Genesis 15:7-21
Heavenly father
* give us grace to hold on to the hopes and dreams which you give us, particularly when we are aware of the difficult realities which face us.
* give us grace to hold on to the fact that you alone are our ultimate hope
7 Yahweh said to Abram, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
9 Yahweh said to him, “Bring me (what is usual for you to ratify a covenant, namely) a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon.”
10 Abram brought him all these, and (set them out in the usual way): laying each half opposite the other.
11 The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. (as the reality of future dawned on him: including affliction and his own death)
13 Yahweh 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.
14 I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth; 15 but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age.
16 In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
17 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. (the sign of Yahweh’s part in ratifying the covenant) 18 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: 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”