Genesis 15 notes/thoughts - Heres the plan man- Imagine one day God just told you everything he was planning. This happened to people in the Bible! (they were called prophets) but most prophets were told what was going to happen to the earth, or to Israel, very few were given the kind of inside information that Abram gets in Genesis 15. Genesis 15 The Lord’s Covenant With Abram 1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 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 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 (river) of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” This all happens after Abram screw up by calling his wife Sarai (his half/sister) his sister and pretending she wasnt his wife so they Egyptians wouldnt kill him. Then he goes and saves his nephew Lot from his friends who tried to take his as a war prize and the giving the priest 10% of the treasures brought back from the fighting. Abrams life is one of ups and downs, following God and then being worried that things arent going to work out so he doubts and tries to save himself and stops trusting God... and get this... God still uses him! What the heck right? He makes this promise to him by cutting up animals and passing a torch through them, and I guess this was the practice back then when you made promises. This was to say, if we dont keep this promise than may I ended up like this animals that have been cut in half. Its God making the promise, not Abram! God is so impressed with Abram that he reveals like the rest of the book of Genesis to him as well as a bit of Exodus. 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.” Basically - You are going to live to be old, I already determined it! You will live in this land but the ancestors after you will live in a foreign land and then after 400 years come back here because I am giving some of the tribes of people here time to build up my wrath. Pretty crazy! What could one do with with this information? Either you had some really messed up dreams and you hallucinated it , or God really spoke to you and has just said you cant be touched and you will have children out of your body... Now that might be slightly harder to take because Abram and Sarai are old. As we watch everything unfold as God said, Abram and his family will wonder what is going on. God just revealed it to him, but he is having trouble swallowing it. His decedents will wonder why they are in slavery, his wife and him will get worried that they will never have children and he sleeps with his wifes servant and all of these actions were done because they wondered if God was keeping his plan... Yet he does. In the end every one doubts what God says for different reasons. Can he really do what he will say? Can he really do miracles? Has he forgotten us? The answer is no, He just told you his plan. Question of the day. What kind of promises has God made in the Bible that apply to us today? If you cannot remember, why is that? Are we like Abram, being told something but then forgetting and acting on our doubt? Does everything thing God promise come true for Abram? For us?
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 12:51:39 +0000