By Faith the Patriarchs

If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews 11. We continue in our study in the book of Hebrews. The pace has been relatively slow, but I am going to take a larger section this morning. I’ll explain why in just a moment. But we’ve come as far as the end of verse 7, so we commence at verse 8. Or eight. Always dreading when I’m going to have to say that to someone who’s completely new to my accent and to see that puzzled look in their eye as they try to decipher what I just said—the number eight. Eight? What are you talking about, eight? It will ever be a challenge. But we’re going to read from there through verse 22. You see this patriarchal section. So let us commence reading and follow in God’s Word at the eighth verse.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Amen. We’ll end the reading at the end of verse 22. And this that you have heard is the word of the living God. It is inerrant, infallible, and you are to believe it, receive it, and obey it. And the people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray. Lord, help us now. These things are written for our learning. And while much may be gleaned and much may be understood, we ask that Thou will be very gracious, not simply for us to understand the details, but to hear the message. You have a message. There are those here who need to be encouraged by this accounting of the faith of our fathers. Oh, how we pray that we may learn. We may learn what God would have us to learn. I ask, oh God, that from the youngest to the eldest, this would be a teachable moment. In a time when Thy gracious and necessary Spirit will be in this place moving, moving upon hearts, moving upon lives, doing a work though not entirely visible to us, yet discernible to the individual. God is dealing and speaking with me. So I pray, give the power of the Spirit, whatever limitations. Abide in the preacher. God, let none of that hinder the progress of Thy kingdom in the lives gathered here today, including my own. For we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We stand again this morning, beloved, at this great cathedral of the heroes of the faith that are given to us in Hebrews 11. It is here where the Holy Spirit draws back the curtain for us to see a grand procession of those who have been faithful in the past. These who are accounted to us are not heroes because they fought great battles by the physical sword or conquered great enemies in some physical way, but they triumphed by faith. These are the men and women who took hold of the promises of God, walking as strangers and as pilgrims in this world, considering that the ground under them, though it was not at that time their own, was promised to them and pointed to something even more significant.

I have taken a large section because this whole patriarchal age, given to us from verse 8 through 22, has a very focused, forward-looking emphasis that I want us to see. Whatever details we may miss, and you well know I could spend weeks going through and break this into three, four, five sermons. You well know I could do that, but I want us to see, at least in this section, see sort of from 30,000 feet a little more, or at least come a little up higher to see something of the unity of what the Spirit of God is revealing to us in this portion, to see how these patriarchs walked before God and where their focus was and how their faith was formed by the promises that God gave to them.

So I’ve titled this message, “By Faith the Patriarchs.” And of course, Sarah’s thrown in there as well, but she’s lumped into that period. But let’s look at it. And I have five heads, rather long, but I want you to think about these heads. I’ve tried to craft them. I think if I had more time, I may have done a better job. But as the week progressed, more and more, I saw this emphasis in every detail. Every one of the individuals given to us, each figure put before us, seemed to be pointing in the same direction. And so I’ve titled from verse 8 through 9: they saw the promise of a heavenly inheritance with Christ. They saw the promise of a heavenly inheritance with Christ. Verses 11 through 12: they saw the necessity of the seed which promised a multitude for God. Third: they saw the destination in a heavenly country with God, that’s verses 13 through 16. Then in verses 17 through 19: they saw the inevitability of resurrection by God, and in verses 20 through 22: they saw the covenantal importance of the land given by God.

Now, there’s a lot in there, and in each section there are details that could be mined out, but I want us to see that something of what we’re looking at this morning, the writer himself, the Apostle Paul, is not trying to dwell at length upon each life. There is a sense in which he’s pulling together these lives for a primary focus and goal. Not so much to dwell upon the details of the individual, except wherein those details help us do what we are meant to do, which is to look on to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. That’s the goal. You need to look forward, you need to seize upon Christ, and you look upon Christ, and looking to Him will carry you through life in the way God intends, and you will finally arrive at the destination God has laid up for those who believe in His Son.

