Genesis 15:1-13

¹ After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not fear the future, Abram, I am your present shield; your future wages will be very great.”

² But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I remain childless, and the heir of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?”

³ And Abram said, “See, you have given me no offspring, and only a member of my household staff will be my heir.”

⁴ And see, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”

⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward the sky, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶ And he believed the LORD, and the LORD counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

⁸ But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

⁹ He 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.”

¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.

¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

¹³ Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years.

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Fear of the future

The LORD tells Abram good news and bad news and then more good news. The first good news is that he will have a real heir. The bad news is that all his riches and fame is going to go away for centuries. His descendants are going to be slaves in a foreign land. His deep sleep and experience of great darkness is symbolic of the fact that he will be dead, and unconscious of it. The sleep of death is a blessing in this dark world. No one wants to watch as all his descendants are oppressed and enslaved.

LORD, thank you for keeping us from seeing the darkness ahead. We trust you to bring us back into the light when your timing is right.