THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Divine Dispensing
Message Two—God’s Dispensing Revealed in the Experience of the Patriarchs
Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15; 20:21; 4:4, 26; 5:22, 24; 6:9, 14; 7:7; 12:1; 26:4; 28:12-14, 16:19; 32:28; 41:40-41
I. In the first two chapters of the Bible God clearly shows us that His intention is to have a Bride bearing His image, possessing His life, and being transformed and built up as a Bride to match Him, to satisfy Him, and to express Him—Gen. 1:26-27; 2:11-12, 18. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
II. God is going to reach His goal through all the dispensations and complete His work of making us His counterpart; He began to work in Genesis 3, and He works through the entire Old Testament and the New Testament to reach His goal—the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2; cf. Gen. 3: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
A. God intended that Adam would take the divine life into himself, and that he would have the flowing of the river within him to be transformed into gold, bdellium, and onyx stone for the building up of a bride—Gen. 2:9, 12-13, 22: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. But he got fallen away from God, in other words he lost God; that was a real loss—Gen. 3:6-7, 24. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. But God is eternal, and He would never give up His intention; after man’s fall God came in to find Adam; the first word that God spoke to fallen man was, “Where are you?”—Gen. 3:9: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
a. After God found Adam He gave him a promise that the seed of woman would bruise the head of the serpent, the seed indicates life-giving; instead of death, life was there; so this was good news! This was the gospel! This was the first preaching of the gospel in the entire universe; this gospel preaching was concerning Christ being the seed of woman—Gen. 3:15. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
b. Eventually Christ came through a virgin; he was the Son of a virgin, also the seed of the woman—Matt. 1:21-23. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
c. Adam believed this gospel because he called his wife’s name Eve, indicating she would be the mother of all who live; that was the strong sign that Adam believed in God’s promise as the gospel—Gen. 3:20. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
d. Adam believed, and God also did something; He made a coat of the skin of an animal sacrifice to cover Adam—Gen. 3:21. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
3. So in the first great landmark of human history, Adam, you can see the fall of man, the gospel, and redemption—See Gen. 3. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
B. Abel was the continuation of Adam; Adam was redeemed, Abel was not only redeemed, but also brought back to God, through the offering typifying Christ—Gen. 4:4: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. Abel’s offering was not for sins; his offerings were for fellowship with God; through these offerings, which were types of Christ, he was fully accepted by God; but he suffered the persecution, the martyrdom for God’s testimony—vv. 5-8. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. It is the same today; if we bear God’s testimony that we can fellowship with God through Christ we will suffer the persecution—2 Tim. 3:12. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
C. Enosh realized that he was weak and fragile, so he had no trust in himself; he called upon the name of Jehovah—Gen. 4:26: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. He did not call upon the name of God the Almighty, but upon the name of Jehovah, the Eternal One, the One who was, who is, and who will be, the One who is the great I Am; He is the great to be; He is the reality, He exists forever—Exo. 3:14; 1:4, 8. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. Enosh lived, not by his fragile man, but by the great I Am, the ever-existing, eternal Lord—Gen. 4:26. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
D. In Enoch there is a man walking with Elohim; this is the life under God’s dispensing; by this that God can carry out His dispensation, dispensing Himself into man—Gen. 5:22: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. In the Bible walking means to have your life, to have your being, to do things, to say things, to think things, to go anywhere; to walk with God is to have your life with God—Gal. 2:20. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. Enoch not only walked with God, but also was taken away from death; this kind of “God-walking” kept Enoch from death—Gen. 5:24. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
3. In principle today it is the same; whenever we walk with the Lord and live with the Lord, at that time we are kept away from death; as we walk with Him, He is dispensing Himself into our being, so we are kept away from death—Rom. 8:10, 6, 11. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
E. As a continuation of Enoch, Noah not only walked with God, but went further and worked with God according to God’s salvation; eventually Noah with his entire family entered into the ark, entered into what he had worked for God and with God to be kept away from the judgment of death-water—Gen. 6:9; 7:7, 14: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. Noah was a person who was not only fallen and redeemed, who was not only brought back to God, who not only called on the Lord’s name, who not only lived by Him and walked with Him, but also worked with Him, he had a common interest with God—Gen. 6:9, 14, 22. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. Today we should follow the same steps, not only to work with God, but to enter into what we have worked with God and for God, that we may enjoy the practical and present Christ and be kept away from the judgment of death—Phil. 2:12; 1 Pet. 3:20. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
F. Acts 7 tells us that the very God who called Abraham appeared to him as the God of glory; glory is the highest attraction; that glory attracted Abraham; then Abraham received God’s promise of the gospel with the Spirit as the blessing—Gen. 12:2-3; Gal. 3:8, 14: (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
1. The blessing of this gospel is the Spirit; this charming Jesus today is the life-giving Spirit; this is why He is not only charming, but also prevailing—1 Cor. 15:45b. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
2. The blessing of Abraham is just the life-giving Spirit; when the life-giving Spirit comes to us, that is the Triune God reaching us—Gal. 3:14. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
G. The riches of God were typified by the rich produce of the good land which was inherited by Isaac; this signifies that we who have received such a gospel inherit all the riches of God—Gen. 25:5; 26:4; 28:13-14. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
H. God made it clear to Jacob that what was on His heart was a house; heaven is not God’s house, God’s house is His redeemed people; God wants His redeemed people to be His dwelling place, His house—Gen. 28:12; Eph. 2:22. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
I. After Jacob’s transformation, Joseph became a great steward to carry out God’s dispensation, to distribute the riches of God to feed all the hungry people on the earth—Gen. 41:48-49, 56-57. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)
III. The end of Genesis shows us a prince of God, filled with God, saturated with God, one with God to express Him and to reign for Him; here we can see the goal of God’s dispensation—to make God’s chosen people one with Him, bearing His image, possessing His life, and having the flow of life within to transform them into His glorious image to express Him and to reign for Him—Gen. 47:29-31; 42:6. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 2)