THE WAR OF TWO SEEDS

Everything in the Bible is structured around a great war between two forces. Genesis 3:15 predicts that the battle for human souls will take place in a continual battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. From Genesis 3 on, it will be God’s purpose to demonstrate that despite overwhelming odds, Messiah’s army will win a decisive victory in the end. Seeing the Bible this way ties all sixty-six books together and beckons the reader to follow the story no matter where it is intersected. Of course, it all begins with that third chapter of Genesis. In Genesis 3:1-6 the devil, incarnated as a serpent, strikes the first blow against God’s people by enticing them to rebel against their own Maker which could abruptly end the war. Man is cast out of the garden, but God strikes back. He concocts a plan to restore humanity by establishing a godly line that will culminate in the coming of One born of a woman who will crush the head of that nasty devil and defeat him fully and finally. This promise to defeat Satan is called the proto-evangelium, or first gospel. It goes like this:

“And 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” Genesis 3:15.

Note that in this challenge, God is forecasting two ‘seeds’ who will fight to the death. The devil is one and this unnamed ‘super’ man will be the other. The rest of the Bible is anticipating the coming of this Savior-human. But in God’s wisdom He will not come at once. Instead, God will continually raise up godly seed who will point forward to Messiah’s coming, All the while the godly seed will be intensely persecuted by the seed of the wicked one. Almost immediately we run into early skirmishes that foreshadow the larger battle yet to come. The first happens in the fourth chapter of the Bible in the story of Cain and Abel. These two brothers, offspring of the shamed couple, represent what this battle between the two seed will look like. The man of the ungodly line, Cain, will brutally murder the one representing the woman’s offspring, Abel. Though it seems like a complete victory for the dark side, God brings up reinforcements in the person of Seth who becomes the leader of a people who begin ‘to call upon the name of the Lord’ (4:26). In the meantime, Cain becomes a fugitive, and establishes culture demonstrating that the fallen creation will be the true home of the ungodly seed. Chapter 5 outlines the genealogy of the godly line until the flood. It seems as if there is a relative peace. But all comes crashing down as chapter 6 opens where it is related to the reader that a very bad thing has happened. The godly line is tempted into intermarrying with the daughters of men because they were beautiful. So begins a pattern we see throughout the Bible. If the seed of the serpent can’t extirpate the godly line off the face of the earth, they will entice them into compromise by intermarriage. This intermingling between the good and evil families is exactly what God doesn’t want. The resulting evil brings on a worldwide flood and God wipes out the evil line and preserves His line in the form of eight souls who are spared in a boat. But it becomes apparent that evil not only lurks in the ungodly line but there is evil in the heart of the godly line as well. The saved man, Noah, commits a horrible sin and it passes down to one of his grandkids who reestablishes the ungodly line. Another son, Shem, will carry the torch for the seed of the woman. But the world is now again generally ungodly and this leads to the first open act of idolatry in the Bible. There will be many more. The ungodly seed tries to build a tower up to God. Here we have a paradigm for what all idolatrous religions will look like. Man in his arrogance will try to save himself by building a tower to God. But God’s promise is that He will save humanity in His own way, not man’s. In response, God confounds the idolaters at Babel by confusing their language. Never again will there be a worldwide revolt against God. The narrative of the two seeds changes abruptly when a man named Abram crashes the scene. He is called by God to be the leader of a new favored nation. From now till the end of the Old Testament the chosen seed will come from his loins. They will be called Jews and God will establish them as the covenant people of God. All who are outside this people will be the ungodly seed, separated from God’s covenant love. But even within Abraham’s own family the war between the seed will continue. This reality is seen quickly when Abraham has a child names Ishmael through his bond woman. As a child of the flesh he becomes the new head of the serpent’s seed. On the other end there is Isaac, who as the child of promise, carries on the line of the seed of the woman. Isaac himself has twin sons and again the great divide is established. One son, Esau, stands outside the inheritance while his sneaky little brother, Jacob, is chosen to be the head of the godly line. Jacob, renamed Israel, has twelve sons who will carry forth the lineage of the seed of the woman. His family will grow into a nation called Israel. But chapters 34 and 38 of Genesis demonstrate that this holy seed (in election, not practice) is beginning to be tainted by the ungodly surrounding nations. This mixing of the seeds is exactly what God cannot have so He takes His chosen people to a remote part of Egypt where they will grow into a nation safe from outside influence. But this is a temporary solution, as God’s desire is to bring them into their own land. After four hundred years, the Jews escape Egypt through a variety of miracles and are given a national constitution at a place called Sinai. This covenant, according to Galatians 3:19-25, has as its chief purpose to compress Israel into a sovereign and separate nation until the coming of the Genesis 3:15 Messiah. After forty years the nation is then brought into the land and this sets the stage for the remainder of the Old Testament. In it we find a people who continually intermingle with the ungodly seed and by the time we get to the prophets of the 6th century B.C., God is ready to exile them to Babylon, where again they will become a separated community. We must stop and pause here and reflect on this birds’ eye view of the Old Testament. Who is the hero of this story? Surely not Israel who does everything she can to destroy the covenant promises made to the godly seed. No, what the reader sees is a sovereign God who is working to bring His grand design to pass in bringing a Savior into the world. Indeed God uses instruments like Samuel, Joshua, Gideon, and David to bring this to pass, but the story belongs to God alone. His protection is seen a couple of amazing narratives. The first one is about the preservation of the godly seed in the days of King Jehoshaphat. That king unadvisedly marries into the ungodly line of Ahab by allowing his son, Jehoram, to marry the daughter of Ahab named Athaliah. Jehoram eventually dies; his son Ahaziah reigns in his stead. When Ahaziah soon dies the wicked queen mother takes over the throne and begins to systematically destroy David’s heirs. The seed of the serpent has taken over the godly line of Messiah! Now enters the powerful hand of God. All the Davidic heirs are systematically slain except for one child named Joash. He is hidden in the temple precincts beyond the reach of the wicked woman and eventually is crowned king. So we see a God who protects His godly seed by the narrowest of margins from the onslaught of the seed of the serpent. We have a second amazing story about God’s protection of His seed, this time while they are in exile. We turn to the Book of Esther. Esther was a Jewish girl made queen over the Medo-Persian Empire. Haman, the right hand man of the king and an Amalekite, uses his power to destroy all the Jews in the empire. But God’s strong right arm is again extended and by a series of stunning providential events, God turns the tables on the Persians and spares the defenseless Jews. Again, the godly seed from which Messiah will come has been miraculously preserved. Finally, after about four hundred years the long-awaited Messiah enters the world. And to no one’s surprise the serpent strikes again. The Savior is born in the city of Bethlehem, seemingly away from all harm, but Satan is not fooled and plots to kill this child. He fills Herod, the local king who happens to be an Edomite, with jealousy. This evil man cannot bear the thought of a rival to his throne. So in one fell swoop he orders the murder of all the children in that area of the world hoping to catch the Messiah-child. This brutal act of genocide is captured in the words of a prophet.

