Search The Scriptures!

Isaiah 53:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

Jesus in the OT. John wrote, ". . . No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. . . ." -- John 1:18, Genesis 12:7, " And the LORD appeared unto Abram, . . ," identifying the LORD who appeared as none other than the Son of God.

 

"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." ( Genesis 3:14-15 ).

1) The serpent is Satan ( Revelation 12:9 ), otherwise known as Lucifer and the Dragon.
He hates the woman ( God's children, the bride of Christ ), and will do everything in his power to hurt her ( Revelation 12:13-17 ).
2) The woman is man, specifically those that are His sheep out of every tongue tribe and nation ( Revelation 5:9, Revelation 7:9 ).
3) Satan's seed are the children of disobedience ( Ephesians 2:2 ), the lost, whom Jesus says are of their father, the devil ( John 8:44 ).
4) The woman's seed is Christ ( Galatians 3:16 ), who shall bruise the head of Satan, and he shall bruise Christ's heel...the feet of those who trust Him ( Romans 16:20 ).
Believers are also there as the "seed" ( Proverbs 11:21, Romans 9:8, Romans 9:27, Romans 11:5, Galatians 3:29 ) .

 

Believers are not the seed any where in scripture. The seed is the word of God It's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

 

"Search the Scriptures...", said the Lord.
"Search the Scriptures!," said @tyndale1946 .

So, as I was sitting at my computer this morning drinking my coffee, I did that very thing.
I like to use such marvelous tools like the Internet to search things out, sort of like a "crutch" to help me; as my memory sometimes isn't as sharp as it once was.
Looking around for references to "seeds" ( Genesis 3:15 ), my eyes fell upon these:


1) " For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, [was] not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." ( Romans 4:13 ).
2) " Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all," ( Romans 4:16 )
3) " Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be." ( Romans 4:18 )
4) "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7 neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." ( Romans 9:6-8 ).
5) " And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." ( Galatians 3:29 )

Romans 4, Romans 9 and Galatians 3:7-29 are wonderful passages that tell of the believer's inheritance of Jesus Christ by faith and by God's design, Abraham being our "father" by example, among mankind.

Believers are the "seed"...
The spiritual "seed" ( offspring ) of Abraham, by faith, and he is the "father" of all them that believe ( Romans 4:11 ).

 

But there are two types of "seed" that have come from Abraham...

" They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" ( John 8:33 ).
The Lord tells them,

" I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you." ( John 8:37 )
" They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father." ( John 8:39-41 ).

" Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." ( John 8:43-44 ).

" Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God." ( John 8:46-47 )

A "fleshly seed" and a "spiritual seed" ( Romans 9:8 ).


Those that do not believe His words are the "natural children of the flesh", and are of their "father" the devil.
Those that believe the Lord's words, are the "spiritual children of promise"... and are of their "father" Abraham.

 

Christ Himself is also the "seed":

1) "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." ( Acts of the Apostles 3:25 ) ( See Genesis 12:3, Genesis 18:18, Acts of the Apostles 2:39 )
2) "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." ( Galatians 3:16 )
3) " And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." ( Genesis 22:18 )


As I pondered all of this carefully, I realized that we as believers have an amazing gift, and are "of our father" Abraham and "of God".
We are the "seed", spiritually...

We are the inheritors of eternal life, the "seed"... while He is the Seed, the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18 ).

 

Apologies for wandering from the OP, Glen...

I got on a "rabbit trail", and it was hard to stop.

 

I think that Isaiah 53 is one of the more obvious of the Old Testament, but there are many more:

" I have made a covenant with my chosen,I have sworn unto David my servant,
4 thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah. " ( Psalms 89:3-4 )

Psalms 89:20-29
Psalms 132:11-18
Matthew 1:1
Psalms 22:6-18
Psalms 2:6-12
Luke 2:40
Psalms 45:6-7
Psalms 110.
Psalms 40:7-9

David and the other psalmists prophesied much about the Lord's coming.

 

The Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One was foretold in the Old Testament, but was also shrouded in mystery which was not made plain until New Testament times.

I am not sure what "no cheating" means, but if it means we cannot use a list of Old Testament references, such as Micah 5:2, or Isaiah 7:14, then I am too lacking in memory to contribute.

 

We see the prophecy:

"I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:3).

We see the fulfillment:

"And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:25–26).

We see the prophecy:

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).

We see the fulfillment:

"The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

 

Psalm 22

On a side note, Psalm 22 shows the suffering savior (the crucifixion), Psalm 23 shows the believer's walk even in this present day, and Psalm 24 shows the future earthly glorious reign on the earth at the second coming of the Savior.

If one recalls that the chapters and verse indicators were not in the original manuscripts, it makes the message of these (now separated by chapters and verse indicators) the complete package of redemption.

Btw, I totally disagree that the Christ was "hidden" as some mystery in the OT as one poster stated. The Christ was not, Paul states that the mystery was the Gentile church as shown and proved in Ephesians 3:6

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.​

 

The pre-incarnate second person of the Trinity appears as the "Angel of the Lord" and as the "I AM" of the burning bush. And the Messiah is mentioned in Daniel 9:25-26.

 

Did not Herod consult with the priests where the messiah should be born? Did they not respond?

Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel, whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.