"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The scene of the divine handiwork was twofold, and accordingly, "in the dispensation of the fullness of times," God will display Himself again, both in heaven and on earth.
Let us begin this divine subject with Genesis chapters 1-47 which present a beautiful view of the Lord acting by turns in heaven and on earth. At the close we find them together in a way typical of what their connection, yet distinctness, will be in that coming dispensation of the fullness of times. May our meditations always be submitted to His truth and Spirit, and conducted in the spirit of worshippers.
Genesis 1 and 2:GEN 1GEN 2
It was only of the earth that Adam was made lord. The garden was his residence, and he was to replenish and subdue the earth. This was the limitation of his inheritance and of his enjoyments. He knew of heaven only as he saw it above him, and by its lights dividing his day and his night. But he had no thoughts which linked him personally with it.
Genesis 3GEN 3
Genesis 4 and 5:GEN 4GEN 5
Such was man's changed condition. To cling to the earth now as one's delight and portion was to act in bold defiance of the Lord of judgment. Such was the spirit of Cain and his family. He thought the earth good enough for God and desired nothing better for himself. He gave God the fruit of it and built a city for himself on the face of it, furnishing it with desirable things of all sorts. He was unmoved by the thought of the blood with which his own hand had stained it, and of the presence of the Lord on whom he had turned his back.
This was not Adam, or Abel, or Seth, or that line of worshippers who "call on the name of the Lord." They have in the earth only a burying-place. Grace having provided a remedy for them as sinners, and righteousness having separated them from a cursed earth, they believe in the remedy and seek no place or memorial in the earth. The Lord gives them a higher and a richer inheritance, even in heaven with Himself, as signified in the translation of Enoch.
Genesis 6 to 9:GEN 6GEN 7GEN 8GEN 9
Though the Lord is thus removing the scene of His counsels and the hopes of His elect from earth to heaven, yet the earth is not given up. It is, we know, destined to rejoice, by-and-by, in the liberty of the glory, or as I have already quoted, in "the dispensation of the fullness of times." Eph. 1:9, 109Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:9‑10). Accordingly, this purpose the Lord will rehearse and illustrate at times, as He does now, in due season in the history of Noah.
The heavenly family, as we have just seen, only died both to and in the earth. They could speak, it is true, both of its coming judgment and blessing. Enoch foretold of the one, and Lamech of the other (Jude 1414And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, (Jude 14); en. 5:29). Neither of them was in the scenes they thus talked about, but Noah who comes after them is a man of the earth again. In his day the earth reappears as the scene of divine care and delight. God has communion with man upon it again. It has passed through the judgment of the water, and God makes a covenant with it. He has the prophet, priest and king upon it providing for its continuance and godly government. Noah's connection with it was quite unlike that of either Cain or Seth. He did not, like the former, fill it and enjoy it in defiance of God; nor did he, like the latter, take merely a burying-place in it. He enjoyed the whole of it under the Lord. The Lord sanctioned his inheritance of it, his dominion over it, and his delight in it.
Genesis 10 and 11:GEN 10GEN 11
Thus the earth, in its turn, again takes up the wondrous tale and is the care and object of the Lord. But again it becomes corrupt before Him. Noah himself, like Adam, begins this sad history, and the builders of Babel, like another family of Cain, perfect the apostasy seeking. to fill the earth with themselves independently of God. They were mighty hunters before the Lord. They scoured the face of the earth, as though they asked in infidel pride, "Where is the God of judgment?”
Gen. 12 to 36:GEN 12GEN 13GEN 14GEN 15GEN 16GEN 17GEN 18GEN 19GEN 20GEN 21GEN 22GEN 23GEN 24GEN 25GEN 26GEN 27GEN 28GEN 29GEN 30GEN 31GEN 32GEN 33GEN 34GEN 35GEN 36
This, however, was not allowed. Another judgment comes upon them. They are scattered, and the whole human social order is awfully broken up. But Abram is called out to find his fellowship with God and apart from the world. His family dwelt in Mesopotamia beyond the Euphrates. He came from the stock of Shem, but was a worshipper of idols as all the nations were. But sovereign grace distinguishes him, and the God of glory calls him forth from kindred, from home and from country.
