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Hashem Promises Avram the Inheritance of Eretz Yisrael for his Children

 

Having predicted to Avram the birth of a son, Hashem now also promised him that his descendants would inherit Eretz Yisrael.

"How can I be sure of it?" asked Avram. "Give me a sign that they will actually inherit the Land!"

Avram's reason for seeking a sign was his fear that as soon as his descendants would sin, Hashem would not allow them to continue living in the Holy Land.

Hashem assured Avram, "Even if they will sin, I have prepared a means of atonement for them, the korbanos (sacrifices)." Hashem then demonstrated to Avram the nature of the future korbanos by telling him to prepare three bullocks, three goats, three rams, a dove, and a turtle dove, representing the various offerings.

Hashem commanded Avram to cut the animals into parts, except for one bird, symbolizing the halacha that only the olah-sacrifice of a bird is cut, but not the chatas-sacrifice.

Then Hashem revealed to Avram a vision of the distant future. A heavy sleep fell upon Avram during which he perceived his children enslaved in the Egyptian exile. "I shall redeem them from the Egyptian exile and also punish their tormentors," Hashem announced. The vision continued. Avram saw his children led away from their land to be taken to four different exiles, first the Babylonian exile, then the Median exile, then the Greek exile, and finally the Roman exile.

"You should know," Hashem told him, "that just as I punished their Egyptian adversaries, so shall I judge all tormentors of the Jewish people. You should know that just as I dispersed them, so will I gather them in. You should know that just as I enslaved them, so will I redeem them,"

Hashem then explained to Avram, Instead of banishing them from their land to atone for their sins, I have another alternative." Avram envisioned a new picture, a blazing furnace of Gehinnom. "Instead of punishment in this world," Hashem explained to him, "it is possible to be cleansed from sin by the fire of Gehinnom in olam haba (the world to come). Now Avram, choose! Which of the two do you want your descendants to experience if they sin, Gehinnom or exile?"

The choice was agonizing for Avram. On the one hand, he knew that tribulations in this transitory world are easier to bear than the suffering of Gehinnom. Yet, how could he request exile for his children, uncertain that they would survive it? Perahaps they would assimilate among the nations and disappear altogether? It was only when Hashem assured Avram that the Jewish people would never cease to exist on the map of history, even in exile, that Avram voted for exile-punishment.

Hashem made a covenant with Avram known as the "Covenant Between the Parts," promising him that his descendants would drive out the ten nations living in the land of Canaan (seven in the time of Yehoshua and three more in Mashiach's time) and that they would take possession of Eretz Yisrael.

[Rabbi Moshe Weissman, The Midrash Says, p.146-8]