Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 15 and we are going to read Genesis 15:5:

And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

God is encouraging Abram. He is comforting him concerning the promise. God does this in the Bible with all His people as He reminds us, again, and again, and again. For anyone that may think God has no intention of fulfilling His promises, he would have to admit that this is not the kind of behavior a “liar” shows forth, like someone who exaggerates and, yet, has no intention of doing the thing he has said. We have probably all done this at some time. Normally, when you are younger you tend to boast and say something you cannot do or something you have no intention of doing. What we tend to do when we say something like that is to “downplay” it later or try to ignore it or forget about it. We do not continue to bring it up and remind people that we said these things, because we are unable to fulfill it.

That is not the case with God. God continually brings this up with Abram about his having a seed. He also brought it up to Isaac and Jacob and down through Biblical history. And God continues to bring up the fact that He has made promises regarding the land of Canaan, which represents the new heaven and new earth and that He has obligated Himself to give the land for an everlasting possession. Throughout the Bible, God reminds His people who are counted for the seed. It is a promise to us and to our children, spiritually speaking. For example, as the Gospel was preached on the Day of Pentecost, it was said, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Down through history through the generations of God’s elect, God has reiterated the promise. He continued to state it and declare it and to guarantee it.

Yes, God knew that Abram had just reminded Him that he had no seed, but that the seed of his house was this Eliezer, a servant born in his house. But God said that this one was not the heir, but one that would come of his own bowels would be the heir. Then God said, “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.” The word “tell” is a Hebrew word, Strong’s #5608 and it is the same word as the word “number” in the next part of this verse. So, God is saying, “Number the stars, if thou be able to number them.” Abram could have looked up, as we can today, and see untold numbers of stars; you cannot number them because there are so many. Even today with the ability to look out in to deep space, scientists continue to see more and more stars, so many they cannot be numbered. And God said to Abram, “So shall thy seed be,” the seed that would be counted in Christ.

First, we know that Jesus is the seed, but all those He saved are in Him and are counted for the seed. These are those that are in view when God says, “So shall thy seed be.” God tells Abram to number the stars, which he could not possibly number, but it is an indicator of the numbers of people God had planned to save from before the foundation of the world. God had predestinated these people and over the course of history He accomplished their salvation. He saved some during the Old Testament days. He saved a good number of people in Nineveh, for example, and at one point in Israel’s history it was said that there were seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal. We know of individuals like David and Daniel or the eight souls on the ark. We know that in the Day of Pentecost three thousand were saved to begin the church age. We know God typifies all those saved during the church age as “144,000” and it is likely that many more than that were saved – probably several million over the course of the 1,955 years – but we do not have a definite number. Then God speaks of 200 million that were loosed in Revelation, chapter 9 and they went forth as an army. That number may be the sum total of every elect person God saved from Abel unto Zacharias, to use Biblical language, which would represent all those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from beginning to end.

Someone might say, “Are you not numbering them? Is not the great multitude said to be innumerable in Revelation, chapter 7?” There, after listing 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes (representing the figurative 144,000 saved during the church age), then it says in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Then the question was asked, “Where did this great multitude come from?” The answer was given in Revelation 7:14:

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So, the “144,000” is the number that typifies all those saved during the church age and the “great multitude, which no man could number” is how God describes those saved during the second part of the Great Tribulation during the (about) seventeen years of the Latter Rain. So, if the Bible says “200 million,” is that not giving a number? Well, no man can number, but God can give the number because He knows the precise number He has saved. Jesus knows each one intimately, having born their sins and having died for them to wash them in His own blood. Of course, He knows the number and if we read of “200 million,” as we read in Revelation, chapter 9, it is not man that is giving the figure, but it is God. That is one way we can look at it and, yet, we do not know absolutely that “200 million” is a literal number. I would not say, at this point, that it is absolute.

In fact, God is speaking to Abram in Genesis 15 about all those that were saved before Abram in the Old Testament and that were saved after Abram in the Old Testament and all those saved during the church age and during the last part of the Great Tribulation. At this point in history, we have come to the end of God’s salvation program. We have discussed this many times, but it is God’s prerogative to end His salvation program after saving all those He intended to save whose names had been recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That is according to His good pleasure and no one can (legitimately) say it is not fair or just or right for God to determine an end, which He has done. The Bible locks in the date of May 21, 2011 as the day the door of heaven shut. It is God’s judgment program to leave a little bit of time, like 22 years or 23 inclusive years, if the year 2033AD proves to be the length of time for Judgment Day. That is nothing in the overall scheme of things. Again, God is under no obligation whatsoever to save anyone He had not predestinated to save. The Gospel was never sent forth for the sake or the benefit of the non-elect that were not chosen from the foundation of the world. That is not God’s concern. Therefore, children are being born in to this world after God has completed His salvation program. They are being born and are living their lives, just like many children born down through history that were also not predestinated to salvation. There is no wrongdoing.

There is nothing that can be charged against God because He is allowing sinful and rebellious mankind to live relatively pleasant lives “under the sun” in the Day of Judgment. In fact, it speaks to God’s goodness and His general mercy toward mankind, as He continues to bring the rain upon the just and the unjust and the sun shines upon both.

