What is the dispensation of Promise?

The period of promise now begins. "And I will make of thee," said Jehovah, "a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." This marks a great change in the ways of God with mankind. It is not merely the revelation of a deliverer, or of conscience judging between good and evil, or of government in the hand of man; but it is God Himself interfering, and revealing His purposes of blessing, and that, just because He is pleased to bless, and to express His love in blessing to fallen man. The promise is positive, absolute, and unconditional: the sphere of its application embraces all the families of the earth, and its full accomplishment is dependent only on the faithfulness of God. It has been delayed, we know, through the failure of man, but God will yet prove His faithfulness in the face of the whole world, by a stream of blessing which will overflow all Jewish limits and cover all lands, according to the promise which in grace He made to Abram.

Again, the time of the Genesis-history is emphatically that of the age of promise. The promise of the woman's Seed is what shines with star-like radiance over the first part, followed in the second by the covenant with Abraham, which, the apostle assures us, the law, coming four hundred and thirty years afterward, could never hamper with conditions. Sovereignty in blessing thus marks the period throughout.

Dispensation of Promise. Beginning with the call of Abram and going on to the Exodus, though its principles still go on, and will find their full answer when all nations shall be blessed in Abram's seed—Christ—in the Millennium. The record is covered by Genesis 12:1-Exodus 18.

But, I hear you say, if God had made a fresh start by calling a person completely out of his environment, blessing him abundantly and also promising blessings to his descendants, surely that person would live to the glory of God. This God tested in the dispensation of ‘promise’.

TimeDispensationReferenceFailureJudgment1Creation to the fallInnocenceGen. 2:15–17The fall (Gen. 3:6)Banished from Eden (Gen. 3:22–24)2Fall to the floodConscienceGen. 3:7, 22Murder by Cain (Gen. 4:8)Flood (Gen. 6:5, 11–14)3Flood to tower of BabelGovernmentGen. 9:1, 2, 6Noah’s sin (Gen. 9:20–25)Confusion of language (Gen. 11:1–8)4Call of Abraham to SinaiPromiseGen. 12:1–3Abraham’s lack of faith (Gen. 12:10–20)Slavery in Egypt (Ex. 1)5From Moses to ChristLawEx. 19:1–8; 20Initial: Ex. 32 Recurring: 2 Ki. 17:7. Final: Acts 2:23; 7:51, 52Captivity (2 Chron. 36); destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21:6, 20–24)6Pentecost to the rapture Grace / church / SpiritActs 2:1Acts 5; 6; 20:30; 1 John 2:18, 19, 22 Christendom judged at the appearing (2 Thess. 2:7–12; Rev. 3:16; Rev. 17-18)71,000-year reign of Christ MillenniumIsa. 11; Rev. 20 Eph. 1:10Ps. 101; Rev. 20:7–9Judgment of the nations (Rev. 20:3; 20:7–10)

The third period, like the preceding one, was roughly four hundred years, and extends from the Call of Abram to Moses the Lawgiver. Man is here placed upon a new ground, namely, that of Promise (Gen. 12; Gal. 3:16; Rom. 11); and Abram becomes the root of GOD's testimony on earth. This period therefore may properly be called the Age of Promise and Testimony.

(3) From Abraham to Moses — an age of promise.

Out of the dispersed descendants of the builders 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 thejudgment of 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." (See Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 13:14-17; Gen. 15:5; Gen. 26:3; Gen. 28:12-13; Exod. 1: 13-14.)

The promise was unconditional and absolute. God gives it as the revelation of a purpose He will accomplish, and addresses it to Abraham, so as to fix the person in whom it was to have its accomplishment. God interferes in blessing, reveals His intention to confer it dependent on His own faithfulness alone. He blesses because He is pleased to bless, and blesses him whom He calls out to enjoy it. The promise extends out too, remark, to the whole world as to the sphere of its application. "In thee shall all nations be blessed." It is universal in the sphere of its application, absolute in its character, and its accomplishment dependent on the sole faithfulness of God.

God's promise to Abraham raised no question of responsibility; it was a simple promise in grace. See Genesis 12 simply, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." God took care that before the law came ("the law was 430 years after," Galatians 3:16-17) the principle of grace should be maintained. But righteousness was all-important, and the law raises the question of righteousness, recognising man in responsibility; and so in it we get the two trees in principle, but the tree of responsibility before life: "Do this and thou shalt live."