Third Time's a Charm

Well, this is somewhat similar to my post for last week, but 1) No one read it and 2) Instead of asking questions, I will answer them. But don't worry- I have a question for the bottom.

Fact: G-d appears to Avraham and says that he will inherit the land, and he will have children that will become a nation. It is a two part promise: zera and eretz.

Fact: G-d appears two more times only to repeat the same thing to Avraham. Why does G-d do this? The first time G-d appears again, it is to reassure Avraham that he will have children that will become a nation. These descendants won't be from Lot, as Avraham had assumed. Avraham will have his own descendants. No worries buddy! The Second time, G-d appears to let Avraham know that although he did not get the land during the war, when he could have, his descendants will be getting the land after they are slaves in Egypt.

One thing I want to point out before I pose the question: Avraham was the first person to believe in an ethical monotheism- one G-d, morals, etc. G-d even appeared to him and spoke to him. Yet, Avraham still has his doubts and worries (Lot turned away from G-d- what about my descendants? I thought they would be from Lot.) (Avraham should have realized that if G-d said he would have descendants, he'd have them, and clearly Lot was not part of it). This teaches us that we can have doubts sometimes about our religion, even when we have faith. It's okay to question things, and it is important for us to try and seek answers. Anyways, I just thought it was something nice to point out, that Avraham had worries, and we can have them too.

Questions:

1. Why does G-d first want the Jewish people to be slaves before they can get the land?

2. Why does G-d put the people into the slave world, where they acquire a slave mentality and therefore have a harder time doing the right thing and keeping hold of their faith?

This relates to class, because we discussed that G-d said the Jews would be slaves.