4 as elsewhere to signify condemnation. The phrase is found a dozen times in his letters to Rome, Galatia, and Corinth. In one of these our interpretation of the phrase “under the law” seems to make little sense.
“And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law , as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.” I Corinthians 9:20-21.
We know that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, walking in the Spirit. Romans 8:1. Then what can it mean that Paul is “under the law” to Christ? If we confess that this means “under the responsibility to keep the law of Christ,” as it certainly appears to mean, what justification have we for giving it an opposite meaning in the verse before, or in other epistles?
The difficulty is cleared up in the Greek. The preposition “under” in “under law” is, in ten of the twelve KJV occurrences, derived from “upo.” This simple preposition means, as it appears, “under” or “by.” It is found elsewhere connected with law. In James 2:9 it is clearly connected with condemning someone as a transgressor of the law. If the same translators tackling Galatians had been assigned to James the key passage in the verse would likely read “and are convicted as under the law, as transgressors.”
“If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of < upo > the law as transgressors.” James 2:9.
But in I Corinthians 9:21, the word “under” comes not from upo (as it does both times in the preceding verse 20) but from en, more closely related to “in” than to “under.” It is used in verse 21 as a conjunction, en-nomos, literally “in law.” In other words, Paul wrote “when I work to save those that do not recognize moral obligations, I do not preach moral obligations. But I still recognize that I am obligated to live lawfully.”
The conjunction “ennomos” is found in one other place in scripture.[15]
“But if ye enquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.” Acts 19:39
Jesus came “under the law” to redeem those that were “under the law.” He came as a child of the fallen Eve to reclaim those that were, by their connection with her, recipients of moral incapacity. Jesus was led by the Spirit and did not fulfill the lusts of his flesh. By a comparative obedience, he “condemned sin in the flesh.”[16]
While his obedience was not necessary to prove that we had transgressed, it was needed to convince the angelic jury[17] that man had a choice in the matter and that he should be held responsible for his choices.
Christ’s flesh was that derived from the “fathers.” Romans 9:5. They are honored by their connection with him, the apostle reasons. Nevertheless, the wonderful promises made to Abraham regarding his seed did not seem to be fulfilling well in his time. Paul used the truth about the two seeds to explain the reason.
“Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Romans 9:6-8
The Righteous men Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac all received promises of blessings to their seed. And in every case at least one of their children did not qualify to receive the blessing. This is proof, Paul argues, that only the children born “of promise” are counted as true children. In the case of Sarah and Rebecca, their promised seed alone received the blessing.
In this they were symbols of the church. Only the children of the church that were born “of promise” count for true children. Only they are truly Israel. Only they are recipients of the promises made to the fathers of the faithful, for only they are the children of the faithful.
Those that receive these “great and precious promises” become children of God. How? “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might become partakers of the Divine nature.” They receive the indwelling of the Spirit, and begin “escaping the corruptions that are in the world” by escaping its lusts. 2 Peter 1:4.
Paul’s eagerness to make this point has confused many that missed it altogether. In simple words, the lives of the Patriarchs make beautiful allegorical evidence that spiritual descent from Abraham requires the power of God’s promises.
But if you miss the allegory, you can read a false theology right into verse 11, a discussion of Rebecca’s spiritual seed.
“For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
Two quotes are given here from the Old Testament. It is true only of the first of these that it was made while the children were “not yet born.” God made the statement regarding the servitude of Esau that his purpose “might stand.” What purpose? To chose only faithful children as recipients of mercy. God knew that Esau would not believe and promised before his birth that he would be a child of Cain, the prophesied servant of Shem.
The second quote, “Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated,” was written as one of the last items in the Old Testament. God had promised that hate, or enmity, would be placed between the seed of God and the seed of the Serpent. Jacob was part of the former; Esau part of the latter. Their names came to stand for the seeds.
The enmity between the seeds extends to the parents. As the Devil is wroth with the remnant of Jacob, God is at enmity with the children of disobedience. And so it is that “Esau have I hated.” Mal. 1:2-3. Remember that it was written much earlier that “Esau hated Jacob.” Genesis 27:41.
Paul on the “sons of God”
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”
Jesus came to empower men to become sons of God. Jn. 1:14. The letter to the Philippians explains what that power must do in the life of the man that would be the son of God. The power must work inside of him, pushing him to choose and to carry through in doing God’s will.
A man so moved will neither complain nor argue while choosing to be like his Father in heaven. He may be a son of God. He may shine as a star in the world’s night.
To shine is part of being a son of God. Unfallen angelic beings, the “sons of God” that witnessed the creation (Job 38:7) are there called “morning stars.” When they gathered to make themselves accountable to the Father, Satan gathered with them. Job 2:1-3. He had been one of them, for his original name was “son of the morning,” the closest one could come in name to the “morning stars” that were “sons of God.”
John on the Two Seeds
The one of the twelve that drew the closest to Jesus seemed more aware of the cosmic issue of the two seeds. He wrote five books of the Bible and each of them feature the enmity.
Jesus, in John’s Epistle, claimed to have a kingdom, subjects, and neither, he said, were “of this world.” Jb. 18:36. He stated emphatically “now is my kingdom not from” here, v. 37.
His subjects had, indeed, fought a great battle when the issues were in heaven. That battle and its final earthly segment is the familiar subject of John’s Revelation.