So, they saw the promise of a heavenly inheritance with Christ. Look at verse 8. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. This is called in Ur of the Chaldees, God speaking to him, revealing Himself to him, telling him to go. I want you to see that. The life of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is looking forward to something that God has provided and built for His people beyond the very land that was under their feet when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees and went to Canaan. Verses 8 and 9, we see Abraham’s faith-driven obedience, his life as a pilgrim called from an idolatrous life—if we pull all the scriptures together, living as an idolater in Ur. He obeys. As God comes, the Lord of glory, as the language Stephen uses in Acts 7, the Lord of glory appears unto Abraham. And he obeys that call, leaving, though not perfectly, for a time he stumbles, he pauses, not making it all the way to Canaan, showing again the challenge, the challenge we all face to go through entirely for God and with God. And yet God’s faithfulness overrules, moving Abraham forward, getting him to the land where he needed to be.

Arriving in Canaan, he sojourns in tents. He doesn’t build a great city, he doesn’t establish something permanent, but he demonstrates his trust in God’s promise despite the fact that the land here was occupied by others. He believes that God has given this land, and he stands there, though not fully settled, knowing that God has promised this land to him and his posterity. He lives then as a foreigner, as a pilgrim, no earthly claim upon the land except the promise that God had given in His Word, foreshadowing for us the Christian life. The fact that the believer lives with so much hope and promises yet to be realized. You’re here this morning, and so much of your Christian existence has yet to find its full consummation. This is the application, this forward-looking emphasis, this looking upon Christ, and that being the guide, that being the direction we are to live that will finally lead us to the place where we dwell forever with God.

Abraham exemplifies it for us, proving that faith is sufficient through the trials and the difficulties. Study his life, look at the ups and downs, see him failing at times to go through entirely in obedience to God, and yet God faithfully pulling him back, resetting his status as it were, putting him in a place where he needed to be, calibrating his heart before God. So it is for you, living here, sometimes caught up with the world, sometimes finding yourself dragged into something that is irrelevant or isn’t the will of God for you. God so faithfully pulling you back again and again and again. But his example shows us that faith does not delay. It is meant to obey. It’s meant to not show forth a disobedience. And it’s not to wait for a full understanding. We are not to demand from God that we need to see everything before we put our foot out the door. Sight is not a necessary aspect of obedience.

Abraham went out, look at it, not knowing whether he went. There were things he didn’t understand, aspects not fully revealed to him, but obedience was essential. And so it is for you. The things you don’t understand, things God calls you to that you cannot fully comprehend, but you are to get up and go. And to the children here, that is to you. You children don’t understand everything. You don’t understand everything about the world. You don’t even understand everything about God’s word. Neither do your parents. But we step out in faith. We obey the gospel call. And we understand God has said we are sinners, and He calls us to put a full, wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ. We should understand that. And your call is to obey that. I’m a sinner. God has made provision in His Son, and I step out and trust Him fully, entirely for my salvation. And you don’t know where that’s going to lead, and you don’t know all that that may entail, or what trials God will bring into your life as a Christian, but you step out regardless because you know that’s what He calls you to do. We are to mark it well in Abraham’s life that he doesn’t ask where. He seeks no map. He’s not looking for some chart or explanation. God says go, and he goes. This is the essence of faith, trusting God. It acts when it doesn’t fully understand. We journey because God points the way, even though we don’t know fully all that’s entailed in the final destination.

Abraham forsook his home country, forsook all that was familiar to him, pitched his tent in Canaan because it was a land promised to him, living like this stranger in that land, surrounded by people who had no interest in the promise that had been given to God’s servant. But God was to be faithful. Abraham’s descendants, of course, were to be blessed and multiplied, and we know the story; eventually, they do take that land. Later, we get to that. And yet they are warned. They are warned in their time of prosperity when they come into the land. The warning of Deuteronomy is, beware lest you forget the Lord. Abraham lived remembering God. All he had was God. He’s living in this land promised to him, but his focus, the patriarchs, their focus is on God because what they had, what they possessed, what they clutched was the promise, not the land itself.

But when they came into possession of the land, the dangers with their feet upon that land, now they begin to forget the God who gave it. And sometimes that is the case. There was a time in your life when you had nothing. You had nothing, but you had God. And you walked by faith, not by sight. And you sought to put God first, and you trusted Him through the difficulties of life. But now, maybe there’s been a little prosperity, more comfort in this life. And you are not, assess your heart, you are not as mindful of God today as you were then. And that’s the warning. You need to come back to the footsteps of Abraham. Get back away from whether I have this stuff or this land or not. This is not the focus. Keep your eye fixed upon Christ. Looking onto Jesus. He sojourned in a land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles. You’re not to lose that sense of your own pilgrimage. We’ll see that more as we progress. And he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. His mind was heavenly. He lived as a pilgrim, not settling for earthly security.

