And he brought him forth abroad
Out of his tent into the open air, which was done through his
call, and at his direction; or by an impulse upon his mind; or
this might not be real and local, only vision:
and said, look now towards heaven;
either with his bodily eyes, or with the eyes of his mind:
and tell the stars, if thou be able to number
them;
this looks as if it were in a vision that this was said to him,
and what follows done in the day, since it was in the daytime,
before the sun was set, ( Genesis
15:12 ) , when the stars could not be seen; and therefore
were represented to his mind, and he was directed to consider
them in it, whether they could be numbered by him or not: but
this might be in the preceding night, or early in the morning,
before the sun arose, that Abram was directed to go out of his
tent, and view the heavens, and the multitude of stars in them,
and try if he could number them; and he might be employed all the
day following till sunset, in preparing the creatures for the
sacrifice, in cutting them asunder, laying their pieces in order,
and watching them, and driving the fowls from them. The multitude
of his seed is before signified by the dust of the earth, which
cannot be numbered, ( Genesis
13:16 ) , and here by the stars of the sky innumerable; as
they are to man, though not to God: some have pretended to number
them, as Aratus, Eudoxus, and Hipparchus, among the ancients, and
also modern astronomers; but then they are such only that are
visible to the eye, and in one hemisphere, and their accounts are
very various; whereas there are multitudes to be discerned by
glasses, and some not to be distinguished, as in the galaxy, or
milky way, and others in the other hemisphere. Now Abram here is
bid to try what he could do, and this was in his own way; for he
is said by many Heathen writers F8 to be famous for arithmetic
and astrology, or astronomy; but as great a master as he was in
these sciences, be was not able to number the stars, which is
here plainly intimated, since it follows: and he said, so
shall thy seed be:
as innumerable as the stars, as they were, even his natural seed,
( Hebrews
11:12 ) ; and especially his spiritual seed, who have the
same kind of faith he had, and as they will be in the latter day
particularly, ( Hosea 1:10 Hosea 1:11 ) .