Hebrews 11 :8-19 -Proud of which passport?

Hebrews 11 :8-19 -Proud of which passport? 

If we were called

What if God called us to leave our home, to leave the canton of Vaud or Switzerland, to leave our security permanently? Everything we have built all your life, because God calls us at 75 years old, to go… “well, we don’t know much about that”! We would have to cross France and arrive in an area towards Spain, something like that, to live there, like travelers, in a caravan, where they are willing to accept us.

Global project

For a project which will have a global echo, which will mark the history of humanity, which will be of celestial and eternal importance.

What would we answer?

An inspiring example

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews revives the memory of the life journey of Abraham, of Sarah his wife and of their children Isaac and Jacob, to remind them who came from the faith of these people (them of culture Jewish), to be inspired by their faith.

Abraham’s type of faith

That God took their great faith into account. Strong faith: complete trust, obedient and active.

And even if they have not seen here below the full extent of the fulfillment of the promise that God has made. Even if the journey of faith has not been easy. Often surprising, confusing, Abraham’s life of faith with God is certainly incommensurate with the planned life of commonplaces that he could have had by remaining where he was.

Fictional story of Abraham in Haran

Besides, do you know the life of Abraham who remained in his domain in Charan?

Now retired, he took good care of his nephew Lot’s two daughters while Lot was at work. As Abraham was very rich, he still spoiled them a little. But hey, that’s understandable because Abraham didn’t have children. He took a cruise every year, except in 2020 because of the confinement. However, he had a hollow nose at the time of COVID, because he had bet on gold and made a nice capital gain. That didn’t stop him from being generous. It was he who financed the new community hall, in fact it bears his name. He was a guy from Charan, and Charan gave him so much, that in return he was happy to do that for the commune. He was like that Abraham, heart on his sleeve, open to others, tolerant, concerned about the planet, everyone liked him. Moreover, he passed away surrounded by the affection of his family and his many employees who loved him so much. We cried for him a lot.

         While everyone took him for a good guy, in fact, he was a real scumbag, guilty of crimes against humanity. Indeed, he kept a dark secret. One day, and he hadn’t told anyone, he disobeyed God’s call. And his disobedience was lethal to all humanity. Instead of leaving, he stayed in Charan…

Faith and obedience

Fortunately, this story is not the true one, because Abraham obeyed. Abraham believed God and obeyed, just like Noah.

Faith and disobedience

There are some who have faith in God in the plans He has for them and who do not obey!

Not non-practicing believers, disobedient believers…

Jonah was certain that the Ninevites would repent and that God would spare them if he went to Nineveh and preached repentance as God asked him. He was convinced of this and because he hated the Ninevites, he disobeyed God.

Trusting Faith and Obedience

The first thing that the example that Abraham communicates to the first readers of the epistle to the Hebrews and to us who read it as if over their shoulders centuries later is that the faith that God expects is certainly a total confidence in Him, in His projects, which demonstrates itself by active obedience.

Let’s look at Hebrews 11:8

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him

and that he left for the country which he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he left without knowing where he was going.

9 By faith he came to dwell in the promised land as in a foreign land.

He dwelt there in tents, together with Isaac and Jacob, the joint heirs of the same promise,

10 for he looked for the city that has strong foundations,

that of which God is the architect and builder.

Looking towards the goal

You see the pedagogy of the author of the epistle to the Hebrews who said to his readers who were prey to questions, in chapter 10: “Look towards the goal, towards the objective that is to say to God and His certain promises . »

Further than the moment

And there, he shows them Abraham’s unenviable situation, from a human perspective (losing everything), but Abraham had understood the importance of the great project that God was considering and where in His grace, He involved Abraham.

Durable or temporary?

You have noticed the contrast between the tents here below and the extraordinary and heavenly foundations where God is the architect.

Abraham preferred to invest in what is sustainable, rather than waste his time on fleeting projects.

Faith Appointment 1

In this journey, God dotted the lives of Abraham and his wife Sarah with appointments of faith. While she was sterile and both were “at the ideal age” to have children,… 100 years old and 90 years old… God allows them to have a child!

Hebrews 11:11-12

11 By faith Sarah herself was enabled to have descendants.

Despite his advanced age,

she gave birth to a child because she believed in the faithfulness of the one who had made the promise.

12 Therefore from one man,

yet already marked by death,

offspring were born

as numerous as the stars in the sky,

like the sand on the seashore

and which cannot be counted.

Abraham and Sarah will not see this numerous descendants, just their son Isaac.

“Inextremist” posterity

However, God wanted this posterity to be “inextremist” so that they would understand that it was God’s real response to the promise He had made to them.

And that it is not a human DIY,

“Culturally assisted procreation” with Hagar, Sarah’s servant, for example!

But that Isaac was God’s indisputable answer to the promise of descent.

Perceived but not pocketed

Finally in their journeys, Abraham and Sarah partially and slightly perceived the answers to the promises that God had made to them, enough to nourish their faith. They will never have “touched the whole inheritance” promised by God. They only saw a small part of it.

Landes forestry

As a child, I had the privilege of walking many times in the Landes pine forests where, in the past, resin was harvested but especially now the wood of straight pine trees.

Working in forestry is interesting.

