Following the Seed

1 · The promise · Genesis 2:8; 3:15

The garden, eastward in Eden

The region of the Tigris and Euphrates. The garden is not a surveyed point. The Flood reworked the ground.

The Seed is promised, before He is anyone’s son.

The LORD planted a garden eastward in Eden. After the fall He spoke the first gospel there: the woman’s Seed would bruise the serpent’s head, and the serpent would bruise His heel. Jesus does not begin in Bethlehem. He is announced here. Every place after this is only the keeping of that sentence. If this word is never spoken, there is nothing to follow.

2 · The promise · Genesis 4:16–26

Nod, and the spread of man

East of Eden, on the earth before the Flood. Cain went out from the presence of the LORD. That ground is gone.

Abel is dead, and the Seed is not in the line that spreads.

Cain goes out from the presence of the LORD and builds a city. That line multiplies. It is not the line. Seth is born, and then men begin to call upon the name of the LORD. The arrival of Jesus waits on the other son. The spread of mankind is real, and it does not carry the promise. One family does.

3 · The flood · Genesis 6:8; 8:4

The mountains of Ararat

Eastern Turkey, the mountains of Ararat. The mark is the Durupınar formation near Doğubayazıt.

The Flood would have ended the Seed. It passed through the ark.

The earth is filled with violence. God brings the flood, and the promise goes through one family. The ark rests upon the mountains of Ararat. Eight souls. If Noah is not spared, there is no Abraham, no David, and no Christ.

4 · The nations · Genesis 11:1–9

The plain of Shinar

Southern Iraq, the plain where Babel was built, south and east of the later city of Babylon.

Man tries to arrive without the Seed. God scatters the tongues.

They say, let us make us a name, lest we be scattered. God comes down and scatters them anyway. The Seed is not the tower. Shem’s line is kept while the nations are divided. Babel is why the gospel must later be preached in every tongue. The confusion does not cancel Genesis 3:15. It shows who the Seed is for.

5 · The fathers · Genesis 12:1–3; Galatians 3:16

Ur of the Chaldees

Tell el-Muqayyar, southern Iraq, beside the ancient Euphrates.

The Seed is narrowed to one man’s house.

Abram is called out of Ur, out of a house that served other gods. God promises a land, a nation, and this: in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Paul says the promises were made to Abraham and to his seed, and he adds, he saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. The arrival now has a family.

6 · The fathers · Genesis 11:31–12:5

Haran

Harran, southeastern Turkey, on the road between Ur and the land.

The call stalls here until Abram leaves.

Terah takes Abram as far as Haran and dies there. The Seed sits still. Abram is seventy-five when he finally goes. If he settles in Haran, the land is never entered and the line never reaches Judah. The arrival is not only a promise. It is a man who obeys it and walks on.

7 · The fathers · Genesis 12:6–7

Shechem

Tell Balata, at Nablus, north of Bethel and well north of Jerusalem.

The Seed is tied to this land, not only to a family.

Abram passes through the land unto the place of Sichem. The LORD appears and says, Unto thy seed will I give this land. He builds an altar. The promise is no longer only blood. It is ground. The Christ must come of this people, in the land sworn here.

8 · The fathers · Genesis 28:12–14

Bethel

Beitin, about eleven miles north of Jerusalem.

The promise is spoken again to the man who will be Israel.

Jacob is fleeing Esau. The chosen son is not the elder. Night finds him, and the LORD says that in his seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. If this fugitive dies in the field, the Seed stops. The ladder is God’s word that he will father the nation.

9 · The fathers · Genesis 23:17–20

Hebron

The cave of Machpelah, in Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem.

The family of the Seed is buried in the land they do not yet hold.

Sarah dies. Abraham buys the field and the cave. They will not be carried back to Ur. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah lie south of Jerusalem until the land is theirs. A people who own a grave have not given up the promise. The arrival needs a family that stays in the land even when all they own is a tomb.

