PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 350: THE THEOLOGY OF CONCEPTION, Part 2
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 3509: THE THEOLOGY OF CONCEPTION, Part 2
Discover many stories in God's Word where God prophesied the name and birth of someone many years before their birth. God sees far ahead of us.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We are continuing today our study on THE THEOLOGY OF CONEPTION. We are currently looking at the Hebrew word zera, which is mainly translated “seed” in the King James Bible, but it’s also translated “offspring, descendants, posterity.” It’s talking about the whole spectrum of a person’s life, from conception in the womb, the baby being born, and then it grows into a little toddler, a little child, a teen, an adult, and an older person. It’s every stage and age.
We need to look at a few more Scriptures. We go to the passage in Malachi 2:15 which is talking about marriage. Here God says that He hates divorce. He loves divorced people, but he hates the spirit of divorce because it touches the godly seed. It says here . . . God asks the question, “What does God want from your marriage?” And then the answer comes: “I want a godly seed.”
That word “seed,” that is the word zera (and God is wanting more than little seeds, or little sperms), He is wanting godly offspring, godly children. That word actually covers the whole spectrum of a person’s life.
It’s interesting when we read that answer where it says, “I want a godly offspring.” That word “godly” in the Hebrew is elohim. It’s the very first word that is used for “God” in the Old Testament. In fact, the very first verse, “In the beginning, God . . .” is the word is elohim. It’s a plural word, speaking of our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When it says that “I want godly children,” God is saying that His longing and His desire is that we will have children in His image, and we will raise children to become more and more like Him.
Let’s look at some other examples, shall we? We go again to Genesis 46:6-7. This is telling us how JACOB came down from Canaan with all his family. Remember how it was a time of famine? Jacob had sent his sons to get food to save them from starving.
In the end, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. Then he said, “I want you to go and get my father, and all the rest of your family, and come and live with me here in Egypt.” So, he sent carriages and everything up to Canaan for them to come down. It says: “And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed” (the word is zera, and it says) “and all his seed with him.”
But then it goes on to describe who they were: “his sons, and his sons' sons with him.” Well, we could say his sons and his grandsons. “His daughters, and his sons' daughters.” We could say his granddaughters. “And all his seed,” all his zera.
Now we know that that word is used for sperm, but it’s also used for people. Did Jacob come down to Egypt with little seeds floating on clouds behind him? No, he came down with real live family. He came down with all his children, and all his grandchildren, all of varying ages and stages.
So, this word, as we can see, talks about life from conception from that word “seed,” zera, conception, right up to old age. That is amazing, isn’t it? When we understand the full meaning of that word, we understand, yes, that life begins at conception.
We see another example in Numbers 14:24. Here it’s talking about CALEB. Remember Caleb and Joshua? They were the ones who followed the Lord with all their hearts. Here it says Caleb “followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Here God is speaking of future generations of Caleb’s family. He is seeing them even though they are not yet born. God sees them. They are already in Caleb’s loins.
Imagine if we lived today and God gave that promise. “Caleb, I’m going to bring you into that land that you've been longing for. Your children, your seed, are going to possess it, from generation to generation.” Well, in today’s climate of birth control, there wouldn’t be very many to possess that land. Yet God could already see everyone who was destined to be born.
Let’s go to the story of PHINEHAS. Phinehas actually became the third high priest of Israel but at this time, they were having a war against, was it the Moabites, or the Amalakites? It was the Moabites. The children of Israel were being tempted. They were having parties with these people.
There was a couple there. One was a prince of Israel, and he brought in this woman, right into his tent in the sight of everyone. They were already in the midst of a plague because of their sin. Phinehas rose up and he went into that tent, and he put a javelin through both of them. That stopped the plague. God was pleased with Phinehas. Well, it sounds rather bloodthirsty, but God had to come against that evil, and that sin (Numbers 25:1-18).