Here’s a man who eventually becomes weighed down with riches. The Bible explains him as being heavy with wealth, and yet still his mind is not upon those riches. He is looking for something else, that which has been described by God’s Word as an inheritance, 1 Peter 1:4. Here is referred to as a heavenly country in verse 16 of our chapter. We have this heavenly country or this city that God has provided for us. And so it’s pointing forward to something, and we are to keep our fixed view upon that.

Remember what the chapter is about. What does verse 1 say? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So there’s an aspect of your life in which your faith is trusting, believing, resting, and looking for something yet to be fully realized. And Abraham modeled this so wonderfully, looking forward, seeing beyond the land, understanding that the end of the promise was not merely Canaan, but something that he would yet inherit and go to. You think about it—God gives you a land and it terminates, your experience of that terminates with your own life’s ending. Abraham realized that there’s something more. There’s something God is promising here that is not just for this life. There’s something forward, and you’re to think the same way. You’re to keep your focus, beloved, keep your focus on that which also is laid up for you in the future, not just the here and now. And you have it described, as I say, a city or a country, as the translation is given, something that is vast and free, a place where we finally experience true security under real, honest, just government with all the provision we could ever require.

So we fix our hope forward. That’s God’s word to you—fixing your hope forward. It’s a warning. It’s a warning not to be tempted to love and embrace and hold on to and seize and become chained to the comforts of this world. Never cease to be a pilgrim. Beware lest the treasures you hold on to so tightly become dust in your grasp. Don’t long for the things of earth in such a way that is too heavily leaning to this scene of time. We’re to see the sufficiency of Christ and all that is laid up for those who are found in Him.

So they saw the promise of a heavenly inheritance with Christ. Looking forward, a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And it’s all laid up, and they’re going to join with the Messiah there. We’re all going to that place. We’re all going to that city where Christ rules, where Christ reigns, and we are joined to him, and we will ever be with the Lord.

But also, if you move on, verses 11 and 12, they saw the necessity of the seed which promised a multitude for God—or even you might say for Christ, because, of course, He is the preeminent seed who is promised. And from Him are all the elect. They are joined to Him. Verse 11: Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Sometimes Sarah gets a bad rap, but you can see here that she did believe God. She had her laughing moments, but she did believe God. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, pointing to Abraham. He also, it seemed, was impossible to expect anything from him. He might as well have been dead that way too, but so many as the stars of the sky, a multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable.

So our tendency, again, when we live our lives, is to look at what’s possible. What’s possible? And here, this pilgrim life sometimes brings us to consider those things that are, quite frankly, impossible. In other words, walking with God, resting in God, believing God, requires at times us prioritizing His Word above what we can rationally explain. You can’t explain how you’re going to go to heaven. You can’t explain how your body will be glorified so that it might exist forever. You can’t explain that. You can’t explain how, when Christ returns, and they that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will be brought forth. You can’t explain the how. Those details of our future resurrection and our experience with God—the equations are not known. There’s no way to manipulate the data we have and say that’s how it’s going to occur. And yet we believe it. We believe God will do it. He will raise this dust, which is what we will be lest He does not, if He does not come until we are long gone, and He will raise it.

We are to believe Him and trust Him in those matters that appear impossible. God’s omnipotence makes the impossible not only possible but certain if His Word has said it. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, had long passed the age of childbearing. And so when she first hears, of course, she has that laugh, a laugh of unbelief. Don’t make too much of her because we do the same, right? We doubt God. Maybe this morning you’re doubting God. Maybe you’re doubting God in things that really you shouldn’t be doubting at all. There’s every evidence to you that you need not doubt. I mean, you find yourself doubting. Doubt, we’ll look at this. We will see this. This will be one of the inner battles that we’ll see tonight. We’ll look at doubt. The very first one, I think it’s one of the key ones. Doubt and how it fills our hearts is a challenge to us.

