A | 10. ONE Father ONE God. |

a | 10. Covenant of fathers.

b | 11. Treacherous dealing.

B | 11. The daughter of a strange god.

A | 15. ONE made Wherefore ONE? |

b | Treacherous dealing.

a | Covenant of marriage.

B | 15. A Seed of God.

Israel's departure from their God, the dishonouring of the Covenant, the profaning of

the holiness of the Lord, is associated with marriage with the daughter of a strange god,

even as the purpose of God both at the creation of man, and afterwards in the separating

laws of Israel indicates that He sought "a Seed of God". The law forbidding the sowing

of "mingled seed" (Lev. 19: 19) had more in its intention than good husbandry, and its

bearing upon the peculiar character of Israel is seen in Ezra 9: 2 and the remainder of

the book, where great grief is manifested at the "mingling of the holy seed" with the

people of the land. Nehemiah also spoke severely concerning this same act, instancing

Solomon's sin in these things . . . . . in marrying strange wives (Neh. 13: 23-27). In the

prophecy of Daniel we see very clearly that the "strange god" will be associated with the

blasphemous beast of the time of the end (Dan. 11: 39), and in the forecast of Gentile

dominion, Daniel reveals that at the time of the end some shall "mingle themselves with

the seed of men" (Dan. 2: 43), which suggests that "as it was in the days of Noah" so

shall it be at the time of the end.

To make the people of Israel aware of their profanation, the prophet Malachi leads

them back to Gen. 2::

Both the record of Gen. 2: 18-25, and the comment of the Saviour in Matt. 19: 4-6

stress the fact that to Adam God gave one wife.  Yet, continued the prophet, this

limitation was not due to any deficiency, "He had the residue of the spirit (or breath)",

and could have provided Adam with a number of wives had He so intended. At marriage

man and wife become "one flesh", and this holy unity is designed by God to further His

purpose, He sought thereby "a Seed of God". This fact will become more evident when

we are examining the teaching of Scripture concerning the seed of the serpent.

Coming to the genealogy of Matthew, we observe that it is the book of the generation

of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Mary, Emmanuel,

God with us. In that genealogy there is a name that strikes us: it is Zorobabel (verse 12).

We have already seen that the Hebrew word for "seed" is zera and so Zorobabel, or

Zerubabbel as it is written in the O.T. speaks either of the seed or the shoot of Babel, or

Confusion, or of those who were "scattered" in Babylon. It is arresting, whatever its

primary meaning may be for another reason, and that is its recurrence in the genealogy of

Luke 3: