The Second Dispensation Begins

The Patriarchal Age

Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see. It was their faith that made our ancestors pleasing to God.
—Hebrews 11:1,2, Contemporary English Version

J. Udhaya Kumar

When the “world that then was” (2 Peter 3:6) came to an end, God began working with specific individuals who faithfully served him. These included Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This “age of the patriarchs” ended with the death of Jacob after which God worked exclusively with the nation of Israel: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2).

Much of what happened to the patriarchs pictured far grander events to come. For example, Jesus compares the world in Noah’s day with those alive at the time of his second presence: “For as they were in those days that were before the flood, feeding and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage,—until the day Noah entered into the ark; and they observed not, until the flood came and took away all together, so will be the presence of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:38,39, Rotherham).

When God created man in his own image, he blessed them and gave them an earthly dominion (Genesis 1:27,28). All that God asked was that they not eat from one tree in the garden. Although not said explicitly, the clear implication was that if they obeyed that command, they would never die. But first Eve and then Adam ate, which meant they lost the blessings and the dominion given by God; death eventually followed. The events of that seventeen-hundred-year dispensation were described in the previous article.

Several hundred years after the flood God entered into a special relationship with a descendent of Noah’s son Shem, a man whose name was Abram (God later changed his name to Abraham). These are the words God spoke to him: “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). Abram listened, and he obeyed. Much later in time the apostle reflected on this remarkable example of faith and obedience and wrote: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:8,9).

Because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son, his most precious possession, God gave him a remarkable promise or covenant: “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:17,18).

God repeated this promise to Abraham’s son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob: “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant” (Psalm 105:8-10).

So it was here, in this Patriarchal age, as we observe God’s dealing with Abraham, that we see the first explicit promise of a future time for blessing all the families of the earth. This promise was repeated when Abraham, picturing the heavenly Father himself, sacrificed his son: “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18).

Isaac was literally the “seed of Abraham.” But Paul explained that the “seed” through which the future blessing of the world would come was much grander than just one human being: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).

And who are the children of Abraham? “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. … And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:7,29).

God promised Abraham he would multiply his seed as 1) the stars of the heaven, and 2) the sand which is upon the sea shore (Genesis 22:17). Notice that there are two kinds of seed. There are those who are compared to stars—children of faith, the devoted followers of God’s only-begotten son Jesus who become like stars in heaven. And there are those who are compared to sand—the earthly children of God including all who will come back to life in a resurrection of the dead including Adam, Eve, and all their children.

Sarah, Hagar, and Rebekah

Abraham’s wife Sarah and concubine Hagar are shown by the apostle to be types or pictures of covenants: “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which engendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”—Galatians 4:22-26.

The apostle teaches that Sarah represents a covenant and her son Isaac represents the seed that will bless the world: Christ and his bride, the church. Hagar represents a different covenant and her son Ishmael represents fleshly Israel enslaved by the Law.

After the death of Sarah, when it came time for Isaac to marry, Abraham sent his trusted servant to the country from which he had come. These were his instructions: “Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac” (Genesis 24:3,4).

In the many details of the servant’s encounter with Rebekah at the well, and with her family, we see wonderful pictures of how the holy spirit sent from God finds a bride for antitypical “Isaac,” Christ himself. Rebekah quickly agrees to leave her family and her own home for a future that is only described to her by the servant. She steps out in faith, and is richly blessed.

Rebekah eventually gave birth to twins, Esau the older, and Jacob the younger. Yet even before they were born God told her, “Two nations are in thy womb … and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).

When the boys were perhaps in their mid-twenties, Esau came home after hunting and was famished. He asked for some of the stew that Jacob had prepared, but Jacob asks that he “buy” it in exchange for the birthright possessed by the first-born: “And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob” (Genesis 25:32, 33). In this experience Jacob represents spiritual Israel while Esau represents fleshly Israel.

In the New Testament this impulsive act on the part of Esau was used to teach a lesson to Christians: “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Hebrews 12:16,17).

God blessed Jacob and he became the father of twelve sons. Those sons were the progenitors of what became the nation of Israel. Those sons were used in Revelation to picture the specially selected, called-out ones who would become the bride of Christ: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” (Revelation 7:3,4). Subsequent verses specify that twelve thousand were to come from each of the named tribes. These tribes symbolically represent both Jew and Gentile, those who have their Father’s name written in their foreheads (Revelation 14:1).

The Patriarchal age, a time when God dealt with only a few individuals, is the predecessor of the Jewish age when he worked with one nation, and that age is the predecessor of the Gospel age when he works in all nations. In the Patriarchal age we see many types that show in pictures what will happen in the future. By examining the lives of those who lived in that age we learn the tremendous importance God places on faith. As the apostle put it, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for” (Hebrews 11:1,2, NIV).

These faithful ones who served God did not receive the promised blessing in their lifetime. They continue in the sleep of death, awaiting the day when they will be awakened and take their rightful place as the earthly representatives of Christ’s heavenly kingdom: “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39, 40, NAS).

What a marvelous prospect is in reservation for those who love God (Romans 8:28).