Going back to Genesis 15, God brought Abram abroad and He told him, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars.” The word translated as “tell” or as “number” is an interesting word. It is the same word we find in 2Chronicles 2:17:

And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.

Here, it speaks of “all the strangers” and the Bible speaks of the elect as strangers in a strange land. We are typified by the poor, the widow and the stranger. The strangers were numbered. It is a very interesting number. The “153,000” identifies with the 153 fish in John, chapter 21 which typifies the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation. But this is “153,600,” which is close and, yet, it is a different number. The number “153,600” would break down to “40 x 40 x 4 x 2 x 12.” That number can identify with the believers, like the number “12” used in Revelation 21, which is the number used to describe all those God saved that comprise the city “New Jerusalem.”

So, here Solomon numbered the strangers after the numbering of his father David. This is a figure God uses that points to the number of the elect that were numbered at the foundation of the world when God predestinated them to salvation. It says in Psalm 87:6:

JEHOVAH shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.

The word “count” is the same word as the word “tell” in our verse. Of course, “this man” that was born there was the Lord Jesus Christ. So, JEHOVAH counted when he wrote up the people. When did He write up the people? This is all figurative and symbolic language. There is no actual Lamb’s Book of Life. There is no physical book made up of paper and ink, but these names are in the mind of God. He recorded all the names of everyone to be saved before the foundation of the world, so He would number them “when he writeth up the people” and this reminds us of that wonderful passage in Psalm 139:13-15:

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

By the way, as we have discussed before, the “lowest parts of the earth” is a synonym for “hell” or the grave. Here, it is speaking of being fearfully and wonderfully made and David, a type of Christ, is being moved by God to describe the formation of Jesus the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead. When He goes into the “lowest parts of the earth,” it is like the womb and He is declared to be the Son of God via the resurrection from the dead. He was declared to be the only begotten Son of the Father. Then it goes on to say in Psalm 139:16:

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

The Bible speaks of all that were to be saved as the “body of Christ.” As Christ was in the lowest parts of the earth at the foundation of the world being formed himself in to the Son of God, so, too, were all the elect in Him. We, as it were, came together as one body, like a newly conceived infant developing in the womb of “hell” or the grave with Christ. There in the Lamb’s Book of Life the “members of Christ were written, which in continuance were fashioned.” This body that was made up of everyone that was to become saved was formed when, as yet, there was none of them, because the world had not been created. Abel, the first person to be saved, was not saved yet because nobody was born yet. So, this is an incredibly wonderful picture God is giving us regarding how His “body” as the Son of God was knit together and how the “body of Christ” was also knit together in Him. Then it says in Psalm 139:17-18:

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

That word “count” is our word again. If you ever doubt or wonder if God ever considers you personally or thinks about you, then turn to this verse because this verse says that God’s thoughts toward you, me and each of His elect are so numerous that it is like the sand of the sea. Does it say that? No – it says His thoughts toward us are more than the number of the sand of all the beaches of the world. If you could somehow count, grain by grain, the sand of the Jersey shore and the California coast and everywhere you could find a beach, God’s thoughts toward you are more in number than all the grains of sand.

Someone might say, “That is not true, is it?” Of course, it is true because He has been thinking of His people (not just from the point of the foundation of the world) from before the foundation of the world when He predestinated us. He then laid ours sins, which had to be known, upon Christ at the foundation of the world and Christ died for the sins of everyone He would save. We refer to “the foundation of the world,” but it all took place in eternity past. As a matter of fact, the Bible indicates in Colossians, chapter 1 that Christ was the firstborn of all things, that He might have the preeminence. So, He had to die and rise from the dead to be declared the firstborn or firstbegotten Son of God before creating anything and that would apply to all manner of creations of the kingdom of God, even those that are separate and distinct from this creation. You can see how “eternity past” gave ample opportunity for God to think upon you, me, Moses, Jacob and all the elect. He has thought about us and He has pondered us and He has meditated upon us. We cannot even say that God’s thoughts have been upon us for “light years” because it is well beyond “light years.” It is from eternity past.

Remember that other beautiful verse that speaks of the mercy of JEHOVAH in Psalm 103:17:

But the mercy of JEHOVAH is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him…

His mercy stretches back to everlasting with no beginning point. It goes back and back and back and back. I would get tired if I kept saying, “Back and back and back,” for thirty seconds and, yet, it is without beginning. How much thinking has the Lord done toward us? More than the sand!

This wonderful verse in Psalm 139 speaks of us as a child being formed and our members being written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That also was the time when our “bones” were being knit together, as it were. It says in Ecclesiastes 11:5:

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child…

Physically speaking, it is true that a baby is formed in his mother’s womb and the bones do grow. We know that, but think of Psalm 139 and think of that “baby” in the belly of “hell” or in the grave that is to come forth and it would come forth. As Jesus was the firstborn Son, we are the “many brethren” that would follow and we are his “bones.” So, again, it says in Ecclesiastes 11:5:

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

We do not have time in this study, but in our next study we will take a look at Psalm 22, Lord willing. It is a Messianic Psalm and the Lord Jesus is quoted as saying, “I may tell all my bones.” The word “tell” is our word from Genesis 15, where it says to “tell” the stars. Jesus said, “I may count all my bones.”