Advent Journey - Following the Seed From Eden to Bethlehem 预览

Day 2

THE RACE IS ON

Adam (1) & Seth (2)

The Bible genealogy starts with a man named Adam. He is known as the first Adam. He named his wife Eve, meaning “mother of all the living.”

Adam is referred to as the “son of God,” (Luke 3:38) meaning that he was created directly by God (from the dust of the ground). He was not born from the seed of an earthly father.  

When Adam and Eve sinned, death entered the scene. The curse of death was not only for humans but also for animals, grass, trees. Nothing would live forever. Death was initially a slow process and explains why man lived for hundreds of years. God knew this death pattern was not sustainable. That’s the reason for His Seed plan. 

From Genesis 3:15, the countdown begins toward a second Adam. This second Adam (Jesus Christ) would be a perfect, sinless man that would one day redeem man’s fallen condition. 

God could have redeemed Adam immediately. With the snap of the fingers, a new Adam could have entered the garden. Or God could have introduced this redeemer seed in a second generation, or in three generations.  

But God chose sixty plus generations of fathers – over approximately 4,000 years -  to arrive at this second Adam (again, Jesus Christ).

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. What beautiful creature boys they must have been. Perhaps one of them could transfer the Seed forward. But Satan was at work. Tragedy stuck again. Cain killed Abel. It was not a good start for the Seed journey. 

So Eve bore another son to Adam and named him Seth. God chose to route the Seed through Seth. Why did God route the Seed through Seth and not Cain or some other son? 

We don’t know. We’ll learn that’s the case with all God’s decisions regarding the line of the Seed. 

God’s sovereignty prevails.

Sometimes the line of the Seed makes sense from our perspective. Other times it doesn’t. But from Adam to Seth, the first transfer of the Seed is in the books. 

And for our Advent Journey, following the Seed to Bethlehem, the race is on!

Reflections:

When we think of Eve, we mostly think of her sin in the garden. But consider Eve as a mother of children. 

How devastating must it have been for Eve to lose a child to the violence of a sibling? 

Do you think Eve had any idea how the “seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15) would one day redeem man’s fallen nature?