1912 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

WHY WERE all men in expectation of Him atthe time of His birth? What was to bepeculiar about Him to lead Israel to expectHis birth? The answer to this question isthat God had made a certain promise centuriesbefore and the promise had not beenfulfilled. This promise contained thethought that a holy child would be born, andthat in some way, not explained in thepromise, this child would bring the blessingthe world needed. Therefore every mother amongst theIsraelites was very solicitous that she might be the motherof a son rather than a daughter, that perchance she mightbe the mother of this promised child. Thus the matterwent on for years until, finally, the child was born.The promise back of the expectation was that whichGod made to Abraham, saying, "In thee and in thy Seedshall all the families of the earth be blessed." From thattime forward Abraham began to look for the promisedSeed--the promised child. He looked first of all to hisown children, and was finally informed that it would notbe one of his children direct, but that through theirchildren, at some remote date, this child should be born--the Seed of Abraham. From that time onward, all theIsraelites were waiting for the birth of the child thatshould bring the blessing.But why was a Messiah necessary? Why wait at allfor the birth of the child? The answer to this questionis that sin had come into the world; that God had placedour first parents--holy, pure and free from sin--in theglorious conditions of the Garden of Eden with everyfavorable prospect and everlasting life at their commandif they continued in harmony with God. But by reasonof their disobedience they came under Divine displeasureand sentence of death. This sentence of death has broughtin its wake aches, pains, sorrows, tears, sighing, cryingand death--all of these experiences as the result of sin.Our heavenly Father said to our first parents--andthis was the first intimation that He gave them of a deliverance--that "The Seed of the woman shall bruise theSerpent's head." The serpent in this expression meansSatan--all the powers of evil, everything adverse to humanity,everything adverse to the blessings which God hadgiven them, and which they had lost by disobedience.But the promise was vague and they understood littleabout the "Seed of the woman" and "bruising the Serpent'shead." It merely meant in an allegorical way agreat victory over Sin and Satan, without explaining howit should come.So mankind continued to die; they continued to haveaches and pains and sorrows; they continued going downto the tomb. They realized that what they needed wassome Savior to come and deliver them from the powerof sin, to deliver them from the death penalty of sin--aSavior who would be, in other words, a Life-giver. They