15–5: How One Man’s Deep Sleep Foretold Centuries of History

“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.

While asleep, we’re told that a “great darkness” comes over him.

The Hebrew word used for dark dread is chashekah, which 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, the name Amorites was synonymous with the name Canaanites.

The reason is that the Amorite culture became the dominant culture in the land of Canaan.

So, although it says Amorites, God is referring to Canaan here.

© Richoka