10 · The fathers · Genesis 22:2, 14; 2 Chronicles 3:1

Mount Moriah

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the ridge between Bethel to the north and Hebron to the south.

The son of the promise is laid on the wood, and God provides a ram.

Isaac is the son through whom the promise must pass. The knife is raised. The angel stops it. Abraham calls the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. This is the ridge where the temple will stand. The arrival will be God providing Himself a lamb. If Isaac dies with no son, Jesus never comes. A substitute stands in, and the line walks back down the hill.

11 · The fathers · Genesis 21:12; 21:31; 26:23–25

Beersheba

Tel Be’er Sheva, in the Negev, south of Hebron.

Ishmael is sent out. The oath stands with Isaac.

Not every son of Abraham carries this. God says, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. The child of the flesh is sent away. At the well of the oath the covenant is sworn, and years later Isaac hears it again in the same place. The arrival will not come through the line Abraham tried to help along. It will come through the son God named.

12 · The fathers · Genesis 32:24–30

Peniel

The Jabbok, east of the Jordan. The tells at Tulul adh-Dhahab are the place long identified with Peniel.

The man who carries the Seed is renamed, and he is not killed.

Jacob wrestles until the breaking of the day and is named Israel. In the morning he meets Esau, who once purposed to murder him. If Jacob dies at the ford, there is no Judah and no Messiah. The nation receives its name in the dark and limps toward the brother who could have ended the line. He lives. That is the event.

13 · Egypt · Genesis 45:5–8; 47:27

Goshen

The eastern Nile Delta. Tell el-Dab‘a, Avaris, in the land where Israel dwelt.

A hated brother keeps the Seed alive through the famine.

The famine would have finished the seventy. Joseph says, God did send me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. The brothers meant it for evil. The arrival of Jesus passes through a pit they dug. Egypt is a shelter, not the home. The Seed is preserved, and then it must come out.

14 · Egypt · Exodus 1:8–22; 12:23–41

The departure from Egypt

The Wadi Tumilat, at Tell el-Maskhuta, where the road leaves the delta toward the wilderness.

A king tries to kill the sons. The Passover lamb marks the houses.

A Pharaoh who knew not Joseph sets himself against the male children. That blow is aimed at the line. Moses is hidden, then sent. The blood on the lintel is the difference between a dead son and a living one. Israel comes out. The Lamb is already in the story. If the houses are not marked, the Seed’s people are finished in Egypt and Jesus is never born.

15 · The wilderness · Exodus 14:13–30

The Red Sea

Nuweiba, on the Gulf of Aqaba, opposite Jabal al-Lawz.

The nation is trapped. If the sea does not open, the Seed drowns.

Pharaoh’s chariots pin them against the water. There is no second Israel waiting somewhere else. God opens the sea and they cross. If they do not cross, the promise ends.

16 · The wilderness · Exodus 19:5–6; 32:10–14; Galatians 3:19

Mount Sinai

Jabal al-Lawz, in northwest Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba.

The carriers of the Seed are covenanted, and then nearly consumed.

The law is added till the seed should come. They are a people now, not a crowd. Then the calf. God says He could consume them and make a nation of Moses instead. Moses stands in the breach, and the line that must produce the Christ is spared.

17 · The wilderness · Numbers 13:30–14:35

Kadesh-barnea

Ain el-Qudeirat, on the southern edge of the Negev.

Unbelief delays the arrival. It does not repeal the oath.

The spies have seen the land. The people refuse it, and that generation falls short of Joshua and Caleb. Forty years are added. The Seed is not voted out. God swears He will still bring them in. Fear can delay the promise. Fear cannot cancel what God has said about the Seed. They wander. The oath does not wander.

18 · The wilderness · Deuteronomy 34:1–5

Mount Nebo

Siyagha, above the northeast end of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. Moses sees the land from here.

Moses can see the land. He cannot finish the arrival.

