The Hall of Faith: Abraham & Sarah : Faithful Strangers and Pilgrims On The Earth

EXPOSITORY ARTICLE | Jeremy Diestelkamp | Toronto, Ontario

Hebrews 11:8-19

Oftentimes, when we read Hebrews chapter 11, we believe that the Hebrew writer was penning this section in order to raise up the people found in it as examples of perfect faith, of people who lived sinless lives.  Perhaps we come to that conclusion because of the first two examples of faith given: that of Abel and Enoch.  All we really know about Abel is that he was a shepherd, he offered a sacrifice to God by faith that was accepted by God, and was subsequently killed by his hateful brother, Cain (Genesis 4:1-8).  No words of Abel are ever recorded, yet though he is dead, he still speaks (Hebrews 11:4).  And then when it comes to Enoch, if it weren’t for the Book of Jude, we’d know even less about him, for all the Book of Genesis tells us about him is that he was the father of Methuselah, and that he walked with God in faith three hundred years before he was taken directly to Heaven by God (Genesis 5:21-25). It is Jude that tells us that Enoch was a prophet to his generation, proclaiming to them that they needed to repent of their ungodly deeds, for the righteous judgment of God would condemn them for their sins if they didn’t (Jude 14-15).  But because we know so little about Abel and Enoch, we might come to the false conclusion that these men had perfect faith, and that Enoch was even taken to Heaven because he never sinned.

So instead of being an encouraging chapter, meant to show Christians that we can persevere through persecution and living in a sinful world while at the same time remaining faithful, it becomes a discouraging chapter, where we compare our faith to that of these people, and decide to give up, believing our faith doesn’t measure up to theirs.  And that truly is sad, because the Hebrew writer is not holding these men up as superhero-like characters who lived in sinless obedience to God, for Paul’s statement still holds true: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (which includes all the people in Hebrews 11) (Romans 3:23).  Rather, the Hebrew writer is holding these people up as regular people, who lived regular lives, but because they believed in God and trusted in the promises He made to mankind, their faith allowed them persevere in the face of all their troubles, and ultimately receive that which God promised.

 

Abel died at the hands of a vengeful brother, but he lost nothing because he would receive salvation through Christ’s sacrifice.  Enoch lived in a largely wicked society, and yet received eternal life through God’s grace.  Noah lived in a world so corrupt, that it is said that God regretted making man, and yet not only did Noah find grace in the sight of the Lord to be physically saved from it through the flood, but he found grace to be saved eternally as well because of the shed blood of Christ.  None of these men lived in different situations to the Hebrew Christians (or to Christians today), and so, if these men and women could walk by faith and receive the promises that God had made, the Hebrew Christians could as well (as can we).

Perhaps what we’ve just expounded on is more easily seen through the man Abraham and his wife Sarah.  Back in Genesis 12, when God first spoke to Abraham, Abraham was in Ur of the Chaldees.  For those who don’t know where that is, that is in modern-day Iraq.  Abraham likely thought that Ur would be his lifetime home, but God had other plans. He told Abraham to leave Ur with his wife Sarah and their extended family and go to a land that He would show them.  Note, God didn’t tell Abraham to leave Ur and go to Canaan.  He was simply to go to the land that God would show him, wherever that land was.  If someone came up to you and said follow them to a place they would tell you about later, would you follow them?  Not likely.  But Abraham wasn’t asked to follow some person, he was asked to follow God, by God Himself.  And so, because Abraham trusted in God to lead him (because Abraham had faith in God), Abraham followed in spite of not knowing where he was going to, nor having ever seen the land before.

What this tells me is that Abraham believed in God long before God appeared to him (even if Joshua 24:2 seems to imply that Abraham didn’t worship God properly earlier on in his life).  And what’s more, Abraham was a family leader who could raise his family to have faith in God and follow God too, for Sarah willingly followed God to Canaan as well (Genesis 18:19).  Now Abraham and Sarah didn’t have some Herculean amount of faith in order to do this: but they did have enough faith in God and trusted in God to provide for them, even in a foreign land.  If you look at a map and drew a straight line from where Ur is believed to be to Haran, you would come up with about 1000 km or 600 miles.  And then if you drew another straight line from Haran to where Shechem is located (Abraham’s first stop in Canaan) you come up with another 700 km or 435 miles.  So at a minimum, Abraham and Sarah travelled about 1700 km or 1035 miles to leave Ur and come to that land that God would show them.  Was Abraham’s faith perfect, even though he followed God this far?  No, for when God promised Abraham that his children would inherit the land of Canaan, Abraham doubted God.  Why?  Because Abraham was old, and his wife Sarah was well past her childbearing years.  Instead of fully trusting in God, Abraham complained, pointing out that he was childless and his only heir was Eliezer of Damascus.  Would God give Eliezer the inheritance? (Genesis 15:1-3).  God would not do so, telling Abraham that one who would come from his own body would be his heir (Genesis 15:4).  After being told this by God, Genesis tells us that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).  No, Abraham wasn’t counted righteous on the basis of faith alone as our Calvinist friends like to claim, but on the basis of a faith that obeyed.  Abraham believed in God and trusted Him enough to come to Canaan though having never seen that land before, and then Abraham further trusted that God would provide him with a son in spite of his old age.

