God Confirms His Promise
8But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?”
9And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”
10So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut. 11And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.
13Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own; they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. 15You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. 18On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates— 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
“What! Abraham, is not God’s promise sufficient for thee? … Ah, beloved! faith is often marred by a measure of unbelief; or, if not quite unbelief, yet there is a desire to have some token, some sign, beyond the bare promise of God.” (Spurgeon)
In Abram’s time, covenant’s were made by the sacrificial cutting of animals and the covenant was verbally repeated while passing through the cut pieces of animals.
The Lord cut (made) this contract.
When Abram was in the deep sleep the Lord signed this contract, “behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.” Many times in the Bible God is represented by a flaming torch and smoking firepot (oven).
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord told Abram (prediction) about the 400 years of slavery as mentioned later in Exodus?
God knows the future, He knows our failures and faults and still loves us!
Blessings, David
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