The law-giver dies outside. His eye is not dim, and his foot does not enter. Joshua leads them in, and Joshua is the same name as Jesus: Jehovah saves. The pattern is already preaching. The law brings you to the edge. A saviour takes you over. Moses is gathered to his people. The Seed still has to cross.

19 · The land · Joshua 3:15–17

The Jordan

The ford opposite Jericho, at the river between the wilderness and the land.

The ark goes into the river, and the land of the Christ is entered.

The priests’ feet touch the water and the nation crosses dry. From this hour the towns of the gospel are in their hands to possess: Jericho, Shiloh, Bethlehem, Jerusalem. If they stay east of the river, the Christ is promised a land they never took. The arrival needs this crossing. The ark goes first. The people follow the presence.

20 · The land · Joshua 2:18; 6:25; Matthew 1:5

Jericho

Tell es-Sultan, the mound north of the modern town, just west of the Jordan.

The first wall falls, and a Gentile woman enters the line of Jesus.

Rahab believes, binds the scarlet line in the window, and is saved with her house. Matthew puts her in the genealogy of Christ. The city that stood against the promise becomes the door a Canaanite mother of the Seed walks through. The arrival will not be a pure bloodline keeping everybody else out. A harlot of Jericho is in the family of the King.

21 · The land · Joshua 5:2–12

Gilgal

On the plain east of Jericho. The exact mound is not known.

The covenant sign is put back on the generation that will father the line.

The reproach of Egypt is rolled away. They are circumcised. They keep the passover on the ground God swore to give, and the manna stops. They eat the corn of the land. Before the wars, God marks again the bodies that will father the tribes. The Seed still has to be born of this people. Gilgal is where they become that people again, inside the land.

22 · The land · 1 Samuel 1:11–20; Psalm 78:60; Genesis 49:10

Shiloh

Khirbet Seilun, in the hills north of Bethel and south of Shechem.

A barren woman asks for a son, and that son will anoint David.

The tabernacle rests here. Hannah prays, and Samuel is born. Samuel will pour the horn on David at Bethlehem. When the ark is taken, God forsakes Shiloh. The Seed will not stay in this tent. He is moving toward a throne. And Jacob had already said the sceptre would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. The name of this hill sits inside the promise of the King.

23 · The land · Ruth 4:13–22; 1 Samuel 16:13

Bethlehem

The town on the ridge south of Jerusalem and north of Hebron.

The line is narrowed to David, and a Moabite woman is in it.

Ruth is redeemed by Boaz. The book ends with a name: David. Then Samuel anoints the youngest son of Jesse here, while another king still wears the crown. The Seed is no longer “a son of Abraham” in general. It is David’s son. A woman of Moab is in the list Matthew will read. Micah will send the Christ back to this same house of bread. The arrival now has a town.

24 · The kingdom · 2 Samuel 5:7; 7:12–16

Jerusalem

The city of David, between Bethel to the north and Hebron to the south.

God swears the throne to David’s seed for ever.

David takes Zion. He purposes to build a house for the ark. The LORD turns it around: the LORD will make David a house. Thy seed will I set up after thee, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. This sentence is why Jesus is called the son of David. Not the walls. The oath. If this covenant is never spoken, the Christ has no throne to inherit.

25 · The kingdom · 2 Chronicles 3:1; 1 Kings 8:20; Haggai 2:7–9

The temple on Moriah

Solomon’s house, on the threshingfloor of Ornan, which is Moriah. The same ridge as the ram.

The house is built where Isaac was spared, and the Name is put there.

Solomon builds on the mount where God provided the ram. Sacrifice, prayer, and the presence now have an address. The Seed will be presented in this house, will teach in its courts, and will be the offering the animals were pointing at. They are raising a house for a King who is not yet born. The arrival needs a place where God has said He will meet them.

26 · The kingdom · 1 Kings 11:36; 12:28–29; 16:24

Samaria

Sebastia, in the hills north of Shechem.

