THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE HEBREWS - Chapter 11 - Verse 12

Verse 12. Therefore sprang there even of one. From a single individual. What is observed here by the apostle as worthy of remark is, that the whole Jewish people sprang from one man, and that, as the reward of his strong faith, he was made the father and founder of a nation.

And him as good as dead. So far as the subject under discussion is concerned. To human appearance there was no more probability that he would have a son at that period of life than that the dead would have.

So many as the stars in the sky, etc. An innumerable multitude. This was agreeable to the promise, Ge 15:5; 22:17. The phrases here used are often employed to denote a vast multitude, as nothing appears more numerous than the stars of heaven, or than the sands that lie on the shores of the ocean. The strength of faith in this case was, that there was simple confidence in God in the fulfilment of a promise where all human probabilities were against it. This is, therefore, an illustration of the nature of faith. It does not depend on human reasoning, on analogy, on philosophical probabilities, on the foreseen operation of natural laws; but on the mere assurance of God—no matter what may be the difficulties to human view, or the improbabilities against it.

{c} "so many" Ge 17:17; Ro 4:17