The Messiah in the Old Testament____________

Continued from Last Week



The Abrahamic Prediction (Genesis 12:1-3 etc.)


From among the Shemitic/Semitic tribes to whom God had given His promise to dwell among them, he called one Semitic couple, Abram and his wife Sarai, to leave plush and comfortable Ur in southern Mesopotamia and go about 1100 miles to an unnamed land he was to show them. The "Call of Abram" then is a subject that we will discuss for a while.

On at least six occasions the divine plan was announced to Abraham (Ge. 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 15:4-5, 13-18; 17:1-8; 18:17-19, 22:15-18). Twice more the same covenant was repeated to his son Jacob (28:1-15; 35:9-12).

God made eight promises to Abraham: 1. He would make him a great nation; 2. he would bless him; 3. he would make his name great; 4. Abraham and his seed were to be a blessing to others; 5. God would bless those who blessed Abraham; 6. God would curse those who cursed Abraham; 7. Through the "seed" or "offspring" of Abraham God was to channel the blessing to the earth; 8 God was to give Abraham's seed the land he had entered after leaving Ur of the Chaldeans. The first seven promises appeared at his 'call' in Genesis 12:2-3. The 8th was added when he arrived at Shechem in Palestine (v.7).

The 7th of these eight promises became the one that was emphasized, for it always appears in the climax of a great event. If we read for example Ge. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:6; 28:14 we see that this promised "seed" was all inclusive. He was to represent the group as well as those who participated in the group.

The fivefold emphasis on the statement "through you/your offspring all nations will be blessed" points to the heart of the gospel. The blessing was not to be something that the patriarchs did but the blessing was to come from God as a gift. In Gal. 3:8 the apostle, Paul, tells us that this promise was the "gospel" of Jesus Christ. Elsewhere Paul makes the point that this "promise" came to Abraham yet while he was uncircumcised (Rom. 4:10-12), thus a predictor of Gentile salvation. What seemed at first to be a very narrow privilege given to the Shemites, in that God was to live only in their tents, turns out to be a blessing to the nations or the Gentles.

This blessing or idea was already brought out back in Genesis 12:2__"and you" in this text is written in the passive voice, meaning the blessing was to be channeled through Abraham as well as Isaac and Jacob as we later see. At the same time there is something distinctively singular and individualistic about this seed. Remember 3:15? He acts as only "one" of the woman's descendants. The Apostle Paul speaks and reaffirms this interpretation in the book of Galatians.

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. Galatians 3:16

The word "Seed."

σπέρμα (sperma, 4690), -τος, τό, (σπείρω, q. v.), fr. Hom. down, Hebr. זֶרַע, the seed (fr. which anything springs);

a. from which a plant germinates;

α. prop. the seed i. e. the grain or kernel which contains within itself the germ of the future plant: plur., Mt. xiii. 32; Mk. iv. 31; 1 Co. xv. 38, (Ex. xvi. 31; 1 S. viii. 15); the sing. is used collectively of the grains or kernels sown:Mt. xiii. 24, 27, 37 sq.; 2 Co. ix. 10 [here L Tr σπόρος].

β. metaph. a seed i. e. a residue, or a few survivors reserved as the germ of a new race (just as seed is kept from the harvest for the sowing), Ro. ix. 29 after Is. i. 9, where Sept. for שַׂרִיד, (so also Sap. xiv. 6; 1 Esdr. viii. 85 (87); Joseph. antt. 11, 5, 3; 12, 7, 3; Plat. Tim. p. 23 c).

b. the semen virile;