But she began to believe. She rested because God had spoken the word. He had promised it. They began to measure, measure God’s promise and its fulfillment, not by her own frailty but by God’s faithfulness. He uttered the word. He gave the command. He said it would be done. That is enough. Sarah conceived. She received strength to conceive seed. God worked powerfully, impossibly, giving strength where it was not there. His word came to be fulfilled, delivered of a child when she was past age. Wonderful, wonderful. This is written again for our learning, for you to look at and see, why do I doubt God? Here’s a woman who bears fruit from the womb when it was impossible. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky, a multitude, as the sand which is by the seashore. And this is the point. There’s this one, because it’s the whole point of—remember the initial promise is like, through Abraham shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And through, there’s going to be a multitude that comes from this.

So it’s not just about the singular seed, which Galatians tells us is typifying or pointing towards and indicating the promise of the Messiah himself. But it’s also what comes from the Messiah, that through the birth of the Messiah, through the work of the Messiah, through the success of the Messiah, there is an innumerable multitude. Like the stars of heaven for multitude, there will stand a people who belong to God and are the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now, you have to pull together different passages of Scriptures to see the full breadth of all of this. I encourage you to understand it. Again, go to Galatians, take the time to study that book. See how this promised son, called Isaac, points to the promised one, the promised deliverer, even Jesus Christ. And see how He will gather to Himself a people, that all that the Father has given Him will come to Him, and they’ll all be gathered in that multitude one day. As the stars of the sky, a multitude, of which you are a number if you believe. God will fulfill His word. God is saying there’s going to be a nation from you. There’s going to be this expanse that comes from you, and they go on in years and it becomes more difficult, more impossible, but God gives His word and they believe it.

Thirdly, they saw the destination and a heavenly country with God. The destination is a heavenly country with God, verses 13 through 16. This idea gets developed here. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them.” Oh, there’s such a sense of wanting to dwell upon that language. They were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And this is what you’re meant to do with God’s promises. You’re not just meant to know them. You’re meant to be persuaded of them. You’re meant to embrace them and regulate your life by them. That’s the sense. That’s the implication. You’re to read God’s Word, not just know it, but embrace it and regulate your life by it. This is what they did. “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly.”

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. So they’re looking forward, they’re living as strangers, they’re dying as pilgrims, and their confession, this is what it is. “We are strangers, we are pilgrims, this isn’t our final destination.” Now there’s wisdom here. Wisdom that comes by faith. Faith regulates their thinking. Not what they see, but what God’s Word says. It’s just that one statement. So much of your life and how you respond is regulated by what you see or the news you receive. These believers are regulating their life by God’s Word, what God has said. That is the encouragement that you are to take and to emulate.

They held loosely then to the things of the world because they sought a better country. They sought a heavenly, a place where they would truly be reconciled to their God and enjoy His presence. And many professing Christians, far too many, build their nests in a tree that most certainly will be cut down, and store up treasures in houses that will turn to dust. Oh, beloved, I warn you, I warn you, do not find or put your trust in uncertain riches. They take wings and fly away, and even if you can manage to hold on to them to the very last breath of your life here, whose things then shall they be when you’re gone? No, reach out your hand of faith, not to seize all that this world offers, but what God offers to you in His Son.

What was He offering? What was He offering? A better country. A prepared city for a prepared people. And to such, then, He is not ashamed, not ashamed to be called their God. Why? Because they have prioritized Me. They have lived as pilgrims here below. They profess their love primarily for Me and not this present world. Do you want, do you aspire to have this kind of response as God looks at you? That God is not ashamed to be called your God?

Now, we can look at that text and think about it in terms of our justification through Christ. I’ll grant you, certainly is there. He is not ashamed to be called your God because you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is not ashamed because He sees in your mediator a representative, one who stands assuredly for you. One who has lived in obedience in a way you cannot and has died sacrificially to put away sin. So through Jesus Christ, it’s true, He is not ashamed. But there’s a practical side to it. There is an outworking of that, in which those truly in Christ are to live in such a way that God can look at your life and say, in a sense—don’t take it to, don’t twist it to ends that I’m not suggesting here—but the Lord looking at the lives of His people and delighting in their focus upon His Son, their delight in the Lord. Their concern to prioritize His will.

God has no shame. He’s not ashamed of such people who say, “This God is our God. He will be our guide even unto death.” Now, you need to be in Christ for any of this to be true. You need to be saved. You need to know that your sins are forgiven. You’re here this morning doing your best, trying your hardest, but you’re not looking on to Jesus (Chapter 12, verse 2). And that’s where you need to go.

