Genesis 15:12-21 – There’s no impossibility with God

In cutting a covenant, both parties would normally pass in between the sacrifice cut int0 half, divided and lined on two sides. In this case, Abram went into a deep sleep and God Himself passed through the sacrifice. The sleep that Abram had was not a common sleep. It was not due to weariness. Why? The things that he experienced while asleep tell us that it was not an ordinary happening. Something divine was taking place. God was making known to him what would happen to his descendants. It was a further assurance of the certainty of the promise of descendants. God was foretelling Abram what would happen to his descendants before they would finally possess the land.

Abram was foretold that his descendants would become strangers in a land not theirs, and be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. And we know that God was pointing ahead to the time of the Israelites’ slavery in the land of Egypt. God would judge Egypt and deliver the descendants of Abram. They would leave the land of oppression with mush possession. From the account in Exodus, they indeed did leave Egypt with much material goods given to them by the Egyptians. But Abram was promised that he would not be part of the oppression, but would die peacefully at a good old age. He would be buried in Canaan, the promised land.   

God’s promise to Abram would come true for the fourth generation of his descendants. The fact that it would take such a length of time before God would bring them out of Egypt into the Promised Land was to demonstrate the patience of God. The Amorites, the descendants of the sons of Canaan would be occupying the Promised Land at that time. God’s patience would be tested by them. When their iniquities reached a pitch where it had become intolerable, it would be 400 years of God’s patience toward them. Oh, how long is the patience of God! That’s why we must not test the patience of God. We should keep short accounts with Him. We should not persist in a sin, ignoring our conscience quickened by God, till we become numb to His bidding.   

God enacted the covenant by Himself, through a smoking oven and a flaming torch, passed between the pieces of the sacrifice. This could be the symbol of God’s presence, just as He would guide the Israelites with the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. And God pledged to give them the land “from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.” He had outlined the land and the different people that were in the land they would possess. Notice that God alone passed through the pieces of the sacrifice. Abram was asleep. It’s a covenant where God Himself enacted to ensure its certainty. What a God!   

God showed great patience working with Abram to bring him from his pagan upbringing to be a giant of faith. What He was doing with Abram to enable him to come to where he would be able to appropriate God’s promise would require much trust of many years. The ownership of the land Abram was promised would only be realized after his death. Here Abram was getting to an age when his ability to bear a child is quickly diminishing. It would take faith to believe that he could still bear a child, and he needed greater faith to believe what’s appeared to be improbable to him. But our God takes what seems impossible and makes it possible. There is no impossibility with God. What’s our biggest faith struggle today? Remember, with God all things are possible to them that believe!