But even after all this, Abraham’s and Sarah’s faith wasn’t perfect, for they got impatient with how slowly God was acting and so they tried to help God by having Abraham bear a son with Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, instead of Sarah.  This son, Ishmael, would be from the body of Abraham, so Abraham and Sarah didn’t give up their faith in God in that regard, but again, in trying to help God out, it shows us that Abraham and Sarah weren’t perfect and that they had their faults.  And these faults got them into trouble here, for as the child grew, Sarah became jealous of Hagar and the child she bore, and wanted to cast them out (something that would eventually happen).  If only Abraham and Sarah hadn’t become impatient, they could be spared all this, but even people of faith suffer from their mistakes, something we can certainly attest to.  Did God reject Abraham and Sarah because of their impatience?  No, but he did reprove them, in not allowing Abraham to immediately cast Hagar out, only allowing it to happen after the birth of Isaac: a constant reminder to them of the cost that comes from trying to help God accomplish his promises.

And so, when the fullness of time had come, God revealed to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son whom they would name Isaac.  How did they receive this message?  Well, they both laughed and said how could someone who is ninety years old give birth to and nurse an infant (Genesis 17:17, Genesis 18:10-15)?  In response, the Lord simply asked them: is anything too hard for the Lord?  Of course, the answer was no.  God could raise up heirs to Abraham from stones if he wanted to, but he could also give strength to an old woman not only to have the seed and strength to bear a child, but to nurse and raise that child too.  Abraham and Sarah believed God’s message to them there and continued on in faith.  How do I know?  Because God didn’t promise to miraculously conceive this child like he did with Jesus.  Isaac would have an earthly father and an earthly mother, meaning that Abraham and Sarah needed to be physically intimate with one another in order to have this child.  All that God did was open Sarah’s womb, enabling her to conceive this child.  That part of Isaac’s birth was miraculous, but the means of conception was not.

With Isaac now being born, Abraham could at least see that part of God’s promise was fulfilled: he had an heir.  And if you follow the genealogies found in Genesis, you would find that Abraham lived long enough to see his grandson Jacob be born.  But Abraham never lived to see his descendants inherit Canaan.  Both he and Sarah lived their entire lives considering themselves strangers and pilgrims on this earth (Hebrews 11:13).  How did their faith persevere?  Because for one, they had seen God work throughout their lives thus far, and were therefore fully confident that God would fulfil his promises to them concerning the land of Canaan.  Not even God telling Abraham to offer Isaac deterred them, for Abraham knew that if Isaac was sacrificed to God, God could raise Isaac up from the dead in spite of us never reading of anybody being resurrected from the dead before that point in time (Hebrews 11:17-19).

But there was another reason that Abraham and Sarah’s faith persevered: which was they had their eyes set on a better inheritance: one in a heavenly country, where they could live with God forever.  You see, sometimes we get so focused on the land promise to Abraham, or the great nation promise, or the seed promise, that we forget the benefits that came through those promises: which was that all the nations of the world would be blessed through the seed given to Abraham (Genesis 12:3).  The seed wasn’t Isaac, it was Christ (Galatians 3:16), and the blessing wasn’t physical, it was spiritual.  The forgiveness of sins comes only through Christ.  The hope of eternal life in Heaven comes only through Christ.  All spiritual blessings come only through Christ (Ephesians 1:3).  Abraham understood that even if he gained all the land in the world, if he didn’t have faith in God, he would die and leave it all behind, leaving him with nothing but hopelessness and despair to look forward to after death.  However, if Abraham had faith in God, even if he never saw the promises of God fulfilled in his lifetime, he knew based on the evidence of God’s faithfulness in the past, that God would fulfil them all: including the spiritual blessings of a home in Heaven with God forever.  God though, works in His time, not man’s: we simply need to be patient, and keep the faith.

In conclusion, the life of Abraham and his wife Sarah was a life of faith in God: a faith that led to obedience, but a faith that didn’t make them perfect people.  They needed the forgiveness of sins just like you and me.  They needed to persevere through hardship, just like you and me.  And they needed to keep their faith in God patiently to the end, just like you and me.  Having faith in God and remaining faithful to God is not always easy, but it is always doable for we are surrounded by so great a cloud of faithful witnesses who have come before, like Abraham and Sarah.  Knowing this, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith for the strength to carry us through.

** All verses are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible **
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2023.07 | GROW magazine