α. prop.: Lev. xv. 16-18; xviii. 20 sq., etc.; [prob. also Heb. xi. 11, cf. καταβολή 1, and see below]; often in prof. writ. By meton. the product of this semen, seed, children, offspring, progeny; family, race, posterity, (so in Grk. chiefly in the tragic poets, cf. Passow s. v. 2 b. ii. p. 1498 [L. and S. s. v. II. 3]; and זֶרַע very often in the O. T. [cf. W. 17, 30]); so in the sing., either of one, or collectively of many: Ro. ix. 7 sq.; εἰς καταβολὴν σπέρματος (see [above, and] καταβολή, 2), Heb. xi. 11; ἀνιστάναι andἐξανιστάναι σπέρμα τινί, Mt. xxii. 24; Mk. xii. 19; Lk. xx. 28, (Gen. xxxviii. 8); ἔχειν σπέρμα, Mt. xxii. 25; ἀφιέναισπέρμα τινί, Mk. xii. 20-22; τὸ σπ. τινός, Lk. i. 55; Jn. vii. 42; viii. 33, 37; Acts iii. 25; vii. 5 sq.; xiii. 23; Ro. i. 3; [iv. 13]; ix. 7; xi. 1; 2 Co. xi. 22; 2 Tim. ii. 8; Heb. ii. 16; xi. 18; in plur.: παῖς ἐκ βασιλικῶν σπερμάτων, of royal de scent, Joseph. antt. 8, 7, 6; τῶν Ἀβραμιαίων σπερμάτωνἀπόγονοι, 4 Macc. xviii. 1; i. q. tribes, races, ἄνθρωποί τε καὶ ἀνθρώπων σπέρμασι νομοθετοῦμεν τὰ νῦν, Plat. legg. 9 p. 853 c. By a rabbinical method of interpreting, opposed to the usage of the Hebr. זֶרַע, which signifies the offspring whether consisting of one person or many, Paul lays such stress on the singular number in Gen. xiii. 15; xvii. 8 as to make it denote but one of Abraham's posterity, and that the Messiah: Gal. iii. 16, also 19; and yet, that the way in which Paul presses the singular here is not utterly at variance with the genius of the Jewish-Greek language is evident from Ἀβραμιαίων σπερμάτωνἀπόγονοι, 4 Macc. xviii. 1, where the plural is used of many descendants [(cf. Delitzsch, Br. a. d. Röm. p. 16 note 2; Bp. Lghtft, on Gal. l. c.)]. τὸ σπ. (Ἀβραὰμ) τὸ ἐκτοῦ νόμου, the seed which is such according to the decision of the law, physical offspring [see νόμος, 2 p. 428a], τὸ ἐκ πίστεως Ἀβρ. those who are called Abraham's posterity on account of the faith by which they are akin to him [see πίστις, 1 b. α. p. 513b and ἐκ, II. 7], Ro. iv. 16; add, 18; ix. 8; Gal. iii. 29; similarly Christians are called, in Rev. xii. 17, the σπέρμα of the church (which is likened to a mother, Gal. iv. 26).

β. whatever possesses vital force or life-giving power: τὸσπέρμα τοῦ θεοῦ [(but anarthrous)], the Holy Spirit, the divine energy operating within the soul by which we are regenerated or made the τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, 1 Jn. iii. 9.

Notice in the word definition above Paul emphasis the singular and not the plural. So now we know from the very beginning, according to the Apostle Paul, the Messiah was to be the Christ. We can't leave this section without at least passing on John 8:56-59.

 56"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."57So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"58Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."59Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

In the above text Jesus tells the Jews that Abraham knew all about him. There reply was how could that be since Jesus was not even 50 years old, yet you claim to have seen Abraham? When could Abraham have seen "the day of Christ?" In this sentence, what did Jesus mean by "day." If the expression "day" functions the same way as "time" or "hour'" then we can answer that question. In Mark 7:30 the day had not yet come___or he "prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him" (Mk. 14:35) or "the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified" (Jn 12:23) then the "day" refers to the events that surrounded his passion and work of redemption on the cross.

But when could Abraham have seen anything on the order of this? Probably when he took his son Isaac up on Mt. Moriah to be offered even though he had waited so long for him. Instead of offering Isaac, God provided a substitute. In other words, Abraham saw that God was to provide a substitute in that coming "seed."
by Lane