Hebrews 11:8-22
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God. 11 By faith he received power to generate, even though he was past the normal age—and Sarah herself was sterile—for he thought that the one who had made the promise was trustworthy. 12 So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.
13 All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth, 14 for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.” 19 He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, and he received Isaac back as a symbol. 20 By faith regarding things still to come Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and “bowed in worship, leaning on the top of his staff.” 22 By faith Joseph, near the end of his life, spoke of the Exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his bones.
This passage is a gold mine full of points for reflection on faith. Let us pick out four nuggets.
- Faith, as in verse 8, means listening to God and setting out from the familiar (home) into unknown territory–without a clear destination. We all begin as children “in our father’s and mother’s house” but responding to the call of God means we must leave it and set out on our own. We have to step out in trust that the Lord will bring us, gradually, to see and know where we are to be. In this life we never fully arrive, for the Lord continues to call us along the way to him, who is our only permanent inheritance. We must leave our father and mother’s house to find our particular way to our Father’s house.
- Faith, as in verse 9, means learning that here it is all tents and movement and starting and stopping again and again. The promised New Heavens and New Earth mean all our living here is not arrival, but journeying or pilgrimage on our way to that holy place. Nothing we have or earn or lean on in this life is meant to last, to be a permanent part of our “Forever” existence. All those things are merely in the service of reaching that. We have no permanent home here. No one does. Our advantage is—we know that.
- Faith, as in verse 11, means relying on the promise of God that obeying Him will be fruitfulness for us, no matter what our worldly circumstances. We may appear to be too old to generate life, but at His direction we act, and consequences we have only a glimpse of (one child in old age, in Abraham and Sarah’s instance) will fructify beyond our time in ways and with results that would stun us if we might see them now. His promises are far more full of truth than the “facts” we see around us. His promises fill us with hope.
- Faith, as in verse 17, means we listen and obey, even when we are asked to give up what we consider the fruitfulness of our faithfulness. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the son of his faithful old age, which would appear to destroy everything he had done at God’s direction up to that point. Yet, obeying, acting in faith, paradoxically results in the saving of that son, the long-term fulfillment of the promises, and the beginning of the correction of a great human evil (in Abraham’s case, the sacrifice of children out of misplaced devotion). We see another example of this in the history of many religious orders, where the founder is asked to step back and let another take over before the founder dies. The originator gives up what he or she founded (that God actually founded) resulting in the long-term fructifying of the order. We, too, may be asked to “step back” or “stand down” from a ministry or a service, generally or in our family, that we have undertaken for many years. We have faith that one more far-sighted than you or I knows the best way.