“I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed” (Gen 3:15).
TWO SEEDS
"Two warring factions at enmity with each other. Luther used to say, Cain will go on killing Abel to the world’s end, if he can, and so he will till that millennial day when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb.
The disposition and nature of the wolves cause them to be opposed to the sheep, and it is the nature of the world to hate the children of God. All along through history you see the two seeds in contention; if there is Abel there is Cain who slays him; if there is Noah, you see an ungodly world all round him; if there be an Isaac, so also is there an Ishmael who will mock him; and if there be a Jacob there is an Esau who seeks to kill him. There cannot be an Israel without Pharaoh, or Amalek, or Edom, or Babylon to oppose. David must be hunted by Saul, and the Son of David by Herod.
There is an enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, and that enmity will always remain. The ungodly roar upon the righteous, and seek to bring cruel accusations against them, even as against their Lord” (CH Spurgeon).
Along the same theme wrote Ignatius of Antioch: “They are ashamed of the cross; they mock at the passion; they make a jest of the resurrection. They are the offspring of that spirit who is the author of all evil, who led Adam, by means of his wife, to transgress the commandment, who slew Abel by the hands of Cain, who fought against Job, who was the accuser of Joshua the son of Josedech, who sought to "sift the faith" of the apostles, who stirred up the multitude of the Jews against the Lord, who also now worketh in the children of disobedience; from whom the Lord Jesus Christ will deliver us, who prayed that the faith of the apostles might not fail, not because He was not able of Himself to preserve it, but because He rejoiced in the pre-eminence of the Father.”
CH Spurgeon again, says, “They have forsaken the Master’s way: they have gone off from the platform whereon he standeth whenever it comes to the carnal weapon. It is ours still to submit, and to be the anvil which bears the blows, but outlasts all the hammers.”
And so too does Ignatius: “Let not those that seem to be plausible and yet teach strange doctrine dismay thee. Stand thou firm, as an anvil when it is smitten. It is the part of a great athlete to receive blows and be victorious. But especially must we for God's sake endure all things, that He also may endure us.”
So we see some of the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in. And as we stand the rigours of the enemy’s buffeting let’s remember that, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15).
Strengthen us to fight the good fight we pray dear Lord.