Tracing The Seed of Promise

INTRODUCTION:

This morning we’re kicking off a new series in the book of Genesis called Patriarchs.

It’s important we not confuse the term “Patriarchs” from the modern idea of “Patriarchy.”

The “patriarchy” is a bad word in our culture because we’ve demonized the idea of masculinity, gender roles and God’s design for the family.

But the “patriarchy”

For the past year or so we’ve been studying the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Outside of Jesus Christ (and possibly Adam), there is no other individual as foundational to understanding God’s redemptive plan.

When the apostles explained the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ they explained it as the fulfillment and completion of God’s covenant with Abraham.

One of the reasons that Abraham is so important is because God’s covenant with Abraham revolved around a four letter word, that first showed up in Genesis 3:15 and reoccurs over and over and over again throughout the OT and NT and it’s the word SEED.

Sometimes it’s translated as offspring. Sometimes its translated as son or sons.

For the message this morning I want us to do something a little bit different than we normally do.

The reason is because our sermon text presents us with some questions that are not so easy to answer.

Some of that is because we have traditions and theological perspectives that keep us from seeing the plain meaning of a text.

So this is one of those messages that’s going to require some heavy lifting and careful thinking. It might not seem practical or relevant at first but it’s actually one of the most important concepts in all of the Scripture and will help you understand how the Old Testament and New Testament fit together.

Setting The Table

To set the table let me catch you up on where we’ve been in the book of Genesis.

Genesis 1-2 established God as the creator of everything that we see and mankind as the only creatures who are made in God’s image.

We were made to know and enjoy God but our first parents Adam and Eve used their freedom to disobey God and eat from the tree they were forbidden to eat.

As a result, in Genesis 3, God places a curse on the ground and on the Serpent (Satan) and explains the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin against God. In Genesis 3:15 the LORD makes a promise to Adam and Eve that

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Basically, what the Lord is saying here is that even through their sin had unleashed evil on the world. He would not leave them without hope or someone to fight against that evil.

So you have a contrast between two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

You might think of them as the children of God and the children of the devil. Good versus evil.

But the promises doesn’t just say that there will be a battle between good and evil in a general sense. But that there would be a particular seed (child) born of the woman who would ultimately triumph over evil by crushing the serpents head.

With every generation the question would be raised, “Is this the promised child who will deliver us from sin and brokenness?”

The rest of the book of Genesis develops this question.

We know this because of several things.

The narratives in the book of Genesis are organized under the heading of a single Hebrew word (Toledot): (Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 9; 37:2) CSB translates it as “family records” others use the phrase “generations.”

The book of Genesis is not a set of disjointed narratives. It’s the foundational stories that make up the “family records” of the promised seed of God flowing through or not flowing through the children of Adam.

This is also why we have such extensive genealogies in the book of Genesis. They’re tracing the seed of God’s promise.

The second thing that gets repeated over and over again is the Hebrew word for seed or offspring (Gen 1:11, 12, 29; 3:15; 4:25; 7:3; 8:22; 9:9; 12:7, 13:15, 16; 15:3, 5, 13, 18; 16:10; 17:7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19; 19:32, 34; 21:12, 13; 22:17, 18; 24:7, 60; 26:3, 4; 28:4, 13, 14; 32:12; 35:12; 38:8, 9; 46:6, 7; 47:19, 23, 24; 48:4, 11, 19)

Like the English word “sheep” sometimes this word means one child and sometimes it means multiple children. Context determines the meaning.

So the book of Genesis is concerned with explaining the origins of this battle between good and evil (the children of God and the children of the devil) as well as tracing the lineage of this promised seed (a savior who would crush the serpent’s head.)

The tension of the book of Genesis is that nobody is worthy to play that role.

As a result, the world devolves into brokenness and chaos so God presses the reset button.

Every time God hits reset button, he chooses a new covenant mediator through whom the promise of deliverance will continue.

The first reset is the flood in Genesis 6. Noah is chosen as a new covenant mediator.

The second reset is the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Abraham is then chosen as a new covenant mediator.

Abraham’s story is what we’ve been studying for about 8 months now.

Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants (Second Edition) Universal Promises

“Abraham emerges within the structure of Genesis as the answer to the plight of all humankind. The line of disaster and of the ‘curse,’ from Adam, through Cain, through the Flood to Babel, begins to be reversed when God calls Abraham and says, ‘in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ ”

In Genesis 22-23 Abraham’s story comes to an end and we’re going to see the seed carry on through another son.

The seed of the promise transfers from Abraham to Isaac. And from Isaac to Jacob.

What’s interesting is that the seed continues through Isaac and NOT Ishmael.

It continues through Jacob but not Esaau.

These three characters, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are often called the Patriarchs.

It’s a combination of two latin words “Patri” = father and Arche = first.

The founding fathers…. the first ones… the foundational characters.

They’re foundational because it was through these men that God’s covenant promise was established. It was through their offspring that the covenant promise of God continued.

What I’d like us to see this morning is how this seed of the promise transfers from the Patriarch until it culminates and find completion in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read The Text

With that in mind let’s read today’s sermon text so we can grapple with these questions that I’ve been wrestling with all week.

To bring you up to speed Abraham had just been tested by the Lord in being asked to offer up his one and only son Isaac as an offering to the Lord.

In faith, Abraham obeys the Lord in offering up his son but is stopped by “the angel of the Lord” before he goes through with the act.

Let’s pick it up in Genesis 22:11-19

Genesis 22:11–14 CSB

11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

What we noticed last week is that God’s request of Abraham to offer up Isaac was not because God is pro “child sacrifice.” That’s never been true of the Lord.

The testing of Abraham was not for the life of his child but for the priority and affection of his heart. He wanted to ensure that Abraham didn’t love the blessings of God more than the God who gives the blessings.

We also noticed how God’s request of Abraham to offer Isaac on Mount Moriah pointed to the fact that this request from God was really to have Abraham foreshadow or “act out beforehand” the ultimate act of God’s provision that he would achieve through the death and resurrection of HIS promised Son, Jesus.

In that way, Isaac, Abraham, and this substitutionary lamb all point to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate promised Son, the ultimate example of genuine faith and the only one who could make true atonement for sin through his sinless life being offered on the cross.

It’s important that we read the Old Testament stories through New Testament goggles because everything in the OT ultimately points to and anticipates Jesus. All of the tension and shadows of God’s redemptive plan in the Old Testament find their resolution and substance in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What we didn’t have time for last week is what the Angel of the Lord says NEXT.

It’s only a handful of verses but they present us with a thorny theological problem that is only resolved when we understand this passage in light of person and work of Jesus.

Read the Text

Genesis 22:15–19 CSB

15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.” 19 Abraham went back to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham settled in Beer-sheba.

This language from the angel of the Lord is similar to other blessings and covenants that Abraham had received previously.

Each of them included the promise of descendents that were as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Each of them included the idea of all the nations of the earth being blessed by Abraham’s offspring.

And each of them included some idea of inheriting the land even as it was occupied by their enemies.

What’s different about THIS covenant is two things.

It’s given as an oath not by the Lord but by THE ANGEL of the Lord.

It’s given as a result as Abraham’s act of obedience not necessarily his faith. (because you have done…because you have obeyed.)

What’s interesting about the seed of the Patriarchs is that not ALL of their children carry forward the seed of the promise. It is always only ONE of them.

It was Isaac but not Ishmael

It was Jacob but not Esau

It was Joseph but not the brothers.

Through whom will the promised seed of the Messiah flow?