It is a call that does not interfere with the order of the earth or government among the nations. He is called to be a stranger, and not a rival of "the powers," or a new model governor of any people. He walks with God as the God of glory—a higher character than that of the one by whom "the powers that be are ordained." He is a pilgrim and stranger on earth, and walks as a heavenly man. He has the promise that his seed and inheritance in the earth shall become linked together by and by. He and Isaac and Jacob dwell in tents all their days, however, and a tent-life is that of a stranger here, of one that is not at home and at rest.
Here, then, we have a heavenly people again—heavenly in the character of their walk, and heavenly like Enoch or Lamech in their intelligence about the earth's future history, and the promise to their seed of inheritance in it in due season. But we have still deeper and fuller mysteries in the history of him who comes after them.
Genesis 37 to 47:GEN 37GEN 38GEN 39GEN 40GEN 41GEN GEN 42GEN 43GEN 44GEN 45
Through the wickedness of his brethren, as we all know, for it is a favorite story, Joseph is estranged from the scene of the promised and covenanted inheritance. He first becomes a sufferer and then a husband, a father and a governor in the midst of a distant people. At last his brethren, who once hated him, and the inhabitants of the earth are fed and ruled by him in grace and wisdom.
Nothing can be more expressive than all this. It is a striking exhibition of the great result purposed of God "in the dispensation of the fullness of times." Joseph is cast among the Gentiles, and there, after sorrow and bondage, becomes the exalted one and the head and father of a family with such joy that his heart for a season can afford to forget his kindred in the flesh. This surely is Christ in heaven now exalted after His sorrows, and with Him the Church taken from among the Gentiles and made His companion and joy during the season of His estrangement from Israel.
In process of time, Joseph is made the depositary and the dispenser of the world's resources. His brethren, as well as all beside, become dependent on him; he feeds them and rules them according to his pleasure. And this surely is Christ as He will be in the earth by and by, with Israel brought to repentance and seated in the fairest portion of the earth. Then all the nations will be under His scepter, and He will order them according to His wisdom. He will feed them out of His stores and resettle them in their inheritance in peace and righteousness.
Surely the heavens and the earth are seen here in type as they will really be in "the dispensation of the fullness of times," when all things, both in heaven and on earth, shall be gathered together in Christ.
This is a rehearsal of the great result, and the heavens and the earth tell out together the mystery of God!
I cannot but observe the willing, unmurmuring subjection which the Egyptians yield to Joseph. He moves them hither and thither, and settles them as he likes, but all is welcome to them. And so in the days of the kingdom, the whole world will be ready to say that Jesus has done all things well. What blessedness! Subjection to Jesus, but willing and glad subjection! His scepter getting its approval and its welcome from all over whom it waves and asserts its power!
Again I observe that all this power of Joseph is held in full consent of Pharaoh's supremacy The people, cattle and lands are all bought by Joseph for Pharaoh. It is Pharaoh's kingdom still, though under Joseph's administration—as in the kingdom of which this is the type, every tongue shall confess Jesus as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
These features give clear expression and character to the picture. But there is one other touch (the touch of a master's hand, I would reverently say) in this picture which is not inferior in meaning or in beauty to any. I mean that in all this settlement of the earth, Asenath and the children get no portion. They are not seen. There is not even mention made of them. Jacob may get Goshen, but Asenath, Ephraim and Manasseh, nothing. Is it that the wife and children were loved less, and the father and brethren more? No, that cannot be. But Asenath and the children are heavenly, and they have their portion in and with him who is the lord and dispenser of all this. They cannot mingle in the interests and arrangements of the earth. Even Goshen, the fairest and fattest of the land, is unworthy of them. They are the family of the lord himself. They share the home, and the presence, and the closest endearments of him who is the happy and honored head of all this scene of glory.
Is not this the great result in miniature or in type? Have we not in all this the promised "dispensation of the fullness of times," when God will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth? Are not the heavens and the earth here seen and heard together in their millennial order? I surely judge that they are. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:1818Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18).
J. G. Bellett
"Come near to Me."
"Let us draw near.”
'But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometime were far off,
are made nigh by the
blood of Christ.'