But the most thorough treatise of John on the two seeds is that dialogue of Jesus recorded in John 8. Read it prayerfully here. Emphasis is supplied.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
They answered him, “We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, ‘Ye shall be made free’?”
[This was a lie, a sin, and]
Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.”
They answered and said unto him, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus saith unto them, “If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father.”
Then said they to him, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”
Jesus said unto them, “If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”
Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?”
Jesus answered, “I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
[The fifth commandment is “Honor your Father. . .”]
Then said the Jews unto him, “Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, ‘If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.’ Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?”
Jesus answered, “If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”
Then said the Jews unto him, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?”
Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” – John 8:31-58.
In no plainer language could Jesus have stated that not all Israelites are Israelites “indeed.” Only those that do the “works of Abraham” are his spiritual children. This conversation, shocking and new to the hearers, was not John’s introduction to the theme in his epistle.
In our introduction we referred to John 1:13. Here is the context.
The Word “was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth, v. 9-14.
The passage contrasts Christ’s property from his family. How are all of us “his own”? “The World was made by him.” Who of us are his family? Those “which were born . . . of the will . . . of God.” How were we born of the will of God? “We beheld his glory.”
But that is not all that was required. It was to require “power” for us “to become” a son of God. As was the rest of his life, Christ’s birth was a model for us. It was a picture of the new birth, an illustration of how one may be “called the” son “of God.”
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” John 1:34-35.
Everything depends on being filled with the Spirit. That makes “a holy thing” when Christ’s righteousness stands in place of our past sins. This is what Jesus explained to Nicodemus.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things? – John 3:3-10
A few verses later Jesus contrasts the two seeds, the children of the flesh and the children of the Spirit. The children of the flesh are characterized as “every one that doeth evil.” They hate the light that reproves their evilness. The children of the Spirit are characterized as “he that doeth truth.” They come to the light because the light reveals that their works are wrought by God’s power, v. 20-21.
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Isaiah on the Two Seeds
God has enemies. That is clear not only in Genesis, but in Isaiah as well. From the New Jerusalem, from the Sanctuary there, the voice of the Lord promises judgment to his enemies. And just as judgment on the serpent is connected, in Genesis, with a promise that the woman would be given a seed, it is connected with the same in the last chapter of the gospel prophet.
A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to his enemies. Before she [Jerusalem] travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her: Isaiah 66:6-10.
Acts 13:33-34 times this birth. It was at the resurrection that the Father said to the Son, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Luke quotes the divine diologue from Psalm 2. When the man child was resurrected from the dead, he was “born” and an entire nation was “risen” with him. Colosians 3.
Hints at the Controversy between the Seeds
Solomon’s words reflect the early battle of the Seed of the Woman with the seed of the serpent. While still a child, experiencing poverty and possessing no earthly authority, Jesus was more worthy of honor than he who with false and dead-end principles had long ruled the earth. The latter would no more be corrected and had come from his bondage on this planet to rule it. Solomon speaks of his seed.
“Better [is] a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.” Ecc. 4:13-14.
The holy seed, as a family, stand both as sons of God and brother’s of Jesus. He was born to be like us and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Why is a brother born?
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”[18]
Children of the Jerusalem Above
Zion, the “city of God”, has many more children than the Jews supposed. David, in trying to explain this, made mention of nations of distinction. Egypt, called by the name Rahab, and Babylon, while vying for the position of the world’s foremost national power, might be claimed as birth-places of distinction.
But God says that inhabitants from these and other nations, including Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia, would claim a different distinction. They would claim to be born in Jerusalem. And God would, when “he writeth up the people” second that claim. He would say “this man was born there.” It is the gates of Jerusalem, more than its houses, that lend to its power to give new birth to citizens of other nations. And so,
“The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon [as among] them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this [man] was born there. Selah. As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.” Ps. 87:2-7.
This was fulfilled in quite a literal way when thousands were baptized from the nations named here, born of “the Spirit” in the city of Jerusalem. They were added to the “church of the firstborn” and became children of Jersualem “which is above, which is the mother of us all.”
David on the Two Seeds
How do the righteous pass on their righteous traits to their physical children? It was for this purpose that God established a written law among his people. By teaching that law to dillegently their children the parents were to enable their offspring to “set their hope in God” and to “not forget the works of God” and to “keep his commandments.” That would make them spiritual children of the faithful commandment keepers.
At the same time it would set them apart from the generation, the offspring, of their rebellious fathers “whose spirit was not stedfast with God.”
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. – Psalm 78:5-8.
Ages ago the Savior said “I delight to do thy will oh God, yes, thy law is within my heart.” He came for this purpose – to share the wealth and riches of his rightesouness with his adopted family. His seed “shall be might upon the earth.”
His seed are the ones of which we read “a seed shall serve him.” That body of believers “shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.” That is, they will be counted as being children of God.
Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. – Ps 112:1-3.
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. – Ps. 22:30
Job on the Two Seeds
One of the men who, in the Bible, speaks most directly to the question of what is involved in being “born of a woman” has given us two chapters of thought provoking material. As an introduction to his second speech, he asks these leading questions: “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean [that is] born of a woman?”
This is Bildad—one of those who “darkened counsel by words without knowledge.” Job 38:2. It is of interest to me that God so evaluates (Job 42:7) the one Bible speaker who approaches nearest to the Augustinian idea of original sin.
