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The Seed

A seed is an amazing thing. An oak tree can weigh over a million times as much as the acorn from which it came. Truly, it took a creative Creator to invent the seed.

Seeds are mentioned in the Genesis creation account (Gen 1:11, 12, 29). And then we see a most unusual reference to a seed right after Adam and Eve sin in the garden of Eden. God is speaking to the serpent about his role as the tempter of Eve, pronouncing judgment on him, saying:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Everyone knows that seed comes from the man, but God makes reference to “her seed.” Of course, this enigmatic statement is explained by the virgin birth of Jesus but who knows what Adam and Eve thought about it at the time?

In due time, God would make another promise – this one to Abraham – having to do with that seed.

Gen 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Any uncertainty about the identify of that seed was removed by the time the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians:

Gal 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

That doesn’t mean that it was smooth sailing from Abraham to the New Testament. Lots of twists and turns took place in the story of a seed to come. There would be Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and, later on Moses. Then Joshua, the Judges, and eventually a kingdom under Saul. Israel would reach great heights after that with the kingdoms of David and Solomon, before beginning a long descent downward. Along the way, God’s prophets would warn the people of how low they would go. Isaiah, for example, told them that their nation would be like a tree chopped down – but even then the seed would survive as a stump.

Is 6:13 “…The holy seed is its stump.”

Though Israel would languish for centuries more before Messiah (Christ) came, He would eventually come.

His name was Jesus, and He was indeed born of a virgin. He taught about the kingdom of God – a kingdom that was present inside Himself. And from Himself it would grow to something immeasurably larger than Himself. He had to explain it with parables, portraying Himself in various ways – even as the personified word of God and the personified kingdom of God.

Luke 8:11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.

Mark 4:30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?
Mark 4:31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
Mark 4:32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.”

Once Jesus was crucified and then planted in the ground, so to speak, and especially when He sprang out of it on the third day, it was understood better than ever why God spoke of a special seed in response to the sin of our first parents. That imagery fit Jesus perfectly.

At this point in history, the apostles began speaking of Jesus to their fellow Jews as the seed promised to Abraham. Here’s Peter preaching in Jerusalem not long after Jesus ascended into heaven.

Acts 3:25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’

That was just the beginning of what would grow from that seed. The apostles were off and running, proclaiming what would result from that seed – that is, the second coming of the seed…as a tree. The greatest tree that ever was or ever will be.

If you want to understand God, keep focusing on the seed they call Jesus. (When God wants to do something really big, He starts really small.)

10/24/25