The Stars of Abraham
And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:5-6 ESV)
Abram didn’t just see a lot of stars. Of course, there ARE a lot of stars. I imagine that Abram was moved dramatically by the silent hugeness of the panoply of tiny lights. But it wasn’t the wonder of the stars that led to Abram’s belief.
It was his choice to believe God’s attached and very practical promise. God’s promise made no sense. Abram had been waiting to have children with Sarai for many years. God had said, “You will have children, a nation,” and Abram had believed. But time after time, God’s promise had not come true. Every day Abram probably felt a little more foolish. A little more naïve. His promise become every year… maybe every day… a little more unlikely.
This is why Abram tried to help God out a couple of times… using Hagar, for instance. Because God seemed to be having trouble keeping His promise.
Or maybe Abram was actually more faithful than that. Maybe he wasn’t trying to help God… but instead was trying to find the right complicated, twisted, odd path that COULD cause God’s promise to be kept. As if God had not given Abram a promise, but a puzzle… a riddle… a mystery. And Abram was trying to find the answer.
But really the answer was simple and small. His old wife was really just going to have a baby. And that baby would have a baby. And that baby would have a bunch of babies. And those babies would have many more. And eventually the rest of us would be grafted in, though the real miracle here… the Christ.
Believing God was hard for Abram. He was believing the impossible… the practical, reality-filled, simple, natural impossible.
That is why it took faith.
And that faith was seen by God as righteousness… saving righteousness… relation-proving righteousness… Covenant forming and Covenant keeping righteousness.
And this makes me look at what I believe. It is easy to ‘believe’ Big Promises concerning eternal life, or the establishment of The Kingdom, or the reality of Trinity, or God’s Ultimate Faithfulness.
But it is harder to believe like Abram, in the small, dirt touching, daily focused, senses effecting NOW kind of small promise. Like having a baby. Or like safety. Or like emotional sunrise. Or like getting the right job. Or like enough bread in the pantry. Or like enough money in the checkbook. Or like the end of loneliness before heaven. Or like… something… very… real… and… practical.
That’s what Abram believed.
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.