• To identify Himself as the Author!
• To stimulate people to study and think - the answers are there IN that Book!
• To show us the need to rightly divide, not just 'read!'
• Give us a way to show ourselves approved unto God!
• Gives us a way to know we need not be ashamed!
• To test a reader's heart and motive!
• "Problems" being solved lead to deeper spiritual truth!
• Proof of damning if words are rejected or removed or ignored.

1.  God's way of teaching the deeper things of God.
I Cor 2:6-16; John 14:265; John 16:7-15.

You read for knowledge, study (rightly divide) for understanding, it all comes out as wisdom from the mouth of the Lord. If you can't rightly divide, you only do the 'standards' etc. thus you would read the Bible as an instruction manual only!

2.  It keeps you from being ignorant of Satan's devices.
II Cor 2:11

Wrongly dividing is how the devil does most of his work regarding scriptures and false doctrine.  Every Theological LIE in this age is a Biblical TRUTH misplaced.

3.  Rightly Dividing gives you great Confidence in the WRITTEN Scriptures.
Confidence - Eph 3:12; Eph 2:28; I Jn 3:21; I Jn 5:14
Written - John 20:31; I John 5:13

4.  Rightly Dividing MAKES us fighters in a world of spiritual peaceniks.
Jesus came to divide - Luke 12:51! When His words arrive on any scene, prepare for battle.
We are called to be soldiers and this lights the fires - II Timothy 2:3,4; Ephesians 6, etc.

5.  We are commanded to - it will keep us from ungodliness and show us approved unto God and will keep us from being ashamed!
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.  II Timothy 2:15

Unnecessary confusion also occurs when man fails to realize that God often requires something of man during one period of time which He does not require during another period of time. To rightly divide the Bible, one must consider God's changing commissions.

It isn't God's 'fault' when we don't understand this Book, either.  We learn as the Holy Spirit guides, but maybe WE are the problem in our lack of understanding!

Many people have misapplied Hebrews 13:8 to justify  their rejection of God's changing expectations of man.

However, instead of realizing that this verse refers to God s unchanging character, many assume that Hebrews 13:8 refers to God's plan for man.

God's "character" never changes. However, those who fail to make a distinction in God's "messages" will end up confused and sometimes completely bewildered.

We must be able to distinguish Paul's epistles as they relate to us today, from the other scriptures that directly relate to man in other periods of time.

We must keep in mind that we can find references to God's grace and mercy throughout the Old and New Testaments.

A few examples:
Grace in the Old Testament: Genesis 6:8 (Noah); Exodus 33:12,16 (Moses); I Samuel 20:3 (David); Ezra 9:8 (Ezra); Psalms 84:11; Proverbs 3:34; Zechariah 12:10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one moruneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Mercies in the Old Testament: Nehemiah 9:31; Psalm 6:4; 25:6; 31:16; 40:11; 44:26; 51:1; etc. etc.

In the meantime, He put them in what is called Abraham's Bosom until the Lord Jesus Christ completed His work of His faith.

The Bible clearly reveals God's expectations for man. It also reveals that for the most part, His commands and instructions get more detailed and complex as human history progresses from dispensational age to dispensational age. Perhaps this is God's way of showing mankind's sinful shortcomings. The farther man gets from God, the more God must write down for him and the greater the detail He must use in order to hold man's attention. Whether the instructions are general or specific, simple or complex, mankind as a race perpetually fails, dooming itself to eternal damnation. Thank God, His mercy and grace prevails in every age, providing the means for any willing individual to have his sinful soul saved. D. Stauffer

• God issues His commands through His spokesman or spokesmen.
• By faith, man repents, believes, and obeys or persists in disbelief and disobedience. (Thus,in any dispensational age, salvation comes by faith through grace. The content of that faith changes according to what God commands man to believe and obey in any given time period.) Repentance, belief, and obedience are more pronounced as separate steps in some ages than others. This will be evident as we study through the various ages. For example, in the Age of the Church, when a man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ he is saved as he repents of believing in anything else for salvation. While the heart of every member of mankind is deceitful and desperately wicked on its own, God looks on the heart of every person in search of repentance, belief, and obedience (I Samuel 16:7, Jeremiah 17:9-10).
• God redeems those who repent, believe, and obey.
• God judges those who fail to repent, believe, and obey.

• Man's finite mind has trouble distinguishing the actions of God from His attributes.  God still doesn't 'like' those things He told Moses in Leviticus, etc.  But He did make the final payment for those not being kept.  God still has His abominations, etc. etc. etc. and those things He hates!  When the fullness of the Gentiles is come, then folks are back to being dogs!  God DOESN'T LOVE EVERYONE!  He LOVED - He gave them their opportunity!
• The tendency for us to view "things" in terms of definite start and stop times. Some dispensational ages do begin and/or end with definite events at definite times. For example, the Church Age ends at the Rapture of the Church. However, in other cases, God extends the initial dispensing of His commands beyond a single particular event and time.
• Our tendency to look to and long for "what used to be." Because of this, man attempts to apply the commands of the preceding dispensational age to the current one. This phenomenon could be related to man's resistance to change - along with his inclination to rebel against God's will. (As a result, you will notice that most of our studying on rightly dividing deals with this present Church Age being compared to the two  previous ages, although, there are more and more beginning to mix up the Tribulation with today - thanks to the Left Behind series of hollywood false prophecy!
• The urge to play "what if' throughout the Bible."What IF Adam hadn't sinned?" and "What IF the Jews had accepted Christ as the Messiah?" are two examples. These might make for interesting talk and it will keep one from staying on the specific subject of rightly dividing; it will not result in very profitable Bible studies. One should stick to the facts of what did happen and refrain from playing "what if' over what did not happen.