More Promises

Abram believes God’s promises. This is now a “teachable moment”. So God continues, and He reminds Abram that He has given Abram the land. So Abram asks for more information. Notice that Abram didn’t ask when he didn’t believe, but when he believes, he wants more of God.

Abram follows God’s instructions to make a sacrifice, and God gives Abram a vision of the future concerning the 400 years in Egypt, and then He seals the covenant with Abram by passing His light through the sacrifice. And this covenant is even more specific:

Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Gen 15)

Unfortunately, the next thing that Abram and Sarai do is an act of unbelief. Thinking that God is taking too long in fulfilling His promise, they decide to “help”. Sarai gives her handmaid, Hager, to Abram to obtain children.