Hebrew Astronomy: Part 4 Abraham and His Descendants

In Genesis 15, God talks with Abram about how He wants to bless him with many descendants. Abram tells God, he is childless and that Eliezer of Damascus is his heir.

God responds with:

Genesis 15 v 4

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”

He tells him to look up at the stars and count them. And then says:

Genesis 15 v 5

Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.

Numerous as the Stars

We get a sense in later verses, which refer to this promise, that it relates to the great number of descendants Abraham would have.

But in the New Testament, Jesus gives an alternative interpretation. In Matthew 5, we see Him say:

Matthew 5 v 14

You are the light of the world…

The lights of the world are the Sun, Moon and stars. Which might suggest that this promise to Abraham wasn’t just quantitative, but also qualitative. It’s not just about how numerous Abraham’s descendants would be, but also that they would shine like the stars.

In the preceding verse in Matthew 5, Jesus talks about how Christians are the salt of the Earth. This again alludes to another promise God gives to Abraham.

Genesis 22 v 17

I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

God says that Abraham’s descendants will be numerous as the sand on the seashore. Instead of commenting on the numbers of descendants, Jesus makes a qualitative remark about losing saltiness.

Angels and Stars

As discussed in my previous post, the stars may refer to angels, though this depends upon the context.

If we take the view that when God says that Abraham’s descendants are like the stars, they will be numerous, but also like the angels.

This is not an outrageous claim. According to Paul’s epistle to the Romans:

Romans 8 v 14

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.

Sons of God is a title of certain angels. Have a look at the beginning of the Book of Job.

Job 1 v 6

Now there was a day when the sons of God (angels) came to present themselves before the LORD, and (The) Satan also came among them.

So what God is saying to Abraham is his descendants will be numerous and they will be amongst the angelic host. This is in fact part of the Gospel of Jesus:

John 1 v 12

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Hebrew Astronomy and Angels

Angels are part of Hebrew astronomy, not just the spiritual realm. In our Modern minds, we may think it strange to have spiritual beings included with physical stars, the Sun and Moon. But their conceptualisation of the Heavens would see no significant separation of these Heavenly bodies and the spiritual beings.

The descendants of Abraham are included in this astronomical view as God promises, they will be like the stars, the angels themselves.

In the next post, I will look at what is commonly referred to as Jacob’s Ladder.