Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” (NKJV).

Another seed! An amazing two words. Here’s Eve, who’s just suffered the loss of one of her sons, and God gives her another son. She prophetically calls him Seth, which means “set, settled or placed”, or “substituted”. Cain, is made a wanderer, and looses his place as the heir to the family. Seth is now the one who carries on the family and is the one from whom the Messiah descends.

There’s a sense here that the regret and pain that Adam and Eve had in their own sin and in their loss of Able, is tempered by the birth of Seth, and the promise he holds. Those words of Eve “another seed” are powerful. There are so many lessons here about God’s ability to turn things around, and our response to life’s pain.

The main point I want to make from this is that God can turn our failures, brokenness, losses and pain, into something good, He can restore our destiny and His purposes in us. We know that He works everything for good, when we live according to His Kingdom purposes and principles. (See Romans 8:28).

Eve had gone through one of life’s toughest times, the loss of a loved one. Her dreams had been shattered. Her hopes of her family future were gone. How would the promise God had spoken of be fulfilled? Then she called this new son Seth, and says, “God has appointed another seed for me ”.

She dusted herself off from the losses she’d experienced, turned away from focusing on them, and received this new hope into her life. Eve did not use her pain as an excuse to reject God or question Him, as she had in the garden. Nor did she allow a root of bitterness to spring up. When God gave her Seth, she expressed gratitude for this new life.

What lessons for us! When life doesn’t go the way we thought, even when it doesn’t turn out the way we believed God had promised it would, when our hopes are dashed and the “seed” of what we thought would be our future is gone, God can give us another seed! When Eve called her son Seth she was saying that now the promised seed will not come through the heir but through the one whom God chooses.

We can trace the “Blood line of Christ” right from Adam. All these generations God watched over with a special care and provision, that when Jesus Christ did come it could be clearly seen that He came by the promise, through grace, and not by nature. The same goes for our promises too! They must be clearly seen to be by the promise, through grace, and not by nature (our own means).

The story of King David’s son to born Bathsheba teaches us much the same thing. (See 2 Samuel 12:18-24). He’d sinned by fathering a child to another man’s wife. Then he commits murder by sending Uriah to his death in battle. His new son gets sick, and David fasts and prays for his healing. But the child dies. David — to the surprise of his servants — gets up, washes, changes, and goes into the house of God and worships! He too, moved on from that situation which was now dead, and worshipped God (which is always a good thing to do when we don’t know what to do and when we’re in pain of any sort).

He also received from God “another seed”. Solomon was then born, who became the greatest King Israel (and perhaps the world) has ever known, and also became an ancestor of the Messiah.

We must never underestimate God’s ability to turn our circumstances around from pain and sorrow, to being on track again and in His purposes. One thing we must do though is to let go of things when they’re dead. Eve let go of the future she’d built around Cain, and embraced the promise again in Seth. David, once his son was dead, stood up, washed, changed, worshiped and moved on. Solomon was born soon after.

What future plans or hopes have died in your life? What hasn’t worked out the way you thought it should? Is there something you believed even God had promised that has now died with no hope of it happening? God can give you “another seed!”. In God, all is not lost, all is never lost with Him! The Devil specialises in opposing God’s people and stealing, destroying and killing our dreams and hopes. But God is the Omnipotent One who specialises in turning failure into success, loss into gain, pain into joy, poverty into prosperity, and broken dreams into present blessing.

Here’s a thought about a seed. A seed is prophetic. It speaks of something in the future. Something yet to be. A seed grows into a plant or tree and bears a fruitful harvest. So God is able to plant in our lives a seed that will produce a fruitful harvest to His glory!

Maybe you have that seed already! Maybe you’ve gone through a loss and painful time and God (who is always faithful) has already planted in your life the seed of your new future. Like Eve, that’s a time to declare prophetically over that seed, that it will germinate, grow healthy and bear the fruit of His intention. It’s a time to ensure we provide that seed with the right environment to grow.

Earlier I mentioned that when Eve called her son Seth she was saying that now the promised seed will not come through the heir but through the one whom God chooses. Another lesson for us. Let’s allow God to choose where when and how His promises will come.

Seth’s name means “set, settled or placed”, or “substituted”. Only in Christ are we set, settled and placed! He is the true Church, the promised Messiah, the Saviour, the “seed” of which Eve spoke,  

Are you in need of “another seed!”? You’ll find it in Him!