These people saw that their destination—these all died in faith, not having received the promises, they hadn’t possessed them, they hadn’t grasped them all, they hadn’t all been realized, but they saw them. They’re persuaded, they embrace, and they confess, “For now, we’re strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” They were seeking somewhere else. They could have gone back (verse 15). They could have returned. They could have gone to their idols, returned to their old habits and behaviors, just like you. And just like the Jews that the apostle is addressing, they could have gone back. Oh, they’re meant to see the application because that’s what Hebrews has been warning about—turning back. And those pilgrims, Abraham and the rest of them, they all could have turned back. It might have been easier to go back.

Abraham has to send a servant on this long journey to go and find a bride for his son. It would have been easier if he just went and lived among such. But the promise of God kept him rooted in that land that God had promised. Obedience to God meant staying there. You too could go back. There are people who have sat in the pews where you’re seated this morning, singing the same hymns, hearing similar sermons, and they went back. No, these that we are to follow, this great company who encourage us in the right path, did not turn back. They took God at His word, even at times to their own hurt. So must you.

Verses 17 through 19: they saw the inevitability of resurrection by God. Verses 17 through 19—I’m not entirely happy with the way I phrased this, but you can see, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. You know the story from Genesis 22. He that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. That’s the key. He that had received the promises, offered up. You need to get that part in there. Abraham doesn’t just offer his son; it’s the man who’s received the promises who offers his son. This is key. Of whom it was said, this is God, God spoke, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. In other words, all that God is promising with regard to the future of His people is tied up, invested in Isaac. Now, that’s God’s Word. That’s His promise to Abraham. “My intention to fulfill what I have said is bound up in Isaac.”

So when God comes to Abraham and tells him to offer up Isaac, the tension is between the command and the promise. And for Abraham, it was very clear. God doesn’t contradict Himself. God hasn’t given a promise that He’s not going to fulfill. He’s not changed His mind. His intentions are clear. I have no doubt whatsoever. He said that this would be fulfilled through Isaac. Now His command says, “Offer him up.” In Abraham, it was clear. Verse 19: that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. For whence also he received him in a figure. He becomes a type, becomes a lesson, becomes instruction to his soul.

But here’s the point: that in, as we mentioned, the tension of God’s promise, now the command to end Isaac’s life, there is the conclusion. I’m not mistaking the promise, I’m not mistaking the command, therefore God’s intention must be to raise him up. Faith lands wherever God’s word directs. You’re not to live your life trying to play games with what God has said. Trying to twist it so it’s easier for you. Trying to make it more palatable. You meet every one of us. We are to obey. And you think of what Abraham is being asked to do here. It’s quite something. Take your son, take your only son, this special son, this promised son, and offer him. Abraham goes there, and you go and read the passage, he gets up early that morning, doesn’t hesitate. The outcome to him that it would appear to me that he must be intending to raise him from the dead. So off he goes, up Mount Moriah, taking Isaac with him. On that occasion, of course, at the last moment, God comes, intervenes. There’s a ram caught in the thicket, the language is. He takes the ram, places it as a substitute. The ram dies, typifying God’s provision. That’s the whole idea of Jehovah Jireh, by the way.

Jehovah Jireh is not primarily about God helping you pay your mortgage or your other bills. That’s not what it’s primarily about. It is primarily about God’s provision for sinners. God providing what’s necessary so that man can be reconciled, atonement can be made, the parties who are separated by sin brought together through Jesus Christ. That’s first and foremost. It has, I think it has a knock-on, I think you can say because He’s given us a Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? How will He not also be trusted that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto us? I think there’s an understanding He will care for us in the ways that are necessary, but don’t twist it, don’t flip it upside down.

Well, there was to come an experience, an experience for the one that Isaac pointed to, the special promised son, impossibly born. All pointed to another one who would be impossibly born, Jesus Christ, born of the womb of Mary, a virgin. To live in this world for us and to go up another mountain, to go to Calvary, where there was no substitute for Him. He is. He is the one who must be slain. He is the one. When the knife falls, it falls on Him. And He dies, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. And so there’s a wonderful way in which it’s all being typified, pointed to. The instruction for Abraham and his posterity are to reflect upon this.

