Dispensation Bible Study #4

Human Government

Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Faith was still going to be an integral part of this dispensation! The flood killed all of mankind except for the eight people in the ark, Noah’s family. One can only imagine the thoughts of Noah realizing as he prepared to leave the ark that his family were the only human beings left on earth! When the waters finally subsided and the rain ended, Noah and his family stepped out of the ark and immediately offered the obligatory sacrifice to God.

Gen 8:15-22 And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. 20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

The sacrifice pleased God so much, that He removed the curse from the ground, and promised not to kill every living thing or alter the seasons for as long as the earth remains. God then also began to outline the rules of the new dispensation:

Gen 9:1-7 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Man was to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. This was obviously needed as the human race was now down to only eight people. For the first time, God allowed man to eat meat as long as all the blood was cooked out. In return, God placed a fear of man in the animals and changed the nature of some animals to also begin to eat meat. Before the flood, all living things were vegetarian! God also instituted the law of capital punishment. For the first time, God gave authority for one man to rule over another. The authority that is in place today (government, teachers, law officers, etc ...) have their authority because God gave it to man. All true authority comes from God, and as long as local laws do not go against the Word of God, we should strive to obey them. Man still had to live by his conscience and obey the word of the Lord, but if some of mankind did not do so, man was given authority to execute judgment. Thus began the era of Human Government. God then proposed a covenant with Noah.

Covenant- a mutual agreement between two individuals or nations.

Gen 9:11-13 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

God promised that He would never again destroy the earth by water. As a sign of the covenant, God caused a rainbow to appear. We can still see the rainbow today, as it is a reminder that this covenant God has made with man is still in effect! When God makes a covenant, He keeps it forever! When it would rain thereafter, no doubt Noah and his descendants would be reassured after the storm by the appearance of a rainbow that God was indeed still keeping His promise.

Noah eventually died and it was up to his children and grandchildren to OBEY God’s word and go throughout the earth and multiply and replenish it. Unfortunately, they did not!

Gen 10:8-10 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah. He was a mighty hunter and built several cities including one called Babel. Instead of multiplying throughout the earth as God had commanded, men and women began to congregate in one place so God decided to see why:

Gen 11:1-9 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

God had made a covenant with man that He would never again cause a flood of water to destroy the earth, yet man insisted on building a tower that would reach above the flood line! This shows Nimrod’s lack of FAITH in God! They also built the tower so that they would not be “scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” They willingly disobeyed God’s commandment to go forth and replenish the earth. Man’s first attempt at Human Government had thus failed because man used his new authority to influence others to go against the Word of God. God suddenly confounded the languages of the people and caused man to speak different tongues so that they would scatter and obey His word. Before this time, all men had spoken the same language, but now suddenly everyone was speaking differently. As people began to find other people with the same language, they began to scatter out over the earth according to their new tongue. All of the languages and cultures of today are a result of this event at the tower of Babel.

So the Dispensation of Human Government:

Began with a promise and a covenant that God would never again destroy the world with water.

Ended with judgment on all mankind through the confounding of tongues.

For salvation, man had to OBEY the Word of the Lord by giving worthy offerings with blood, have faith that God would accept their offerings, and listen to their conscience. As well as go forth and replenish the whole earth and submit themselves to human government.

The event that led to the ending of the dispensation was the building of the Tower of Babel.

The dispensation probably lasted 367 years.

The dispensation did not provide for regeneration of man’s dead, dormant spirit.