Numbers 25:12-13: “Behold, I give unto him (Phinehas) my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed (zera) after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God.” So, God not only gave a blessing to him but to all his children that were yet to come. The Bible calls them zera. Every single one of those children came through a sperm, came through a conception. This is the power of conception.
We go now to look at ABRAHAM. Abraham had his nephew Lot who was with him, but they both began to gain so many flocks and herds and possessions that it was too much for them to live together. Abraham said to Lot, “You choose. You can take the plain, or you can take the high country, whatever you want.”
So, Lot looked out from the high hills and looked down on the beautiful plain. It was so fertile, so wonderful, so beautiful. He said, “I’ll take that.” So, he went down, and he actually ended up living in Sodom. Wow. That wasn’t a good thing to do. But that’s where he was.
Then there came a time where four enemy kings came against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and defeated them. They took all their goods, and they took the people, and they took Lot and his family with them also. The news came back to Abraham; “They’ve taken Lot! The enemies have got Lot! What are you going to do?”
Abraham rose up, the Bible says, with 318 men, trained in his own family. Right there, in his own extended family, he had 318 soldiers. They went after their enemies. The amazing thing is, they went after four kings and their armies. God gave Abraham blessing and help, and Abraham and his soldiers were able to defeat them. They were able to get back all the possessions and bring back Lot.
When Abraham was coming back, he met this man called Melchizedek. The Bible says he had no mother, no father, and he was priest of Salem. Somehow Abraham knew that this was someone very, very special and he gave tithes to Melchizedek (Genesis14).
The interesting thing is, we go over to the New Testament, to Hebrews 7:9-10 where it tells us about this same story. It says here, reading from Hebrews: “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.” That is most amazing. Did you get that, ladies?
We read back in Genesis how Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. But here in the New Testament, it tells us that not only did Abraham pay tithes to Melchizedek, but LEVI. Now Levi was his great-grandson. He wasn’t even a twinkle in Abraham’s eye. Abraham had never thought of Levi. But God said Levi was already in Abraham’s loins and Levi literally paid tithes with Abraham to Melchizedek.
Now, of course, the tribe of Levi became the priesthood. But this is the amazing thing. Another translation says: “Levi, the ancestor of every Jewish priest who received tithes, actually paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham, for although Levi was yet unborn, the seed from which Levi came was present in Abraham.”
So, ladies, God sees far ahead of how we see. We just see with our very finite minds, but God’s truth is infinite. He sees the children who are not yet born. He saw Levi in Abraham’s loins. When we think of this, and really get down to tin tacks, it’s a very serious truth. Because if Abraham had lived in this day, and, of course, I don’t think he would have been a nominal Christian, but if he was, he may have used birth control. Levi would never have been born.
But you see, God has His purposes. God saw Levi, as if he was already there, ready to come forth. When we begin to do the opposite of conception, and we begin to do contraception, what are we doing? We are cutting off life, life that God intends to be born. Imagine . . . we take it so shallowly, so lightly, as though it’s nothing. “OK, I will stop life coming because it doesn’t suit me. It’s just not convenient at this time.”
We are actually stopping the opportunity of life, a life that God has planned to come into this world. But it’s more than that, more than that. When we stop a life coming into this world, we stop a whole dynasty, because one life rarely stays at one life. There will be some who will be single and never get married. But most will get married and have children, then grandchildren, then great-grandchildren, and so on. The descendants continue down the line. Here we are . . . we are already having our great-grandchildren.
But even more than that, we are stopping, not only a dynasty, but we are stopping a child from the blessing of an eternal destiny, because every life that comes into the world is an eternal soul and has an eternal destiny. Coming into the home of godly parents, we lead this child to Jesus Christ so they can be ready for an eternal destiny with God, with the King of Kings, with the Lord of Lords.
None of us can even fathom or imagine the glory of the eternal world which will be everlasting. It will be beyond what we could even slightly imagine now. And imagine stopping someone from the glory and the blessing and the amazingness of enjoying eternity forever? That’s what we’re doing. That’s pretty incredible.
