The divine economy and the divine dispensing is also shown in the promise of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 17:8; Gal. 3:16; Matt. 1:1-2a). In the beginning, God created man in His own image and after His own likeness. But man fell through four successive steps until he came to Babel, a place full of idols. Eventually, God was chased away from the earth by man's idolatry. History tells us that every brick of the tower of Babel had the name of an idol on it. Abraham was born in that land of idolatry (Josh. 24:2-3). One day while Abraham was worshipping idols, the God of glory appeared to him and called him (Acts 7:2-3). God called Abraham out of the place called Shinar, the base of Babylon, and brought him into the good land of Canaan. Once Abraham arrived in the land of Canaan, God appeared to him and made a promise to him concerning a seed (Gen. 12:7).
The seed of Abraham is for the blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3). Although He prophesied concerning the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, God did not do anything immediately to fulfill His promise. Instead, He allowed man to fall again and again until he reached the bottom of the fall at Babel. Then God called out one person, Abraham. In Genesis 12:2-3 His speaking to Abraham indicated only a little concerning His intention. God said that He would make Abraham great and that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. Then in Genesis 17:7 God told Abraham that He would make a covenant with Abraham and with his seed. This word concerning the seed was explained clearly by Paul in Galatians 3:16 when he said, "But to Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to the seeds,' as concerning many, but as concerning one: 'And to your seed,' who is Christ."
Today we must thank the Lord that we are more clear than Abraham was concerning the promise of the seed. Abraham might have only understood that God would give him a good piece of land, a land flowing with milk and honey. It is doubtful that Abraham understood that through many centuries, through forty generations, a virgin would bring forth a boy who would be the real seed and the One through whom the earth would be blessed. Not only Abraham did not understand these things in his time; the Jews still do not understand this promise. Paul was a Jew and did not understand this matter before becoming a Christian. Eventually, after some years, Paul wrote Galatians 3, in which he said that God's promise to Abraham was His preaching of the gospel to Abraham and that the blessing of Abraham was the Spirit (vv. 8, 14). God did not promise Abraham a piece of land. The promise to Abraham was that he would receive the processed God as the all-inclusive, consummated Spirit.
The blessing of Abraham refers to the promised Spirit, who is the reality of Christ (Gal. 3:14; John 14:17-20). The one seed of Abraham became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).