Abraham Count the Stars

At 75, God called him to leave everything for a land he'd never seen. Childless, he was told to count the stars: his family would be like that. He believed, and God counted it as righteousness. Years later on Mount Moriah he was asked to offer his son, and he said, "God will provide the lamb." Where Jesus is in this story: God stopped Abraham's hand, then did what He didn't ask of Abraham: He gave His own Son. Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day." ▶ Hear the whole journey, in order, from the people who lived it: Scripture: Genesis 12; 15; 22 Song 6 of 54 in The Unwritten Psalms, the story of the Bible sung by the people who lived it. Listen to their stories. Find yourself in them. Find Jesus in every one. LYRICS I was seventy-five and settled down, my daddy's gods sitting up on the shelf, when a Voice I'd never heard said, "Go." Wouldn't tell me where. I didn't know myself. So I loaded up the camels and my wife, and everybody asked me where we were bound. I said, "I'll know it when He shows me," and they laughed me out of town. He took me out and said, "Go count the stars. That's how many children you will see." I didn't have a single one, but I looked up, and I believed. Now I won't stand here and pretend I never flinched when the waiting got long. Twice I said my wife was my sister 'cause I was scared of some king. That was wrong. And when the years kept piling up, we tried to help God out on our own. I had a boy with another woman, then I had to send him and his mama from my home. A hundred years old when my wife gave birth, ninety herself, laughing till she cried. We named him Laughter. What else do you name a promise twenty-five years in the sky? He took me out and said, "Go count the stars. That's how many children you will see." I didn't have a single one, but I looked up, and I believed. Then that same Voice came back one night and asked me for my boy. I didn't sleep. I didn't tell his mama. I saddled up and couldn't find my voice. Three days walking, him carrying the wood, me carrying the fire and the knife. He said, "Daddy, we got everything but the lamb," and that was the hardest question of my life. I said, "Son, God's gonna see to the lamb," and I still don't know if that was faith, or if I lied. I tied him down. He let me. I raised my hand up high. Then a Voice cried, "Stop!" And there in the bushes, a ram caught by its horns. And I just cried. Years later, on those same hills, another Father walked His Son up with the wood. Nobody grabbed that Father's hand. Nobody said, "Stop." He let Him go, for good. I got to take my boy home that day. He gave His up so He could bring you home too. Now I know why He said, "Go count the stars," more of them than I could ever see. Every one who looks up and believes, He counts as family. I didn't know where I was going. I only knew Who I was walking with. #TheUnwrittenPsalms #BibleSongs #Abraham