Seeking A Better Land Series

HEBREWS 11:13-16

SEEKING A BETTER LAND

[Exodus 3:13-17]

The city of God is the homeland for the faithful of all the ages. It is no mere temporal and earthy city, but a heavenly one. By faith the saints of old based their lives on a promise of God that this city is more real and more permanent than any earthy city. They looked, as we still do, for an eternal land which gives its city eternal foundations. They lived in time and the temporary by focusing on the eternal and permanent. They were looking for a city in a land that they could never quite see but their heart and spirit bore witness that it is just over the horizon. [God provides us with this same inner witness, doesn’t He?]

Thus they lived by faith in God and His eternal plan. Their hope caused them to persevere in faith. Even though they never entered that promised city in life, they lived and died assured of its existence and of their participation in it (CIT). That assurance was the product of faith in God and His promises, and it changed their attitude toward the land in which they lived.

So, despite never receiving possession of the earthly promise that God gave to Abraham (Gen. 12:7), Issac and Jacob they became content to live their days as strangers and sojourners never living a settled life on earth. They lived this way because they saw from afar what God was building in heaven. Though our understanding is not near so distant as the saints of old we too must live our earthy existence by the same faith that seeks an eternal home rather than settling for a temporary earthly one.

I. SEEING THE PROMISES, 13.

II. SEEKING A COUNTRY, 14-15.

III. SATISFYING OUR GOD, 16.

Verse 13 summarizes the excellencies of the patriarchs’ faith by which they were still living when they die, even though they did not receive the things promised. “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Three features of “all these” meaning Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob stand out in verse 13. First, these were still living by faith when they died. They were still living in that faith expecting the fulfillment of the divine promises when they gave out or physically expired. The faith of our forefathers in the promises of God never arrived. It was always growing, moving onward, upward never clinging to the past or the things of earth but always looking to the future with God. We can see the evidence of their firm conviction in the promises of God in the final blessing, the benediction that Isaac and Jacob bestowed upon their sons and grandsons (Gen 24:6, 31:51-55; 35:27-29; 49:29-33). They speak with the assurance of a sailor who saw the evidences of land but could not see it beyond the horizon. Faith ruled their lives, and they were full of it as they faced death.

Second, notice that they died but “without receiving the things promised.” These did not have any special knowledge as to what was happening. They had no “insider information” not available to us. They only understood by life -ong learning that He who promised is faithful and that became enough for them. For these men of faith the promise became more encouraging than anything earth had to offer. They realized that the promises were sure because they were God’s promises. Hence they could stake their life on them. The blessings promised became the objects of their hope and desire and they placed their chief pursuit in life on promises which they were never to enjoy in this world. This is so contrary to our generation, the “now generation” that “grabs all the gusto” who eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.”

Third, they “confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on earth.” Since their concern and confidence were placed in a better land they were able to live as strangers and exiles in this one. To reside in a country not your own makes you a stranger (xenos), a foreigner, a barbarian, an alien with different customs and ways than the dominant culture. It carried a certain stigma but they confessed allegiance to another land. In the ancient world the fate of a stranger was hard. He was regarded with contempt and suspicion. Yet instead of adapting to the current dominate culture they lived as “exiles” (pa?ep?d?µ?? - a person who was staying there temporarily and had his permanent home somewhere else).

In this picture can be seen an illustration of the Christian life. We know that earth is not our true home and that we are but strangers and exiles here. We cannot live here forever. And though we may be treated with suspicion and even with contempt at times we know the true dignity of our station awaits us in our home country.