The Fourth Dispensation: Promise. For Abraham, and his descendants it is evident that the Abrahamic Covenant (See Scofield "Genesis 15:18") made a great change. They became distinctively the heirs of promise. That covenant is wholly gracious and unconditional. The descendants of Abraham had but to abide in their own land to inherit every blessing. In Egypt they lost their blessings, but not their covenant. The Dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law Exodus 19:8. Grace had prepared a deliverer (Moses), provided a sacrifice for the guilty, and by divine power brought them out of bondage Exodus 19:4 but at Sinai they exchanged grace for law. The Dispensation of Promise extends from Genesis 12:1 to Exodus 19:8, and was exclusively Israelitish. The dispensation must be distinguished from the covenant. The former is a mode of testing; the latter is everlasting because unconditional. The law did not abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant Galatians 3:15-18 but was an intermediate disciplinary dealing "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made" ; Galatians 3:19-29; 4:1-7. Only the dispensation, as a testing of Israel, ended at the giving of the law.
(1) "I will make of thee a great nation." Fulfilled in a threefold way: (a) In a natural posterity--"as the dust of the earth
Genesis 13:16;
John 8:37, viz. the Hebrew people. (b) In a spiritual posterity--"look now toward heaven . . . so shall thy seed be"
John 8:39;
Romans 4:16,17;
9:7,8;
Galatians 3:6,7,29 viz. all men of faith, whether Jew or Gentile. (c) fulfilled also through Ishmael
Genesis 17:18-20
