Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Got Faith?
Have you ever come down with a case of PCS-itis? You know what that is, right? PCS-itis is when every two or three years you start itching for a move. It’s in your blood. You’re not content to stay put. It may be simply moving down the block, or moving to a different unit in the Village, but you just have to move. It’s a sure way to clean out those things you no longer want or need, as we talked about last week. However, moving can be a lot more expensive than having a garage sale or giving to the White Elephant store!
Our Old Testament patriarch and matriarch, Abraham and Sarah, had the ultimate move. They received a set of orders directly from Headquarters that basically said, “Get moving, and I’ll tell you when you get there.” Of course like any good soldier, Abraham said, “Where am I headed?” And God said, “Don’t worry about that right now. Just start off and I’ll fill you in on the details as you need them.” Sounds like a set of open-ended orders to me. No compass, no GPS, not even a set of Atlas road maps.
Abraham and Sarah’s mission was not just a place but a people. They were to give birth to a nation. You’ll find the original orders in Genesis 12, where God promised, “Abraham, I’m going to give you more descendants than the sands on the seashore or the stars in the sky” (Genesis 12:1-4; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:5). The only problem? Abraham was 75 years old and Sarah was 65 and they had no kids. They had long been buying senior coffee at McDonald’s and enjoying Tuesday discounts at Ross. There was no way they were going to birth a nation in their golden years.
This is where faith comes in. Our first verse today (Hebrews 11:1) defines biblical faith for us: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” “Confidence in what we hope for.” Biblical hope is not just a wish that something might come true, like, “I sure hope I win the lottery!” No, it is a certainty that God will keep his promise. So faith builds on that kind of hope to say I am confident because God always comes through.”
And then the second half of the verse adds, “Assurance about what we do not see.” Faith believes without seeing. Someday we won’t need faith anymore. We will be face-to-face with our Creator and Sustainer. Our eyes will be fully opened. We will worship Jesus in his very presence. But for now, we worship him without seeing him, we obey without fully understanding, much like Abraham and Sarah were asked to start off on a journey to an unknown destination.
The very next verse (Hebrews 11:2) says that the ancients were commended for this kind of faith. The rest of the chapter is a list of various “ancients” or “elders” who are examples for us. This chapter is nicknamed the “Hall of Faith” of the Bible. We have a few ancients around here, don’t we? And I’m not talking about age. Years help because they bring experience, but I’m talking about people who have walked with God long enough to get to know God’s character, to come to trust in God, to know that God’s word is true, that God will come through, that God always has a plan, even when we don’t understand it, and that God’s plan is for our good and God’s glory. Those kind of people are ancients who help us—like the ancients of old—to grow stronger in our faith.
Before we get more into Abraham and Sarah’s story, scripture gives us another picture of their faith in verse 3. It reads, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” In other words, everything we see in this beautiful world came from nothing other than God’s command. Theologians call this concept “ex nihilo,” which means, “out of nothing.” God made the universe out of nothing. Perhaps there was a big bang behind the creative acts of Genesis 1 and 2, but where did that initial matter come from? Many scientists say there had to be a master designer beyond the universe to set it all in motion.
Technically, then, God is the only real creator. Sometimes we describe human activity as “creation,” like, “What an incredible masterpiece you created!” Our son is dabbling in creative modern art. Yet, at his best, all he is doing is manipulating various paints and acrylics onto paper. He is not really “creating” anything in the sense of bringing something out of complete nothingness. Only God is an “ex nihilo” creator.
And that becomes an important part of Abraham and Sarah’s story. Remember their predicament? They’re told at ages 75 and 65 that they’re going to be parents. God repeated the promise in their 80s and then again in their 90s (Genesis 17:1-22; Genesis 18:1-15). The last time prompted them both to L-O-L, or laugh out loud. Abraham laughed so hard that scripture says he fell down on the ground laughing (Genesis 17:17)! I discovered a new texting abbreviation, “ROTF,” which describes Abraham: “rolling on the floor.” Sarah laughed more to herself, and then argued with God about it (Genesis 18:12-15). Why were they laughing? What was impossible became possible. God created ... out of nothing. God took a man “as good as dead” (that’s scripture’s words, not mine) and a woman whose womb was long since barren, and enabled them to conceive. And they had a baby. Abraham was a centenarian father. So the new parents chose a very appropriate name for their son: Isaac, which means, “laughter.”
Think about what this teaches us about prayer and the promises of God. Abraham and Sarah were given an assurance from God, but they had to wait ... and wait ... and wait ... for 25 years before God’s promise came to be!
Maybe the wait is about God developing our character to handle the answer. After all, faith involves getting to know God and learning to trust him, knowing that God always has our best interest at heart. Then, as we consider God’s promises, we can be confident that he will keep them.
So Abraham and Sarah had to trust God about this baby thing. But even before that, they had to trust God about their PCS move. “Where do you want us to go?” “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you when you get there.” Maybe that was God’s way of building their faith muscles so they could handle the wait for the baby. Oswald Chambers once wrote, “Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” Everywhere he went on his 1100-mile journey to the Promised Land, Abraham built altars of sacrifice to the Lord he trusted.
I have to tell you, though, Abraham didn’t always get it right. A couple of times he put his wife at risk to save his own hide. Once he tried to shortcut God’s plan and help God out a little. That led to disastrous results! Apart from Jesus, you will never find a biblical hero that was perfect. They all made mistakes. But that gives me hope, hope that God can use even me, even you. God loves to use the weak so that God can shine through to a watching world. So let him use you right where you are, as God begins to build your faith muscles.
Today’s scripture tells us one more thing about Abraham’s journey, and that is he never really felt at home, even in the Promised Land. Abraham and his son Isaac and grandson Jacob—none of them ever felt settled. They lived in tents. It was like, even with the PCS move, they were still in TDY status. There was an unsettled feeling in their souls, like there was something more than this. They were like refugees, just passing through, looking for a permanent place to call home. Ecclesiastes says God has set eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). You and I long for something more. We try to fill that longing with bigger and better houses, cars, clothes, jobs, trophy wives, and friends. But the reality is we are longing for our eternal home.
Sometimes friends of ours have talked about finding their “forever home” where they will live until they die. Well, we all know life can take unexpected twists, and what seems forever doesn’t always last on this earth. Yet, the certainty of our faith is that we do have a forever home awaiting us in heaven. It’s the home Lisa sang about earlier, the new Jerusalem, the place where our faith will become sight, where we will no longer worship at a distance but face-to-face. Little things remind us of that home at times, such as a moment of sweet fellowship with another believer, or when we sing of our love to the Lord, or when we see a beautiful sunrise or a lovely smile, or feel a warm embrace. Those are hints of what is to come.
Jesus talked about that home when he said, “My Father’s house has many rooms ... I am going there to prepare a place for you ... I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). As we take Communion today, we celebrate that Jesus is our Savior, our bridge from our own sinfulness to a holy God. Abraham and Sarah were looking forward to their Savior, and we look back at Calvary and see what he has done for us. But the cross and the tomb could not hold him. He has risen. And with that one redeeming act, God settled accounts for all of our sin so that we could have fellowship with him, in this life and in the new Jerusalem to come. Let us pray:
Father, help us to build our faith muscles, as we get to know you better and better. We don’t like waiting for your promises to come true. We’re often in a hurry. And sometimes we think we know best. But thanks for not giving up on us. And thank you for giving us imperfect heroes and heroines like Abraham and Sarah who can help point us to a perfect Savior, Jesus our Lord. We pray this in his name, amen.