All right. Let’s keep going because we see more illustrations in the Bible. Let’s look at SOLOMON. We read in 2 Samuel 7:12 how God told David that his son, who was not even thought of by David until this moment would come forth from his loins to be the next king. “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee (zera)”.
Yes, it’s a sperm, but Solomon came from a sperm. But he was more than a sperm. He became a little baby. Actually, a little baby that God loved. Did you know that Scripture is in the Bible, that when Solomon was born, the Bible says: “And God loved him”?
God loves all babies, but it’s amazing how we see that Scripture about Solomon particularly mentions, “And God loved him” (2 Samuel 12:24). But he didn’t only stay a baby. He grew to be a man and become a king. It says: “And I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels. And I will establish his kingdom.”
In 1 Chronicles 22:9, it says: “Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest . . . for his name shall be Solomon.” God even told David his name, before he was even born! We’re getting to see how God sees life. He doesn’t only see it at conception. He sees it before conception. Even before Solomon was conceived, God spoke for his name and said he shall be king.
Interesting that it also says in another passage: “Thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto My name.” We think of his son, Solomon, coming forth out of the womb of Bathsheba, but no, God says that he came out of the loins of David. David held the sperm, the seed, in his loins. God sees that as the very beginning.
Let’s go to another story. 1 Kings 13:2. Here the prophet of Judah is prophesying against the altar where they were sacrificing to false gods. The prophet came along, and he was giving this judgement. He said: “Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places . . . and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.” He was prophesying to an altar.
Do you notice, he says that a child will be born called JOSIAH. Once again, God is not only talking about someone who is to come, but their actual name. How long did they have to wait until this prophecy was fulfilled? Do you know? It was actually fourteen generations later when Josiah came forth, became king of Israel, and fulfilled that very prophecy.
You can go over to 2 Kings 23:15-19, and you’ll see where Josiah fulfilled it to the exactness of the prophetic word that was given. I’m sure Josiah didn’t really even know about that prophecy. But here God, 14 generations earlier, prophesied his name, and said he would come into the world. Wow! I just love to see these examples of how God sees life.
Dear ladies, we’ve got to come up from our very shallow way of thinking and begin to think like God thinks. As it says in Isaiah 55:8: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD.” We’ve got to come up to His thoughts, His ways, and think like He thinks.
Let’s look at another story. Are you ready for another one? The Word of God is filled with them. This is about CYRUS. Cyrus was not a Jewish man. He was not an Israelite. He was a heathen king, and he was a great king. He was known as the “King of the Four Corners of the Earth.”
But God speaks about this heathen king even before he was born. It even tells us his name! Even before he was born. And how long before he was born? 150 years. Can you believe this? 150 years before this little baby Cyrus was born, God spoke a prophetic word in His Word. We’ve still got this Word today, it’s in our Bible, it’s in Isaiah. We can read about it, and God even says his name! It’s unbelievable!
Let’s have a look here. Isaiah 44:28: “That saith of Cyrus” (speaking his name! Wow! He hasn’t been born yet. This is 150 years before he’s going to come forth) “He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”
This is amazing, ladies, because, you see, God sees everything, all that’s going to happen. He knows it all. He has His plan. He sent His people Judah into Babylon because of their sin. It accumulated to the place where God had to vomit them out of the land He’d given to them. He sent them to Babylon for 70 years. He told them they’d be there for 70 years.
But you see, God can never go against His promises. He said, “I will bring you back in 70 years, because I have given the land to you for an everlasting possession.” The land of Israel belongs to God ultimately, and then to Israel, for He gave it to them. In Genesis 17, we see where God says: “I have given it to you for an everlasting possession.” We must pray against all two-state solutions for Israel. We must pray for God’s promises for Israel to be fulfilled.
God had this plan. In 70 years, He had to bring them back to the land. How is that going to happen? Because once these people are captives and become part of the land, is the king of the land going to just let them go, and say, “Oh, you can go back to your land”? No, that is not a normal king. When he takes people into his kingdom, he keeps them.
