In tracing the development of the original promise of the Seed who should bruise the head of the serpent, we find that the time from Adam to the first advent is divided into four periods, which are clearly designated by experiences of special significance. The first period is from Adam to Abraham, the second period is from Abraham to David, the third period is from David to the captivity in Babylon, and the fourth period is from the captivity in Babylon to the first advent. These divisions are clearly recognized in the inspired record. The Gospel by Matthew is declared to be “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” and after tracing the genealogy of the promised Seed from Abraham to the family of Joseph, the writer says: “So all the generations from Abraham unto David are fourteen generations; and from David unto the carrying away to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon unto the Christ fourteen generations.” We have already given some study to the promises to Abraham and the promises to David, and we have seen that in each case a new and larger view was4given of what was involved in the original promise of the Seed. In the declarations to Abraham concerning the land, it was made clear that the earth, once given to man but lost through sin, would be restored to the possession of the human family through the gift of the Seed in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In the assurances to David of the everlasting continuance of his house and kingdom was revealed the Lord’s purpose that the first dominion should be restored to man in him who was both David’s son and David’s Lord. The experience of Abraham, “a sojourner in the land of promise,” and the experience of David on the throne in Jerusalem were simply the object-lessons in which these great truths were illustrated, a sort of terrestrial setting for heavenly truth. But only in the coming of the promised Seed could the reality of these object-lessons be brought within the range of human experience. These experiences of Abraham and of David apart from the coming of the Seed were the shadows, and not the substance. But in the course of time the religious experience of the descendants of Abraham and of David degenerated into a “form of godliness.” They lost sight of substance and reality. The Lord himself, through the prophet Isaiah, thus describes their condition: “This people draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me.” They neglected their mission as a missionary people to spread throughout the world the knowledge of the redemption provided in the promised Seed, and attempted to build a wall of exclusiveness around themselves. Thus by the method of withholding rather than of imparting, they attempted to secure for themselves alone the possession of those material blessings, the land of Canaan and the throne of David in Jerusalem, to which by their fleshly interpretation of the promises they had practically limited themselves. Thus by losing Christ out of their experiences they left him out of the promises, and they exchanged the world to come, which could be possessed by faith, for as much of this present evil world as they could see and could hold by fleshly power. In vain did the Lord send them warnings and reproofs through his prophets, “rising up early and sending them.” They went on in their evil ways until they became worse than the heathen around them, and until there was no remedy except the hard discipline of that adversity which their own wickedness brought upon them. All this is declared by the prophet Jeremiah in these words: “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And Jehovah hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear), saying, Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah hath given unto you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore; and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith Jehovah; that ye may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” The word of the Lord was fulfilled. Although they struggled with the energy of despair to hold the land and the throne which they might have retained by the fight of faith, yet the wisdom of men was found to be foolishness, and the strength of men was found to be weakness. The helplessness of humanity apart from God was plainly revealed. The Lord “brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed. . . . And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon.” Having been brought into the captivity of sin because they had rejected the power of God in Christ the promised Seed, the only protection against sin, they were brought into the captivity of Babylon as the inevitable result. Slavery of soul means slavery of body. Sin means death. In the coming of the promised Seed is the only hope of deliverance. The lesson was a severe one, but the course of the people made it necessary. The judgments of the Lord are his final appeal to his people. So it was then, and so it is to-day. And so the Lord permitted the king of Babylon to take from his people the land which had been promised to Abraham, and to carry away to Babylon the king who sat on David’s throne in Jerusalem, that he might teach them the hopelessness of putting confidence in the outward and the fleshly, and that they might be brought back to the simple faith of Abraham and of David in the power of God’s word and in the promise of the coming of the Seed. And thus it is that the carrying away to Babylon is one of the historic landmarks in the development of the original promise of the coming of the Seed.