‘“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Jer 31:15).

The serpent has struck again. But God will again protect His own. He removes the child to Egypt where He will be safe. One again, Satan has inflicted only a glancing blow. God’s people are spared. The Messiah does not die and God’s story continues.

For another thirty-three years the Seed, called Messiah, lives upon the earth. Satan often tempts this Holy One to abandon His mission but the Messiah rebuffs all the evil designs. But then, in one final act of devastation, Satan employs his minions to murder the Messiah on a shameful instrument of torture outside of Jerusalem and thereby destroy the Messiah and His people. But once again the serpent’s plans are foiled. The death of the Messiah will be the very seed that will grow into a universal godly community called the church. The church will now become the seed of the woman. We can breathe. All is now well.

No, not quite. The war will continue. The serpent now aims his venom at the church herself and tries to destroy her. The history of the world since the first century is one long commentary on this war. Persecutions against the church have continued on throughout history and will continue so until the end. The Book of Revelation chronicles this war in graphic detail. To one of the Christian churches John says,

“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10).

And so, for the past two thousand years the church has been hounded by a relentless devil who wishes to destroy her. And so the question is, “Will it always be so? Will the forces of wickedness eventually win?” After all it seems as if the serpent has more numbers, more technology, and more resources at his disposal.

But as always, the overmatched seed will be miraculously protected by God. God will eventually bring the long war to an end. When the last of His seed is brought to safety He will come back to earth and judge the seed of the serpent. More importantly, He will judge the serpent himself. And so the Bible ends on this glorious note.

“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

So the seed of the woman wins in the end! The Messiah is forever exalted. And those who followed him will be eternally rewarded. And so when the war ends, the Bible ends. Then begins a glorious eternity, an ongoing celebration of victory. Amen.