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Abram’s Special Qualifications
Genesis 11 contains answers to questions regarding God’s order in the family. We find significant evidence that God intended man to have one wife. Prior to this chapter, only one man in recorded to have taken two[19], and he was both descended from Cain (God’s enemy) and a murderer. God’s people, in chapter 11, certainly do not have zero wives, for each of them “begat” some other.
We know that Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japeth had one each, for they went “with their wives” in the ark, and there were eight people total. That leaves a maximum and a minimum of four wives for the four men. If I could restate part of Genesis 11 to make this point emphatic, I would say:
Shem had a wife and they had a child. Their child Arphaxad had a wife, and they had a child. Their child Salah had a wife and they had a child. They child Eber had wife, and they had a child. Their child Peleg had a wife, and they had a child. Their child Reu had a wife, and they had a child. Their child Serug had a wife and they had a child. Their child Nahor had a wife and they had a child. Their child Terah had a wife and they had three male children. Each of those male children had their own wife. But only two of them had a child.
Abram was the third. His wife was barren.
And God chose Abram to be the father of many nations. That is the meaning of Abraham. It is the plural of father. Sarai’s barrenness made physical offspring impossible. This impossibility would carry great significance in the plan of salvation.
The tower of Babel, named after it was abandoned, was erected by those who wished to escape God’s command to spread out over the entire earth. This was their stated intention, “that we be not scattered over the earth.” Noah’s children had been told by God to leave each other and to spread abroad.
Had they done it by Abram’s day? When he came on the scene of action, his fathers were living together. His family had colonized just as the other family in the world had—the Canaanites.
This is the historical context of God’s call for Abram to leave his family, the sons of Shem, and move into the land of Ham. Mark this point—everyone from the time of Noah had been called to leave their family, but Abram did it.
Just as Sarai was the first recorded barren woman, her brother-in-law Haran was the first recorded man to die before his father. This left Lot uniquely fatherless. Who did God call to travel to the land of the evil children and take up residence as God’s special people? Rare persons indeed—a barren couple and a fatherless man.
In the enmity God planted between the seeds, God’s children showed violent aggression. While the world was large and much uninhabited space remained, God told Abram to enter the land of the Canaanites. Their land would be given to him. They could have embarked for Africa or Asia and set up a godly nation alone.
But their assignment was a fulfillment of the prophecy made by Noah regarding the children of his three sons. The children of Shem were to rule the children of Ham. The continual conflict of the Canaanites against Israel can be traced to the bold action of Abram in moving his family into their land.
God did not intend for peace come between the opposing seeds, not even a peace derived from a lack of interaction. It is his “good pleasure” that the “sons of God” dwell spotlessly “in the midst of a crooked and perverse” offspring, Phil. 2:13-15, where they are to shine as lights in the world.[20]
-.-.-.
Sarai’s beauty was such that when sojourning, she was mentioned to the Pharaoh of Egypt. It was still so, after the flood, that the two seeds had a disparity of physical beauty.
Noah’s Children Found Grace
Men are more familiar with God’s covenant to not destroy the earth with a second flood than they are familiar with God’s stated reasoning for making the covenant.
“And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:21-22.
There are two manifest causes of the reprieve. First, the emblem of Christ’s sacrifice rose as a sweet reminder that God could be just in showing mercy. The second cause lies in man himself. God speaks of man’s great wickedness and its source in that part of his life when he is not ready to bear moral responsibility alone. Since he is wicked from his youth, before his age of accountability, Divinity promises mercy to Noah’s children.
Abraham’s Seed
God’s promise to Abraham should not be over spiritualized. While the New Testament indicates that the promise was to Abraham’s spiritual children, namely to those that have the “faith of Abraham,” there was plenty of evidence that God intended the blessing to come on his very physical descendants.
At the first mention of the promise, Genesis 13:13-17, God asked Abraham to look in all directions and then to take a walk over the land that he could see. That land would be given to Abraham’s seed, a seed that would be numbered with the dust of the earth.
Two chapters later it becomes clear that Abram understood the promise as referring to his physical seed. In essence he asked God “How are you going to give me and my seed the land,” “seeing I go childless,” Genesis 15:2. “Behold thou hast given me so seed.” The thought occurred to him that perhaps God had meant a metaphorical seed. He postulated that his chief servant, Eleazer, might be the one.
God, far from encouraging the metaphorical-family-fulfillment theory, said “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir,” v. 4. Then God repeated his admonition to imagine the innumerable number of the seed.
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15:6.
A few verses later Abram is informed that his “seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs” and that they would suffer 400 years before coming out with “great substance,” v. 14. Unless we are prepared to say that the rebellious people that exited Egypt shared Abram’s faith and devotion, we must believe that a the prophecy was made of Abram’s physical descendants.
Ishmael fit the condition of being a physical descendent of Abram. It should not be as surprising to us as it is that the first time God said “thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name” to a young lady, it was to Hagar. God said to her, “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” Genesis 16:10.[21]
More than a dozen years later [check this] God appeared to Abram again. This time God spoke of an everlasting covenant to be made with Abram and his seed after him. Genesis 17:7. God commanded Abram “walk before me, and be thou perfect.” As he said to Hagar, so he said to Abram, “I will multiply thee exceedingly.” “Thou shalt be a father of many nations.” Then his name was changed from Abram, or father, to Abraham, or fathers.
