The First Mission of the Woman’s Seed

Part IV

OUR consideration of the evolution of the ‘enmity’ would be incomplete with­out reference to the impact made upon the minds of men by the first mission of the woman’s seed. The Author of the promise well foreknew that society’s reaction to the manifesto of Mary’s son would be far from uniform. He would not be accepted on a national basis, nor necessarily on a family basis. The decision would be strictly a matter for individual determination, with the possibility of one for, and another against, even within the same domestic circle. “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ?” he asked. “I tell you, Nay ; but rather

Division

for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three”¹. So, in the experience of many thousands, both within and beyond the border of Israel, it subsequently proved.

But had not the prophet jubilantly written of this “Child” who was to be “born”-this “Son” who was to be “given”—to his nation, and rapturously depicted him in regal splendour as the all-governing “Prince of Peace “² ? And when this long-promised Royal Child was born, had not the angelic minstrels filled the Bethlehem air with that majestic chorus which linked “peace on earth” with “Glory to God³ ?

True, but these were long-range prophe­cies, reaching forth beyond the conflict to the grand finale of God’s redemptive plan. Before “the multitude of the heavenly host” sank their doxology in portrayal of a Kingdom, a single member of the celestial throng had spoken of a cross. “The angel of the Lord” did this in announcing the birth of “a Saviour”, whom he identified with “Christ the Lord”. The message delivered to the watching shepherds on that historic night was not one of local interest merely. For the salvation to be wrought through the new-born ‘Saviour’ did not consist in saving the sons of Jacob from the yoke of Rome, but in delivering the sons of Adam from a more formidable thraldom—the bondage of sin and death.

Hence the angel’s preamble to his glad­some announcement disclosed the ambit of its application : “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The emancipation of the race from the inexorable grip of these terrible arch­enemies required the bruising of the victor’s heel as a necessary antecedent to his final, fatal bruising of the serpent’s head. More­over, how could the later promises of God, guaranteeing the establishment of an ever­lasting order of things on earth, be fulfilled apart from the conquest of sin and its companion-destroyer, death ? Could Abraham eternally possess the land, or David’s Son for ever reign, while the devil and his works held sway ?

Gen. 3.15, therefore, is basic. It consti­tutes the essential and impregnable founda­tion supporting the entire superstructure of the “great and precious promises” of God. It envisaged a temporary cross, but beyond that a never-fading crown. It demanded the ‘weakness’ of a lamb and the ‘strength’ of a lion, but not simultaneously. As in Moses, so in the prophets : “the Spirit of Christ which was in them . . . testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow”⁴. Isaiah himself, for example, in more subdued tones had traced the early development of the woman’s seed, springing as–“a root out of a dry ground”-(human nature) ; yet “a tender plant” which, fed and matured by its Divine Planter, would become the acceptable “offering for sin”⁵. Changing the figure, he would be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter”, voluntarily giving “himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God”, by Whom he would be received as “a sweet-smelling savour”⁶, though refused and “rejected of men”. Yes, “the government” would be upon his shoulder, but—not yet. The cross must be upon his shoulder first. Chronologically, his sacrificial work must take precedence over the executive. “Before honour is humility”⁷.

Among “the last words of David”, as he spoke of that “morning without clouds” which the rising of the “Sun of Righteousness”-the advent in power of his Royal Son—would usher in, occurs the vital maxim : “He that ruleth over men must be just”⁸. Christ’s “ministry of reconciliation” was the proving-ground of his fitness for universal power. Only a man who always “loved righteousness and hated iniquity”⁹ and who consequently, and subsequently, was constituted “after the power of an endless life”¹⁰, could possess the necessary moral and physical qualifications to be the world-governing “Prince of Peace”.

“There is no peace unto the wicked” is an inflexible principle in all God’s dealings with men¹¹. World peace, therefore, waits upon world righteousness. That is God’s order. When He sets His King upon His “holy hill of Zion” and “declares the decree” of world possession¹²—the rightful “inheritance” of the “begotten” and beloved “Son”—He will exalt a man who, like Melchizedek, is “first King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of PEACE”¹³. Yes, the sword will “perish”¹⁴, but not before that day. Pending that final triumph of righteousness, the fore­cast of the woman’s seed is being fulfilled from day to day and from century to century : “I came not to send peace, but

A Sword”

And that means conflict his own life, the mental picture of a piercing sword was held before his mother’s eyes. The babe of Bethlehem was barely six weeks old when his “parents” took him to Jerusalem “to present him to the Lore”¹⁵. It was written in the law : “Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”. God had said distinctly : “It is mine”¹⁶ ; “the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt give unto me”¹⁷. Neverthless, by an arrange­ment through Moses, God took the Levites “instead”¹⁸. But this “firstborn”—the priest of Judah’s tribe, whose priest-hood was to excel and supersede that of Levi—was personally, completely and unreservedly dedicated unto God. For in every sense of the word—in a truer sense than could be claimed of any other—Mary’s son was HIS.