The kingdom tears, and the lamp is left in Jerusalem.

The north pulls away. Jeroboam sets calves at Bethel and Dan so the people will not go up to the temple. The Seed is not in Samaria’s throne. God reserves one tribe for David’s sake, that David his servant may have a light alway in Jerusalem. The split could have scattered the promise. Instead it locates it. Messiah comes of Judah, not of the kings who sat on this hill.

27 · The exile · 2 Kings 17:6; 19:35–36; Matthew 1:9–10

Nineveh

Kouyunjik, on the Tigris at Mosul, Iraq. Capital of the Assyria that took the north.

Assyria swallows the north and reaches for Hezekiah’s seed.

Israel is carried away and does not come back as a kingdom. Then Sennacherib comes for Judah. Hezekiah stands in the genealogy of Jesus. If Jerusalem falls now, that line is cut off in the siege. God turns the army back, and the king of Assyria returns to Nineveh. The arrival continues because the threat fails.

28 · The exile · 2 Kings 25:9–11; Jeremiah 22:30; Matthew 1:11–12

Babylon

The ruins at Hillah, Iraq, on the Euphrates.

The throne is burned, and a curse seems to shut David’s door.

Nebuchadnezzar burns the house of the LORD and takes the king. Jeremiah says of Coniah that no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David. The royal line looks finished. Matthew still records Jechonias on the way to Joseph. The Christ will be David’s legal heir through Joseph, and David’s son by Mary, and not the biological son of that cursed seat. After Babylon, the virgin birth is how the Seed still arrives.

29 · The exile · Esther 3:13; 4:14; 6:1

Susa

Shush, in southwestern Iran. The palace of the Persian kings.

A decree goes out to destroy the Jews in one day.

Haman does not know he is reaching for the Seed. If Persia succeeds, there is no remnant to go home, no Bethlehem, and no Mary. Esther is come to the kingdom for such a time as this. The king cannot sleep. The gallows built for Mordecai takes Haman. The book never says the name of God, and the arrival of Jesus hangs on that night in this palace.

30 · The return · Ezra 1:1–3; 3:2; Haggai 2:7; Matthew 1:12

Jerusalem rebuilt

The temple ridge, rebuilt under Zerubbabel, in the city the exiles walked back to.

The remnant comes home, and Zerubbabel is in both lines of Jesus.

Cyrus opens the door. They build the altar before they finish the walls. Haggai says the desire of all nations shall come, and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former. Zerubbabel, with the plumbline in his hand, is named in Matthew and in Luke. They are not restoring a memory. They are making a city ready for a birth. If they stay in Babylon, the Seed is not born in Bethlehem.

31 · The Christ · Luke 1:26–35; Matthew 1:20–23

Nazareth

Nazareth, in the hills of Galilee, above the Jezreel valley.

The angel speaks to Mary, and the Seed takes flesh.

The Holy Ghost comes upon her. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Joseph is not the father of this conception. Everything that stalled at Haran, survived the sea, and seemed to die in Babylon becomes a child in a town they despise. The arrival is no longer only future. He is conceived. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? This can.

32 · The Christ · Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1–7; Matthew 2:16

Bethlehem, at the birth

The Church of the Nativity stands over the place the church has marked since early centuries.

A tax puts the child where it was written, and Herod fails to kill Him.

Augustus thinks he is counting the empire. He moves the son of David from Nazareth to the city of David. Jesus is born, and laid in a manger, because there was no room. Herod hears, and kills the boys of Bethlehem to stop Him. Egypt hides Him, as the Seed once hid in Egypt before. The arrival is a birth, and on the same night an assassination that does not succeed.

33 · The Christ · John 1:28–34; Matthew 3:16–17

Bethabara, at the Jordan

Al-Maghtas, on the east bank of the Jordan, the traditional baptism place opposite Jericho.

John points at Him, and the Father names Him.

