The Lord God Most High promised to Abram that he and his descendants would be blessed. In Genesis 15, Abram appeals to the Lord explaining that he remains childless and the only heir in his household is his servant, Eliezer of Damascus. The Lord reassures Abram that this man will not be the heir, but a son that will come from Abram’s own body, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars…so shall your offspring be” (v. 5).
The Lord instructed him to bring a sacrifice, and Abram prepared it. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep. A dreadful darkness came over him, and the Lord explained to him what would happen in the next four generations.
Abram’s descendants would be strangers in a country and enslaved and mistreated for 400 years. Afterwards, the Lord would punish the nation they served in as slaves, and they would come out of the land with great possessions. Abram would be at peace and die at an old age. At the end of the 4th generation, the descendants would return to the land of Canaan
When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces of Abram’s sacrifice. It was on that day that the Lord made a covenant with Abram,
“To your descendants I give this land [of Canaan], from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." (v. 20)
It was stated that Abram believed what the Lord promised him, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness (v. 6). Though God was trying to reassure Abram, it would take many years before Abram understood and saw the fruition of this promise.
No comments:
Post a Comment