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.” Genesis 15:5
The Story
God asked a man named Abram to leave home, but made him some amazing promises: that Abram would be blessed, made a great nation, and that through him, all families on earth would be blessed. So Abram left and went to the land of Canaan. There, God told Abram that this land would be given to his descendants. [1]
Time passed, and Abram became wealthy but still had no heir. God reassured him by promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. In a dream, Abram was told that his descendants would be strangers in a land and serve the people there for 400 years, but they would return to this land given to them by God. [2]
The Significance
We will find out later that this great nation will be called Israel, they would be strangers in Egypt and serve the Egyptians, return to the promised land, and eventually, Jesus would be born through which all families on earth would be blessed [3].
[1] Genesis 12; [2] Genesis 15; [3] Acts 3: 25,26