seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 15:4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girga####es and Jebusites.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girga####es and Jebusites.”
Genesis 15:5 Or seed
Genesis 15:18 Or river
Abram had no children. He was living on land with no deed. He had gone into the camp of 5 warring kings to rescue his nephew, Lot. Everything he had worked for would be given over to his servant, who was also getting up there in age. All he had was a voice in his head or his heart, telling him what to do. Today we might even label him Schizophrenic.
Here's what one commentary says.
In those days, contracts were made by the sacrificial cutting of animals, with the split carcasses of the animals lying on the ground. Then both parties to the covenant walked through the animal parts together, repeating the terms of the covenant. The Lord made a covenant in Genesis 15:18 is literally, the Lord cut a covenant.
When Abram had his doubts and wanted assurance from the Lord, God said to him plainly, Lets sign a contract and settle this once for all.
As Abram waited for the Lord to appear and walk through the carcasses with him (to sign the covenant), God didn't come right away. He had to wait and fight off the vultures until God did something with this covenant ceremony.
Abram had reason to expect that God would come down and walk through the animal parts with him, because God had previously appeared to him (Genesis 12:7).
Jeremiah 34:18-20 makes reference to this same practice of a covenant made by cutting animals and repeating the oath of the covenant as one walks through the animal parts.
The symbolism was plain. First, this is a covenant so serious it is sealed with blood. Second, if I break this covenant, let this same bloodshed be poured out on my animals and me.
The symbolism was plain. First, this is a covenant so serious it is sealed with blood. Second, if I break this covenant, let this same bloodshed be poured out on my animals and me.
When Abram had his doubts and wanted assurance from the Lord, God said to him plainly, Lets sign a contract and settle this once for all.
As Abram waited for the Lord to appear and walk through the carcasses with him (to sign the covenant), God didn't come right away. He had to wait and fight off the vultures until God did something with this covenant ceremony.
Abram had reason to expect that God would come down and walk through the animal parts with him, because God had previously appeared to him (Genesis 12:7).
Then God threw in an addendum to the contract. God knew that Abram's heirs were going to be a handful. He also knew that He wasn't going to be walking with them the way He walked with Abram. So He through in the addendum to the contract saying that for 400 years they would be in Egypt... but God would be responsible for handing out the punishment on their oppressors.
God also defined the natural boundaries of the promised land in the contract. After Abram's descendants would travel to Egypt they would return to the land that was [and is] there under this contract.
In modern CNN terms. "According to an ancient contract, the descendants of Abram have every right to be on the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates."
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