He
said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,
Genesis 15:13-14
Genesis 15 [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.” He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds. The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
Genesis 15 [12.] When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth, but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.” It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Genesis 16 [1.] Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you.”
Meaning:
Abram had believed God’s promise, and God “credited it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). As God made a covenant with him, Abram heard in a deep sleep what would happen to his descendants first: the slavery in Egypt and the Exodus, foretold centuries in advance.
- “your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs”
The land would not be given at once. Abram’s descendants would first live as foreigners in another land. The rest of Genesis and Exodus show it was Egypt.
- “They will afflict them four hundred years”
The number is a round figure for a long period of bondage. Exodus gives a more exact total: “Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years” (Exodus 12:40). Stephen too says Abraham’s offspring “would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years” (Acts 7:6). Paul counts four hundred thirty years from the promise to the law (Galatians 3:17). Interpreters fit these figures together in different ways, but all agree that the prophecy describes a long oppression.
- “I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve”
God promised not only suffering but deliverance. The plagues and the Red Sea fulfilled this word. God told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt” (Exodus 3:7).
- “Afterward they will come out with great wealth”
This too came true. As Israel left, the Egyptians gave them silver, gold and clothing, and so “they plundered the Egyptians” (Exodus 12:36).
The Significance of Genesis 15:13-14
- God’s promises include the waiting
God told Abram the hard part as well as the good part. The waiting and the suffering were not signs that the promise had failed; they were part of the plan. Hebrews says that the patriarchs “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar” (Hebrews 11:13).
- God judges oppressors
The Lord sees the suffering of his people and judges those who oppress them. This comforts the oppressed and warns oppressors.
Cross-References:
Exodus 12:40: "Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years." The prophecy fulfilled.
Exodus 3:7: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt" God remembers his word.
Acts 7:7: "I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage," Stephen quotes this promise.
Conclusion: God told Abram that his descendants would live as foreigners and be oppressed for four hundred years, but that he would judge their oppressors and bring them out with great wealth. The Exodus fulfilled every part of this word. The passage shows that God’s promises include seasons of waiting and suffering, and that he remains faithful through them all.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible