(Prophecy)
When Abram was wondering how his descendants would eventually dominate the land God had promised to him and his descendants:
Genesis 15:7-10
“...Abram said, ‘Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?’”
God then reveled exactly how this land would become his through his descendants; by telling him what would happen to his descendants in the future through a dream:
Genesis 15:12-16
“As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age (die at an old age: he would be dead by this time). In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here[To finally possess it],because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.’”
God in a dream tells Abram the future [prophecy] of his descendants:
Ultimately telling how they will come to live and own this land Abram was asking about. In doing this, he tells many things that will happen before they finally own the whole promise land:
They will first leave Canaan to go stay in a foreign country for 400 years
Near the end of the 400-year stay, God will punish this foreign nation for making them slaves and free his descendants
They will finally return to Canaan in the fourth generation to finally dominate the promise land: in this way Abram will come to dominate the land through his descendants.
But by the time this prophecy is completely fulfilled, God said Abram will long since be dead and never get to see all this.
Fulfillment in the continuation of the Bible (and in history)
This prophecy was directly fulfilled in the Bible (and history) just by continuing to read the Bible we can see how this prophecy comes true:
After Abraham had his holy chosen son Isaac and died, it wasn’t until Abraham’s grandson (and last holy patriarch) Israel (Jacob) found out that his son Joseph (Abraham’s great-grandson) was still alive in Egypt that this prophecy begins to be fulfilled.
They will first leave Canaan to go stay in a foreign country for 400 years:
Once Israel found out his long-lost son Joseph was alive as the second-in-command of Egypt, he and all his family left Canaan to go stay in Egypt during a massive famine. This fulfilled the prophecy of Abraham’s descendants leaving Canaan. And the foreign nation was now identified as Egypt.
They were given land by the present pharaoh in northern Egypt (also called Goshen), and Israel and his family lived there until they died, and their children and grandchildren continued to live there and prosper as the centuries passed.
Then during this 400-year stay, they will eventually be enslaved by this nation:
Eventually after a couple of centuries, Abraham’s descendants (strictly through Israel: Now called Israelites) had grown in population so much (and in wealth) they were now considered their own nation withing Egypt. This bothered the native Egyptians who saw these Isrealites as a threat to their nation so they eventually enslaved them to get their power (and population) under control: this fulfilled the next part of this prophecy that they them would be enslaved by this foreign nation and that’s exactly what happened: Egypt enslaves the Isrealites.
Near the end of the 400-year stay, God will punish this foreign nation for making them slaves and free his descendants:
They then were enslaved for at least a century more, and when they had almost been in Egypt almost 400 years God called a Levite named Moses to help him free Israel and punish Egypt for enslaving his people, Israel. God through Moses (and his brother Aaron) cursed Egypt with 10 devastating plagues that punished Egypt for cursing Abraham’s descendants. Through these plagues, the present pharaoh freed them from slavery (and Egypt) out of fear and God lead them out of Egypt with all types of jewels, clothes, and other possessions the Egyptians gave to the conquering Israelites. This fulfilled the next part of this prophecy; that God would punish the foreign nation that enslaved his descendants.
They will finally return to Canaan in the fourth generation to finally dominate the promise land: in this way Abram will come to dominate the land through his descendants:
After being lead (and taught by God as well as God making a special new covenant with all of Israel.) for almost 42 years in the Arabian desert, Israel under Joshua finally returned to the promised land almost 442 years later and fought the Canaanite nations living there: (almost) completely destroying them and their culture as God had commanded them. After wiping almost all of them out, Joshua divided up the now emptied promseland between the 12 tribes of Israel giving them their tribal inheritance: from there each tribe settled in a specific part of the emptied promise land thus finally claiming the promiseland as their inheritance and thus completely fulfilling this prophecy.
But by the time this prophecy was completely fulfilled Abraham had long since been dead and seen none of it just like God said he would. But even though he himself would never truly own the promise land in his lifetime his descendants (now called Israelites) came to own the promiseland through conquest of the Canaanite nations Abraham lived among thus through his descendants (strictly through his descendants through his grandson Israel) came to finally own the promiseland.