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The Promise in the Seed

  

Redemptive history begins with a series of questions[1] followed by God’s declaration.

“Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?'"

"The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'"[2]

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."[3]

 

The question rarely entertained, especially in light of the genealogy of Jesus, is “why does God specify the seed?”

To clarify, why would God choose to bring deliverance and restitution through the seed of the woman?
Surely, this is what God proposed when He spoke to the man and the woman, as they stood in

the shame of their nakedness, and passed upon them both judgment and promise? If we are to understand the promise of the seed, then we must begin with a proper theology that reveals who God is, what He desires, and what He intends as revealed by the promises He has directed to His people.

Going back to the beginning is the first promise we find in the scriptures. As such, the first promise demands our highest regards. Why should it be so important to go back to the garden?

Because, all the promises made by God, as they are found in the scriptures spring or flow from the first promise God made to the woman concerning her seed. Incredibly, the expectation and hope for mankind was to find its roots in the promise of judgment God directed at the serpent. In other words, as it is written, redemptive history finds its course through the words God spoke to the serpent.[4]

From the beginning, redemptive history is the testimony of the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This being the case, the hope of mankind is found in the words Yahweh spoke to the serpent. Regardless of who, or what the serpent represents to us, what is important is God’s promise of the serpent’s ultimate defeat.

However one might interpret the events of the garden scene, the characters involved, their actions and their words, all serve as a crucial foundation for a proper or correct theology. One thing is certain, from that point on, the people of God, the God–fearers, began looking for the one who would come from the woman’s seed; the one who would make right what the serpent had done by deceiving the woman regarding God's Word.[5] The hope of mankind rested upon it.

 

Redemptive history began in earnest “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”[6]

The woman, deceived by the words of the serpent, is seen in contrast to the man, who had firsthand knowledge of God's command. By partaking of the forbidden tree, in effect, Adam said within his heart, “I will be like the most High God,”[7] since the serpent had promised that the tree’s fruit would make one wise like God. In that state, enticed by the desires of his heart, Adam reached out and took what was not his to take. In doing so, the first Adam set the stage[8] for redemptive history.

It is upon this stage that the heavenly host [9] watches in awe and wonderment, marveling over the wisdom of God in the making and redemption of man.

But why have a stage and the necessity of redemption?  

From the outset, we can tell from His word, God desired to make man in His image and likeness. He then went on to form man[10] from the clay and dust of the earth. As is also shown, the man he formed from the earth was flawed.

How so? Clearly, God created Adam with a heart capable of disobedience. In other words, Adam possessed a deceitful and desperately wicked heart[11] from the beginning, a heart that could be enticed away by its own desires.[12]

With such a heart, how could Adam have behaved in compliance with the will of God? Critical to our theology is to understand that Adam was in bondage to such a heart.[13] Adam made his choice, from his deceitful heart, resulting in his disobedience to God's command; “you shall not eat, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”[14]

Mankind’s inclination has been to reject the wisdom of God, which is specified and explained by His spoken word. The man God created from the dust of the earth led the way.

The irony of man's rejection of God's wisdom stands out, when you consider the Biblical story begins with the man God placed in His garden,[15] who desired “to be wise like God.” By rejecting the wisdom of God, to cope with the realities of life and death, mankind has turned to the invention of religion and philosophy.

The Biblical record of redemptive history stands in stark contrast to the religions and philosophies man has invented. In the scriptures, third chapter of the first book, our first parents and their disobedience to the word of God are revealed.

Adam’s disobedience of God’s command brought on the condemnation which has fallen upon the man God desired to create in His image and likeness: “In dying you shall surely die.”[16] Because of what Adam did by partaking of the forbidden tree, the surety of death entered into the relationship between God and the man created from the dust of the earth. This surety of death has since been passed down to all men.[17]

 

In the wisdom of God, there resided a plan to create another man to counter the surety of death. This man, the second Adam,[18] came in fulfillment of God’s promise to the woman, the promised seed. The second Adam was appointed[19] and anointed with the spirit of God,[20] and in the promise of the seed, kept or bruised the serpent's head.[21] The seed of the woman was and is the last Adam in Yahweh’s plan of redemption. It was through her seed, the promised one who learned through the sufferings of obedience,[22]that is, the keeping of God’s will.[23]

The obedience the last Adam learned was accentuated when Jesus of Nazareth, in effect, set his heart[24] upon His God and His Word.[25] As the promised seed, Jesus understood more than any man that his own will must be secondary to the will of the Father's.[26] This was clearly manifested when Jesus cried out at the end, and in the intensity of his prayer to God, “not my will, but yours, be done.” [27] In the moment of Jesus’ willingness to enter into the bitterness of death,[28] he became in effect the conqueror of death.[29]

 

 In summation: Jesus, the second Adam, is to be seen in contrast to the first man who reached out, in disregard to the will of God, and stole what was not his to take. [30] In doing so, Adam forfeited the relationship he enjoyed with God in the garden. Jesus, the last Adam, the seed of the woman, restored the relationship.[31]

As the conqueror of death, Jesus revealed and embodied Yahweh’s plan of redemption, setting right the death the first Adam brought into the relationship between God and His people. Ultimately, what Jesus accomplished through His suffering of obedience;[32] the sufferings which led him to be the sacrificial Lamb[33] of God, was the reversal of the curse and the restitution of the creation.[34]

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