Too Much Information?

Life. Interrupted. Week 3 Day 3

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 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. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." Genesis 15:12-16 (NIV)

You have to wonder if Abram ended up with more than he bargained for. Out of his uncertainty, God leads him into a worship experience. Then, Abram falls into a deep sleep and receives maybe more information than he might have wanted.

In Abram’s quest for assurance, God reveals about the next 500 or so years of plan for Abram’s family. And, God doesn’t pad the future at all. Abram will have descendents who will become slaves for 400 years. The end result is that Abram’s descendents will have great possessions; the captors will be punished; and Abram will die in peace.

Just when circumstances were indicating that Abram’s “heir” would be Eliezer of Damascus, his servant (Genesis 15:2), God says, “Oh, I have a plan. Let me give you some details.” God wasn’t kidding, when the Bible says, “he chose us in him before the creation of the world” and that “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:4, 11; NIV). There was a big plan, and it started with Abram.

Do you feel like maybe God has forgotten you? Be assured that He has a plan for your life. When you can’t trust your circumstances, you can trust in God’s character. He doesn’t waver. He never changes.