But God used . . . He had to raise up a very special man. Even though Cyrus was a heathen king, there was something very special about him. A few years ago, I read this book called “Cyropedia” by Xenophon. It was the history of King Cyrus. It was the most amazing book to read. As I read it, I was getting challenged as much as when I would read the Bible because of his lifestyle.
He was born with this very loving, generous spirit. He always wanted to be blessing people. He always wanted to be giving things to people. And then, as he grew up, he became a general. He became a wonderful general. As he went to conquer countries, the people of these countries wanted him to conquer them because they would be so blessed. He didn’t keep them in subjection. He gave them a good life because there was something so good in him.
Even his own soldiers, if they did something good, he would bring everybody together, and he would get up and tell them about the good deed this soldier had done. He would praise him in front of everybody, and then he would give them a gift. This was the kind of person he was.
God had to raise up a king like this, because it was Nebuchadnezzar who had taken the children of Judah to Babylon. Cyrus had come and conquered Babylon and he now ruled in Babylon. But God was preparing him. He prophesied his name, even all those 150 years before he was born.
We go to the next chapter, Isaiah 45:1: “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” Actually, that is the story of how he got into Babylon. It’s quite an interesting story.
“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”
Cyrus was a heathen king, but God said, I’m calling you by name, Cyrus “for Jacob my servant's sake” (because He’s thinking about His people) “And Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.” So, even though Cyrus didn’t know the Lord, God called Him to do this great task, prophesied 150 years before. Isn’t that amazing?
That makes me think even of our current president, President Trump. Many people often liken Trump to Cyrus. But it’s interesting because it was prophesied right back in 2007. How long ago was that? That’s 18 years ago, isn’t it? 18 years ago, yes, and it was prophesied then that Trump would come in. That’s before Trump had even thought of ever becoming the president, and that he would be president two times.
That was given by Kim Clement. You can still pick that up. You can go to the internet and just put in “Kim Clement prophecy, Trump two times, 2007.” You will get that prophetic word. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that prophetic words don’t always come to pass immediately like we think they should. Maybe you could hear something that was prophetic, and oh wow, that should happen right now! Or that person’s a false prophet.
Well, we’ve been reading all these incredible stories in the Old Testament. I mean, the prophetic word over Josiah didn’t happen until 14 generations later. The prophetic word over Cyrus was 150 years before he was born. Here we’re talking about Trump. That was only 18 years, but that’s still a long time, isn’t it?
Let’s carry on. Oh yes, what about Jesus Himself? God says that even Jesus Christ came forth from the loins of David. Every person listed in the genealogy of Jesus must feel so blessed and so privileged. How amazing, to think that you were in the genealogy of Jesus, even though He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, that He came down through the line of Mary.
Here it says in Acts 2:30: “Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” That prophecy, that was, goodness me, I think that was about 700 years before Christ came into the world.
We have been seeing something so incredible here, dear ladies, as we look into God’s Word on the theology of conception. Yes, life begins at conception, but God sees life, even before the conception. How amazing is that? That’s why contraception is so against God’s heart, because many times, how do we know whether a life that we are stopping was a life that God intended for His purposes here on this earth? And, of course, for eternity.
I have some more thoughts, but what’s our time, girls? How much more time? Oh, I think that we have come to the end of this session. I still have so much more to share with you, ladies. A few more thoughts on this, and then I think next week we’ll be able to get onto the next thing I want to share with you. I’m calling it, “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY!” Whoo! OK. Don’t miss.
“Dear Father, once again, we are in awe of who You are, for You are God. You know all things. Lord God, please save us from being so shallow, so finite in our thinking. Help us to think like You think.
“Help us to be submerged in Your Word, that we think and speak like Your Word says, that we speak Bible language instead of the language of this day. There is a humanistic language today. But, Lord, we want to be those who speak the language of the Kingdom, Bible language. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Transcribed by Darlene Norris
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.
“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”
DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.