King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 8 notes
1After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Childlessness is very painful. This was to be the number one test for the father of faith. Not anything else, think 🤔 of it.
In order to qualify for the father of faith, the test was Childlessness. Inability to fulfil the dominion mandate of fruitfulness 🥝.
Note 2
Lord what wilt thou give me... Nothing was to be compared to a child. Abraham would rather lose everything and have a child and start building his wealth afresh than to die without one and to leave his inheritance for his servant.
It is a very painful thing to die childless. Lord help 😣
3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
In reading these passages you might think the events are chapters apart but really they are decades apart.
The promise was given when he was 75 years and fulfilled 25 years later.
In which form did the word of the lord come? Was it that he saw a form, or he just heard words coming from no one?
5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
AMEN
7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
This is an interesting question 🙋, God Almighty says he will cause Abram and his descendants to inherit the land and Abraham asks for proof?
And God did not reject his question but went ahead to offer elaborate proof by way of a covenant.
So we can seek the lord and ask for proof, especially in our world 🗺 today where the miracles, power and holiness of the early disciples seem to be absent.
We walk in literally no power compared to the miracles of Jesus.
Meanwhile, the same spirit lives in us.
Lord help us.
9And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
Another typical example of not making assumptions when it comes to spiritual things.
He could have assumed that since God gave him the order, he could just lay the birds 🐦 and animals out in the open and God would himself protect them.
That would have been a wrong assumption and we often get hurt as believers because of the many wrong assumptions we make.
12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
And God did not mention the name of the nation though he knew. Why not?
I guess lest they avoid that nation altogether.
Again this begs the question: why did Abraham not ask?
And I realise that that was the case for a lot of God's visions or talks with Abraham. There were always gaps.
Gaps God deliberately leaves for his providence's sake.
So for instance he tells Abraham Eliezer shall not be his heir but one born out of his loins.
Yet he could have added, yours and Sarah's but he kept quiet till the irreversible was done.
Again I believe before Abraham went in to Hagar, he enquired of the lord and did not get a response.
The dealings of God with man always have gaps, gaps to strengthen our faith and to learn to obey his word.
Oh this God
14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
"Have I given this land" not "will I give". He had handed it over officially, all other occupants were just waiting for their lease to run out.
19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.