Yet, not one of them died in disappointment or bitterness or atheistic rebellion, rather, they died in faith. They died believing. They died with assurance. They died with conviction. They died with hope. They died with the sure knowledge that God would do all that he had promised to do, for they knew that he who promised is faithful.
Now, to keep it real, how did this work in their lives? Did they ever doubt? Yes. Did they ever fear? Yes. Did they ever become angry? Yes. Did they ever wonder if they misheard God and misunderstood his promises? Yes. Did they ever think that perhaps God had changed his mind? Yes.
However, time after time, no matter what the season or difficulty or doubt, these people of faith eventually went to God and spoke with him about whatever was on their hearts. For example, by my count, God appeared to Abraham on seven separate occasions to confirm his promises. And I’m not talking about Abraham’s daily communion with the Lord, rather, I’m talking about those times when Abraham cried out and said, “O Lord, I’m really struggling here: where are you? Is the deal still on? Are the things you promised still going to come to pass?” Every time Abraham called out to God in this way, God drew near to him and spoke to him in familiar words but with a freshness of presence that assured Abraham that his promises were still valid and would most certainly come to pass in his time and way. And day after day, season after season, Abraham and his family learned through communion with God that they could trust in his promises, and in this way, they persevered in faith.
Beloved, people who live by faith go through difficult times. We fear. We question God. We doubt his promises. We cry. We throw fits. We grumble and complain. We fall into sin. We distance ourselves from God. But the way faith grows in the midst of all these things is through a daily relationship with the God of the promises. Faith doesn’t grow by trying to conjure up faith, rather, it grows by spending time with the God who is faithful. Remember, faith is trusting in the faithfulness of God by clinging to his words in the power of the Holy Spirit. God himself is the fountain of our faith.
So, if like Abraham and Sarah, you’re going through a painful or difficult time in your life right now, the call upon you today is not to try harder and do better, rather, the call upon you today is to spend time with your Father and express the fullness of your heart to him and allow him to speak to you and minister to you. Faith is a relational thing, and the more Abraham and his family got to know God, the less they needed tangible evidence that his promises would come to pass. The more they got to know God, the more they trusted him and patiently waited on him, and the same will be true for us as well.
Now, the author tells us beginning in verse 13 that these heroes of the faith saw God’s promises from a distance and welcomed them, or embraced them, as future-oriented things. And how did they know that these promises were so far off in the future? Simple: they asked God and he told them what they needed to know in his own time and in his own way. He didn’t answer all of their questions, but he answered their most important ones. And this is why the family who set out to find a homeland was content to live as strangers and resident-aliens in the place that came to be known as the Promised Land. This is why they were willing to camp out for decades, indeed generations, when they were more than wealthy enough to build houses and cultural infrastructure. They knew by faith that their hope was not in this world but that they were waiting for a heavenly city. And by faith they were willing to wait to inherit that city, even if it meant that generation after generation first had to die.
Since they clung so tightly to the promises of God through all the storms of life, God is not ashamed to be called their God. God is not ashamed to rise up and testify on their behalf and commend them for their faith in the hearing of all creation. Quite the opposite. God has vindicated their faith by preparing for them a city. A city for which they waited all their lives and for many generations. A city that God promised to them and slowly but surely revealed to them. Indeed, God has prepared for them that heavenly city of which it is said in Revelation 21:3, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them [he will live with them], and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” They will live with one another as Father to children and children to Father. They will be a family forever and ever, to the glory of God and the joy of their souls.
This was Abraham’s hope and his family’s hope: that they would be with God and his people in that great city where the glory of God is the sun and the moon, where the heart of God is the temple of worship, where the presence of God is the joy of the people, where the praise of God is the city’s song, where the love of God is the life pulse of the city, where the justice of God characterizes their lives together, where the grace of God forever wipes away their tears and suffering and dying and sin and evil, and where the reign of God will endure forever without opposition or competition.
Beloved, I don’t know how much our Father revealed to these precious patriarchs and matriarchs about this city, but I am confident that they knew enough to know that their hope was not in this world but in heaven. And I am confident that they had confidence in this hope because they trusted God by clinging to his specific words in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is what it looks like to live by faith. It’s not always easy but it’s very simple. Again, living by faith is trusting in God by clinging to his promises in the power of the Holy Spirit. May God our Father teach us the way of Abraham and Sarah! May God our Father teach us to set our hope on a greater city than any on this earth, so that our eyes will be fully fixed on him and we will therefore be useful to him and others in this world.
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