Today Devotion
Topic: And It Always Comes To Pass! (Part 1)
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:9
9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
One day God spoke Abram saying, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut into half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 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 for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions” (Gen 15: 7- 14).
Beloved in Christ, it is not for nothing that the Bible is filled with the expression; “and it came to pass!” Truly every word that proceeds from God comes to pass, even after 400years.
When Abram asked for a confirmation to prove that the land will be for his descendants, God instructed that he brought to Him certain animals. Now Abram killed and offered them to God. When birds of prey decended on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. The significance was that although the land is already given for Isreal ‘s possession, Isreal may have to defend it from scavengers who may want to prey on it.
Then being the faithful God He is, Jehovah, actually reveals to Abram ahead of time that though the land of Canaan remains his spiritual possession, his decendants will be slaves for 400years but will return more blessed than one can imagine. God gave this future prediction so that it does not appear that He failed to fulfill His part of the covenant. He can never fail at that.
He is the Almighty God, He could have decided to keep that kind of detail from Abram, after all this was not going to take place when he was alive. But He is the faithful God, He will never bring you into a covenant He’s not prepared you for. You remember when Ananias proved reluctant to go and pray for repented Saul, now turned Paul; the Lord said to Him “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name (Acts 15- 16).
Meditate on this word and begin to pray. Ask for grace to trust God, pray that He increases your desire for His word so that your faith may grow. Tomorrow we will be searching through scripture, 400 years after God prophesied to Abram concerning his descendants going into slavery, to learn if that word came to pass or not. THEN WE CAN COLLECTIVELY SHOUT WITH JOY THAT OUR GOD IS FAITHFUL”.
