Part 4 of a Study of the Seven Dispensations
The Dispensation of Promise is very important to us today, even though it was primarily made to Abraham and the nation of Israel. The comprehending of it will help you to formulate a proper understanding of prophetic events and the basis of our premillennial, pre-tribulational position. There are some basic principles that are important to understand about all of the dispensations if we are to grasp the meaning of this one.
First, each of these dispensations will show God’s eternal plan to bring about the glory that is due His name, but man’s failure to meet the test God lays down. He will do that by showing that in all of these stewardships, no matter how He deals with man, man fails to come up to God’s expectations. Man failed under innocence, under conscience, under human government, under promise, under law, under grace, and will even fail under the glorious Kingdom of God on this earth ( which will be the closest thing to a Utopia on earth). We can say that each of these dispensations was a test of man by God, and man failed in every one of them. In the end, man needs the power, mercy, grace, and love of God to bring him to the place where he is saved and glorifies God eternally.
Each of these dispensations will show God’s eternal plan to bring about the glory that is due His name.
Second, each of these dispensations ends in a judgment. Innocence ends in expulsion out of the garden; Conscience in the flood; Human Government in the scattering of the nations; Promise in the wilderness deaths that came upon Israel after leaving Egypt; Law with the Babylonian captivity; Grace with the tribulation; and Kingdom with the judgment of Satan and those he will lead astray at the end of the kingdom age.
Now, let’s examine the dispensation of promise.
I. The Creation of this Dispensation
The attempt of man under Human Government to make a name for himself rather than honor and glorify God caused the Lord to scatter the nations and confuse their tongues.
“And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.” Gen. 11:6-8
It was evident that man was not going to honor God as a human race, so now God, in His eternal plan, narrows His perspective to one family. The man had moved from the rural culture to one of urbanization, and as he did, his wickedness increased. God reached down into one of the most advanced cities of the day, called Ur of the Chaldees, to choose a special family for His blessing. This was a city whose popular religion was that of worshipping the moon. One of these moon worshippers was named Terah, who had a son named Abraham.
“And Terah lived seventy years … Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram… in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees” Genesis 11:26-28.
Evidently, God, in His searching of men’s hearts, saw in this man, Abraham, one who would respond to His special message. He chose him to be the one who would head up this family whom God would set aside as a specially called people. They would be blessed as a family, and it would be this family through whom a blessing would come upon the whole world to bring salvation.
In order to set this people aside, God would need to remove Abraham from his center of idolatrous worship. To do this, he and all his descendants were given a promise. This promise carried with it a test, just as all the dispensations do. This test was one of believing and trusting in the promise that God would make to them.
This test was one of believing and trusting in the promise that God would make to them.
II. The Character of this Dispensation
Part of the test of this dispensation was the command of God to Abraham to remove himself from Ur and its idolatry to a land that He would show him. God also told him to leave his father’s house.
“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will shew thee” Genesis 12:1.
God gave him a promise comprised of 15 parts. Let’s look at them from the Book of Genesis.
- “I will make of thee a great nation” 12:2. Literally fulfilled in Israel.
- “I will bless thee” 12:2. Literally fulfilled in the provision of land, provision, and protection.
- “Make thy name great” 12:2. Literally fulfilled as Abraham is a household word.
- “Will be a blessing” 12:2. Literally fulfilled through Christ who came from Israel.
- “Bless them that bless thee” 12:3. Literally fulfilled in such nations as America, who have befriended the Jews.
- “Curse him that curses thee” 12:3. Literally fulfilled in such nations as Germany, which was destroyed after the terrible atrocities used against the Jews.
- “All families of the earth blessed” 12:3. Salvation has been offered to all the world as a result of Christ and His atoning work.
- “Unto thy seed will I give this land” 12:7.
“And the Lord said unto Abram. Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which though seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever” Genesis 13:14-15.
“In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Unto Abram, saying, thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:” Gen. 15:18.
Yet to be completely fulfilled.
- “Thy seed as the dust of the earth” 13:16. Abraham’s earthly seed is literally that. Multitudes in number.
- “Out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” 15:4. God miraculously fulfilled this when Abraham was almost 100 years old, through the birth of Isaac.
- “Father of many nations” 17:4. Out from Abraham came not only Israel, but all the descendants of Ishmael, and from Isaac’s son, Essau. From these two came many of the Arab tribes.
- “Kings shall come of thee” 17:6. Literally fulfilled from Saul to Christ.
- “Be a God to thee” 17:7. They have been and are yet to be a special chosen people of God.
