Hebrews 11:13-16 NIV
[13] All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. [14] People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. [15] If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
I live in a country that purports to be free and tolerant.
Yet sometimes it really doesn’t seem to be the case.
As I write these lines, the Scottish government is in turmoil. The collapse of a power sharing agreement has triggered the resignation of our First Minister and the leader of our largest political party (who don’t have a majority).
Candidates are only just beginning to say if they will stand or not, and some of the press already have their knives out for one potential candidate.
Solely because of her religious beliefs – and this makes me ashamed to be Scottish and ashamed to work for the press, because this is beyond the pale.
She (Kate Forbes) is a committed Christian from the Free Presbyterian Church. She is not in favour of divorce, sex before marriage, abortion or gay marriage. She is socially, and fiscally, conservative.
Some sections of the press have already stated that someone like her has no place in modern politics.
Can you imagine?
Billions of Christians across the world hold these views freely and unequivocally, yet the press are saying that we have no place serving our country in a modern world.
Ridiculous. And utterly wrong. Of course it is.
As it is, she accepted a role in another candidate’s government, but that is beside the point. She was vilified for being a Christian. And that is not acceptable – regardless of your political viewpoint.
There are times when we feel like outsiders.
And there is a very simple reason why we feel that way:
We are.
Abraham and Sarah and their little family were also outsiders. While the people around them were already settling into towns and cities, Abraham and Sarah were nomadic, wandering farmers.
While others around them indulged in the most heinous sins of idolatry and immorality, they lived differently.
While others around them got involved in violent territorial disputes, Abraham and Sarah (largely) stayed out of it, except where their own family was concerned.
While others fell over themselves to enrich themselves, Abraham was careful not to take unjust gain.
To do these things took faith: determined, strong, tenacious faith.
There are three aspects of this faith that the writer to the Hebrews holds out as exemplary to his Jewish audience.
The first of these is Promises:
Hebrews 11:13 NIVUK
[13] All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
That is, they had two pieces of evidence in front of them: they had the Word of God, specifically revealed to them in visions and dreams, and they had their current circumstances.
They believed God.
These are the promises God made to them. As you read these, remember they were given to an elderly, childless couple, living as nomads in a land they did not own:
Genesis 12:1-3 NIV
[1] The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. [2] ‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’
Genesis 15:5 NIVUK
[5] He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.15.5.NIVUK
Genesis 17:3-8 NIV
[3] Abram fell face down, and God said to him, [4] ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. [5] No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. [6] I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. [7] I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. [8] The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.17.3-8.NIVUK
These are remarkable promises to people in their situation.
All the more remarkable that Abraham believed them when he didn’t even remain alive long enough to see his grandson Jacob bear the twelve patriarchs of Israel – in fact, he wasn’t even alive when Jacob and Esau were born.
And that is it. Abraham and the patriarchs were praised here because they received clear, specific promises from God, but did not see then fulfilled in their own lifetime. That is why the Bible says this about Abraham:
Genesis 15:6 NIVUK
[6] Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.15.6.NIVUK
Now, he faced the same battle that we saw Sarah faced in my previous post:
Genesis 17:17 NIVUK
[17] Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?’ https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.17.17.NIVUK
But deep down, despite wrestling with unbelief, Abraham believed God. And that made all the difference.
And it still does. There are many who are cynical about God and His Word. They have no intention of believing Him or following Him and certainly do not believe that it is worth their while (see Hebrews 11:6).
But those who have faith in God do, and they receive the benefits from it.
Even if they have to wait a while, or even not receive those benefits in their own lifetime.
As well as Promises, we see that this led to Pilgrimage.
This might be a very strange term to use here. We are used to the idea of pilgrimage as being a journey to a specific sacred site.
However, when Jacob is dying and is talking with Pharaoh, he uses this very word:
Genesis 47:9 NIVUK
[9] And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.’
And so Jacob regarded his journey through the Promised Land – which he did not own – as a pilgrimage.
And that is very important. To an outsider, these nomads might have seemed a little weird, and possibly even ridiculous. They seemed to just wonder around from here to there, with little point or purpose except to perpetuate their journey.
Yet they were headed somewhere, as we will see later. And the very land they set their feet on had been promised to them by God Himself.
