LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 4, 2026

For those of you who remember back to Wednesday you know that there are ninety-two uses of the phrase “on that day” in the Bible. After yesterday’s devotional you may be thinking, “This is going to be a long study if he takes only one verse each day.” While there’s nothing wrong with long studies, and as disciples of Jesus we should want to dig deep into God’s Word, let me assure you that many of the usages of the phrase refer to the same event. The study won’t take nineteen weeks. But we also aren’t going to bypass important principles.

Today is a perfect example of that. In Genesis chapter fifteen we hear from God as He makes an unbreakable, unconditional covenant with Abraham that has powerful significance in today’s world politics. Here’s what God says in verse eighteen:

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,”

Here’s the context. Abraham has just rescued Lot from the five kings that had taken him captive. He has met the Priest-King of Salem and honored him with a portion of the spoils of the war, He declares that he is a servant of the LORD God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth.

When Abraham returns home The LORD God speaks to him and tells Him what He is going to do. Abraham will have a son, and from that son will come countless offspring. “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them…So shall your offspring be.” And Abraham believed what God said, and God counted his belief as righteousness.

Abraham then questions God and asks for evidence that the promise will be fulfilled. So God confirms a covenant by asking Abraham to cut three animals in half and separate each half creating a path between them. Then God caused him to sleep in a deep sleep of dreadful darkness. During his sleep, God prophesied what would happen to his descendants, and it all historically came true. Then a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, representing the presence of God, passed through separated animals as God made this unbreakable covenant with Abraham and his descendants.  “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,”

On that day, God declared for all time that the land of the Middle East from the River of Egypt in the Sinai peninsula all the way up to the Euphrates River, originating in Turkey through Syria and Iraq and to the Persian Gulf. All of that territory claimed by other countries has been promised to Israel, and that promise will be fulfilled.

No country can claim what God possesses. No nationality can claim what God has given to Israel. No religion can lay claim to what rightfully belongs to Abraham’s chosen descendants. They may temporarily try to stop God’s purpose, but they can not change the inevitable outcome. The son of Abraham, Jesus Christ, will reign as King on that day!

Rejoice, for on that day, God will bring peace to the world through the Prince of Peace. Until then, don’t be swayed by religious or political theories that deny the authority of God’s Word. Pray for Israel, and pray for the return of Jesus.

Pastor John