Hello Friends!
Welcome back to part four of The Seven Dispensations: Man's Failure &
God's Grace.
The Holy Scriptures divide time – the entire
period from the creation of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis to the "new
heaven and a new earth" promised to all believers in the book of
Revelation – into seven unequal periods, usually titled dispensations (see Ephesians 3:2). These periods are also referred to as “ages” (see Ephesians 2:7). They are also referred to as “days” as in "day of
the Lord".
This week we will investigate the fourth
Dispensation known as PROMISE…
The Seven Dispensations: #4 – Man Under
Promise
PROMISE
Out of the dispersed descendants of the
builders of the Tower of Babel, God called one man, Abram, with whom He enters
into covenant. Some of the promises to Abram and his descendants were purely
gracious and unconditional. These either have been or will yet be literally
fulfilled. Other promises were conditional upon the faithfulness and obedience
of the Israelites. Every one of these conditions was violated, and the
Dispensation of Promise resulted in the failure of Israel and closed in the
judgment: Bondage in Egypt.
The book of Genesis, which opens with the
sublime words "In the beginning God created" closes with "in
a coffin in Egypt".
Summary Principle:
God is not a man, that He
should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He
not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? – Numbers
23:19
You will give truth to Jacob
and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old – Micah
7:20
For the gifts and the calling
of God are irrevocable – Romans 11:29
Opening Event – God calls Abram:
~ Gives Abram promises:
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your
family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will
make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you
shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who
curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So
Abram departed as the Lord had
spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when
he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s
son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they
had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they
came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of
Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in
the land. Then the Lord appeared
to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he
built an altar to the Lord, who
had appeared to him – Genesis 12:1-7
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift
your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward,
eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your
descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth;
so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also
could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width,
for I give it to you” – Genesis 13:14-17
Then He brought him outside and
said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number
them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be” – Genesis
15:5
~ Promises repeated to
Isaac & Jacob:
There was a famine in the land,
besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to
Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt;
live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be
with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands,
and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will
make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your
descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws” – Genesis
26:1-5
Now Jacob went out from
Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there
all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place
and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he
dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to
heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And
behold, the Lord stood above it
and said: “I am the Lord God of
Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give
to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the
earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the
south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be
blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will
bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I
have spoken to you” – Genesis 28:10-15
Man’s Responsibility – Believe & Obey:
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for
righteousness – Genesis 15:6
For what does the Scripture
say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”– Romans
4:3
Man’s Failure – Promised blessings
pursued by fleshly means:
~ Abram
So Sarai said to Abram, “See
now, the Lord has restrained me
from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain
children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai – Genesis
16:2
~ Jacob
Jacob said to his father, “I am
Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat
of my game, that your soul may bless me” – Genesis
27:19
~ Moses
And Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. “Now when he
was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children
of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who
was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren
would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not
understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting,
and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong
one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who
made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the
Egyptian yesterday?’ Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in
the land of Midian, where he had two sons – Acts
7:22-29
Man’s Tendency – Away from God ~
God’s promises disregarded:
~ Lot
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw
all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like
the garden of the Lord, like the
land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain
of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram
dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and
pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly
wicked and sinful against the Lord
– Genesis 13:10-13
~ Easu
But Jacob said, “Sell me your
birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is
this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he
swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and
stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau
despised his birthright – Genesis 25:31-34
When Esau was forty years
old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath
the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and
Rebekah – Genesis 26:34-35
~ The sons of Israel
Now when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Then
they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us
now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has
devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!” – Genesis
37:18-20
~ Israel’s longing for
Egypt
Then the whole congregation of
the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of
the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have
brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” – Exodus
16:2-3
~ Summary
Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy
endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise? Blessed are those who
keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times! Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward
Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the benefit of
Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may
glory with Your inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed
iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your
wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by
the sea—the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He
might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried
up; so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. He saved them
from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the
enemy. The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then
they believed His words; they sang His praise. They soon forgot His works; they
did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and
tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness
into their soul – Psalm 106:1-15
Closing Event – Judgment ~ Bondage
in Egypt:
But the children of Israel were
fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and
the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did
not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children
of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them,
lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our
enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” Therefore they set
taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for
Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of
Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they
made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all
manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve
was with rigor – Exodus 1:7-14
Now it happened in the process
of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned
because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God
because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His
covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the
children of Israel, and God acknowledged them – Exodus
2:23-25
Personal Salvation – By Grace through Faith:
For what does the Scripture
say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now
to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him
who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is
accounted for righteousness – Romans 4:3-5
By faith Abraham obeyed when he
was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And
he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of
promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also
received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she
was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore
from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the
sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all
died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they
seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which
they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they
desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to
be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham,
when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed
shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. By faith
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he
was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the
top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the
departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones
– Hebrews 11:8-22
And Abraham said, “My son, God
will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them
went together. Then the Angel of the Lord
called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have
sworn, says the Lord, because you
have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I
will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars
of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants
shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” – Genesis
22:8 & 15-18
Judah, you are he whom your
brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your
father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the
prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a
lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a
lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the
obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt
to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the
blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
– Genesis 49:8-12 & 18
Thank you for reading! Don’t miss next week’s edition as we investigate Dispensation #5 – LAW…
May the Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless you with His perfect
love, mercy and grace!
Keep looking up and sharing the Gospel while there is still time… Hallelujah
and Maranatha – come quickly Lord Jesus!
Blessings!
Shane <><
