Who has this work of bearing witness about Jesus today? Who are these ones who are the seed of the woman?
Revelation 12:17… And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, (G4690) who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness (G3141) to Jesus.
The expression bearing witness is taken from a Greek word as found in Strong’s Concordance as #G3141 (martyrim) and can be also translated as to give evidence as in giving a testimony.
So, the seed of this woman will give statements about Jesus Christ as proof of his existence and his appearance as a matter of public record.
Whereas the word seed can also be translated as offspring, descendants, or children according to Strong’s Concordance #G4690 (sperma).
Now we can tie in that it is the children of the woman her descendants that will be the ones who testify about Jesus Christ.
Who is the Seed?
The first prophecy uttered by God had to do with the seed, so what did God say about the seed?
Genesis 3:15… And I shall put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.
Here God has revealed that there is going to be a struggle between the Serpent or Dragon and what it produced as a seed and the physical woman and what would be produced by her seed. What is a seed and how would we describe it?
A Seed is a process of reproduction, it holds within itself the necessary genetics to reproduce in the very likeness of that which it came from. Let us look at would Jesus said about the seed of the Dragon.
John 8:42-47… Jesus said to them: “If God were YOUR Father, YOU would love me, for from God I came forth and am here. Neither have I come of my own initiative at all, but that One sent me forth. 43 Why is it YOU do not know what I am speaking? Because YOU cannot listen to my word. 44 YOU are from YOUR father the Devil, and YOU wish to do the desires of YOUR father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of it. 45 Because I, on the other hand, tell the truth, YOU do not believe me. 46 Who of YOU convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why is it YOU do not believe me? 47 He that is from God listens to the sayings of God. This is why YOU do not listen, because YOU are not from God.
Jesus identified those fleshly people who were seeking and doing their own desires like that of killing and lying as some of the main characteristics of those who belong to the devil, as his seed.
Is Zion the Woman?
The next set of clues that we have for who the seed of the woman is comes from the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 66:7-8… Before she began to come into labor pains she gave birth. Before birth pangs could come to her, she even gave deliverance to a male child. Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.
Did you notice the similarity between Revelation chapter 12 and Isaiah chapter 66?
For this prophecy speaks of the woman being Zion and giving birth to her sons. Who are the sons of Zion?
Next we have the apostle Paul speaking about the symbolic drama of the two women in Abraham’s life. As he speaks of the sons of these two women, one being fleshly and the other being of the promise. The one woman being that of Hagar who represents physical Jerusalem today, were as Sarah has her children by the promise of God and she represents the Jerusalem above.
Galatians 4:21-31… Tell me, YOU who want to be under law, Do YOU not hear the Law? 22 For example, it is written that Abraham acquired two sons, one by the servant girl and one by the free woman; 23 but the one by the servant girl was actually born in the manner of flesh, the other by the free woman through a promise. 24 These things stand as a symbolic drama; for these [women] mean two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which brings forth children for slavery, and which is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar means Sinai, a mountain in Arabia, and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:
“Be glad, you barren woman who does not give birth; break out and cry aloud, you woman who does not have childbirth pains; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than [those] of her who has the husband.”
28 Now we, brothers, are children belonging to the promise the same as Isaac was.
The apostle Paul makes special mention by reference to a particular prophecy here in verse 27. Who is this free woman and what mandate is God giving her?
Isaiah 54:1-3…Cry out joyfully, you barren woman that did not give birth! Become cheerful with a joyful outcry and cry shrilly, you that had no childbirth pains, for the sons of the desolated one are more numerous than the sons of the woman with a husbandly owner,” Jehovah has said. 2 “Make the place of your tent more spacious. And let them stretch out the tent cloths of your grand tabernacle. Do not hold back. Lengthen out your tent cords and make those tent pins of yours strong. 3 For to the right and to the left you will break forth, and your own offspring will take possession even of nations, and they will inhabit even the desolated cities.
God’s mandate to the barren woman that she is to make ready more room because her sons are coming. Who are these ones that are coming?
Isaiah 51:1-3… Listen to me, YOU people who are pursuing after righteousness, YOU who are seeking to find Jehovah. Look to the rock from which YOU were hewn out, and to the hollow of the pit from which YOU were dug out. 2 Look to Abraham YOUR father and to Sarah who gradually brought YOU forth with childbirth pains. For he was one when I called him, and I proceeded to bless him and to make him many. 3 For Jehovah will certainly comfort Zion. He will for certain comfort all her devastated places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert plain like the garden of Jehovah. Exultation and rejoicing themselves will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
For those who are pursuing righteousness are the sons of Zion, the children of the promise. God calls these ones “the redeemed ones” who are from the earth. We know that these are from the earth because of the expressions in verse one when it says from a rock you were hewn out, and again it says you were dug out, you were excavated from the pit.