What was God doing? In one sense, He is pointing to the fact that He will fulfill His Word no matter what, but He is also showing something of the means by which it will be accomplished. Even when that through which salvation is procured—through the perfect life of the promised seed, He will rise again from the dead, procuring life for all those who believe on Him.

Finally, they saw the covenantal importance of the land given by God. Verses 20 through 22. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph in worship, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. So Isaac blesses his sons with an eye upon God’s promise, given to his posterity the land upon which they stood. Jacob blesses his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, assigning them inheritance as though they were his own sons, integrating them into the tribes. And Joseph gives commandment that his bones be relocated to the land given by God, believing that God would not have his people remain in Egypt forever.

These men, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, they die in faith, blessing, prophesying, looking forward—they’re all looking forward. Now Isaac had his plans looking forward, didn’t he? And he’s going to bless Esau. That’s his intention, to bless the strong, hairy hunter, the firstborn, yet God has decreed otherwise. I know there’s such a lesson there, Isaac having to learn that tells us that he trembled very exceedingly, I think is the way it’s worded there in Genesis 27. He trembles, but he doesn’t tremble because he’s gotten it wrong so much. He trembles because God has upturned his best intentions and plans. He trembles at divine providence.

But Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all point us to the covenantal significance of the land. Joseph, especially, as he prepares for his death, gives a command about his bones, instructing the Israelites to carry his remains back to Canaan when they leave Egypt. The land is not merely a piece of real estate to them; it represents God’s covenant promise—a promise that transcends their lifetimes. It is a promise of God’s faithfulness, something that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were willing to live for and die for.

The land was a sign of God’s covenant with His people. It pointed beyond mere geography to the greater spiritual inheritance that God had promised. For these patriarchs, it was about more than just physical possession of the land; it was about trusting in the promises of God that one day their descendants would fully inherit it. It was a symbol of the security and peace that comes with the presence of God.

We, as New Testament believers, can reflect on this and see how this points us to the greater promise we have in Christ. The land that God promised to Israel was a foretaste of the heavenly inheritance He has prepared for us. Our “land” is not earthly but heavenly. It is the kingdom of God, the eternal home that awaits those who trust in Christ. Just as the patriarchs looked forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise regarding the land, we look forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise of eternal life with Him.

Now, these patriarchs were not simply thinking of a temporary home. They were looking for a lasting, heavenly home, the one that God has promised. The fact that they died in faith, not having received the fullness of what was promised, does not mean that they were discouraged. On the contrary, it means they understood that the fulfillment of God’s promises extends beyond the temporal and into eternity. And that is where their faith was anchored.

As we live in this world, it is easy to become distracted by the things that are temporary, by the things that seem urgent or important in the moment. But like the patriarchs, we are called to remember that our true home is not here. Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). We are pilgrims, strangers in this world, and we are to live by faith, looking forward to the heavenly country that God has prepared for us.

So, as you live your life, let this truth guide you: God has promised a better country, a heavenly one. The land we long for, the city we seek, is not one built by human hands, but one whose builder and maker is God. As the patriarchs were faithful, so too are we called to remain faithful, looking forward to the promises of God, knowing that He will fulfill them in His perfect time.

In conclusion, what we see in these examples of the faith of the patriarchs is a faith that looks beyond the immediate, beyond the earthly, and beyond the temporary. Their lives were marked by obedience to God’s call, faith in His promises, and hope in His future fulfillment. They knew that God’s promises were sure, and they lived accordingly. This is the kind of faith we are called to possess: a faith that sees beyond the here and now, that trusts in God’s Word, and that looks forward to the eternal inheritance He has promised to all who believe.

May we, like the patriarchs, hold fast to the promises of God, live by faith, and look forward to the heavenly city He has prepared for us. May our lives be a testimony to the world of the faithfulness of God, who keeps His promises, and may we always remember that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world, seeking the city that is to come.

Let us pray. Father, we thank You for the example of these faithful men and women who have gone before us. We thank You for the promises You made to them, and we thank You that those promises are still true for us today. Help us to live by faith, looking forward to the inheritance You have promised, trusting that what You have said will come to pass. Strengthen our hearts, O Lord, that we might endure in faith, just as they did, and that we might, in our lives, testify to the world of the hope that we have in Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.