Avraham had lost hope of having a child. In the natural course of events, he could no longer expect the joys of fatherhood.
From the vantage point of earth, where every effect comes from its given cause, Avraham’s loss of hope was logical.
Therefore God told him to look up toward heaven. In heaven, we behold the work of Creation; There everything was created directly by God.
God asks Avraham if he can count the stars. God is telling Avraham that these creations, created directly by God, are more numerous than the limited creations of indirect origin on earth. Therefore, desist from your natural, earthbound speculations and open your mind instead to the concept of the starry world. (As the Talmud Shabbos 156a explains this verse, צא מאיצטגנינות שלך)
“So shall be your seed.” Thus shall your people be, like the work of God’s hands; not the result of natural conditions. Against all calculations, like a second Creation, created יש מאין ex nihilo.
(Hirsch cites Psalms chapter 146 and explains that even if the dispersed exiles of the Jews are demeaned and humbled, they are are compared to the stars. Each one of them depends directly on the utterance of God’s mouth. Through all the trouble and distress he remains a a Jew, under השגחה פרטית Divine Providence, which, as the stars, “calls him by name.” For he has attained freedom (to rise above the cause and effect of the natural world -GS) by exercising his free will to follow God’s direct guidance. (חרות על הלוחות)
Beraishis 15:5
pages 353-355
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