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.
II. SEEKING A COUNTRY, 14-15.
These believers’ testimony from verse 14 said that this world was not their home, their country, or their city of residence. They were just passing through this world to reach the next life. “For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
When the patriarchs lived and had such language as strangers and exiles used of them, their lives must have made it plain, generation after generation, that the place of their sojourning was not their true home, that they had another. They were pilgrims in progress living in this world while on their way to another.
Though their search and seeking were a life-long endeavor in spite of everything these men never lost their vision and their hope. However long their hope might be in coming to fruition, its light always shone in their eyes. However long the way was they never sunk down roots this side of heaven.
Augustine said, “We are sojourners exiled from our fatherland.” It was not that Christians are foolishly dreaming, detaching themselves from the life and work of this world, but they always remember that they are people on the way. There is an unwritten saying of Jesus: “The world is a bridge. The wise man will pass over it but not build his house upon it.” The Christian regards himself as the pilgrim progressing to eternity.
If someone was to look at your life would there be, as in our forefathers of the faith, a clear statement that you are in some sense a stranger and exile within the prevailing culture here? That you have customs based on a heavenly home-land that you are preparing yourself to one day completely settle down in? Or are you fitting in and becoming politically correct. These pilgrims, no matter how matter how alienated they were or difficult the journey, never gave up and settled in for the duration. They continued living as aliens and died in expectation of God’s promises being fulfilled and passed on a heritage of faith to their children and grandchildren.
Verse 15 reinforces the fact that their hearts and minds were fixed on spiritual and heavenly things for they never return to their historical home or land. “And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.”
The if condition is second class, (e? + imperfect) meaning if they had been thinking and they were not. If in their declaration to those in the land in which they lived, they had meant they were seeking the country from which they came out of, they would have returned to it. Thus it is equally plain that though they spoke of themselves as pilgrims in a foreign land, they did not think of this land as being the country they left. If it had been the case they could have readily gone back there. They had no intention of ever doing so (Gen. 24:6; 31:3).
So in spite of everything that life and their life encountered, they never went back. I’m sure in the wilderness they lived in, they found plenty of reasons to turn back. We often want to return to the old life when things in the new life are too demanding. In flying there is what is called the point of no return. It is when the fuel supply will no longer allow the plane to turn back. There is nothing it can do but go on or go down. A tragedy of life is the number of people who turn back to the world in the Christian pilgrimage. They turn back a little too soon. One further step of faith, a little more watching, waiting and working could have made an eternity of difference. All Christians who are on the pilgrimage to heaven, who have truly put their hand to the plow, should feel that they have reached the point of no return. They should keep on watching, waiting and working in faith just as the millions who have gone before them have done.
III. SATISFYING GOD, 16.
The patriarchs were seeking not only a better earthly country, but a far different kind of country on which they had fixed their faith. Verse 16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
“But now,” as the case stands, they were not only convinced of the truth and certainty of the promises but of the goodness of the things promised. They understood that their true home-land was not on earth at all. The better country on which they set their hearts was the heavenly country. The earthy land and all it held was but temporary. There is a heavenly land and it held their hearts and hopes.
They aspired to a goal that they could never attain on this earth. They desired a home where the glory of God resides. As these men held an aspiration beyond the realm of this world so should we. What is the steady sure goal and direction of your life? The one that supersedes all others? The one that you focus your time, talent and treasures on?
Unfortunately as the heir to some great estate, while a child, thinks more of a dollar in his pocket than all his future inheritance. So even some professing Christians are more elated by passing pleasure than they are by their title to eternal glory.
It is people of persevering faith illustrated by Abraham, Issac, and Jacob that bless God and that God blesses. He is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. God is not ashamed to be called their God because they have become approved by Him because of their faith. It is the faith seen in the attitude of people who look ever forward, through the temporary seen things to the unseen and eternal reality who are worthy of such a relationship with God. These do not make God ashamed to be called their God.
God said, “those who honor Me I will honor” (1 Sam. 2:30). The patriarchs honored Him by living their life by faith in Him and His promises. He honored them by calling Himself, “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6). What higher honor could be attributed to any mortal. Though these patriarchs were far from faultless God was not ashamed to be called their God because they took Him at His Word.
So God prepared a heavenly city for them. If God had not prepared such a city of blessed reward for this people who have honored Him by their walk of faith, He would be ashamed to call Himself their God. Because He would have deceived their faith with a mirage, an illusion, and mislead them. He would not be worthy of such worthy faith for He would be faithless. Our future home vindicates God for not allowing us to settle for the life and things this world has to offer.
IN CLOSING
When I pastored in Louisiana I heard of a farmer in southern part of the state who captured a mallard duck. He tied it with a cord to a stake at the edge of his pond. Through the winter the mallard swam around with the domestic ducks and ate from the hand of the farmer. When spring came, all of the other wild ducks that had flown south and were wintering in the marshes, ponds, and waters of southern Louisiana began to fly toward the north. When those flocks arose, they saw the mallard duck down below on the pond. They called to him from the sky. The domesticated ducks did not hear, did not see, did not raise their eyes to look. They just swam in complacency on the farmer’s pond. But when the mallard heard the call from the skies, he lifted up his face and his wings and sought to rise. The cord which was tied to the stake pulled him back down. Flock after flock arose, circled, and called. Each time the mallard would rise. Finally, he broke the cord and joined the throng and moved toward the north.
People of the world are content here below. Their investments are here; their lives are here; their interests are here; their happiness is here; their dreams are here; their purposes are here. Everything they look forward to is here, for they are not children of God. But the child of God hears the call from heaven. He lifts up his heart, his eyes, his ears, and his hands, for his life is hid with Christ and God in heaven. This is what the Lord has done for us who have looked in faith to Him.
The patriarchs honored God and God honored them. Nothing so honors God as the life of faith. In fact nothing honors Him but the life of faith.
For these men and for all who tread the same path of faith, God has prepared His city, His common wealth. [There is of course, no difference between the heavenly homeland and the city of God. Words could hardly make it clearer that the patriarchs and the other men and women of God who lived before Christ share in the same inheritance of glory as is promised to believers in Christ of N.T. times.] But what about you, are you following Jesus the great path forger? Have you decided to follow Jesus?
It is not for me to be seeking my bliss,
And building my hopes in a region like this;
I look for a city which hands have not piled,
I pant for a country by sin undefiled.
Henry Francis Lyle
Closing Prayer: Let us go forth into the world in peace and dedicated to Your service, O Lord. Let us hold fast to that which is good, render to no person evil for evil, strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the
needy and the afflicted, and honor all people. Let us love and serve our Lord Jesus, rejoicing in the power of His Spirit. And may God’s blessing be upon us and remain with us always. Amen.
Benediction:
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.—Ephesians 3:20–21