And in verse two it refers to Abraham as the father, and Sarah as being the woman who bore you.
Isaiah 51:11… Then the redeemed ones of Jehovah themselves will return and must come to Zion with a joyful outcry and rejoicing to time indefinite will be upon their head. To exultation and rejoicing they will attain. Grief and sighing will certainly flee away.
What does it mean to be redeemed?
The definition given by the Bible for the word redeem means to be saved from sin, having been paid for, recovered from, or exchanged for, delivered from the consequences of sin. Galatians 4:4-7 We will cover more about this under the next subheading The Redeemed Ones.
God now goes on to further call them his people.
Isaiah 51:16… And I shall put my words in your mouth, and with the shadow of my hand I shall certainly cover you, in order to plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth and say to Zion, “You are my people.”
Also, here in the Scripture we get confirmation that the words of God, his commandments would be put in the mouth of the seed, the offspring of the woman, his people, and this ties back into Revelation 12:17.
This passage of Scripture at Isaiah 51:16 is speaking about the planting of the heavens and reminds me of what the apostle Peter said as regards the new heavens and the new earth at 2 Peter 3:13. Also what the prophet Isaiah spoke about at Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah 66:22. Then in the vision given to the apostle John at Revelation 21:1. They are all speaking of a God mandated change that is coming to the heavens and the foundation of earth.
The Redeemed Ones
So, what does it really mean to be redeemed? Earlier we gave the biblical definition but notice how the apostle Paul describes it here in this passage of Scripture. He describes it as a releasing by purchase so there could be an adoption of these purchase ones.
Galatians 4:4-7… But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman and who came to be under law, 5 that he might release by purchase those under law, that we, in turn, might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Now because YOU are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts and it cries out: “Abba, Father!” 7 So, then, you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, also an heir through God.
The redemption has a purpose, it allows for a passage from slavery into that of being a son, an heir to God by means of this adoption process.
So, there will be the children of the free woman who is Sarah and this by means of the promise covenant of love. She is the Jerusalem from above, the possession of peace, Zion the fortress of God.
Now let us look at what the apostle Paul says as respects to the Jerusalem below.
The Seed of the Slave Girl
Here the apostle Paul draws a comparison of the two women and of their seed.
Galatians 4:22-26… For example, it is written that Abraham acquired two sons, one by the servant girl and one by the free woman; 23 but the one by the servant girl was actually born in the manner of flesh, the other by the free woman through a promise. 24 These things stand as a symbolic drama; for these [women] mean two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which brings forth children for slavery, and which is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar means Sinai, a mountain in Arabia, and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
So, Hagar represents the woman who is the servant, she is fleshly and is under the law covenant, she and her seed have been pressed into service, she is the Jerusalem below, the foundation of peace who will answer to Zion above to The Fortress of God.
What happened to the sons of Hagar?
Picking back up in our verse-by-verse discussion of Isaiah 51…
Isaiah 51:17… Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of Jehovah his cup of rage. The goblet, the cup causing reeling, you have drunk, you have drained out. 18 There was none of all the sons that she brought to birth conducting her, and there was none of all the sons that she brought up taking hold of her hand. 19 Those two things were befalling you. Who will sympathize with you? Despoiling and breakdown, and hunger and sword! Who will comfort you? 20 Your own sons have swooned away. They have lain down at the head of all the streets like the wild sheep in the net, as those who are full of the rage of Jehovah, the rebuke of your God.” 21 Therefore listen to this, please, O woman afflicted and drunk, but not with wine. 22 This is what your Lord, Jehovah, even your God, who contends for his people, has said: “Look! I will take away from your hand the cup causing reeling. The goblet, my cup of rage—you will not repeat the drinking of it anymore.
Why has God been angry with the children of Hagar? The simple answer would be that they have acted badly, with jealousy and hatred in their heart. The apostle Paul referred back to the Scripture in Genesis of what Sarah told Abraham at Genesis 21:10.
Galatians 4:29-30… But just as then the one born in the manner of flesh began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit, so also now. Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? “Drive out the servant girl and her son, for by no means shall the son of the servant girl be an heir with the son of the free woman.”
This brings up some very interesting questions from reading Isaiah 51:17 about drinking from the cup of God’s anger or wrath.
When does God give Babylon the Great the cup of his wrath to drink?
Revelation 16:1-19 reveals that it will be done sometime during the pouring out of the seventh bowl.
Can you summarize what we have learned about the seed of the woman?
Writingwithlogos.com – Last updated 11/3/24