Text: Genesis 15:1-6
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Sermon
We probably all did it as children. On a clear, cloud-free night, we went into the back yard and gazed at the stars. Stars are one of the most fascinating parts of God’s creation. Those little specks of light so many million miles away capture our attention. Did you ever try to count the stars? That’s always a challenging task. Some we see. Others we can’t see. The total number of stars visible in both the northern and southern celestial hemispheres is about 6,000. On a clear night, the maximum number you can see is 3,000. So what we view with the naked eye is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The Lord uses stars as a teaching tool in his lesson for Abraham which is before us today. You and I want to sit in on this lesson as well. So let’s accept the invitation the Lord extends to Abraham and COUNT THE STARS WITH ABRAHAM.
They tell of a faithful God
They tell of a Savior-God.
The Lord had a plan to fulfill his primary promise to mankind to send them a Savior. His plan was to entrust this promise to one particular people, the descendants of Abraham. The Lord told Abraham to leave his home in Haran, and travel some 500 miles to the southwest to a land the Lord would show him. Then he makes a series of promises to Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” But there’s a problem. Abraham is 75 years old. His wife Sarah is 65 years old. And they have no children. Now fast forward 10 years. At the time of our text, Abraham is 85 years old and Sarah 75 years old. They still have no children. And the biological clock is still ticking. From a human standpoint, their hope of having a descendant is growing less likely. How can Abraham become the father of a great nation and have a name renowned if he doesn’t have a single descendant? He shares his concern with the Lord, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the One who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” In Abraham’s mind, the Lord’s promises to him can’t possibly come to fruition if he doesn’t have a descendant. It looks like his servant, Eliezer, is going to inherit his estate.
The Lord doesn’t respond to Abraham’s fear, doubt, and lack of trust with a tongue lashing. Instead he reaffirms his promise to Abraham, “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” Then the Lord turns the sky he has created into an impromptu classroom: “‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” If we were to peek ahead and turn a few pages, we’d discover that the Lord made good on his promise. It’ll take an additional 15 years of waiting, but when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90 years old, the Lord blessed them with a son named Isaac. Isaac has two sons – Jacob and Esau. From Jacob comes 12 sons who form the 12 tribes of Israel. Even before Abraham’s descendants take possession of the land of Canaan, the Lord fulfills his promise of making him into a great nation. As the children of Israel left Egypt we’re told, “The Israelites journeyed from Ramses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” A conservative number of Abraham’s descendants at this time – including women and children – would be two million! God made good on his promise. Abraham’s physical descendants as well as his spiritual descendants – those who hold the faith of Abraham – would be as countless as the stars. The stars in the sky serve as a visual reminder of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
At this point in his life, Abraham was driven by fear. How about you? Has fear gotten you to doubt God’s will or ability to fulfill the promises he has made to you? Abraham was afraid of not getting what he needed – a descendant. Maybe you’re afraid of losing what you already have. If you’re a senior, maybe you’re afraid of losing your health and independence. You’re fearful of what’s going to happen to you if you can no longer take care of yourself. If you’re middle aged, maybe you’re afraid of unemployment. You speculate, “What’s going to happen to me if I lose my job? How am I going to support myself and my family?” If you’re a young person, maybe you’re afraid of your economic future. Or you wonder how you as a Christian are going to survive in a world which is becoming more and more ungodly.
Our fears always gain more traction when we lose sight of the Lord and the promises he has made. While our doubts and fears merit a divine slap alongside the head, the Lord treats us the same way he treated Abraham. He says, “Count the stars – the stars of my promises.” Are you fearful that the Lord won’t satisfy your material needs? Look at the star of his promise of preservation which enables you to say with David, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” Are you fearful of personal harm? Look at the star of his promise of protection: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Are you fearful that the Lord will abandon you? Look at the star of his promise of abiding presence: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Count the stars and you will conclude that they will tell of a faithful God who keeps his promises to you just as he kept his promises to Abraham. He especially keeps one specific promise by which he shows himself to be a Savior-God.
In the cluster of promises the Lord made to Abraham, one in particular merits closer scrutiny: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That’s the promise of a Savior, a Savior which Abraham desperately needed. After the Lord made this series of promises to Abraham, Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt to escape a famine. Abraham became afraid that the Egyptians would kill him for his wife, so he had Sarah lie and say that she was his sister. Abraham showed a lack of trust that the Lord would bless them and protect them. Soon to follow would be another blatant sin on Abraham’s part. Abraham and Sarah decided to take this matter of a descendant into their own hands. Abraham fathered a son through Sarah’s maid Hagar. That wasn’t God’s plan. It provides further evidence of Abraham’s sinfulness and need for a Savior whom God promised would come from his ancestral line. Abraham had a legitimate fear of punishment from a just God if the Savior didn’t come.
So often we are just like Abraham. In spite of God’s promises which are as clear for us to see as the stars in the sky, we continue to have our doubts and fears and continue to act on the basis of our doubts and fears. We can close our eyes and refuse to see the promises or we can manufacture a thick cloud of doubt to keep them out of sight. We share in Abraham’s sinfulness and in his need for a God who saves.
Count the stars with Abraham and see one special star in one special promise of a Savior who brings blessings to all people. The Lord presented the initial promise of a Savior in the framework of an ancestral line. He promised to send the offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. That offspring would come from Abraham’s family tree. When God said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” he was addressing Abraham’s greatest fear of not having a Savior. The Lord would provide him with spiritual protection and incalculable spiritual riches through the work of the Savior. This promise is the brightest star of all. In fact, Old Testament prophecy even speaks of the coming Savior as a star: “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”
What was Abraham’s response to the Lord’s astronomy lesson? “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Don’t misunderstand this statement to mean that Abraham merited this righteousness through his act of believing. We’ve already established the fact that Abraham lacked the righteousness God demands. Abraham simply believed God’s promise to provide him with righteousness in the coming Savior. And God kept that promise! We know from history what Abraham only knew from divine promise. The promised offspring is Jesus Christ, who lived a righteous life for us, made the righteous sacrifice for our sins, and now covers us sinners with his righteousness. The Savior alone secures this righteousness and through Spirit-worked faith, Abraham and we benefit from it.
Abraham believed the Lord – literally, he said “Amen!” to the Lord’s promises and so do we when we keep focusing on those promises. These promises are not found in the sky, but in the Word of God. Do you want to have a stronger subjective faith? Keep on building on the sure, unchanging object of your faith – the words and promises of your gracious God. As the stars faithfully appear in the nighttime sky, so your God will faithfully keep all of the promises he has made to you. He shifts your focus to him when he says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Modern technology has only made counting the stars more challenging. It is a testimony to the wonder of God’s creation that we now know that there are millions of stars many million miles away from earth. Like the stars, we can say that God’s promises are unlimited in quality and quantity. They lead us to say, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed; for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.