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus is baptized. The Spirit descends. A voice from heaven says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Israel is not left to decide which son of David is the Seed. The public arrival begins in the river they once crossed behind the ark. The same water. A greater than Joshua stands in it.

34 · The Christ · Matthew 4:13–17; Isaiah 9:1–2

Capernaum

Tell Hum, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The light Isaiah promised rises in Galilee, and He calls the men who will carry it.

He leaves Nazareth and dwells in Capernaum, upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. The people which sat in darkness see great light. From this shore He calls fishermen who will carry the news of His arrival to the nations. The Seed is no longer hidden in a carpenter’s house. He is preaching the kingdom. If He never opens His mouth, the birth is a secret and the world is not told.

35 · The Christ · Matthew 16:13–21

Caesarea Philippi

Banias, at the foot of Mount Hermon, where a spring feeds the Jordan.

He is confessed, and He says He must be killed and raised.

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood hath not revealed it. From that time forth He begins to shew His disciples that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. The arrival is not a crown without a cross. Peter hates the sentence. The sentence stands. Genesis 3:15 already included a bruised heel.

36 · The Christ · Zechariah 9:9; Luke 19:41–44; John 1:11

Jerusalem, the last week

The east approach, from the Mount of Olives down into the temple courts.

The King comes in low, and His own city refuses Him.

He rides the colt Zechariah wrote of. He weeps over the city, because the day of their visitation is hid from their eyes. The leaders take counsel that He should die. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Their refusal is not a defeat of the plan. It is the road to the bruising. If they crown Him without the cross, the heel is never bruised and the promise is unfinished.

37 · The Christ · John 19:17–30; Genesis 3:15

Golgotha

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site marked from the early church. The Garden Tomb is also shown to visitors.

The heel is bruised. This is what the line was for.

They bring Him to the place of a skull. He is crucified between two thieves. He says, It is finished. The sentence spoken eastward in Eden is kept here. It is not contradicted by the cross. Every altar, every lamb, every spared son was leaning toward this hour. If He is not lifted up, the line was only history. The Seed came to be bruised, and to bruise the serpent’s head.

38 · The Christ · Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:8–11

The mount of Olives

The ridge east of the Old City. The ascension is marked above, toward Bethany.

He is alive, and He does not take the promise back.

He rises the third day. A dead Christ arrives nowhere. He leads them out as far as to Bethany, and while He blesses them He is parted from them and carried up. The same God who promised the Seed now sends the witnesses into Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. The arrival is complete in Him. The news of it is not. This hill is where He left, still the King.

39 · The nations · Acts 2:1–11, 41

Jerusalem, at Pentecost

Mount Zion, where the church has long marked the upper room.

The tongues Babel scattered hear the Seed preached.

The Spirit is poured out in the city that killed Him. They speak the wonderful works of God in the languages the tower divided. About three thousand are added. The blessing of Abraham, which is Christ, begins to reach the families. Without this morning the cross stays inside one wall. With it, the arrival becomes a message. The Seed is no longer only a body. He is preached.

40 · The nations · Acts 11:20–26; 13:2–3

Antioch

Antakya, in southern Turkey, on the Orontes near the coast.

The gospel is aimed at the nations on purpose.

Persecution had already pushed the word out of Jerusalem. Here they preach unto the Greeks also. The disciples are called Christians first in Antioch. The Spirit says, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. If the church remains a Jerusalem sect, the promise to all families of the earth is unfinished. They fast, they lay hands on them, and they sail. The Seed’s name leaves with a mission, not an accident.

41 · The nations · Acts 28:30–31

Rome

Rome. Paul dwelt two years in his own hired house.

The gospel stands in the capital of the empire, and no man forbids it.

Paul dwells two whole years in his own hired house, and receives all that come in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. The line that began in a garden has reached the throne-room of the nations. Rome is not the end of the earth. It is the proof the arrival was never meant to stop at Jerusalem. The rest of the distance is wherever this word is still preached.