From our Torah reading for this week (Lekh-Lekha) we learn about the resolute faith of Abram who, despite his old age, trusted that God would make him a father with descendants as numerous as the stars in the night sky: “And the LORD brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then the LORD said to him, “So shall your offspring be. And he trusted in the LORD, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Abram “staggered not” at the promise of God, and therefore God imputed to him righteousness (צְדָקָה), a term understood here to be divine esteem and grace. After all, what could Abram do in the face of seeming impossibility? There was nothing he could do to bring about the miracle. The New Testament comments: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb” (Rom. 4:19). It was in a state of utter powerlessness and complete helplessness that Abram retained hope and thereby received the promise by faith. “For he was beyond hope, yet in hope he trusted that he would indeed become a father to many nations, in keeping with what he had been promised, ‘so shall your offspring be’” (Rom. 4:18).
Understand that 400 years before the law was given at Sinai, the LORD regarded the faith of Abram as the heart of the righteousness later prescribed by the Torah. Therefore the very First Commandment of the Decalogue is simply: Anochi Adonai Elohekha (אָנכִי יְהוָה אֱלהֶיךָ): “I AM the LORD your God” (Exod. 20:2), which repeats the call to trust God before everything else, since it is complete surrender to the love and grace of God that justifies us, as it is written: “to the one who does not work but trusts in the One who justifies the ungodly (i.e. the helpless), his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).
Where the LORD says “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them,” we note the Hebrew word “count” (סָפַר) may also mean “recount,” “interpret,” or explain… This is the same word used in the famous verse, “The heavens declare (מְסַפְּרִים) the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). The idea here would be not merely that Abraham would have lots of descendants, but they would shine in brilliance against the backdrop of the darkness. Abraham’s children would be lights upon the earth, declaring the truth of God and enlightening the darkness of mankind. “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3). In the same way, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16; 13:43).
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