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"When the commandment came"
(Being a series of articles based upon the testimony of readers as
to the particular passage of Scripture that was used to enlighten
them as to the unique character of the Dispensation of the Mystery).
#3.
Genesis 15: 16 and its typical teaching.
pp. 7 - 9
One of the results of this enquiry is that it brings to light the fact that conviction as to
the unique character of the mystery was not always brought about by "proof texts" on the
subject, but often some out-of-the-way passage would be used to seal the truth to the
heart. Such is the testimony we now reproduce:--
"While the right division of the Word and the fixing of the dispensational boundary at
the end of the Acts of the Apostles had cleared the way, the passage that flashed a light of
understanding was the verse from Gen. 15: 16: `for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet
full'."
This passage alone would hardly be intelligible without the clarifying work of right
division, which our reader places first. According to his testimony the steps that led to
conviction were:--
1: The recognition of the principle of "right division".
2: Its application to the question of the starting point of the present dispensation.
3: The illumination of the peculiar nature of this dispensation of the mystery by the
strange reference to the Amorites in Gen. 15:
The principle of "right division" underlies all our ministry, both spoken and written,
and does not call for special comment here. The importance of Acts 28: as a
dispensational boundary likewise is ever in view. It colours the interpretation of every
passage. The first question that we always ask in regard to any passage is: On which
side of Acts 28: does it appear? The reference to Gen. 15:, however, may not be so
obvious. Let us first see the passage in which the Amorite is referred to:--
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come
out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried
in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the
iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" (Gen. 15: 13-16).
Here is a strange revelation. God had called Abram and he had responded. The land
of promise had been entered and claimed (Gen. 13: 14-18) and yet, here, in Gen. 15:,
the Lord speaks of a period of 400 years in which the seed of Abram, instead of entering