Page 59 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

sped from the sling of David to the forehead of Goliath to remind us of the fact that
the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent‟s head; the bruising of the head of
Goliath was followed by his decapitation. Satan, rendered powerless against every

believer at the cross, will be removed from circulation at the coming.

We repeat that Saul‟s implacable hatred toward David can not be explained
satisfactorily on the ground of jealousy for his throne and dynasty. His insane fury

toward him and his desire to kill him even after David had twice spared his life can
only be viewed logically in the light if the serpent‟s desire to cut the line of the seed
and to quench the future testimony of Judah. But here as always God preserved the
vital instruments of His testimony and protected the “highway of the seed” from being

severed.

In the glorious reign of Solomon, when attack from the outside would have been
to no avail, the Adversary bored from the inside and brought Solomon into marital

alliances which discredited his own testimony and sowed the seeds for the division of
the kingdom under the reign of his dissolute son, Rehoboam. Beginning with
“Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin” by setting up idolatrous worship
in Dan and Bethel, the history of the northern kingdom was one of almost

uninterrupted apostasy. Jehovah God raised up the prophet Elijah and maintained his
testimony to the One Living and true God in spite of the desperate attempts of those
incarnations of the Satanic seed, Ahab and Jezebel, to kill him. Other prophets whom
the Lord sent, notably Hosea and Amos, failed to stem the awful rush to judgment,

and about the middle of the eighth century B.C. they were delivered into the hands of
Sargon, king of Assyria (read II Kings 17:4-23).

The southern kingdom of Judah maintained the testimony of the Living One a

little better and had a few kings who “did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord.” He honored the faith of Hezekiah and miraculously slew the hosts of
Sennacherib, king of Syria, saving Judah‟s autonomy. He honored the repentance and
faith of Josiah, who initiated a revival of the Word of God after the return to idolatry

under Manasseh and Amon. But judgment was coming on apace as foretold by the
great prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the stroke fell in the third year of the reign of
Jehoiakim when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem. The corporate

vehicle of God‟s earthly testimony, the people of Israel and Judah, were temporarily
set aside, and the advantage in the warfare seemed to rest with the serpent and his
seed.

However, the Lord Jehovah still retained His testimony among the peoples by the

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