“Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.””
Genesis 15:13-15
God would tell Abram that hard times were coming. The generations to come would be strangers in a land that was not theirs. Affliction, bondage, and some gnarly situations would be experienced in that land, but in due time, when the iniquity of the Amorites was complete they would be ushered into the Promised Land.
In a way, God was giving time before delivering the Amorites (or the Canaanite people) to destruction.
Why?
Because God is longsuffering, His mercy is huge, and His love and compassion don’t fail as it’s told to us again and again in scripture. God was not only giving a chance for the people of Canaan to see and respond to Him (which some did end up doing) but God was also prepping Israel for their inheritance.
In the same way, you and I are part of the lineage of Abram, grafted into the family tree through the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 11). We too are strangers here on earth, enduring through difficulty, hardship, and affliction while waiting for the time God would bring us into the Promised Land of our Heavenly home.
Why is it we aren’t home in heaven with the Father yet?
Because God is giving time for the inhabitants of earth to see and respond to Him…as well as prepare those who are His own for the inheritance that awaits beyond those wonderful borders of eternity.
