God’s Dispensation

God cleanses through His dispensation. He brings us into situations and together with people where our inner man is turned inside out, and the true condition of our heart is revealed to all. There may be things that have remained dormant within us, and perhaps they are living and thriving in our nature; but we have been blind to them until now and not yet mature enough that God could reveal them to us in His light. But now God is doing this, and we are learning to know ourselves in a way that neither we nor others have known until now.

Israel was led by God into the wilderness, where they were at once deprived of everything they had previously enjoyed in abundance. And what happened? They murmured against God, because their bread and water were not available at the time of their choosing. In Egypt they saw what the world was all about, but in the desert, they had to see what they themselves were all about. If someone in Egypt had said to these Israelites: “You will probably grumble at God one day,” they would have replied that there was no way that they would do that. But just see, when they arrived in the desert, that is exactly what happened! Only two out of 600,000 men have passed this test and been cleansed by this dispensation. It was Joshua and Caleb who had full confidence in His leadership and therefore followed Him completely. (Numbers 14:24). How often have we not passed the test but grumbled instead of submitting to Him and believing in Him; we have complained about people and certain situations, because we have not understood that they were only a means to an even deeper cleansing. And so, we have once again been spilled from the crucible along with the slag. We have not received help, because we have obstructed God’s purpose for us with our self-will. But because the Lord is long-suffering towards us, He starts again; but now often in a way that is more grievous: because He could not take us on the shorter path, He must lead us on a longer one. (Exodus 13:17).

God even uses people who are not holy to cleanse us. Jacob had to work for Laban, in order to learn to hate his own unrighteousness. Jacob was looking for his own advantage but met his match. Haven’t we had similar experiences? Haven’t we often been put together with people who resembled us with all their faults? But instead of learning through them to hate ourselves and let ourselves be cleansed, we have hated them, and instead we have become even more unclean through their impurity.

Hannah did it better. She was stuck with Peninnah, and Peninnah taunted her year after year. But Hannah did not say to her husband: I want a divorce! I’m leaving! No! She allowed herself to be pruned and cleansed. And so, she became a fruitful bough that could give life to a Samuel. She saw Peninnah as the knife in the hand of the Vinedresser, which He used to prune her.

You must not regard the people who test you as a nuisance, but as a heavenly whetstone that the cutler uses to sharpen and beautify you, or as a hammer that the Master uses to shape the iron in the forge. “You have caused men to ride over our heads,” said David. God has allowed this. Joseph was thrown in prison by the Egyptians. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. (Ps. 105). For how long? Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. Then the king sent for him and set him free. The Lord God stood above the Egyptians. He allowed him to be put in irons and fetters, and He made sure that he did not stay there a moment longer than was necessary for the word of the Lord to cleanse him—until God had let him go through a deeper cleansing.

God’s dispensation requires silence! This dispensation aims to grind our own strength into the dust as we see during Israel’s deliverance. (Exodus 5:6). God’s dispensations and dealings with us point us forward, and are aimed at setting us aside and making room for God, so that God may be all and in all, and exalted above every height and depth of our lives to His glory. (Philippians 2:11).