What did God covenant to give Abraham in Genesis 15?
God covenanted to give Abraham the land—the whole Middle East—as an inheritance for the nation that would come from him. He formally deeded it to Abraham in Genesis 15, promising that his descendants would receive a land, a government, and God Himself as their king.
Les teaches that Genesis 15 comes shortly after God gave Abraham the covenant that out of him would come a nation of people, and He would put them into a land and give them a government, with Himself as their king. When Abraham asked in verse 8 how he would know he would inherit the land, God literally descended to man's level and went through the very rites of transferring real estate. Les tells people to write in the margin of chapter 15 from verse 12 to the end, "Israel's deed," because Jehovah came down and carried out the rite of real estate transfer as they did in antiquities. As He deeds the whole Middle East to Abraham, God gives prophecy beginning in verse 13: Abraham's seed would be a stranger in a land not theirs, serve them, go under bondage, and be afflicted four hundred years, referring to Egypt. The four hundred years is the sojourning, not necessarily just the affliction.