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Context No. 1475 of 4322 · Hebrews

Context · Reflection

Hebrews 11:7-12: in context

7By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. 8By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. 9By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.

The great chapter on faith moves through the patriarchs. By faith Noah built an ark for the saving of his house. By faith Abraham obeyed the call to go out to a land he would receive, going out not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, for he was looking for the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And by faith Sarah, past the age of childbearing, received strength to conceive, counting him faithful who had promised, so that from one man came descendants as many as the stars.

The line that opens a window is the one about Abraham: he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, dwelling in tents, for he was looking for the city with foundations, whose builder is God. Abraham was given the land, and yet he lived in it as a foreigner, in tents, never settling into permanent possession; and the reason, the writer says, is that his eyes were fixed further ahead, on a city with foundations that God himself would build. He held the present loosely, lived as a pilgrim rather than a settler, precisely because his hope was set on something more lasting than any earthly home. There is a pattern for faith in that. The one whose eyes are on the eternal city God is building can hold the present lightly, live as a stranger and pilgrim in this world, not because the present is worthless but because it is not the final home. It frees a person from the desperate grip on earthly security that afflicts those with no hope beyond this life. Abraham could dwell in tents, unsettled, because he was looking for a city with foundations; the tent was temporary, and he knew it, and his real hope lay in what God was building. To keep the eternal city in view is to be freed to live lightly here, as Abraham did, holding the tent of the present with an open hand because the city with foundations is still ahead.

Are my eyes fixed on the eternal city God is building, so that I can hold the present lightly and live as a pilgrim, like Abraham in his tents, or have I settled into this world as though it were my lasting home, gripping earthly security as if there were nothing beyond it?

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