Genesis 15:5,6

Genesis 15:5,6 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. God had promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation. But Abraham didn’t have a son and he was old – and getting older each day. Abraham wanted to make Eleazar, his trusted servant his heir. But God said that Eleazar was not the promised heir. Abraham wanted to make Ishmael, his son by Hagar, his heir, but God said that Ishmael would not be Abraham’s heir. God promised that Sarah and Abraham would have their own son. And he would have children, and they would have children and they would have children, and they would . . . well you get the picture. And Abraham’s descendants would be so numerous that they would be as the stars of the heavens. The famous astronomer, Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt lived about 1900 years ago and counted 1,028 stars. Was that how many descendants Abraham would have? In 1606 Galileo invented the telescope and looked into the heavens for the first time. When he looked at, what he thought was a star, it was actually an entire galaxy of 150,000 stars! The stars truly are innumerable! And so are the descendants of Abraham. Don’t forget, God keeps his promises!