The plural in “father” applies rather to the multiplicity of the nations that he would father. But this is difficult to express in an English form of the word “father.”
This covenant must be understood in some spiritual sense for God’s promise is that they would possess Canaan “for an everlasting possession.” And the promise was to be “kept” by Abraham.
It would be kept by taking part in a “token” of the covenant – circumcision. But slaves purchased by Abraham were included in the covenant. This was another hint of its spiritual nature, v. 11-14. A disobedient person, one uncircumcised, was to be cut off from the people. Here was another hint that physical descent from Abraham was not sufficient to warrant inclusion in the blessing.
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Seed of the Serpent
Lucifer, literally “Son of the Morning”, carried a name that represented his heritage. He was created at the dawn of creation and became the head of his fellow “sons of God.” Our Lord Jesus is the “morning” star that gave him his existence. This position made Lucifer, in many ways, similar to Adam. Adam was also created at the dawn of human creation, placed at the head of his fellows, and called a “son of God.”
As the originator of evil fell, it was necessary that his name be changed to reflect his new position as a non-son of God. The Old Serpent came to Eve with thoughts similar to the ones that had brought him down. He offered her a chance to be wise “as Gods.” This was but an echo of his first self-deception. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
God answers Lucifer’s thought with a reality check. “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Isaiah 14:14-15. The prophecy goes on to describe how mankind will relate to the deceiver when all is said and done. The wicked one will never be buried, because he “destroyed” his own land and slew his own people. “The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned,” v. 20.
Finally, v. 21 describes how the seed of Satan will suffer his fate. He is there father and for their spiritual relation to him they will be destroyed.
“Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.” Revelation speaks of Babylon’s daughters and Ezekiel speaks of her sisters. Isaiah’s prophecy of Lucifer and his children says that both classes of ladies have children. They are Babylon’s sons and nephews.
“For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD,” v. 22.
This has been the plan, the purpose, of God since long ago. As illustrated in the destruction of the literal city Babylon, God pictured the future of the earth. “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”
God’s plan has been that only his children will inhabit the universe. The enmity will end when there are no longer two classes, when one class that afflicted the world has been crushed under foot. “This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” v. 26-27.
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Jesus was born uniquely. While angels are created as sons of God, and while men may be born again and so by a new regeneration become sons of God, Jesus was begotten as God’s son. God’s overshadowing of Mary produced a fetus that was as verily God’s son and Able was Adam’s. Christ had no father but God.
Men, on the other hand, have a human father. They are begotten sons of men. Even if they are filled with the Spirit from the womb, as was Christ’s cousin John, their indwelling Spirit did not father them. They are born as regenerated beings. They are pre-birth adopted sons of God. Jesus was the only begotten Son.
Yahkheed in the Old Testament, roughly meaning “only”, is used repeatedly in reference to only children. When Paul in Hebrews 11 refers to the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, where the word yah-kheed several times appears describing Isaac, the apostles chooses the Greek word monogenes to refer to the same relationship.
Gen. 22:2 Only (yah-kheed) Son
Gen. 22:6 Only (yah-kheed) Son
Gen. 22:16 Only (yah-kheed) Son
Heb. 11:17 Only Begotten (monogenes) Son
Both the Old and New Testament abound with stories and prophecies about an only begotten child. First, the story of Abraham’s offering of Isaac seems to emphasize Isaac’s only-son status. Then we find the story of Jepthae offering his only-begotten child, a daughter. Then king David, responding to a mother’s desperation, delivers an only-remaining son from his just desserts after he had killed his brother.
The latter story existed only in words, the story being part of a stratagem to reconcile David with his own murderous son.
In the New Testament the physician Luke records, in three consecutive chapters, stories of Jesus relieving the pitiful cases of parents with only (monogenes) children.
Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. Luke 7:12
For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him. Luke 8:42
And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child . Luke 9:38
These stories are the more significant, set as they are in the book of Luke. The sixth chapter recounts how Jesus healed an entire populace of all their diseases. But none of the beneficiaries are named. Only we know that they now saw, walked, and rejoiced free of demonic oppression.
Then the seventh chapter opens a series of four stories selected by the gospel doctor as worthy of detailing. The first is that of a Roman military official.
And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. Luke 7:2
The other three are the occurrences of monogenes noted above. What do these special stories have in common? Each is that of a guardian desperate over the affliction or death of their dearest charge.
The tender and earnest affection of a parent for a child, or of a true-hearted master for his servant, draws out the compassion of Jesus. In the midst of thronging multitudes he attends personally to the cries of such love. That love pictures the care of his own Father for his only son.
And in the Old Testament prophets thrice God states that men will mourn, in the judgment, as for their only son. The righteous will, on the other hand, be spared as a man would spare his own son that serves him. Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10; Malachi 3:17.
The word monogenes occurs only five other times in scripture, every occurrence being found in John’s writings. Examining them we find further evidence that the incarnation model has been chosen to illustrate the magnitude of the sacrifice made for fallen man.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jn. 3:16, 18.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. I Jn. 4:9.
