Israel - A Seed Of Evildoers

3.  A Seed Of Evildoers

“Seed” comes from a word meaning to sow, to scatter, or to disperse. It is a very common word and is applied to seed sown in a field, for instance in Judges. 6:3 to specify the time of year in which Israel’s enemies would launch attacks against them:

“So it was, whenever Israel had sown (literally “seeded”), Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them”.

It is used in Genesis 1:11-12 uses the word to signify that when God created the world He created it to reproduce itself:

^11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. ^12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 47:23 likewise uses the term agriculturally when it speaks of Goshen and the provision that Joseph made for Jacob and his brothers when the came down into Egypt.

“Then Joseph said to the people, ‘Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land’”.

Specifically, it speaks of plants set out, or engrafted; or to planting,and thus was used of transplanting a nation. Isaiah used in Isa. 17:10:

‘And thou shalt set it (shalt sow, or plant it) with strange slips.’

That is why it came to be applied, metaphorically, to children, posterity, descendants, from the resemblance to seed sown, and to a harvest springing up, and spreading.

The word is applied by way of eminence to the Jews, as being the seed or posterity of Abraham, according to the promise that his seed should be as the stars of heaven.  God had made a great promise to Abram.  Genesis 12:7 says:

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

A part of that promise was that Abram’s posterity would be numberless – they would spring up and be like the dust of the earth.  Genesis 13:15-16 says:

^15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. ^16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

…or like the stars of the heavens - Genesis 15:5:

^5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

All of this by way of covenant (v18-20)

^18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:

“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— ^19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ^20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ^21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” .

Genesis 17:7

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

This brings out the contrast that is intended here. Abraham’s seed was intended, among other things to be a seed of godliness, a root of holiness among the nations, to demonstrate God’s goodness and His holiness, his grace and His mercy to the nations round and about. God’s intention in raising up a nation from Abraham was to raise up a nation that was different, not one that was the same!

What happened, on the other hand, was that Israel ended up just like all of the nations around them. Instead of being the offspring of the godly heritage that God had planted, they were the seed of the ungodly peoples around them. Godliness was intended to be handed down from generation to generation but that had not happened. Instead of being the brood of the godly, Israel had ended up being the brood of ungodly. Their heritage was that of wickedness and judgment, rather than that of goodness and blessing.

This is always the case when the people of God seek to be too much like the people around them instead of seeking to remain separate and allowing God to bring the world to them.  It is surely true that we are to go out into the world to see win the lost and make disciples, but we must take great care NOT to do so in such a fashion that we become like the world in the process.  That is extremely important!  When we become like the world we lose the ability to win them.

Considering Real Freedom

When the Lord called Elijah to hide from the king's wrath and find water at a time when the land was under the judgment of drought, God directed him to a brook called Cherith. Yet, in what I am sure was a situation that brought great anxiety to Elijah, day by day he watched the water level shrinking further and further. Lets remember that this very drought was the result of the words God had instructed him to proclaim. What a challenge this must have been!

Elijah Predicts a Drought

1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 And the word of the Lord came to him: 3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Yet even in the midst of famine, God had not forgotten his man and had provided means for supplying Elijah's needs, through a very unusual source - a widow who was preparing what she thought was her last ever meal before death. Think about that. This widow, at the very end of herself, was God's appointed means of provision for His prophet. God was surely showing Elijah that He has countless ways of providing, but also showing this widow such amazing love and mercy (though she might not be aware of this when asked to share her last meal with him). How tender He is with His people even as they face great trials and hardships. How great is His love.

God provided the Cherith brook for Elijah, but this means of provision was ending, and so God instructed Elijah to leave that place and go to another.

The Widow of Zarephath

1 Kings 17: 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” 15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

The initial drought came as an act of judgment on the land because of the sins of King Ahab (which we could read about in the previous chapter of 1 Kings 16). Perhaps you are experiencing a drought of a different kind. It may be some special season that has passed; losing a job or some illness or relationship problem. Some of these situations are extremely heartbreaking and challenging; others the Lord lifts quickly by the prayer of faith. Yet whatever we face, our God is in the heavens and He does what pleases Him. He wants us to look to Him as our Source recognizing that He has many different means of supply for us. Our mistake is to put our confidence in the means rather than Him as the Source. Whatever God does to provide for us we need to see it as simply a temporary means of supply (sometimes it lasts a very short time, while at other times it can last decades before that particular brook dries up... but it is simply a means nonetheless and not the Source). God Himself is our Source, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider!

Let us remember that He alone is our Source both as individuals and families and even as a nation. Here in these United States of America, we remain, one nation under God.

The Source of Real Freedom

That is what brings real freedom!  When we are not bound or beholding to some source or afraid that supply will be cut and that we will go lacking - it is then and only then we can be really free to worship and see Who God truly is.  It is this that the secular world seeks after.  They seek it by a political means, the only means available to them as unregenerate men.  But as the children of God we are free from the cares of the world and worries and fears that those cares bring.  The future holds no dread for us (at least in need not!).  The promises of God are glorious indeed when we consider the the contrast of this world with the next, but that not the only impact that they have.  They are are likewise glorious for His children here as well.  For they enable us to walk through life as those who are different, holy, "other", bearing witness to Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides and to the freedom in which He can allow His children to walk; a freedom for which all men long!