12 Lord, you said to me, ‘I will be good to you. I will increase your family and make your children as many as the sands of the sea. There will be too many to count.’”
12 You were the one who told me, ‘I will make sure things go well for you, and I will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, so many you won’t be able to count them.’”
12 You did say that you would do well by me, and that you would expand my offspring like the sand of the sea, which, because of its multitude, cannot be numbered."
God wanted to prove that his promise was true. God wanted to prove this to those people who would get what he promised. God wanted those people to understand clearly that his purposes (plans) never change. So God said something would happen, and he proved what he said by also making a vow (promise).
I will truly bless you. I will give you many, many descendants, [126] as many as the stars in the sky. There will be as many people as sand on the seashore. And your people will live in cities that they take from their enemies.
God is not a man;
he will not lie.
God is not a human being;
his decisions will not change.
If the Lord says he will do something,
then he will do it.
If the Lord makes a promise,
then he will do the thing he promised.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob). Those men served you. And you used your name to make a promise to them. You said: ‘I will make your people as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your people all this land like I promised. This land will be theirs forever.’”
This man was so old that he was almost dead. But from that one man came as many descendants {\cf2\super [146]} (people) as there are stars in the sky. So many people came from that one man that they are like grains of sand on the seashore.
There were many, many people in Judah and Israel. The number of people was like sands on the seashore. The people lived happy lives: They ate, drank, and enjoyed themselves.
“\{In the future,\} the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea. You can’t measure the sand or count it. Then it will happen that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said to them, ‘You are the children of the living God.’