The Seed of Abraham

Photo by Starr Environmental 

The story of Abraham and Sarah (or Abram and Sarai, before God changed their names), is rich with history and with present-day meaning for Christians. There is so much in the story of the "Father of Faith" that it would probably take a life time to study it and ferret out all of the symbolism and meaning. But there are a few things about this story that the Holy Spirit wanted to make sure I didn't miss today. 

This might not be anything new and earth shattering to you, after all, there isn't anything new in scripture. It was all written thousands of years ago. But every now and then, I hear or read something that I never heard or read before -- at least not the same way.

We know that the Kingdom of God works on the principle of seed, time and harvest; sowing and reaping.

 "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man 
should cast seed into the ground..."

~Mark 4:26 

The 4th chapter of Mark and the 8th chapter of Luke explains how this works -- and correlates the seed with the Word of God. Not only is Jesus the Word of God (John 1:14 "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us...") but he was also the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16 "And to thy seed, which is Christ.").

Jesus was not only Abraham's seed, he was the harvest of the seed that Abraham planted. When God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering, he was asking him to plant a seed. It's important to note that Isaac was not to be a sacrifice, but an offering. This is an important distinction; a sacrifice was made to pay for sins of the past, but an offering was made to provide for blessings of the future. Isaac was the seed planted for the future. Jesus was the harvest.

God has made provision for everything that we could possibly need or desire. 

"Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart"

~Psalms 37:4 

But, just like the seed you purchase from the gardening center, you have to do the planting, it doesn't plant itself, and the store owner doesn't come out to your house to plant your garden for you. It's the same way with seed from God. It's available to us. The seed for every need is in the Bible. God has provided the seed, but we have to do the sowing. 

It's important to remember that excuses don't bear any fruit! You can make excuses for why you didn't have time to plant your garden until harvest time comes, and you won't have one -- except maybe a harvest of weeds!

You know how some seeds you buy are guaranteed by the manufacturer? Well, God's seed is like that. He has made promises in his Word. And he tells us: "I'm watching over my word until it is fulfilled."~Jeremiah 1:12 (CEB)  In other words, his promise is on that seed, it isn't on the sower. That's why you don't have to know how seed, time and harvest works ("the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how."~Mark 4:27) you only have to trust that it does and plant the seed in the ground.

It's kind of like the movie Field of Dreams... If you plant it, it will grow!

God is watching over his word, his seed, to make sure it grows.

There are two kingdoms in this world, and they both pretty much work on the same principles; there are the saved, and the unsaved. Both reap harvests based upon the seed that they have sown. Each of us has to choose which kingdom we want to live in. It doesn't matter who you are, or what your background is, you still have to decide. Even Lot had to change cities in order to live. He had to leave Sodom and not even look back. For some reason, his wife couldn't do it. I wonder sometimes why she looked back. Was it for sentimental reasons, or merely curiosity about how it's destruction would come about?

The amazing thing is, once we have chosen, as far as God is concerned, it is as if our past is wiped out. We have a clean slate. There is nothing back there anymore. That is hard for us to comprehend, but important. God doesn't see our failures. He called Isaac Abraham's only son. But, Abraham had another son named Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the son of promise. He was the harvest of impatience and lack of faith on the part of Abram and Sarai. He was not the seed that God's promise was on; not the seed he was watching over to perform. 

Our lives are like that. God doesn't see the failures of our past. We have been redeemed. To him, they simply don't exist. All he sees are children, full of potential for hope and a future; God sees a fertile field. 

So, what seed are you going to plant?