- “Seed as the stars of heaven” 22:17. These are the spiritual seeds of Abraham, for we who have believed on Christ have become the spiritual family of Abraham (this does not mean that God has forgotten His promises to the earthly seed, however, for that will be fulfilled just as He promised (See Romans 4:16,17).
- “Possess the gates of his enemies.” Yet to be completely fulfilled. All of these promises comprise the covenant that God made with Abraham and confirmed eternally with an oath. Making it an unconditional covenant based completely on the veracity of God Himself. The covenant is not to be confused with the dispensation. The covenant was the basis of the promise that God made, but the dispensation was the dealing of God with Israel under that promise.
The covenant was the basis of the promise that God made, but the dispensation was the dealing of God with Israel under that promise.
This confirmation that God made with Abraham and his seed was one of the most dramatic events of the Old Testament. In those days when a covenant was sealed, they would divide several animals in half. With witnesses watching, the two parties who were making a contract with each other would pass between the parts of the animals as they were split apart. In this case, however, God caused a sleep to fall upon Abraham and He passed through between the slain animals by Himself. God was, therefore, signifying that He and He alone were responsible for fulfilling this contract, this promise. That’s what made it an unconditional covenant, dependent upon the faithfulness and truthfulness of God alone. This covenant was made not just to Abraham but to his seed after him. Therein lies the basis for this dispensation of promise of God’s dealings with a specially chosen people. They were to bring glory to His name by their following, believing Him, and experiencing His blessings.
III. The Consequential Failure and Judgement Under This Dispensation
What a glorious promise and hope these descendants of Abraham had (and still have since the promise was not conditional upon Israel’s obedience but God’s faithfulness.) God had told Abraham at the same time that He made this promise to Him that there would be a time when Israel would become servants to another nation and would be afflicted by them for four hundred years.
“And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance … But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again …” Genesis 15:13-16.
Afterward, they would come out of that nation with great wealth and would then inherit this wonderful land that would be flowing with milk and honey.
This happened and Israel became slaves of the Egyptians and served them for four hundred years. This was a test. Would they remember the promise and endure the trial or would they forget and doubt the promises of God? Would they think that God had failed in His promise and forgotten them, or would they believe that they would come out of Egypt with great wealth and go into the land that God would give them?
They came to Egypt because the sons of Israel had sold Joseph, their brother, into slavery. The Lord used Joseph in this terrible situation to save Israel from a famine. Joseph became the one whom Pharoah put into command over all his land to save it from this famine that was to come upon all the world. His brothers and his father came down to Egypt and escaped the famine. As Joseph was dying, he called his brothers in, and they were afraid of his wrath. Instead, he reminded them of the fact that God used all of this to bring about His promise to them through Abraham (Gen. 50:19-25).
The Lord used Joseph in this terrible situation to save Israel from a famine. J
He reminded them of the promise to them from God to Abraham. Would they remember? Would they believe? As Israel left Egypt, they did carry the bones of Joseph with them, and that was a constant reminder of the promise of God. Would they obey it? Sorry to say that after God had brought them out of Egypt with terrible judgments upon that land, even as God had foretold in Genesis 15:14, they failed to trust and believe His promise to them. God had given them great substance even as He had promised.
Immediately, they began to murmur and disbelieve as the Egyptians followed after them (Exodus 15:24,25).
It is said that there, God put them to the test. He sought to “prove them.” They failed the test again and now murmured for bread, wishing for the fleshpots of Egypt (Exodus 17:2-4).
God gave them His special food, but He said He was putting them to the test. Would they now trust Him? No. Again, they murmured (Exodus 17:2-4).
God gave them water out of a rock and called it “Meridian,” which was so named because the Israelites tested the patience of God there by saying: “Is the Lord among us, or not?”
They failed that test and the ones following to the point that when they came up to the time that they would go into this wonderful land that God had promised them, they refused to go. They believed an evil report that caused them to doubt the truthfulness of God and His promise. This was serious. It was doubting the truthfulness of God. That is the denial of God Himself, for HE IS TRUTH. They failed the test, and every one of them except Caleb and Joshua, who had believed God’s promise, died in the wilderness. They never received the promises. They failed the test. Thus ended the Dispensation of Promise.
William (Bill) Whitaker (1933 – 1999) was the founding pastor of the First Baptist Church of San Ramon, California. He held a B.A. and a B.D. (now called M.Div. in most schools) from Bob Jones University and the Ph.D. from Baptist Christian University (now Louisiana Baptist University) in Shreveport.
Originally published in the Baptist Bible Tribune, December 1991
Click here to read the Introduction to the Series.
Click here to read The Dispensation of Innocence.
Click here to read The Dispensation of Conscience.
Click here to read The Dispensation of Huma Government.
