Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
{Genesis 15:13} NIV 1984
Genesis 15 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture! To read again the account of God declaring Abram righteous on account of his faith, gives me great peace and assurance of my salvation. This state of righteousness before God, that is being declared righteous by God, happened before circumcision happened or the Law was given.
What we have in Genesis 15 is an irrevocable promise made by God to a man who believed what God said. So it is with us my friend! Because we believed in our hearts and confessed with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the receivers of the eternal deposit, the Holy Spirit who guarantees our inheritance in the kingdom of God! This is irrevocable, and is based on God’s Word, God’s Son and God’s Work, not based on us at all. Praise God!
The only unsettling part of Genesis 15 is the dreadful darkness and the promise from God of 400 years of oppression. We would, no doubt, like to be Abram who was able to lay down in peace, however we have a promise from our Lord to consider, “In this world you will have trouble.” (Jn 16:33). Be encouraged this day in this world of trouble! We are righteous before God Almighty! We have the precious Holy Spirit! And most encouraging of all, our Lord overcame the world! Let’s entrust ourselves to the God who holds the future in His hand.
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