Maddenation
Followup on Abraham’s Vision
This came up a while ago during our Bible study and last Sunday’s reading reminded me of the insight.
And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
This is verse 5 from Genesis 15 and Patrick wrote about it extensively in his book, Quotidiana. Most of us assume it was nighttime when God came to Abram (as he was then called) in a vision to speak of these cosmic truths. However, verse 12 begins, “Now when the sun was going down…” This, along with the references to birds of prey, strongly suggests that is was during the day that God spoke to Abram.
One can take this in at least two ways. Jeff Cavin, who teaches the Great Adventure Bible Study, takes it as an even stronger statement of God’s covenant. How much more difficult, after all it it to “Count the stars” during the day? How much more necessary to trust in God’s benevolence?
On the other hand, maybe it plays into the “joke” that God is playing on Abram and Sarah. Look up in the sky and count the stars, if you can see any! So shall your descendants be.
Maybe that’s when Abram looked up and laughed.
Dad • Observations • 03/02/10 • 0 comments
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