That Christ became the only begotten son genetically at birth. But throughout scripture, inheritance has been only partially connected to DNA. The larger picture includes the character that we inherit from our early years of immitating our parents. When we have chosen what they have chosen and molded our character after their character, we are Biblically their children.
So in the case of Christ John calls him the “word” when referring to him through the ceaseless ages. Then when he introduces him as a baby, he first uses the word monogenes in relation to Christ.[22] He uses it to denote character likeness between Jesus and the Father. Then he uses it again in reference to Christ’s ministry of revealing the character of the father to the world. This Jesus can do, John reasons, because he “is in the bosom of the Father.”
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. . .. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Jn 1:14, 18.
If we return to the story of Abraham offering his “only begotten” Isaac, we find that Ishmael could never have been a fit type of Jesus as the son of God. His conception was outside of a marriage covenant. It is doubtful that spousal love had any part to do with the conjugal relationship. While Abraham undoubtedly loved Ishmael and even urged God to make him the heir, his relationship to Isaac was dearer still.
When Abraham raises his hand to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God did more than stop the action. He repeated the promise that Abraham, “Father” would, because of his willingness to give his only son, have multitudes of children. Thus Abraham became a figure of our Father in Heaven, a destiny apparent long before the sacrifice, by the change in his name.
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Writing Journal—thoughts unrelated to those above
Exodus 3:1 Moses was sent to the wilderness for his training. We know that he kept sheep there. But he did more than this. He became part of a family. God sets the solitary in families to teach and train them, to soften and cultivate their habits of life.
Exodus 15:13 God leads his people “in mercy.” What does this in mean? Two chapters earlier God describes how He chose the path for the children of Israel. “God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:” Exodus 13:17. God’s mercy was evident in his timing. He guarded against apostasy among the Israelites by leading them where the way would be less trying.
His mercy remembered and recounted encourages the heart. More than this, its memory alerts us to God’s leading in the present. For this reason we find the familiar words “thou shalt” followed by “remember” in Deuteronomy 8:2. “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness.”
Deuteronomy characterizes God’s leading in ways that weaken Satan’s efforts. The devil tells us that it must not be God who is leading us into such strange circumstances. Moses tells us that God leads us (A) to humble us, (B) to reveal our character, our will, and our relation to his commandments. See Deut. 8:2.
The circumstances that reveal character tend to be unpleasant. Poisonous snakes, scorpions, and drought marked the path chosen by God for his nation.
His leading was rather known by the provisions for the way than by its ease. So we find that it was a “great and terrible wilderness” yet God “brought thee forth water out of the rock.” The way chosen was long and wearing, yet “your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.” Deut. 8:15, 29:5.
To God’s provisions he adds instruction. The way he leads his children brings them to lesson after lesson in life. Of Israel Moses says that God “led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” Deut. 32:10.
Our way also may be better marked by God’s provisions than by its smoothness. His instruction will be more prominent as he guides us to circumstances that demand more of it. So with the people that followed Moses, “In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.” Ps. 78:14. We need not expect to discern God’s guiding alone during the day. If we will look up, we will find it brighter in the evening.
Finally, the Lord’s guiding rebukes our deadly perplexities. “He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up. So he led them through the depths.” While we are not led through safe places, God’s direction guides us through dangers safely. “And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.” Ps. 78:53; 106:9.
God’s safe guiding leads on to a safe home. It is the right and only way to get there. “And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.” Ps. 107:7.
His does not coerce. God had led Israel from Egypt. Yet Egyptians from “Noph and Tahapanes” later made frightful incursions into the chosen nation. Through Jeremiah God challenged his people to take responsibility for this portion of their troubles. “Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?” Jer. 2:16-17.
ISSUE: I say that those led by Spirit are children; those indulging lust are Satan’s seed. This seems clear enough. But Hebrews 12 seems to indicate that we may remain children of God while needing chastisement.
Interesting Point: God led Israel as they followed him. When they did not follow him, he led them nonetheless…but into captivity. In other Bible words, their “enemies” “led them away captive.” The fathers of the two human races both lead their children. Their leading methods are characterized respectively by freedom and captivity.
This was acted figuratively in the history of Israel. They followed God happily at times. But when they were captive to their desires and appetites—captivity they regarded as freedom—they were soon led into bondage by other nations. The national captivity became a symbol of how our “enemies” lead us. When Jesus ascended to heaven he “led captivity captive.” This was one of the gifts that he made available to the “rebellious also.” Ps. 68:18-19.
The various leading styles of the two seeds find parallels in the life of Jesus. On the one hand, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He took a blind man by the hand and “led him” out of the city to be healed. Luke 4:1; Mark 8:23. Another blinded man whose name became Paul was “led by the hand” to a man that could give him instruction in the way of life.
On the other hand, he was led “as a lamb to the slaughter.” Forceful hands “led him away to Caiaiphas.” A short time later they “bound him” and “led him away” to Pilot. There, after they had mocked him, they “led him away to crucify him.” Matthew 26:57, 27:2, 31.
The men of his home town had earlier “led” him to the brow of a hill with intentions of casting him down “headlong.” Luke 4:29. Looking forward, he saw that God would temporarily remove the hedge of blessing from spiritual Israel as he had from Job. For over one thousand years[23] the faithful would be led as Jesus had been—“counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Ps. 44:22. They would be “led away captive” and fall by the sword. Luke 21:24. Treated as the unfaithful were in Bible times, their fidelity would be put to the closest test.
