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No.13.
"He shall see His seed."
pp. 176 - 180
We now arrive at the necessity to concentrate our attention upon a most vital theme,
and to this we now address ourselves.
In all our published studies we have sought either to exhibit the one all embracive
purpose of the ages, or to indicate by more detailed study, the subsidiary doctrines that
pertain to the unfolding dispensations. From one angle we believe that the suggestion put
forward in an earlier study is a true one, that the whole of the Bible and its unfolding
purpose can be visualized in terms of the Jubilee, an institution in Israel that emphasizes
the sabbatic time periods of the great unfolding, and the emancipation, and restoration as
its goal. From another angle we have seen that the one all embracive purpose of the ages
can be expressed in the words of the Apostle "the end . . . . . that God may be all in all"
(I Cor. 15: 24-28), and that "conformity to the image of His Son" is an essential feature in
that consummation.
Our studies in the book of Job have brought into prominence not only the conflict of
the two seeds so dramatically therein portrayed, but have compelled us to perceive that in
understanding of what is involved and implied by the "Seed" as it pertains to Christ
Himself, to the believer, and to the false seed of the Serpent, as revealed in both O.T.
promise and in N.T. fulfillment will also shed great light upon the purpose of the ages.
To this investigation therefore let us apply ourselves, praying that all our studies may be
conducted in the conscious Presence of the Author of both Revelation and Salvation.
Our first investigation must be into the words employed. We observe that the word
"seed" as found in the A.V. is a translation of either the Hebrew words zera or perudoth,
or the Greek words sperma, sporos, spora or speiro. Perudoth, "the seed is rotten under
their clods" (Joel 1: 17) need not disdain us; it is derived from the Hebrew word parad,
"to be separated or scatter", and does not occur elsewhere. The word zera is the word we
must consider both in its primitive meaning and in its usage. This word is derived from
zara "to spread or scatter" as in Zech 10: 9 "I will sow them among the people". In two
passages, zera is translated "child" (Lev. 22: 13; I Sam. 1: 11), but the most frequent
translation of the word is "seed". It enters into the composition of the name Jezreel,
"sown of God" (Hos. 1: 4).
The word "seed" is used in the Scripture of man, of beast and of plant. We meet the
word "seed" in the first chapter of Genesis, where the substantive occurs six times, and
the participle, translated "bearing" and "yielding" in relation to seed, three times.
"The herb `seeding seed' and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed is
in itself" (Gen. 1: 11).
In the first case, this is a statement of material fact, but the record of Gen. 1: has more
in it than the record of material creation. Paul's use of Gen. 1: 2, 3 in II Cor. 4: 6 "for