“As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell on Abram; horror and great darkness came over him.”
-Genesis 15:12
After driving away the birds of prey, Abram falls into a deep slumber and while asleep we are told that a “great darkness” came over him.
The Hebrew word used for dark dread is chashekah and it comes from the word CHOSHEK.
Do you remember this word from a previous post?
CHOSHEK is the exact opposite of God’s spiritual light or illumination.
So it means a depressing spiritual darkness.
What occurs next is that God speaks to Abram in his sleep and informs him that the time will come when his descendants will be enslaved in a foreign land for 400 years.
However, the nation that enslaved them will be punished and as a result they would leave with much wealth.
Of course we know that God is talking about the period in the Book of Exodus.
The Israelites were slaves in the land of Egypt and then God raised up Moses to rescue them.
In spite of the tragedy that is going befall Abram’s descendants, God promises that Abram himself would live a full lifespan and die in peace.
Let’s look at verse 16.
“And in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
I just want to quickly point out that for a certain period of time the name Amorites was synonymous with name Canaanites.
The reason is because the Amorite culture became the dominant culture in the land of Canaan.
So although it says Amorites, God is referring to Canaan here.
NEXT TIME WE WILL BEGIN GENESIS CHAPTER 16
Michael says
It’s a good way to study the bible, and know all about it