70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Stars?
Posted by: forthright <forthright@...>
Straight to the Cross
http://www.forthright.net
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One, two, oh! I can't count that high!
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COLUMN: Understanding the Times
70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Stars?
by Emmett Smith
The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald ran an
article this past week titled, "Some astronomers
have too much time." The article discussed the
findings of an Australian National University
astronomer and his colleagues. They deduced that
the universe contains 70 sextillion stars. That's
7 followed by 22 zeros! The team also decided that
this number of stars far outnumbers all of the
grains of sand on earth.
God's declaration of His covenant with Abraham
included similar language. Abraham's seed were
likened in number to the dust of the earth, to the
sand of the sea shore, and to the stars of heaven.
All of these things are literally innumerable to
us humans. Even the astronomers cited above
acknowledged that their findings were based on
very simplified models. They examined a strip of
the sky, counted and then visually examined all
the galaxies known to reside therein, estimated
the number of stars based on the perceived
brightness of each galaxy, and then extrapolated
out to the edge of the known universe.
Rather a rough estimate, indeed. In fact, however,
God knows these numbers precisely, not as an
estimate but as certain knowledge! And the use of
these particular analogies in His promise to
Abraham was surely based on man's acknowledged
ignorance of these very numbers. Abraham's seed
were to be innumerable! But that?s not all.
Abraham's seed also includes all the faithful
throughout the Christian age. As such, the number
is continually growing.
We can't comprehend such numbers. But we can be
part of that great number!
"He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth
them all by their names" (Psalm 147:4).