As a new creature he was
made perfect by the things which he suffered.--Hebrews 5:8.
[470]From the time of his baptism he was opposed by Satan the devil, who
sought to destroy him. The reason for this opposition lay in the fact that
when God sentenced Adam to death he had said unto Satan: "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel". (Genesis 3:15) The
woman here symbolized or typified the Abrahamic-Sarah covenant, from which
the seed of promise springs. As Isaac was the son of promise, so the
church was typified by Isaac. (Galatians 4:25-29) The seed of promise is
therefore the new creation. The seed of the serpent consists of those
agencies visible and invisible which are his offspring, and which are used
by him for his wicked work. In Jesus' day the scribes and Pharisees and
doctors of the law were classed as the offspring of Satan, his seed (John
8:44); and it has been true at all times that many who have pretended to
be Christians are really the seed of Satan and engage in persecuting
others who love the Lord.
[471]Immediately after the baptism of Jesus he went up into a mountain
in the wilderness to study God's plan and to meditate upon it, that he
might be instructed in the way that Jehovah would have him go; and when
this season of forty days was ended and he came forth, he was subjected
to a great temptation by the devil.
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