ABRAHAM’S DREAM

There was a haze in the sky as the sun lowered into the horizon. God and Abraham had a moment.

A moment when Abraham’s life changed forever. 

A moment when Abraham saw the vastness of God’s blessings. 

A moment when the sky was painted with stars of God’s nation.

As they had stood in the evening sky, Abraham imagined reaching into the sky grabbing the stars one by one and holding them tightly to his chest. Holding onto this moment, he quietly stepped into his tent. Gazing at his beautiful bride asleep, he laid down to sleep next to her.  

              “Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.” Genesis 15:12

Deep sleep…dreadful darkness! A panic must have risen within Abraham not knowing if he was the one who could carry out the promises of God. As he slipped into this sleep, he grasped the hand of God.

Changes tumbled into his life at such a speed that he felt his life caught up in a whirlwind. Moving from his known land into a land of unknown. Childless yet promised a nation. How can this be?

I believe that in God’s grace for Abraham, He realized that He needed to enlighten Abraham with the full story. Abraham was God’s vessel for this covenant, and He needed Abraham to preserve.

In this deep, dreadful sleep, introductions were made. A man that Abraham would never meet face to face became real to him. The stories of Abraham and Moses are centuries apart, but the connection between them was unbreakable.  It was as though they walked hand and hand carrying the covenant of God.

This was the dream…

“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. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.  You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.  In the fourth generation your descendants will come back her, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’”  Genesis 15:13-16 NIV

The first time I read this scripture, I began to cry.  This was such a tender moment between God and Abraham.  This moment gave Abraham purpose and hope that what began in him was purposed for life change for the world.

Let’s break this dream down…

              “Know for certain that for four hundred years…this was said in Genesis.

Look what it says in Exodus…

“Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.” Exodus 12:40, 41 NIV

Four hundred years the Israelites were enslaved in the land of Egypt. But take heart, the land of Egypt was not their land.  There is a land that had been promised 400 years prior to the man of Abraham.

              “But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves…”

If you know the story of Moses, you know that when they finally escaped, the nation of Egypt was severely punished for their treatment of the Israelites.

              “and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”

God is in the details.  This is a detail to the story that can be easily missed. But for me, this detail is proof of God’s miraculous presence!

“The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” Exodus 12:35-36 NIV

God not only kept this detailed promise, but He also communicated this detailed promise.

Have you ever told a story of God’s miracle but as you told the story, it was the detail in the story that proved it was God working? That is how I see this detail.  This is a detail that only God could orchestrate!

“In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here,…

This is where I want to cry.  They get to come back home!!!! A home they never knew but a home that is promised. A home that God has designed for them. Remember who God is telling this story to…Abraham! He was the first one to experience the promised land.  He was the first one to call this land home.

for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

This is the part of the story that gets lost but the part that has the sovereignty of God written all over it!

God is all about timing! If the Israelites had begun to grow as a nation during the time of Abraham, they would have had to continually fight up against the Amorites …the inhabitants of the land of Canaan and lost.  God wanted His nation to be strong and the enemy to be weak. Sometimes that takes time!

“Israel would only inherit the land after the Canaanite inhabitants had passed the point of divine tolerance.” (The Woman’s Study Bible NIV)

So, what does this mean for us? Why does this story from the Old Testament relate to us today?

Overall, I see this as a beautiful story written for us.  Even though this is specific to Abraham and the future story of Moses, it can also be our story…our dream.

This is a hope that someday God will call us home.  He will make a way for us while on this earth…the foreign land. While in this foreign land we will feel enslaved.  Enslaved to our own sin and to the sin of others.  It will feel as though we will never escape.  But because of our faith in Christ, there is always a way of escape that God is providing!  Once we leave this wretched world (our Egypt), God takes us home.  A home in heaven that He has prepared for us.  A home where the enemy has been defeated and we will triumph over the enemy.  A home where we can rest in His goodness.

This passage gives me so much hope. 

It gives me hope that God knows exactly what is ahead for me.

It gives me a hope that the one (Satan) who holds me captive will someday be defeated.

It gives me hope that once I am let out of the captivity of this world, that I will have great possessions of peace.

It gives me hope that I am just a foreigner in this land and that someday, I will go home!

Join me in celebrating this hope today!!!!

Walk with me next week as I tell you about the next movement in the life of Abraham. His story is a very complicated one!