Stewardship and Dispensations: The Significance of Οικονομός and Οικονομία

The sixty-six books of the Bible span thousands of years of man’s history and beyond. They begin before God created man and end with the creation of new heavens and a new earth where righteousness settles down and feels at ease¹.  Within the pages of the Bible, we see changes in the relationship and expectation that God has for mankind and the failure of mankind to live up to God’s expectation, which ultimately brings judgment. In the garden of Eden, man was not allowed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil². Upon eating of the fruit from this tree, mankind’s spirit was separated from God³, he became subject to physical death, and was expelled from the garden⁴. Having been expelled from the garden, the expectation for man was to properly govern the manner of his life by the knowledge of good and evil that he now possessed. However, again men failed and God judged the earth by bringing a flood⁵. After the flood, God instructs Noah that men are to govern themselves and capital punishment is implemented⁶. Again, men fail to follow God’s instruction, rejected God, and sought their own way. Therefore, God brought judgment and forced man to separate and spread across the earth⁷.  This judgment brought about multiple languages and the division of the continents, which caused man to spread out across the earth⁸.  Having scattered man across the face of the earth, God then approaches Abram and ultimately offers him four covenants⁹. These covenants included a promise of […]