God’s Promises to Abraham

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

In this passage God institutes a covenant with Abraham.  This covenant has three major promises and is important not only for the nation of Israel, but for the human race as a whole. Continue reading

He Made the Stars Also

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

This one verse may contain the most understated fact in all the Bible.  After stating that God created a greater light to rule the day (the Sun) and a lesser light to rule the night (the Moon), it states that God “made the stars also”.  That is the first and only time stars are mentioned in the creation narrative. When one considers that mankind has attempted to count and catalog the stars down through history and at this point has numbered over 945,000,000 stars1, this statement seems to minimize the incredible magnitude of the accomplishment. Continue reading