While Jesus sets men free to follow him, the devil binds men to lead them. Lucifer’s leading “carried away” those that were “led” to adore idols. His agents “lead captive silly women laden with sins.” Those women are “led away with divers lusts.” Those graced to know truth must beware lest they “also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from” their “own steadfastness.” I Cor. 12:2; 2 Tim. 3:6; 2 Peter 3:17.
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For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. - God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; - Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; - And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; - That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: - For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. - Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. - And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: - Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts 17:23-31
Thoughts: What secular people we have become! For the Ninevites thought to fast and pray. The sailors from Joppa called earnestly on their God’s and expected participation from every passenger. The Greeks in Athens, lovers of pleasure and logic, were devoted worshippers nonetheless. Behold intelligent and lettered idolaters honoring images! And today? Were Paul to pass by our homes it is doubtful he could say truly “I beheld your devotions.”
Jesus countered the idea that ignorant worship would be ever acceptable. He said to the woman at the well “they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.” The ignorant worship of the Athenians was based on a misconception of the nature of God. Their worship corresponded with their conceptions of the deity. Paul informed them that God “is not worshipped with men’s hands.” Their gifts were no offering to him that had given life to all.
Then what is it that God wants from worshippers? “That they should seek the Lord” as if they were blind and navigating in a dark place. Cautiously, more anxious to hear than to “give the sacrifice of fools.” Far from accepting their previous worship blunders, God graciously ignored them while working to bring light to their dark place. Now he commands all men everywhere to “repent” of the worship that misrepresented God.
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The ancestry of Jesus
Abraham
Isaac
Isaac
Jacob
Jacob
Judah
Judah/Joseph 20 pieces of silver, “what profit,” “let not our hand be upon him” “he is our flesh”
Judah +
Heb 7:14 Gen 49:8 Jn 8:41 “we be not born of fornication”
Judah’s foolish friendship with a Canaanite-man. He went down from his brethren, and withdrew for a time from their society and his father’s family, and got to be intimately acquainted with one Hirah, an Adullamite, #Ge 38:1. It is computed that he was now not much above fifteen or sixteen years of age, an easy prey to the tempter. Note, When young people that have been well educated begin to change their company, they will soon change their manners, and lose their good education.—MH Commentary on Gen. 18
Dt 25:5 Well know in time of Judah. Er, Onan, Shulah,
Judah and Tamar – Canaanite Harlot
Salmon and Rahab – Philistine Harlot
Boaz and Ruth – Midianite Widow
David and Bethsheba – Adulterous wife of a Hittite, marriage solemnized to legitimacy by murder
Solomon and Naamah – Ammonite Bigamist
So Rehoboam was
Part Ammonite
Part Midianite
Part Philistine
Part Canaanite
Descended from a line of fornicating men and women
Grandson of a murderer…and descended from other murderers
Was distinguished in scripture for ignoring good counsel and for expanding on the despotism of his father.—I Kings 10, 2 Chronicles 12. But like his fathers, when bent on a foolish agenda, he accepted reproof from a prophet.
Rehoboam and Maachah – Daughter of Absalom, [Absalom and Maachah – daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur] – Josh 13:13, 2 Sam 15:8; Maachah (the older) was Syrian. Israel neglected to expel the Geshurites and the Maachathites; Maachah represents them both, the former by her father, the latter by her name—and indication that the two bodies had united as the Medes and the Persians did later. Geshur became the home of Absalom during his banishment. The neglect of the men in the time of Joshua influenced the genealogy of Jesus. [Rehoboam also had many wives and children…and the name Abijah belongs to several persons including the infant son of Jereboam at this same time.] 2 Chron 13:2, Machaiah is another name for Maachah. Uriel might be the husband of Tamar (making Maachah the granddaughter of Absalom) or Uriel could be another name for Absalom, a more likely scenario).
Interesting: Abijah and Jeroboam faced off with 1.2 million soldiers. Abijah claimed God as his helper and condemned the idolatrous priesthood of Jeroboam. Jeroboam paid no attention and ambushed Abijah. God intervened at the cry of Abijah and half a million of Jeroboam’s soldiers lost their lives. Yet Abijah did not deal with the idolatry in his own camp. But his son Asa did.
Asa relied on God in the big things…against a million men. But when dealing with a manageable trouble, he relied on his money and neighboring Syria. This resulted in (A) Syria not being destroyed. The effect of that carried on for centuries. (B) Asa having wars for the last six years of his reign after 35 years of peace. Asa was rebuked of a prophet. He had responded well to the warning of a prophet earlier in his reign, but responded with anger to the rebuke of the prophet at this time and put the prophet in prison. Suddenly he became a despot, like his fathers Solomon and Reheboam.—2
Asa married “Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi” and became one of the few to apparently settle for one wife from among his own people. It does not seem very surprising then that his son, Jehoshaphat, did better than most of the kings before or after him.
But Jehoshaphat’s great weakness lay in befriending God’s enemies. He joined Ahab in battle, a battle that would have ended his life had not God intervened. When rebuked for that affinity, he repented. But one of the latter acts of his life was to unite with Ahab’s son in a business venture. He doubtless reasoned in his mind that union in war and union in enterprise are not the same. So we tend to excuse our weaknesses and to indulge them if we can find some way to say God’s previous counsel does not exactly apply.
