Like the stars in the sky

God promised Abraham that his descendants would be too many to count, just like “the stars in the sky and sand on the seashore,” Genesis 22:17.

And God fulfilled that promise in the days of king Solomon, when “The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore,” 1 Kings 4:20 – which Solomon himself confirmed in 2 Chronicles 1:9 when he said to God, “you have made me king over a people who are numerous as the dust of the earth.” 

How numerous? Well, a count of just the fighting men in his father David’s day recorded “one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah,” 1 Chronicles 21:5 – which did not include the available men from Levi and Benjamin either (verse 6). Add in the women and children and non-fighting men to that number, and the population in Israel around 1000 BC was well over three million. Abraham’s descendants in Solomon’s time, therefore, were very much “like the stars in the sky.”

Is there evidence, then, that God has continued to fulfill his promise of numerous descendants for Abraham in our day and age as well?

Well, yes, if we’re defining “descendants of Abraham” like Paul defines them in Galatians 3:7, when he writes, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham,” and in verse 9, “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” And in verse 29, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  

By Paul’s definition, therefore, anyone belonging to Christ because of faith in him is a child of Abraham – which today would be called a “Christian.” So, to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham today, are Christians as “numerous as the dust of the earth” too? Well, in 2021 there were nearly 2.4 billion Christians worldwide, which increased to 2.6 billion by mid-2023, and by 2050 the projected number is 3.3 billion. A Muslim report told of six million Muslims a year converting to Christianity, including one recent report of a million Muslims becoming Christian believers in Iran alone. 

All these people can claim that Abraham is their father (Romans 4:16), based simply on what Jesus said in John 8:39, that they “do the things that Abraham did.” Which by Jesus’ definition was “hearing what God says,” verse 47, and believing it – like billions of people are doing today, just as God promised Abraham they would.  

To the next promise, then: “The whole land as an everlasting possession”