One generation followed another after the birth of Seth, but still the promised Seed did not appear. Meanwhile wickedness increased until “Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. . . . And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.” Then came the flood in which all the inhabitants of the world perished, with the exception of Noah and his immediate family. Among the descendants of Noah, after the world had been destroyed by water, there were those who soon turned away from the service of God, and became idolaters. “After the dispersion from Babel, idolatry became well-nigh universal, and the Lord finally left the hardened transgressors to follow their evil ways, while he chose Abraham, of the line of Shem, and made him the keeper of his law for future generations. Abraham had grown up in the midst of superstition and heathenism. Even his father’s household, by whom the knowledge of God had been preserved, were yielding to the seductive influences around them, and they ‘served other gods’ than Jehovah. But the true faith was not to become extinct. God has ever preserved a remnant to serve him. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, in unbroken line, had persevered from age to age the precious revealings of his will. The son of Terah became the inheritor of the holy trust. Idolatry invited him on every side, but in vain. Faithful among the faithless, uncorrupted by the prevailing apostasy, he steadfastly adhered to the worship of the one true God.” In his talk before the council the martyr Stephen thus spoke of the experience of Abraham: “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.” And then were made unto him those promises which are recorded in Gen. 12: 2, 3: “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” In response to this call Abraham went forth out of his own country, and came into the land of Canaan, and there “Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.” It should be noticed that in this first promise of the land it was declared that it would be given to the seed of Abraham. In the later statements of the promise Abraham is specifically included in it. Thus after the separation from Lot the Lord said unto him, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” And likewise after the birth of Ishmael, in making the promise of a son whose name should be called Isaac, the Lord said, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” The promise to give the land to his seed while he was yet childless was in itself a promise of the seed, and really emphasized the fact that the seed was the principal thing in the promise. This is clearly the thought which Stephen had in mind when he said, “And he promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” That the promises to Abraham had especially in view the gift of the Son of God in the flesh and the coming of the Seed, is plainly shown by the interpretation of these promises as given by the Holy Spirit through the apostles. Thus Peter in preaching to the people after the resurrection said, “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” These statements point out that the blessing which was to come upon Abraham and his seed was the blessing of being rescued from sin through the sending of the Son of God in the flesh, the true Seed, to turn away the people from their sins. So also the apostle Paul writes: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. . . . And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Nothing could be clearer than that in the promises to Abraham God was renewing his original promise of the coming of the Seed, while at the same time he was opening up to the mind of man something further of what was included in his own mind in that original promise. All this was done that “we might have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil.” This is the “blessed hope” of the coming of the Seed, and this hope is soon to be fully realized. Let us lay hold of this hope, accept the provision for cleansing from sin, and thus be prepared for the fulness of all the promised blessings.