God's Covenant with Abraham - Genesis 15-17
The time period for this was around 2082 B.C. God had made a promise to Abraham that he would be the Father of many nations. From his offspring, God was going to make a great nation. There was a problem that had to be worked out though. Abraham was a very old man when God told him this. His wife was too old to have children now, and she was never able to have children in her younger years. God, in His sovereignty and wisdom did not allow them to have children when they were at the age that people bore children. So, God had made a promise and now would have to somehow fulfill it in a way the Abraham and Sarai could not even imagine!
God told Abraham that his descendants would be so many that they would outnumber the stars in the sky. Abraham did not have any land of his own, but God promised that his descendants would rule a large area of land. It would be interesting to see what God was going to do.
God performed a special ceremony to confirm his promise to Abraham. Abraham took some animals and cut them in half. Then he fell into a deep sleep. Then the Lord came down to visit this in the form of a smoking oven and a torch. He walked between the dead animal parts.
This was the way covenants were made. It was as if people were saying that what happened to the dead animals would happen to them if they broke their promise.
It was a long time before God's promise to Abraham came to pass.
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