THE PROMISED LAND
GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After these things, the Lord's word came to Abram in a vision,
	"Fear not, Abram, for I
am your shield; your reward shall be very great." And Abram said,
	"Oh Lord God, why
will you give me things? For I am childless, and the steward of my house
	is my heir.
You have given me no descendants, the slave born in my house
	shall be my heir."
But the word of the Lord came to him, "He shall not be your heir,
	for you
shall have an heir of your own flesh." Then the Lord led him outside
	and to
him He said, "Look at the heavens, and if you can, count the stars."
And He said to him, "So shall your posterity be -- as many them 
	as stars there are!"
Abram believed the Lord who was pleased by his faith and He said
	to him, "I am the Lord,
who brought you up from Ur to Chaldea, to give you this land
	to possess assured."
But he said, "Oh Lord God, how am I to know that all this I'll possess?"
And He answered him, "Prepare me a sacrifice," and he did, 
	but the carcass-
es were swooped down on by birds of prey, but Abram 
	drove them away.
As the sun was setting he fell in deep sleep and a great darkness fell
	on him that day.
The Lord said to him, "Know for certain that your posterity will be
strangers in a land which is not their own; they'll be subject to slavery,
and shall be oppressed for four hundred years. But I'll judge 
	that nation which they
shall serve, and afterwards they shall go free with great possessions.
	And I say
that you shall go to your fathers in great peace and be buried 
	at a good old age.
In the fourth generation they'll return here; for the Amorite wickedness
	they shall engage."
Now when the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking oven and
	a torch of fire
passed between the pieces he had cut to lay upon the pyre.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying,
	"To your posterity
I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the Great River 
	Euphrates."


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