Some prophecies are given in the daylight of ordinary speech, and some are given in the dark. This one was given in the dark. As the sun went down over Abram, a deep sleep fell upon him, and a horror of great darkness pressed on his soul, and out of that darkness Yahweh spoke a word that would shape the whole story of his seed: that they would be strangers in a land not theirs, and would serve, and would be afflicted four hundred years. This lesson traces that single word from the covenant of the pieces to its plain and primary fulfillment in the iron furnace of Egypt, where Israel groaned...
Some prophecies are given in the daylight of ordinary speech, and some are given in the dark. This one was given in the dark. As the sun went down over Abram, a deep sleep fell upon him, and a horror of great darkness pressed on his soul, and out of that darkness Yahweh spoke a word that would shape the whole story of his seed: that they would be strangers in a land not theirs, and would serve, and would be afflicted four hundred years. This lesson traces that single word from the covenant of the pieces to its plain and primary fulfillment in the iron furnace of Egypt, where Israel groaned under the taskmasters and at last came out with great substance. But the Scriptures do not stop at Egypt. The law itself warned that if the covenant were broken, a second and more terrible scattering would come, and one verse names it with chilling precision: Yahweh would bring His people into bondage again with ships. Many in the Hebrew Israelite community read that verse and see the transatlantic slave trade, the year 1619, and the four hundredth year in 2019. We will handle that reading honestly, holding Egypt as the sure fulfillment and the modern span as a pattern worth testing. Bring your...