What you harvest now was planted by your grandfather or father decades ago. And by putting the young pine shoots in the ground, they know very well that they will never see them mature…

Planter of hope

There is this in the faith of Abraham and Sarah, by their living faith, by the steps of faith that they took with God and for Him. They made it possible to lay the foundations of the Hebrew and then Jewish people, of the lands where they lived and live, without benefiting from them during their lifetime.

No going back. They burned the longship

Were they frustrated? Were they waiting for their missions to end to finally return home?

Important questions for readers

The question is important because readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews know people in their community

• who gravitated with them in the community and who returned to Judaism to experience fewer difficulties
• and perhaps this approach is running through their heads as real believers.

What the author of the epistle emphasizes. This is because for Abraham, there was never a shadow of hesitation. The project in which God had involved them was much greater. He could not bear the comparison with a hypothetical return.

Hebrews 11:13-16

13 In faith they all died,

without having received the promised goods,

but they saw and greeted them from afar,

and they recognized that they were strangers and travelers on the earth.

14 Those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.

15 If they had longed for the one they had left,

they would have had time to return there.

16 But in reality,

they want a better homeland,

that is to say, the heavenly homeland.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

It is beautiful what is said about God:

He “is not ashamed to be called their God”

You remember that we read at the beginning of the chapter:

Hebrews 11.6

6 But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to him must believe that God exists.

and that he rewards those who seek him .

God was not ashamed to be called their God.

#Too often God is annoyed that His name is exploited#

####On the other hand, it is certain that God was not ashamed to be called their God by Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. They had a biblical faith consistent with God####

Celestial goals

The patriarchs were focused on God’s plan. This celestial city whose foundations are solid and whose architect is God.

Abraham and Isaac, in an incredible experience, will experience in anticipation some aspects of this foundation.

Literally, verse 19 uses the term « parable » what they experienced and that Jesus will live perfectly thus opening in a solid and eternal way the entrance into the city of God.

Hebrews 11:17-19

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested.

Yes, he offered his only son as a sacrifice, although he received the promises 18 and God said to him:

It is through Isaac that your descendants will be assured.

19 He believed that God was even able to raise him from the dead.

This is why he found his son through a sort of resurrection.

You remember in

Genesis 22.5

5He said to his servants:

“Stay here with the donkey.

The young man and I will go there to worship,

then we will come back to you.”

#Even before the first resurrection#

####Abraham believed in it because his faith was so great with God. Hebrews 11. 17-19####

The little steps of faith made him grow

While Abraham knew that Isaac was the offering.

But his faith was so forged from the experiences he had with God:

1) leave all identity, family and territorial ties;

2) the unusual way of having had Isaac at an advanced age and all the other experiences which are not cited here (see Abraham’s journey, from Genesis chapter 12), that he knew that God had a plan .

Whereas there had never been a resurrection in history before this.

Conclusion

And for us?

Just like the readers of the epistle to the Hebrews, these examples of faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, … inspire us.

What types of difficulties?

We go through aspects of life that are difficult. Already, are these comfort difficulties?

Abraham could have had existential questions, such as knowing if the decor of the Charan community hall was trendy!

Are the difficulties for horizontal objectives or difficulties for God’s project through our lives?

Abraham asked himself the question, how God was going to make him an innumerable people while his wife was barren…

God reassures through what we have read that He will give us enough light to nourish our faith in His project in which He invites us to participate.

Have we ever taken a step of faith?

So the question we can perhaps ask ourselves is, have we already taken real steps of faith?

What God wanted me to do for Him.

We have 2 options,

• either to be tenants of the life that God entrusts to us, we administer our life…;
• or be entrepreneurs of faith where we grasp the appointments of faith that Christ highlights for us.

Missed appointment

Perhaps we missed one or another appointment of faith that God set for us? But today’s text reminds us that it was a 75-year-old person that He asked to take the first step of faith for Him. So it’s never too late… And we’re all concerned, even before the age of 75…

Progressive

When we consider the journey of Abraham’s life, we see that, walking with God, the steps of faith were in a kind of progression. God did not ask him first to offer Isaac. But this step of faith was at a time when he had already experienced impressive moments of faith with God.

It speaks to the first readers

The first readers of the epistle to the Hebrews had already taken strong steps of faith, through persecution, through testimony.

And the author of the epistle encourages them in the stage they are experiencing at the moment, apparently even more difficult: He encourages them to take a stronger step of faith.

This more difficult stage is the weariness of the journey with Christ. After moments of euphoria at the beginning of the Church, they are now accustomed to Church life, this weariness opens up to doubt.

And the author tells them: “  Look at the goal! « .

They may not see everything

They saw a partial realization. They have not seen the thousands of believers who will make an emperor, faced with the magnitude of faith in Christ, decide that the Roman Empire becomes “Christian”…

They have not seen the millions of witnesses who for more than 2000 years left their mark on history.

Same for a local assembly

It is also the story of many assemblies, a bit like ours. We are for the benefit of those who preceded us with faith and left us their share of faith.

Our assembly is 100 years old this year (2023).

Our part of faith is our responsibility now.

“Pines” were planted before us, so 100 years ago.

We are planting some now. Those who follow us will have the challenge of faith to do the same…

Family, transmission

It’s the same idea at the family level. The idea of ​​transmission is constantly present, particularly in the OT.

Moreover, this is the promise of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the text we read today. It is the same idea on a personal level, that the Lord renews us in the obedience of faith.