Among the many mysteries of Scripture, one that I have come to admire is found in the desert wanderings of Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21). Abraham provided them with a single bottle of water for the journey, but as anyone would expect, the flask was soon empty from the heat of the sun and the needs of a child. Leaving Ishmael a good distance away, Hagar weeps before the Lord as though this is the end of her son's life because she cannot provide him with anything to drink. Every understandable fear overcame this mother until we read that God "opened her eyes and she saw a well of water." For years, I have been compelled to ask Bible students and teachers the most unlikely question of this passage. By opening her eyes, did God supernaturally put a well in front of her that was never there before or had the well always been there and she was simply unable to see it?

For some, this may seem as trivial as it is unconventional. For me, this is a question that digs deep into the heart of a knowledge only God can provide. How many of us have been reading through the same set of verses for years and out of the blue, we see something that we never saw before? Perhaps the Word changed since the last time we read it? Certainly not. Over and over, we are faced with studies that bring new light to previously chartered territory. And by design, it is God who opens our eyes to see the Living Word.

At the forefront of this introduction, I must confess several convictions of my theology to those who are unsure. First and foremost, I am eternally saved by God's grace through faith in such a way that there is not, was not, nor will there ever be a way that I can work my way into His glory (Ephesians 2:8-9). Secondly, I am a Dispensationalist of the Mid-Acts view who believes that the Body of Christ and the present "dispensation of the grace of God" began through the unique revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ unto the Apostle Paul (Galatians 1:11-12; Ephesians 3:1-4). My studies are, therefore, guided by the learned principles of "right division" as taught in II Timothy 2:15. As well, I am a firm believer in the notion that teachers are accountable to the Biblical investigation of their listeners as illustrated by the Bereans of Acts 17:11. Thus, by writing this, I admit to being both a teacher and a student who is vulnerable to criticism and rightly so.

By no measure do I suppose that everyone reading these pages will agree with me on each of the above points, but they are important for my target audience. Books and studies such as this have been published for many years by many authors for many audiences. Hence, I do not pretend that the content of this book will be any more profound or enlightening than those who have gone before me. However, those to whom I have most shared fellowship over the past ten years have had nothing of this sort written for them.

These men and women, known within their own circles as "grace believers" and labeled on the outside as "hyper-dispensationalists," have become some of my closest and most treasured friends in the Lord. Yet for all of the studies, the charts, the discussions and the debates, far too many of these beloved brothers and sisters have been sapped of their joy in Christ to the point that "grace" is no longer grace and "truth" is no longer truth. Songs of life are voiced with sorrow and words of hope are shared in secret. The Almighty God is stuffed into a box while His Word becomes a source for our intellectual competitions and human reason. To those on the outside, we look to have the wisdom of fools. To those on the inside, we foolishly think ourselves wise.

Throughout the course of my many conversations with such Biblically-driven men and women of God, I have encountered an odd and unexplained phenomenon. While we hold up the grace of God according to His Word, many have now defined God according to their theology. In other words, the capacity of God to do or not do, to be or not be, to operate or not operate, is no longer explained by Scripture, but by a fear of the unknown.

We cannot be content to know the grace that God provides without knowing the God who provides it. Teachers of such a precious gospel ought to know the One that they patiently await. And much to the frustration of those who often place our great Savior in the back seat of their theology, His hands are not to be tied unless He Himself ties them. We serve a living, true, and faithful God who wants to be known throughout all of His creation. By grace, we are able to know Him with a depth of understanding beyond the rocks and the mountains that also anticipate His arrival.

Although I have poured out my heart through the pages of this book, neither my emotions nor my convictions should ever dictate whether or not you believe God is all that He is. For that reason, this book is not merely sprinkled with Scripture, but doused in it. Who among us can give an accurate description of God if all of our understanding is based on shifting sand and human experience? Hardly a man would dare to try if he admitted just how often his own discretion and his own judgment is impaired by humanity. Alas, the true story of God is not found in how we feel, but in what the Lord God testifies of Himself.

As you turn each page, my hope and prayer is that your eyes will be opened to the Word, that you may see things that you never saw before, and that you may come face to face with a greater knowledge of our glorious God and Savior, the King eternal.


Jeremy D. Lucas