Original image: “Star Trails” by PK Htut via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Remix by Kyle Oliver for prayr.cc (CC BY 2.0)
The LORD brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.” (Genesis 15:5, WEB)
Doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, this story gives me chills every time. Really any time God’s people find a word from the Lord in nature, my heart is glad.
Genesis 15:1-11, 17-21
World English Bible (Public Domain)
1 After these things the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
2 Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
4 Behold, the LORD’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.” 5 The LORD brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.” 6 He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness. 7 He said to Abram, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 He said, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds. 11 The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
17 It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
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