Genesis 15
15
1After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”
2-3Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”
4Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”
5Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”
6And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”
7 God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”
8Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”
9 God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”
10-12He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
13-16 God said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”
17-21When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when God made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 15
15
God’s Covenant with Abram
1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: #ch. 26:24; Dan. 10:12; Luke 1:13, 30 “Fear not, Abram, I am #Ps. 3:3; 18:2; 84:11; 119:114your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue#15:2 Or I shall die childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and #ch. 14:14a member of my household will be my heir.” 4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; #ch. 17:16your very own son#15:4 Hebrew what will come out of your own loins shall be your heir.” 5And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and #Ps. 147:4 number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, #ch. 22:17; 26:4; Ex. 32:13; Deut. 1:10; 10:22; 1 Chr. 27:23; Heb. 11:12; Cited Rom. 4:18“So shall your offspring be.” 6And #Rom. 4:9, 22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23 he believed the Lord, and #Cited Rom. 4:3; [Ps. 106:31]he counted it to him as righteousness.
7And he said to him, “I am the Lord who #ch. 11:31; 12:1; Neh. 9:7, 8; Acts 7:2-4 brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans #Ps. 105:42, 44to give you this land to possess.” 8But he said, “O Lord God, #[Judg. 6:17; 2 Kgs. 20:8; Ps. 86:17; Isa. 7:11-13; Luke 1:18]how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10And he brought him all these, #Jer. 34:18, 19 cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But #Lev. 1:17he did not cut the birds in half. 11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12As the sun was going down, a #ch. 2:21deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain #Acts 7:6, 7 that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and #Ex. 1:11, 12; 3:7 they will be afflicted for #Acts 7:6; [Ex. 12:40, 41; Gal. 3:17]four hundred years. 14But #Ex. 6:6 I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward #Ex. 12:36; Ps. 105:37they shall come out with great possessions. 15As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; #ch. 25:8you shall be buried in a good old age. 16And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for #1 Kgs. 21:26; Amos 2:9 the iniquity of the Amorites #[Dan. 8:23; Matt. 23:32; 1 Thess. 2:16]is not yet complete.”
17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, #ch. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7; 26:4; Num. 34:2; Deut. 34:4; Neh. 9:8 “To your offspring I give#15:18 Or have given this land, from #Ex. 23:31; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 1:4the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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