Seed Part 2

The next offering of the seed that I want to talk about is a few chapters ahead in Genesis.  This is where God is making a promise (covenant with Abraham).  Before I go into this too much further I feel like I need to give you a little background about the word covenant in the Old Testament.  We are not that familiar with this term because God makes his covenants with his “chosen people,” Israel. This is not to say that others can’t make covenants, but when God makes them, he makes them with Israel and they usually involve several distinct elements. 

First, a covenant made with God involved a promise by God to do something.  In this case in Genesis 15: 4-5, “Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”  And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.”  And He said to him, “So shall your seed (descendants) be.”  God has promised Abraham a seed and descendants, God also promised a specific piece of land and in Genesis 12:3, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Second, sometimes a covenant would require an action by the receiving party.  For instance God may say, “If you do this…then I will do this…”  Or God may just say this is what I am going to do.  With the Israelites and Moses, God said, “If you keep my commands, then I will bless you, if you don’t keep my commands, you will experience curses,” (Deuteronomy 28:13-15).  So Israel agreed with this condition from God Exodus 24: 7, “Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient!”  If you are wondering how that went check out Exodus 32. 

Other parts of a covenant is blood or some sacrifice (Genesis 15:9-17 and Exodus 24:8), a sign like circumcision (Genesis 17:9-11), and a meal (Exodus 24:11).  So when you are studying the Old Testament and you see God making a promise look to see who it is with, whether it is conditional or not and if any other of these elements are involved. 

OK, back to the word seed.  I hope you noticed it in Genesis 15 above.  God was going to establish a nation and Abraham would be its founder.  This nation would have a land, it would have people (descendants), and it would have a seed.  God repeated this promise with Isaac (Genesis 26:4) and with Jacob (Genesis 28: 13-14). 

So to review, we know that this seed which God first spoke of in Genesis 3 is the product of a woman, and is from the lineage of Abraham, and that all the nations on the earth will be blessed by it.  Let’s see what more we can discover about the seed next time.