Genesis 15:14 Commentary and Bible Study

God judged Egypt. He judged them severely for refusing to let his people go and worship him in the wilderness, and he judged them with increasing severity, until finally the firstborn of every Egyptian family died from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon. The outcome of this judgment was never in doubt. However intransigent is the human will, God is always able to prevail. The apostle Paul quotes the word which the Lord commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh: ‘Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth’ (Romans 9:17). They will not come out empty handed as might have been expected of a slave population, but they will come out with much wealth. Here was to be a tangible sign that God was with them. It might have seemed utterly impossible given the downtrodden state they had reached by the time of the Exodus. How could it happen? It happened because God told them to borrow from their Egyptian neighbours and of any who lived in their houses, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and cloth and clothing (Exodus 3:22). This exactly what the children of Israel did (Exodus 12:35-36), and the Egyptians willingly gave these things to them, even though they were also driving them out from their presence, and so Israel spoiled the Egyptians. It was with this substance that they were able to find the materials to construct the tabernacle in the wilderness.So Abram asks, ‘How will this be accomplished? How will I know that we will inherit the land?’, and God says to him, ‘It is going to be over time, and there has got to be a period of oppression first, and 400 plus years in a foreign land.