HAVE FAITH IN GOD'S PROPHETIC WORD!

Searching for the Seed

Unlike his father, godly Abel exercised faith in the first prophecy. Abel evidently realized that the shedding of blood would be needed to cover sin. Faith therefore moved him to offer an animal sacrifice that proved acceptable to God.  (Genesis 4:2-4) Yet, the identity of the promised Seed remained a  mystery. 

Some 2,000 years after Abel's day, Jehovah gave the patriarchy Abraham this prophetic promise: "I shall surely bless you and I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens . . .And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves." (Genesis 22:17, 18)  Those words  linked Abraham with the fulfillment of the first prophecy.  They indicated that the Seed through whom Satan's works would be brought to nothing would appear in Abraham's lineage.  (1 John 3:8) "Because of the promise of God [Abraham] did not waver in lack of faith" and neither did other pre-Christian witnesses of Jehovah who "did not get the fulfillment of the promise." (Romans 4:20, 21; Hebrews 11:39)   Instead, they maintained  faith in God's prophetic word.

The apostle Paul identified God's promised Seed when he wrote:  "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It says, not: 'And to seeds,' as in the case of many such, but as in the case of one:  'And to your seed,' who is Christ." (Galatians 3;16) The Seed through whom the nations were to bless themselves did not include all of Abraham's offspring. Descendants of his son Ishmael and of his sons by Ketura were not used to bless mankind.  The Seed of blessing came through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.  (Genesis 21:12;25:23, 31-34; 27:18-29, 37; 28:14)   Jacob showed that  "peoples" would be obedient  to Shiloh of the tribe of Judah, but the Seed was later restricted to David's  lineage.  (Genesis 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:12-16) First-century Jews expected one person to come as the Messiah, or Christ.  (John 7:41, 42)  And God's prophecy of the Seed was fulfilled in his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Next time: HAVE FAITH IN GOD'S PROPHETIC WORD  -The Messiah Appears! 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2000