Now here is where things get very controversial. As I write these lines, a battle is raging between Hamas-led Palestinians and the state of Israel. There is little doubt that this is simply the latest troubling manifestation of a debate on who owns Israel, and specifically Jerusalem, that has waged for time immemorial.
Although there are many strands of this debate that purport to be theological, I am not going to get involved in them. I don’t care if the Palestinians are recognised as remnants of the original occupants of the land we know as Israel, or if they are the offspring of the Philistines or Arab interlopers.
Because these arguments do not matter.
The fact is that they are there. They are human beings. They exist. God has allowed them to be there. And so the only way – literally the only way – this situation will ever resolve itself is if both sides accept the existence and presence of the other and work towards a sensible, just, righteous and peaceful solution.
However, we also cannot get away from the theological reality that God promised this land to the Jews, and that they lost it because of their sin (2 Chronicles 36:15-23).
That much is unmistakably true. And cannot be ignored, whatever we think of the Balfour Declaration or the Nakba or any other historical event in this dreadful and seemingly unending war.
Going back to the concept of Pilgrimage and away from our diversion into the modern situation, pilgrims travel light, stop for a short time and then move on. They do not own much or carry much. Their focus is on worshiping God in certain places.
It is through the pilgrimage of the Patriarchs that many places in what was then the Promised Land became sacred, such as Bethel (Genesis 13:3-4, 35:1-15) and Moriah (Genesis 22:1-18).
Yet – and this is very important, they did not stay there all the time. They had their experiences with God, they learned what they needed to learn and they moved on.
Their focus was on their journey with God, not just their arrival at certain places.
That is how people of faith view pilgrimage, because their focus is on the unseen:
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIVUK
[18] So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Their pilgrimage is not about getting to certain places or having certain experiences. Their pilgrimage is about their journey with God: about growing with Him and like Him.
That is what is most important.
But apart from God’s promises and their pilgrimage with God, finally, people of faith are actually about a Place, but that place is not here on earth:
Hebrews 11:14-16 NIV
[14] People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. [15] If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. https://bible.com/bible/113/heb.11.1-16.NIVUK
This verse has its analogue in Jesus’ teaching as He approached the cross:
John 14:1-3 NIV
[1] ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. [2] My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.14.1-3.NIVUK
These landless, stateless wanderers were heading for a country that they did not own, and when they reached it, they made no attempt to take it by force – because God had told them it was for their descendants, not for them. And so they lived in their tents and they journeyed through the land as aliens and strangers, longing for the place God had for them.
That is how people of faith live. This place is not their own. They are not at home here. Their state is described in garage rock band Soul Asylum’s song:
‘We are not of this world
But there’s a place for us...
And Oh, I am so homesick
But it ain’t that bad
‘Cos I’m homesick for the home I never had'
Or the old song by Jim Reeves:
'This world is not my home
I’m just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore'
That is just it. People of faith do not feel at home in this world because they are constantly longing for something better, something greater, something perfect. But that longing produces no frustration or angst because one day they will get there. One day they will be with the Lord forever.
For eighteen years, I lived as a native in my own land, but felt like a stranger.
Then I went on a mission a trip to Romania, where I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know very much about the culture, had never eaten the food.
My eyes were opened widely. It made me realise in a very real way what it feels like to truly be a foreigner.
So when I returned to Scotland, I took my first opportunity to work with International students. Through that work, I met people from all over the world, some of whom were really taken aback by how open and understanding I was to their world.
The reason why was very simple: I had lived it, even for a short time. I knew how it felt.
Christians ought to know how it feels to be out of place, an oddball, an alien, a stranger, a foreigner.
Why?
Because that us who we are.
When we appreciate that we are the outsiders because we believe God’s promises and are on a pilgrimage through this land until we reach the place Jesus Christ has prepared for us in heaven, then everything changes.
We can’t be at home in this world any more.
And we must have a deep empathy for others who are also not at home.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me when I cling tightly to the things of this world and lose my grip on you. Help me to realise that I am a pilgrim that has believed in Your promises and who is headed for the place You have prepared for me. Show me what this will mean for me. Amen.
Questions
1. What were the differences between Abraham and his family and the people who lived at the time in the Promised Land? How are you different from the people who love around you?
2. Why did Abraham’s family not try to take the land by force? What did they believe?
3. What difference will this teaching make to your attitude to life where you live? What will you have to change?
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