George Ophoff was Professor of Old Testament Studies in the Protestant Reformed Seminary in its early days. Reprinted here, in edited form, are articles which Ophoff wrote at that time for the Standard Bearer.

We have seen that, already at the dawn of human history, the mother promise was a most remarkable revelation of the course of events determined upon by Jehovah God. Two seeds, there are—the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Between the two there will be, throughout all of history, perpetual strife—a strife set by none other than God Himself. And the outcome is sure, even declared in advance. The serpent’s brood will be vanquished. The seed of the woman shall prevail.Genesis 3:15 marks the dawn of grace.

The question now arises, to what degree were our first parents made to feel the force of the divine announcement, and to what extent were they made to see its implications?

Expectation of Eve

At the birth of her firstborn Eve exclaimed, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” It is clear how Eve construed the words of God. The divine announcement had awakened in her understanding heart the hope of one empowered to triumph over and to vanquish the seducer. It is also plain that her expectations were centered upon a man—a man with Jehovah. She erred, however, in that she regarded her firstborn as the promised seed. That Eve soon saw her mistake is evident from the fact that she named her second born Abel, meaning, breath, vanity.

Revelation to Abraham

Another important Scripture isGenesis 12:2, 3. Abraham is called and receives a revelation. God will make of him a great nation and bless him. “And I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Abraham is blessed. Man had heard God curse. The force and meaning of the divine curse was constantly being exhibited unto him. The essence of the curse, he saw, is a life lived apart from God. The one whom God curses is expelled from the presence of the Father of lights. Such a one is ordered to leave God’s house and is assigned to a place upon which the Almighty, in holy indignation, frowns—a place of utter darkness, where men wail and gnash their teeth. The meaning of the curse, I repeat, was incessantly being demonstrated to man—in his expulsion from the garden of Eden, in the shame which he experienced upon the discovery of his nakedness, in the thorn and the thistle which grew, in the wanton ungodliness of the seed of the serpent.

However, God promised to set enmity. And so He did and continued to do. Abram is called and ordered to get him out of his country, and from his kindred, and from his father’s house, unto a land that God will show him. Abraham is blessed. Again it becomes manifest that the curse of God does not mean the eclipse of the entire human race. Abraham and his seed are blessed. The essence of the divine blessing is a life permeated with and enveloped by the light of God’s countenance. Jehovah is the friend of him whom He blesses. And that one, being blessed, is made to love God. This one dwells in God’s presence and is happy because he may know the Holy One.

Abraham is blessed and he shall be a blessing. Further, whether one is blessed or cursed depends upon one’s attitude toward Abraham. Those cursing Abraham will be cursed, and those blessing Abraham will be blessed. And finally, in him will all the families of the earth be blessed. That is to say, the races of the earth are blessed because of their oneness with him. On the other hand, he who is not in Abraham, that is, not connected with and related to him, is cursed.

These statements are pregnant with meaning. We ask, how can these things be? The answer is ready: The seed of Abraham is Christ. These statements must be made to apply to an organism, to that organism of which Christ is the head. Of that body this patriarch is a member. He who curses him is cursing the body and its head—the Christ. He who is joined to him is a member of the organism. Such a one is at once in Christ and is blessed. Abraham was made a blessing in that he brought forth Christ. To this must be added that the life of Abraham was an exhibition of the Christ in him. He walked as a child of life, as one born of God, devoted to the cause of Jehovah. He who cursed Abraham cursed the Christ whom he displayed. But the matter which interests us now is that the church of the old covenant was made to see, from the very beginning, that the boundless ocean of God’s grace was inseparably connected with a seed, with a man of Jehovah—an offspring of the holy race. What bearing this has on our subject will be made plain in the sequence.

Blessing of Judah

Let us pass on to Genesis 49:8-10. The passage reads, literally:

Judah thou! Thy brethren shall praise thee!

Thy hand in the neck of thine enemies,

Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee.

A lion’s whelp is Judah;

From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:

He stooped down, he crouches like a lion,

And like a lioness—who shall rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

Until Shiloh come,

And to Him willing obedience of the nations!

This passage seems to have baffled many a commentator. Lengthy treatises have been written on the meaning of the term Shiloh. However, the very text in which the name appears indicates that the term signifies a person and not a place. The passage yields no difficulties if explained in the light of previous revelation and according to the spirit of prophecy as a whole. In that light, we see at once that the term Shiloh is a personal designation of Him in whom the church, even at this juncture, had been taught to center its hopes, viz., the man of Jehovah, who, in this particular outburst of prophetic vision, is named the Shiloh, i.e., the peacemaker, the prince of peace, unto whom the gathering of the nations shall be. Thus it appears that the passage is permeated with prophetic allusions.

This particular reference to the Messiah was later taken up in the prophecy of Balaam. “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey” (Num. 23:24). And again: “He crouched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee…. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city” (Num. 24:9-19).

Also this prophecy revolves around a person, namely, about Him who shall gain the ascendancy over the malice of the devil. Here, again, He is presented in the image of a lion. The church of the old covenant is made to see that the consolation of Israel is full of majesty and power, supremely strong, free, and unhampered in His movements, doing as He sees fit.

Prophecy of Isaiah

Finally, there is that matchless passage in Isaiah:

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Is. 52:13-53:12

This seer, and he only, is transported to those sublime heights from which he can see in the distance the spectacle of the suffering Savior. Eve saw Him as the man of Jehovah who shall come to crush the serpent’s head. To Abraham, Jehovah spoke of Him as the seed in whom the fullness of grace doth dwell. Jacob saw Him as the lionhearted prince of peace. But to Isaiah He appeared as the suffering servant of Jehovah and as the anointed one who comes in power and in love. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his laws” (Isaiah 42:1-4).

It was revealed unto Isaiah not only that the man of Jehovah would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, but also that this suffering servant is God: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Is. 9:6).

The words of Isaiah are, to be sure, interspersed with more Messianic allusions. Their sum total clearly reveals that this seer saw more of the Christ than did any of the other prophets. All the Messianic revelations of the preceding epochs were incorporated in his prophecies, and to them is added elements for which one looks in vain in the prophetic words of the others. The description of the suffering servant of Jehovah is peculiar to the utterances of Isaiah.

Thus it appears that the shadows of the old covenant were indeed accompanied by the spoken word describing the very objects and events prefigured by the shadows. It also appears that another rudiment of the Jehovah religion was (and is) that the coming deliverer is the man of Jehovah, the servant of Jehovah, whose task it shall be to gain the ascendancy over the forces of unrighteousness and to deliver the oppressed. It was also repeatedly stressed that the coming one is the son of man, an offspring of the holy seed, the rod out of the stem of Jesse, a branch growing out of his roots. In this one the expectations of the saints were centered.