But God cursed the business venture and rebuked the king. The ships he had built at great expense were “broken.”
Jehoshaphat arranged to marry his son, Jehoram, to the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. This wicked daughter, Athaliah, became a many-great grandmother of the infant Jesus. Jezebel was a Zidonian princess before marrying Ahab. Athaliah was an Israeli/Zidonian princess by marriage.
The relation between Athaliah and Jehoram’s reign is evident in the similarities of their administration. Both secured their throne against threat by murder of all possible contenders. Of the sons of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram was the worst. This was God’s evaluation who condemned him for killing his brothers who were “better” than him. Then why did Jehoshaphat chose to put him over the kingdom? He was the youngest of the brethren. Neither age nor character entitled him to reign.
Jehoshaphat “made peace with the king of Israel.” I Kings 22:44. It is apparent that the aged king hoped by the marriage of his son to Athaliah to unite the kingdoms of Judah and Israel with the mind of benefiting Israel. But this plan of saving the lost by uniting with them for a time threatened the stability of his own throne. Had not Jehoeida …
Jehoshaphat, though slow to learn his lessons, learned them still. In this he must be recognized as a type of the faithful ones who, though falling seven times, yet rise again. After the destruction of his naval project, the king of Israel invited him to join him in war. This he refused to do; “he would not.” I Kings 22:49.
Ahaziah married Athaliah, “daughter of Omri.” Is Ahaziah Jehoram?
Omri and Ahab share a distinction, like father like son. Of the father it is said that he “did worse than all that were before him” and of the son it is said “did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.” I Ki. 16:25, 30.
Fascinating point: Elijah, during the 1260 years, was sent to live with a “widow” in Zidon. This was the home of none other than Jezebel who was seeking to find and destroy him. But he found shelter there and God preserved the life of the otherwise doomed widow and her child.
From Assherick: Matthew 4 sequence
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
1 ¶ Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God. . ..
Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated with a deep conviction that he was a son of God. The Devil’s first temptation aimed to overthrow that conviction, and indeed, to overturn the reality. Jesus was tempted to act like a son of the serpent by following appetite rather than following his father.
11 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. – Isaiah 45
Who is named by God? Adam, John, Jesus. These were “sons” of God in special ways. John and Jesus were filled with the Spirit from the womb. Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
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[1] See John 3. There are many questions that we have not asked. “Why” probes deeper than “how” or “what if” or “when.” If we broach the question “Why?” in a Bible context, we must be prepared to accept “God didn’t say” for an answer. The Bible contains many more answers than those of which we have availed ourselves. Nevertheless, we are not ready or capable of understanding all the motives of our God.
[2] Why do Christians live forever? Peter writes more of the indwelling Word that can not die. “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you,” 1 Peter 1:24-25.
[3] Please pardon the use of the word in reference to the human race, which some have countered is in fact not a race.
[4] One has commented that these four men, each associated with evil spirits by the words of Jesus, were the objects of most of Christ’s personal labor. Selah.
[5] The insertion of the words “of generations” is warranted by parallelism in the sentence itself, and by comparison with a parallel passage in Deuteronomy 7:9. A look at Deuteronomy 34:7 shows that the phrase “to the third and fourth generation” is found in the original without the word “generation.” The translators supplied it there as they could see its need. And it is also unreasonable to assume that the words “of men” would be better, as if God’s mercy is limited to some certain number of “thousands” of individuals.
[6] An intentional redundancy
[7] Quoted from Hebrews 11:14 where “declare” is used to refer to a message communicated by life habits.
[8] Men that have more power in their business of life than compassion or finesse in their familial responsibilities mimic the ostrich. Mothers whose care for their children is characterized by ferocity and defensiveness, who cuddle and warm, but who make dismal efforts to raise those children to a higher spiritual plane carry her sentiments and senselessness. Their nest is set in the dust; their sentimentalism crushes the loves of their lives before their children have a chance to experience the new birth.
[9] While the Bible does not state what form of locomotion the serpent used prior to his curse, we do find hints that he was a winged creature. For one thing, he was in a tree before his curse. While some footed creatures inhabit trees, by and large it is the birds that dwell there. Secondly, Isaiah twice refers to nations under the figure of a “flying fiery serpent.” The entire land of Palestine was not to rejoice over the defeat of their oppressors. From the smitten “serpent’s root” would come “a cockatrice” and “his fruit” would become a “fiery flying serpent.” Isaiah 14:28-29. This is the same chapter that earlier described the fall of Lucifer. A few chapters latter, in Isaiah 30:6, we find that “the viper and the fiery flying serpent” come from “the land of trouble and anguish.” While these two prophecies do not appear to point to Satan directly, the earthly governments they show wings on a beast that has not had them in a long time.
[10] Genesis 4:26, margin. This is the manifest meaning of this verse. Unless we believe that Abel was educated enough to offer sacrifices but not enough to talk to God, the reading “began to call the name of the Lord” can not be correct. The marginal reading is much preferable. “began to be called by the name of the Lord” as opposed to being called by the name of their earthly ancestor Seth. As further evidence of this I would suggest that this verse is the only antecedent for the phrases found in Genesis 6:4. And only the marginal reading would provide a clue as the meaning of “the daughters of men.” Cohabitation with angels is certainly not the meaning supported by Jesus who said angels neither marry nor are given in marriage. Finnaly, the reading suggested here unites the passage to the chain of Bible truths about what it means to be a child of God.