The aged Simeon, a man of faith and righteousness, “waiting for the consolation of Israel”, had been informed by the Holy Spirit that “he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”¹⁹. Now, holding “that holy thing” in his feeble arms, he was ready to sing his ‘parting hymn of praise’ :

“Lord, now Iettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou has prepared before the face of all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.” Simeon believed implicitly the gospel of Gen. 3. 15. But he saw its shadows as well as its sunshine. He knew the promised deliverer would be the woman’s seed and therefore Son of God—’prepared’ of God, without the aid of man. Knowing then that Joseph was not related to the tiny form now in his arms, he addressed himself to Mary alone when he said : “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be

Spoken Against

that the thoughts of many be revealed.” And in soft undertones he had sympathetically added:  “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.” The aged people clearly foresaw the culmi­nation of the enmity, and the hard fact of the cross was thus affirmed within the first two months of the infant life.

This child would be the revealer of men’s hearts—their real motives and their secret attitudes. His life would be the touchstone of human character. He would strip the mask from all hyprocrisy, and wielding the sword of the Spirit with incisive power, would divide the evil from the good, thus creating a bitter and thoroughgoing hatred. Simeon was virtually charging the babe with being a heaven-sent disturber. Once men had fully learned of him they could never be quite the same. There was no place for neutrality or compromise. . They would react in some way. The sun shines on wax and melts it ; with the same intensity of warmth it shines on mud and sets it hard. The difference is in the objects themselves.

“A woman in the city” would end her days of sin, and bathe his feet with her warm tears of mingled sorrow and joy. Nicodemus would visit him under cover of darkness to confess his conviction that he was “come from God”. Hoping, possibly, that his own position as “a ruler of the Jews” would ensure him some standing in Messiah’s Kingdom, he was to learn that no man can even “see” that Kingdom without a re-birth, and that all who truly love the light will come to it. The mourning Martha would pour out her faith with her weeping : “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now . . The  hypocritical intelligentsia, who sat “in Moses’ seat”, chafing under his unsparing exposure of their sham, would secretly plot his destruction. Judas, “a devil” among the “chosen” twelve, would slink into the night in execution of his nefarious plan to trade his Master for a consideration in cash. Having bestowed the treacherous kiss, he would gloat over the ‘precious’ pieces, expecting to see the miracle-working Nazarene effect a spectacular deliverance ; then, be­holding the course of events, would go and hang himself. Pilate, the man of boasted ‘power’, having heard the ‘evidence’, would thrice pronounce him unworthy of death ; then, weakly yielding to the clamour of the yelling mob, would deliver him to be cruci­fied ; yet would go through the empty mockery of washing his indelibly-stained hands in the sickening pretence of snow-white innocence. Peter, having avowed his readiness to accompany his Master “to prison and to death” would find he was not ready when the test really came. He would quail at the query of a mere servant girl, thrice deny his Lord, then spill on the steps of the palace porch his burning tears of remorse. Yet, fortified by the intervening experiences, the same man would later charge a whole Jewish multitude with the murder of God’s Messiah. Saul of Tarsus, in the midst of a career of rabid and relent­less persecution, would hear the voice of the risen Christ. In the city of Damascus he would grope blindly for the light ; then, when it came, he would surrender his entire life on the altar of service, and go forth with all the ardour of his ardent soul, to “preach the faith which once he destroyed.”

So it was—and so it is. Some sing from their hearts : “Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast” while others shout their foul blasphemies in his name. The most searching challenge ever presented to the mind of man was that pro­pounded by Jesus himself : “What think ye of Christ ?” All men—including those who profess His name—show their estimate of Christ by their general manner of life, their actions speaking louder than their words. The question cannot be evaded by either friend or foe. Simeon had said the babe was “a sign which would be ‘spoken against’ “, or as some translations have it :

“Contradicted”

Throughout his earthly life, and since, men have contradicted his claims, and each other concerning them. “Some said, ‘He is a good man’ : others said, ‘Nay ; but he deceiveth the people’ “. Some sought to stone him ; others planned to “take him by force and make him a king”. His followers were a sect everywhere “spoken against”²⁰. As an antidote to despair, they were exhorted to “consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself”²¹.

It was the Father’s will that the woman’s seed should endure the bruising and drink that “dreadful cup of pain”. For, in the ultimate, Eden’s ‘enmity’ could lead only to Calvary. It was there that the serpent power foreibly pinioned the arms which had ever been “outstretched to bless”.

In the supreme and final act of sacrifice, his head bowed in loving and filial obedience upon that upright stake which, uplifting his feet from the cursed earth-only to bring him under another curse²²-pointed to the Father’s throne, where all the curse con­nected with a sin-filled earth could touch him no more, and of which the Spirit had written : “In Thy presence is fulness of joy ; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore”²³.

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1-Luke 12.51-52	13-Heb. 7.2
2-Is. 9.6	14-Matt. 26.52
3-Luke 2.14	15-Luke 2.22
4-I Pet. 1.11	16-Ex. 13.2
5-Is. 53.2-10	17-Ex. 23.29
6-Eph. 5.2	18-Num. 3. 12-13
7-Prov. 15.33	19-Luke 2.26
8-11 Sam. 23. 1-4	20-Acts 28.22
9-Heb. 1.9	21-Heb. 12.3
10-Heb. 7.16	22-Gal. 3.13
11-1s. 48. 22	23-Ps. 16.1
12-Ps. 2.6-7