[11] Those that may wonder how scorpions came to join the serpents will be interested to know that scorpions represent false prophets as serpents represent children of the evil one. The power of scorpions to hurt is in their tail. “The prophet that speaks lies, he is the tail.”
[12] As noted elsewhere in this paper, it was Christ’s resurrection that marked his “birth” as the son of God. Acts 13:34.
[13] Moses explained both the offerings of lambs and of the fruits of the earth. The fact that we do not find these explanations recorded in Genesis is no evidence at all that they did not exist then. Genesis is a book of origins and records everything in the greatest brevity. The fact that Cain and Able knew to offer a lamb is proof enough that the sacrificial system had been explained to them. There is no reason to suppose that it was a different system than that given by the same God to the same race in Leviticus. As another example, God does not command capitol punishment for murder until after the flood. Yet Cain knew (Genesis 4:15) that his murder placed him where “every man” would kill him. God’s clemency to Cain would soften us if we meditated on it for awhile.
[14] Peter speaks of an appeal made to the “spirits” of men. Jesus made the appeal in the days of Noah. But this must be understood in the same sense that Jesus says “Come” in the Revelation through the prophet John. The voice of prophets is the testimony of Jesus. And thus I conclude that it was Noah preaching.
[15] If we separate en-nomos into “en” and “nomos” the list of occurrences increase to about forty. Two of these are especially interesting in this context. One of them is none other than Romans 3:19 itself. The term “under the law” as found there (remember that I said “upo” was used in ten of the twelve occurrences) is also “en nomos.” We can not well say that this passage shows the meaning of the phrase “under law” as found elsewhere in the New Testament. What it does say is that the law speaks to those that are under obligation to keep it, and it condemns them all. The other interesting passage is Philippians 3:6 where Paul says that he had a righteousness “in the law” – en nomos – that was blameless. He could not see how he was failing to measure up to his obligations to obey. This pseudo-righteousness he contrasts to Christ’s righteousness.
[16] Comparative condemnation and justification abound in scripture. When Israel did wickedly, she justified her neighbors. When the Queen of Sheba sought truth, she condemned the Jews of Christ’s time, as also did the repentant men of Ninevah in the time of Jonah. When Noah believed God enough to build the ark, he “condemned the world.” Hebrews 11:7. His righteous act vaporized the excuses of those that did not do like him. See Matthew 12:41-42.
[17] I draw this from Daniel 7. The organization and purpose of the judgment does not fall within the scope of this paper. I would be delighted to provide more material on this topic, however, to those that are interested.
[18] An adversity that places us in need of conversion is mentioned just before this sentence. The children of the devil approach education with an insurmountable handicap. Their heart is not adapted to be able to receive true knowledge. Solomon asks why it is that they spend money on tuition? “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?”
[19] Perhaps the flood-causing epidemic of wickedness also witnessed some bigamy. It can not be told from the phrase “they took wives of all which they chose” whether the men each took one that he chose or whether they took as many each as they cared to take.
[20] Those who would gather from this that we ought to live in the cities forget too soon that Abram settled in the country surrounded by the cities of the wicked. He was near enough to minister and distant enough to escape the curses that came to the cities of the plain.
[21] Ishmael was to become, in allegory, the father of the unfaithful. A hint of that is found in the concluding verse of the promise to Hagar. “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren,” v. 12. The enmity of the children of the serpent is evident, not only in its warfare against God’s children, but in its warfare against even its own. Those united against God are not, thereby, united with each other. On the contrary, having love in the family is a defining hallmark of God’s children.
[22] I have written a paper on the growing misconception that Jesus was born from the Father in some distant pre-creation age. John’s first use of the word “begotten” here in John 1:14, immediately after the words “dwelt among us” is a useful hint at resolving the issue of when he was born. Elsewhere in this paper I have briefly expounded on the relation of Psalms 2 and Acts 13:33-34 where Christ become the “begotten” son at his resurrection. Hebrews twice quotes Psalms 2, in Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5. The latter of these passages helps resolve the apparent double-timing of Christ’s birth. The thought of Hebrews 5:4-9 runs something like this: “Priests do not chose themselves, they are chosen of God. So Jesus did not chose himself, but the Father chose him as it says in Psalms, this day have I begotten you. While he was “in the flesh” Jesus agonized in prayer and was heard because he reverenced God. Though he was [already] a son [by the incarnation] yet he had a character to form by suffering and continued obedience before his son-ship would be complete. When it was complete, at the resurrection, he became the author of salvation to all who believe.” – Eugene’s Interpretive Paraphrase. As I understand the passage, Jesus was twice born, once in likeness to our conversion when he could be called the Son of God, and again in likeness to our resurrection when it will be much truer that we are the children of God for “we shall be like him.” So David in Psalms 110:3 speaks of the resurrection as a time when we will be born as youth from the “womb of the morning.”
[23] Luke 21:24 mentions the “times of the Gentiles.” This is a reference to the 1260 year time prophecy found in Daniel 7, 12 and Revelation 11, 12, and 13. For more information on the connection of Luke 21 to these passages see the paper “1260, 1290, 1335.”
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